“You can’t use your strength points for endurance tests,” Finn said. “Mom, I told you that a million times.”

  “Oh, right,” I replied, completely unfocused on whatever he was talking about. “It’s so hard to keep all the rules straight.”

  As to the conversation between Roy and me after Wanda picked up Libby, Darla and Astrid, it hadn’t been an easy one. Roy, again, let it be known how he wanted to work on ‘us’ and I’d again, told him it wasn’t going to happen. This time, I’d had to be a bit more firm regarding the subject and ‘firm’ wasn’t something that came easily to me.

  I passed my store and spotted a bunch of cars parked on Main Street ahead of us—except they weren’t parked at the curbs like they should have been. They were parked right in the middle of the street, blocking the thoroughfare.

  “I wonder what this is about.” I braked behind the old truck in front of me and tried to crane my neck to see beyond the truck and the five or so cars in front of it.

  “Can you see what’s going on?” Finn asked.

  “Looks like a traffic jam.”

  “A traffic jam—in Haven Hollow?” Finn guffawed. “There’s not enough traffic to jam.”

  I waited a few minutes, but nothing happened. We didn’t even budge an inch.

  “Why aren’t we moving?” Finn asked. “We better hurry, Mom, or I’ll be late for my first class.”

  I checked in my rearview mirror. More cars were steadily packing in behind me and the drivers stretched to see beyond my Jeep. After another few minutes, I switched off the motor because it was clear we weren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

  “We’re totally going to be late,” Finn said with a frown.

  “Well, we have a good excuse.” I watched as a few people opened their doors and stepped out to see what in the world was going on.

  I turned to face Finn while I unbuckled my seatbelt. “Stay here. I’m going to see if I can find out what the hold up is.”

  “Okay, but… don’t go far.”

  I gave him a reassuring smile. “I won’t.”

  Once I hopped down onto the sidewalk, an icy breeze picked up and I wrapped my arms across my chest to ward against the cold, even though I was wearing a down parka. Wondering if the California girl within me would ever get used to this Oregon weather, I hurried up Main Street as more and more drivers turned their engines off and stepped out of their cars. In front of me, what appeared to be twenty or so cars blocked the street. This was definitely not Haven Hollow’s version of rush hour. Really, we had no version of rush hour.

  I followed the blockage all the way to the end of the cul-de-sac. Just beyond the meadow of grass and a few pine trees dotted here and there was Haven High’s track field. And in front of the field stood a bunch of kids with their anxious-looking parents, along with four uniformed police officers standing guard. I could see Taliyah in the far distance talking to one of the parents.

  “What’s going on?” I asked the nearest mother as I approached.

  “Some creep was caught lurking around the high school this morning,” she answered as she held her daughter, who appeared to be sixteen or so, in a vice like grip. I didn’t blame her.

  “Oh, no,” I said as my heart dropped. “What… what happened?”

  “From what I understand, the janitor was going about his business this morning, unlocking the classroom doors and turning on all the lights when he spotted some weirdo looking through the classroom windows. When he approached the guy, he said the guy acted almost like a wild animal and snarled at him.”

  “Snarled at him?” I asked in shock.

  She nodded. “Then apparently the intruder took off down one of the hallways and they haven’t been able to find him since. The janitor called the police, of course.”

  “And what did the police say?”

  “Well, they came right over, as you can see.” She took a breath and started rubbing her daughter’s hair absentmindedly. It was sort of a strange picture because her daughter was as tall as she was. “Apparently, they’ve had ten reports since last night about the same guy looking through people’s windows.”

  “No!”

  She nodded heartily. “Oh, yes. The police are now searching the whole school, and if they don’t find the guy there, they’ll expand their search to the rest of town.”

  “Well, I hope they find him.”

  “You and me both.”

  “So do I get to go home today?” her daughter asked.

  “I think so,” the mother answered as she faced me again. “The police said all the schools are closed today.”

