Haunting Danielle 27 The Ghost and the Mountain Man by Bobbi Holmes (great novels to read TXT) 📕

Walt cringed. “It doubles every day.”

Lily nodded. “Exactly.”

Danielle glanced at the table. “You have to give Heather credit. It’s a clever way to get rid of it.”

“Yeah, well, giving away starter is sort of like giving away a puppy,” Lily said.

“A puppy?” Danielle frowned.

“It’s a living thing, and you have to feed it every day,” Lily reminded her.

Heather stood by the doorway leading to the portrait exhibits. She looked out at the main exhibit area where today’s program would take place. The spirit of Eva Thorndike stood by her side, watching the gathering crowd.

“Why are you standing here by yourself?” Eva asked.

“I’m not alone. You’re here,” Heather reminded her.

“There is a handsome gentleman who keeps looking your way. A rather dashing-looking one with gray hair. Sometimes a mature man can be rather appealing,” Eva purred.

Heather shrugged. She looked over at Chris, who stood on the other side of the room talking to an attractive woman. From Chris she looked over to Brian, who stood with Joe and Kelly, talking. Occasionally he would look over at her, as if waiting for some signal. Ginny Thomas walked up to the small group and started talking to Kelly.

“Eva, did Caitlin move on for sure?” Heather asked.

“You asked me to check, so I did. From my sources, yes. She moved on.”

Heather looked over at Eva and frowned. “What are your sources?”

Eva smiled at Heather and vanished.

Heather let out a sigh and looked over at Brian and the others. Ginny no longer stood with them. She had moved over to the newspaper section, inspecting the newest additions.

Glancing around, Heather took a deep breath and headed toward Ginny.

Ginny didn’t see Heather coming. Her back was to her. She stood by the rack holding the bound editions of the Frederickport Press.

“Ginny, can we talk?” Heather asked.

Upon hearing Heather’s voice, Ginny twirled around, facing Heather, her eyes wide.

“What do you want?” Ginny demanded in a whisper.

“I’ve come to apologize. Please accept my apology,” Heather asked.

Confused, Ginny furrowed her brows. “You admit what you did?”

Heather took another deep breath and said, “Please hear me out.”

Ginny studied her and then nodded.

“I did not touch your bookshelf. When it fell, it scared the crap out of me. It almost crushed me. I had no reason to push it over. Why would I?”

“You threw things at me. I saw you,” Ginny accused.

“I felt bad about rushing out of your house, and I came to talk to you about it. And then you accused me of knocking your bookshelf down. Why would I do that? And I was already stressed from what happened just days before. You have no idea how terrifying that was, being drugged, and then waking up in the middle of the forest, tied to a tree, defenseless to any wild animal, and it was almost nightfall.”

“You really had nothing to do with the bookshelf?” Ginny asked in a whisper.

“No, I didn’t. And I admit, I sometimes have a temper. But if I did throw something, I never would try to hit you. I would never do that. Well, maybe I would with a Nerf ball. But there are no Nerf balls in the museum.”

Ginny stared at Heather for a moment. Finally, she said, “I’m sorry if I falsely accused you. And I appreciate your help in bringing Bud home. Danielle told me you were the one who found him up there.”

“I’m glad we could identify who it was. Everyone deserves that,” Heather said.

When Ginny walked away a moment later, Eva appeared by Heather’s side and asked, “Why did you confess to something you didn’t do?”

Heather shrugged. “I didn’t confess exactly.”

“I saw you talking to Heather,” Kelly whispered to Ginny a short time after she left Heather by the newspaper display.

“She apologized to me,” Ginny said.

Kelly arched her brows. “She admitted what she’d done?”

“Not exactly.” Ginny then repeated to Kelly what Heather had said.

Looking over to Heather, who now stood on the other side of the room, chatting with her brother and Lily, Kelly said, “I think she was telling the truth.”

“You mean about not pushing the bookcase over?” Ginny asked.

“That and the fact she never intended to hit you,” Kelly said. “If Heather had wanted to hit you with something, she could have.”

Forty

Running the brush through her damp hair and wearing just an extra-long T-shirt, Danielle stepped from the bathroom into the bedroom. She found Walt already in bed, sitting up, reading a book, the covers pulled up to his bare chest. Upon hearing her approach, he looked over the book and smiled.

“That was an interesting day,” Danielle noted as she tossed her brush on the dresser. “But rather exhausting.”

“I felt a little sorry for Heather, having to take most of that starter home with her,” Walt said as he closed his book and set it on the end table.

“I don’t think many people in Frederickport are interested in baking sourdough bread. Not when they can get it from Old Salts.” Danielle pulled back the covers on her side of the bed and climbed in.

“What is she going to do with all of it? Keep feeding it?” Walt asked.

Danielle chuckled and pulled the covers over her. “Lily told her to just put it all in one big jar, stick it in the refrigerator, don’t feed it, and tomorrow she’s going to give her some recipes she can use it up in. I have a feeling Heather is going to stick to feeding just one jar of starter from now on—if she keeps any at all.”

Walt reached over and turned the lamp sitting on his nightstand off, sending the bedroom into darkness. He wrapped an arm around Danielle and pulled her close.

“I wonder where Max is,” Danielle whispered, snuggling closer to Walt.

“He’s sleeping in the parlor,” Walt said, pulling her even closer.

“Walt, how are you doing with all this?” Danielle asked after a few minutes of silence.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“This has been the most insane