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notice the basement walls were strange?”
    “Oh, we were so excited. It was our first house, you know. We were going to decorate the basement like a speakeasy … we planned to finish the walls off and …” Lois’s voice trailed off and she shrugged. “We started to do a little remodeling down there, but then life got in the way and we just started using it as storage.”  
    “We never really did a lot down there. It was just storage,” Charlie added.
    “Did you notice the builder acting strange or anything that seemed out of place right after you moved in? You were the first people to move in on that street, right?”
    “Oh, no, Mona was there already, and Paddy and Mary Sullivan. Floyd Nichols had just moved in the week before us. The builder was very nice and it was a wonderful neighborhood. We were all very close back in the day,” Charlie said.
    “Yes,” Lois added. “We had a lot of fun. Lots of backyard parties and barbecues. People just don’t do that sort of thing anymore.” Lois’s eyes turned sad. “I guess they prefer to stay inside, watching cable TV or tweeting and posting on Facebook.”
    Lexy was taken aback. If people already lived in the neighborhood, wouldn’t they have smelled something? Especially Nans, who lived right behind them. Lexy felt certain the neighbors would have had some sort of welcoming party if they were as close as Lois said.  
    “And none of your new neighbors mentioned anything odd about your house when you moved in?”
    “Odd? No, not our house.” Charlie pressed his lips together and looked at the ceiling. “There was this one incident years after we moved in. Apparently, a stranger was seen skulking around the neighborhood.”
    Lexy’s ears perked up. “A stranger? What do you mean?”
    Lois shrugged. “I’m not sure. We just heard about it when we got back … we were on vacation in Europe that summer but there was definitely a suspicious stranger around.” She glanced at Charlie. “Right?”  
    “That’s right. They told us about it when we got back. Someone with a tattered sweatshirt who didn’t fit in. The neighbors were in an uproar.”
    “I was a little nervous because they claimed he was near our house. But that was so long ago I barely remember.” Lois stood and helped Charlie out of his chair, then they made their way toward the door.  
    Lexy didn’t want to overstay her welcome, but she figured she could get one last question in. “When you came back from vacation, did you notice anything strange about the house?”
    Lois and Charlie glanced at each other. “No, dear, we didn’t have any problems with mice … did you say you saw a mouse?”
    “No. No mouse.” Lexy slipped through the door Lois was now holding open, then turned back to look at the couple. “Well, it was nice talking to you.”
    “You, too, dear, and thank you for the cookies.” Lois leaned toward her, her voice lowered to a whisper. “They were very good, but they could use a touch more sugar.”

Chapter Five

    Lexy wasn’t surprised she didn’t get anything useful from the McDonalds. If Jack’s theory about the builder was true, they wouldn’t know anything about how the body got in their basement. Although the information about the stranger certainly was interesting—she’d have to ask Nans about that. But Lois and Charlie had said the stranger was seen years after they’d bought the house, so it probably wasn’t related. And besides, Lexy didn’t know how much she could trust what they said—they seemed rather confused about a lot of things.
    Nans still hadn’t called her back, but Lexy needed to continue on without her. Jack had said the first thing to do was find out more about the builder, but how did one find out information on someone who built a house over sixty years ago, and was probably retired or dead by now? Lexy figured the best way was to use the internet, and if anyone could dig up the info it would be Nans’ friends—two of the