  At that point, I’d heard enough. And at the thought of Finn sitting by himself in the Jeep—well, I couldn’t return fast enough. My one consolation was that, if this peeping tom was making random pit stops at houses around town, he wasn’t targeting anyone in particular.

  When I reached the Jeep, Finn was already standing outside, but holding onto the car door like it was a security blanket.

  “Mom, what took you so long?”

  “Sorry, noodle, but I was trying to find out what was going on.”

  He climbed back into the Jeep and closed his door as I did the same. Then I turned to look at him and reaching over, patted his leg consolingly. “I’m sorry it took me longer than I thought it would.”

  He nodded and gave me an understanding smile that said I was forgiven. “So… what’s going on?”

  I breathed in deeply and then exhaled. “That guy you caught looking through your window definitely wasn’t a ghost.”

  “Mom, we already knew that.”

  I nodded. “Well, now we know it even more.”

  “Why?”

  “Because the janitor at Haven High caught him peeping through the high school windows and now the police are searching for him.” I decided to keep the part about him snarling like a feral animal to myself, figuring there was no need to further scare Finn. “That’s why everything is blocked off.”

  Finn shook his head and looked like he was about to panic. “So… what are we supposed to do? Is school canceled?”

  Before I could answer, the cars in front of us started moving. I turned the key in the ignition and drove forward as one of the officers waved us around. It seemed they were diverting traffic back up Main Street and away from the back field of Haven High.

  “I think school’s closed for the day,” I answered.

  “Yes!” Finn said and made a funny victorious gesture with his arm. “My XBOX is calling.”

  Finn had received the XBOX for his twelfth birthday, and the two were basically inseparable. While he might have been excited about staying home from school, I wasn’t as excited. Wanda and I were supposed to check in with Henner at the Tayir Mansion today.

  “Call Henner,” I said to the Jeep and the Bluetooth immediately connected me.

  “Are you calling Henner to babysit me?”

  “No, I’m calling Henner to let him know I’ll be a plus one today.”

  ***

  When I pulled up to the Tayir House, I found Wanda waiting for me in her Escalade. As soon as she spotted me, she stepped out and shivered in the cold air, despite the fact that she was wearing a long and furry black coat.

  “Where have you been?” she demanded.

  I told her about the stranger sneaking around the high school and then realized something. “Wait a second… shouldn’t you already know this since Astrid goes to Haven High?”

  “Well, Astrid did mention something about a voicemail she received about school being closed this morning, but I didn’t ask why.”

  Or didn’t listen why, was more like it.

  Throwing her shoulders back, she narrowed her eyes as her mouth hardened into a thin line. “As soon as we finish here, Poppy, we’re going to track that bastard down. This has gone on long enough.”

  I nodded as Finn opened his door and then walked around the Jeep.

  “What’s he doing here?” Wanda asked.

  “Rude!” Finn said, frowning at her as he threw his hands on his hips.

  “Sorry,” she said briskly as she faced me and her eyebrows reached for the sky. “I don’t think today is a good day for kids to visit.”

  “I’m not a kid, Wanda,” Finn argued. “I’m almost a teenager.”

  “Your birthday was in May and now it’s November, so you’re closer to a kid than a teenager,” she argued back. Sometimes she definitely didn’t act her age of one-hundred-forty.

  “No, I’m technically right in the middle.”

  “Which means you’re closer to a kid.”

  I held my hand up before Finn could argue. “Well, regardless of whether today is a good kid day,” I started, then looked at Finn. “Or pre-teen day, as the case may be,” I looked back at Wanda. “I’ve got Finn today because Haven Middle School is closed.”

  “Well, I left Astrid home with Darla and Libby, rather than bringing her here.”

  I frowned but, all the while, I was already regretting my decision to bring Finn. He and scary places didn’t exactly get along.

  “Maybe I should run Finn over to your house really quickly.”

  “No,” Finn insisted. “I want to be here with you, Mom.”

