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

“I’m not sure if these are memories, or what my grandparents told me and came to feel like memories,” Walt said.

“You told me your grandparents rarely discussed your parents,” Danielle said.

“They didn’t. Not unless I asked them something, and then they would answer and change the subject. I stopped asking, assuming it was a painful topic for them. But when I was about thirteen, I started asking questions about their deaths again. There were things I remembered, but wasn’t sure if they were memories, dreams or my imagination,” Walt explained.

Danielle gave his hand a reassuring squeeze as she and the others listened.

“I don’t have many vivid memories of my parents. But I have one of my mother. It’s of me climbing up on her lap, and she’d sing to me. That’s one I see clearly. With my father, it’s like a series of random snapshots. I remember he had two close friends, Bud and Teddy. I used to call them Uncle Bud and Uncle Teddy. According to my grandmother, they all grew up together. I can close my eyes and see my father with them, like playing horseshoes at the beach or me going with my dad fishing off the pier, and Bud and Teddy were there.”

“What happened to them?” Danielle asked.

“Bud moved from Frederickport a couple of months before my parents died. But Teddy, it was his house that burned down. His wife also died in the house fire.”

“That’s horrible,” Heather gasped. “What happened?”

“Maddie, that was Teddy’s wife, she was a good friend of my mother’s. Actually, they had all grown up together. Maddie got sick about a year before the fire and was confined to her bed. My mother spent a lot of time over at their house, helping Teddy care for her when he was out of town for business. My grandmother resented the time my mother spent over there, feeling Teddy could have made other arrangements.”

“What happened that day?” Chris asked.

“My mother was at their house alone with Maddie when my father showed up. The heater exploded not long after he arrived, it started a fire, and none of them got out alive. From what I understand, they were trying to carry Maddie out, but the walls collapsed, trapping them. Teddy had been in Astoria that week on business and didn’t get back to Frederickport until after the fire.”

“How horrific,” Heather muttered.

“What happened to Teddy?” Danielle asked.

“I’m not really sure. I heard he moved down to Astoria, that’s where his business was,” Walt said.

“He lived in Frederickport and worked all the way in Astoria?” Chris asked. “Wow, a long commute for those days. I don’t imagine many people were driving around in cars.”

“My grandfather once told me Teddy had an office in Astoria and another in Frederickport. He would spend part of the month in Astoria, and the rest of the time in Frederickport. My mother would often stay with Maddie when he was in Astoria. After the fire, Teddy closed the Frederickport office and moved to Astoria.”

“That seems like a lot to ask of your mother,” Chris said.

“There is one thing I remember about the funeral. I asked my grandparents about it once, but they just changed the subject.”

“What was that?” Danielle asked.

“At the funeral, my grandmother got upset when Teddy showed up. My grandfather asked him to leave. Which he did. I didn’t understand why my grandfather had asked Uncle Teddy to leave and why Grandmother was mad at him. I also asked why Uncle Bud wasn’t there. They had been like family, and I felt abandoned. During that time, it seemed as if those closest to me simply vanished—my parents—then Uncle Bud and Uncle Teddy.”

“She probably blamed him for their deaths. After all, if he had been home with his wife, your parents wouldn’t have been there that day,” Danielle suggested.

“When I was older, that’s the conclusion I came to,” Walt said.

“Is there anything else you remember about that time period?” Chris asked.

Walt let out a weary sigh. “I remember missing my mother before she died, because she had been spending so much time with Maddie. My last memory of her is of me throwing a horrible fit, not wanting her to leave. And then she died… and when I understood she was not coming back… I felt such guilt. I had behaved so ugly.”

“Walt,” Danielle whispered, “you never told me that.”

Walt shrugged. “I suppose it was easier to push the memory aside.”

“You were just a little boy,” Heather said. “Kids throw fits all the time.”

“I suppose. But looking back, for a while I believed one reason she wasn’t coming home was because I was a bad boy,” Walt said.

“Oh, Walt.” Danielle leaned over and gave him a quick hug.

“But none of this helps explain our mountain man,” Chris said.

“Sorry,” Walt said. “That’s about all that I remember about that time.”

“What did your father do for a living?” Chris asked.

“He worked for his father,” Walt said.

“Did he ever go up in the mountains?” Chris asked.

“The mountains? He would go fishing and camping up there,” Walt said. “Why?”

“I’m trying to work out the connection between Mountain Man and your father. If the mountain man died up in the mountains, and he believes your father had something to do with his death, we should figure out when and why your father went up there,” Chris said.

“You are assuming Mountain Man blames Walt’s dad for his death,” Danielle said.

“I know what you are going to say,” Chris began. “Just because the mountain man thinks that doesn’t mean Walt’s father had anything to do with it. Like Stoddard, he could be wrong.”

“No, I don’t mean that,” Danielle said. “It’s possible Mountain Man is angry with Walt’s father for another reason, something that has nothing to do with intentionally causing his death. Maybe Walt’s dad planned to meet Mountain Man up in the mountains to go fishing. And he never showed because he died in the house fire, and Mountain Man got stranded