  Wanda frowned at me, and I just shook my head, shrugging. “Well, let’s get this over with.”

  I looked up at the mansion and shivered. This place gave me the creeps because it embodied everything we knew about Betanya’s storied and unfortunate history. This house had played witness to the insanity of Roscoe, her vampire sire, and probably Betanya’s eventual death. Of course, no one had ever found her body, so maybe she hadn’t died in the house. Either way, I didn’t understand how Henner could live here. I wouldn’t have been able to.

  At the sound of a car door slamming, I nearly jumped a foot in the air. Spinning around, I found Marty getting out of his hearse.

  “Finn!” Marty called out as the two of them fist-bumped.

  “I’m here for the day,” Finn explained.

  “Cool!”

  “Yeah, you know that guy who RJ saw looking through his window?“ Marty nodded, so Finn continued. “They caught him at Haven High, so the police said all the schools were closed today.”

  “They caught him?” Marty asked as he looked at me.

  I shook my head. “Well, they didn’t exactly catch him… that’s what they’re trying to do.”

  Marty nodded and then returned his attention to Finn. “Well, we can use your help today, dude.”

  I looked up at the Tayir House and shuddered involuntarily. “I don’t have a good feeling about this place,” I whispered to Wanda.

  She gave me a big smile and then cocked her head to the side as she studied the looming and intimidating house before us. “It’s probably nothing. In fact, I bet one of Henner’s infamous creations developed a mind of its own and attacked a ketchup bottle in the guest room.”

  I tried to smile but couldn’t. “Yet, the housekeeper is missing.”

  Wanda waved my concern away. “I bet she decided to take a quick vacation or maybe she’s down with a cold or flu or something. Just because she didn’t say goodbye before she left, doesn’t mean something awful happened to her.”

  Just then, Henner came out of the large and ornate front door. I couldn’t help but notice that he appeared… nervous. It was an expression I’d never seen him wear before. He mumbled a quick thanks to us for showing up—and then gave Finn a hurried hello before opening the front door and holding it wide for us to enter. A chill fell over me as I walked into the grand foyer—and grand it certainly was.

  “Sheesh!” Finn said as he took in the great expanse of ceiling and staircases. Then he turned to Henner with wide eyes. “Your house looks like a haunted mansion you see in movies!”

  “Just… stay close to me, okay?” I whispered.

  Morning sunshine beamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the living room, beyond the foyer, highlighting the cobwebs in the corners. In fact, there were cobwebs all over the ceiling and I could understand why—the ceilings had to be twenty feet high! I looked up at the curved staircases that bedecked either side of the entry to the landing high above.

  “I thought we could… walk through the house and see if either of you pick up anything,” Henner offered.

  “Pick up on anything?” Wanda repeated.

  He nodded. “Any sort of magical residue, maybe?”

  “Where do you want us to start?” I asked as I turned to face Henner. “This place must have hundreds of rooms.”

  “Well, it doesn’t have hundreds of rooms,” he corrected. “But it definitely has a lot. We can start with the room where I first heard footsteps. Follow me.” He led the way upstairs.

  “Footsteps?” Finn repeated, looking at me with wide, concerned eyes.

  “Do you want me to take you to Wanda’s and you can stay with Astrid?” I asked him again, all the while completely regretting my decision to bring him. What was I thinking? Clearly, I hadn’t been.

  He took a few seconds to think about it. “No, Mom, I want to stay here with you. I think… I think it’s important that I face my fears… and ghosts.”

  I reached out and pulled him into an embrace as feelings of pride welled up within me. “Well, I can’t promise there are any ghosts here, but if there are—”

  “We’ll both see them,” he finished for me.

  I just nodded as Wanda looked over at us and shook her head. “You both are like watching a bad Lifetime movie.”

  Chapter Six

  The Tayir House was, in a word—grand.

  Elegant rugs covered wide and old mahogany wood floors, carved plaster moldings dominated the ceilings, and crown moldings running the perimeter of each room made the rooms appear fit for a king. The whole house was still decorated in the style that must have been fashionable in Betanya’s early days. The ornate, carved wood furniture alone must have been worth a fortune.

  “This house doesn’t even look lived in,” Finn commented, and I had to agree.

  Henner stopped the tour and looked back at him. “That’s because it’s not really lived in. Most of the rooms haven’t been touched in decades, really, but that’s just because there are too many of them and I’m just here by myself.” He took a breath. “That and I spend all my time in the basement because the rest of this place,” he paused and looked around himself. “Gives me the creeps.”

  “You’re not the only one,” Finn added.

  “It looks like the home of a governor or senator or something,” I said.

  Henner showed us to the very top floor, the third. Then we passed down a long corridor complete with eerie oil paintings of people I assumed were Henner’s lineage.

  “This reminds me of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland,” Finn whispered as he clutched my hand a little tighter.

  “As long as no animated suits of armor come after us, I’ll be okay,” Wanda muttered.

  I turned to look at her. “You’re familiar with the Ghost Mansion?”

  She scowled at me. “Of course. I happened to be present at the grand opening of Disneyland. Walt Disney was a friend of Mother’s.”

  I wasn’t able to respond because Henner waved us into a bedroom at the end of the hall. Once we all were assembled, he explained: “This is the room where I heard really loud footsteps in the middle of the night and when I came to investigate, no one was here.”

  Wanda approached the window and looked out over the grounds below before turning back to face me. “I don’t sense anything in here. Do you, Poppy?”

  I shook my head. “Nope, nothing.” Then I looked at Finn. “Do you pick up on anything?”

  He was silent for a few seconds, but then shook his head. “I ain’t found sh—”

  “Finn!” I interrupted as he burst into a big smile, quoting his favorite movie, Spaceballs. Marty immediately broke into peals of laughter while Henner continued to worry his lower lip. Clearly, his mind was elsewhere.

  “Come to the next room,” Henner urged as he led the way back into the hall, before walking into the adjacent bedroom. Then he turned to face us again as I took stock of the room.

  An old canopy bed occupied most of the space aside from a matching wood dresser in the far corner. The indigo velvet curtains on the canopy bed appeared new and matched those covering the windows. Everything in this room was done up in shades of blue.

  “What happened in here?” I asked, wondering why we were pausing in this room.

  “When I was in the kitchen a week or so ago, I was pretty sure I heard footsteps in here too and when I came upstairs to check, the old lamp that used to be on the dresser over there,” he paused and pointed. “Had fallen on the floor and shattered. Unfortunately, the kerosene soaked into the rug,” he continued, but Wanda interrupted him.

  “You can’t call that a rug,” she pointed out, looking down at the stretch of glossy blue flowers beneath our feet. The rug was large enough that it almost touched each wall.

  “Isn’t it a rug?” Henner asked, frowning.

  “It’s an Aubusson rug,” Wanda corrected. “Very expensive and very beautiful.”

  “But still a rug?” Marty asked.

  “Still a rug,” I answered.

  “Anyway, most of the kerosene fumes have aired off by now,” Henner finished, although he pointed out the stain on the rug where the lamp had broken.

  I frowned. “How long has this activity been going on?”

  “Well, it hasn’t been going on,” Henner corrected. “I heard footsteps and sounds and then Mrs. Nicholson disappeared and that was it. I haven’t heard anything since.”

  “How long ago did you hear the footsteps and sounds?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “Maybe a week to two.”

  “And that’s when Mrs. Nicholson went missing?” I asked, to which Henner nodded.

  “Yes, a week ago. I called to report her missing that very same day.”

  “Why would you call it in?” Wanda asked, frowning at him. “Why didn’t the woman’s family handle it?”

  Henner looked at her. “Mrs. Nicholson was single and childless. She lived alone. As she tells it, she came to work for my grandmother—”

  “Betanya?” Wanda questioned, apparently just to make sure we were on the same page.