living and breathing, and Nina was throwing all her curveballs at him at once.
Her aunt drove the few blocks to World of Dolls in silence. Mentally exhausted like the rest of us, Gretchen thought. And angry. They’d had a heated debate over the wisdom of Gretchen and Caroline’s choice of accommodations and were barely speaking to each other.
Nina had continued to disagree with them even as they were leaving the banquet hall. “You’re fulfilling your destiny. You can’t seem to wait for your share of misery and disaster. Check into a hotel. I’ll pay.”
“Nina,” Gretchen had replied, “we want to stay there, so leave it alone. Join us if you’d like.”
“I’m giving up. This is so foolish,” Nina had shot back. “Like one of those old slasher movies where the woman just has to go down into the basement, knowing that the killer is in the house. How stupid is that?”
“I love scary movies,” April had said as Gretchen inserted her key into the keyhole and opened the door leading into the World of Dolls Museum.
Now, as Gretchen made her way up the spiral staircase, she wondered again what they hoped to learn from the house and its ghostly occupant. A hotel would have been simpler, safer, and less nerve-wracking. Every creak in the floorboards frightened her. The small protection she carried in the form of a lipstick-shaped cylinder of pepper spray didn’t reassure her much. She wished it were a semiautomatic weapon.
Aunt Gertie, where are you when I need you?
And where was her other aunt when she needed her? It was uncharacteristic of Nina to turn down an opportunity for adventure. Nina had claimed that she refused to accompany them because of the danger of inciting wrath in a ghost whose remains had been improperly removed from its domain. “The bones might be gone from the house,” she had said, “but the ghost has been left behind, and it will be angry.”
“Ghosts must have their own personalities,” April had said. “Like people. You can’t predict their moods. You’re thinking up excuses.”
Gretchen silently agreed.
What Nina really wanted was to be with her man. Who could blame her?
Soon, if all went well, Gretchen would be wrapped in strong, manly arms of her own. Matt Albright would be all hers.
With her mother beside her, she paused to listen at the upstairs landing.
Not a sound.
The light of the moon had guided them through the lower level of the house, past the doll displays arranged in more easygoing days. It seemed so long ago. One of the dolls appeared to move, causing Gretchen’s throat to constrict and her heart to beat wildly. Then she realized it was only a cloud passing across the moon, creating patterns of dark and light inside the old house, giving inanimate objects a sense of motion.
To make matters even more difficult, they couldn’t risk any artificial lighting, not so much as the smallest flashlight beam as they found their way along the upstairs hall and into the master bedroom where the armoire had revealed its long-kept secret.
“This is it then,” Gretchen whispered. “We might as well get settled.”
“Why are we tiptoeing and whispering?” Caroline said, whispering back.
“I don’t know,” Gretchen said, speaking at her normal volume but finding it shockingly loud. “If a ghost is around, it knows it has company. No amount of sneaking is going to help us hide from it. I’ll be right back.”
“No, we have to stay together.”
“I’m only going to the next room. Relax.”
Using the wall for support and guidance, Gretchen moved through the rooms and returned moments later, carrying the doll trunk.
She sat down on the bed next to her mother. “Nina’s right,” she said. “What do we hope to accomplish by spending the night in this creepy place?”
“We have the same stubborn streak,” her mother said. “We’re doing it because no one else wants us to.”
Gretchen laughed. That was part of it. “We might get lucky and find another clue. Do you really think Nina saw a ghost come from this trunk?” she asked, feeling the travel stickers beneath her fingers.
“Nina’s paranormal experiences began when she was a child. At first they scared her. She told us about them, but no one in the family believed her. I pretended to. Sometimes, I really did believe her. She’s been on target with her predictions enough times that I have to wonder if she has some special talent to see the future.”
Gretchen smiled to herself. “Maybe our ghost was trapped inside the trunk for years and Nina released her.”
Caroline laughed lightly.
They lay quietly for a time. Then Caroline said, “Isn’t it special that we still spend quality time together at our ages?” She gave a tiny chuckle. “Mother and daughter on a sleepover.”
Gretchen laughed along. “It’s funny when you put it like that. A sleepover in a haunted museum. You rock as a mom, just so you know.”
“Thanks. I try to keep it interesting. And speaking of interesting, you seem to be fascinated by that trunk.”
“I am, though I’m not sure why.”
“Go ahead and sleep. I’ll take the first shift. In the morning, if our ghost hasn’t given us answers to help solve Flora’s or Allison’s murder, we’ll plan our next move. I can’t believe I’m doing this. We must be awfully desperate.”
Gretchen was tired. Her head throbbed, but lying down helped.
Caroline reached over and massaged Gretchen’s shoulder. “You know,” she said, “your father was an amateur geologist. He had an identification book and a few tools to crack rocks. Do you remember when the two of you would go out in search of fossilized stones and pore over that book?”
Gretchen stretched out. “I forgot all about that!”
She yawned and closed her eyes. A soft sound of a light breeze playing against wind chimes rode on the air. She drifted along with the melody.
The night hours passed slowly. Gretchen was restless. The house sounds were unfamiliar to her, and she had one ear tuned to every little noise.
She had finally drifted off when Caroline clutched her arm.
Gretchen’s eyes flew open.
“I heard something coming from the other side of the door,” her mother said, staring at the closed door. “It woke me.”
“Is it Flora?” Gretchen whispered. “Or someone else?”
“Let’s find out.”
They leapt to their feet, palming the only protection they had: pepper spray. Gretchen tiptoed over, opened the door without making a sound, peeked out of the bedroom, and heard the tinkling of chimes again, the same sound that had calmed her earlier.
Her mother stayed beside her. They approached the staircase, moving silently on bare feet. The sound had started inside the room then moved into the hall. What was it?
Gretchen heard a creak below. In the dim light from the moon, she could make out the shape of someone climbing the stairs. The chimes had stopped. No one else was in the hallway with them. They waited for the person coming up the steps.
Whoever was on the stairs paused as though listening. Gretchen held her breath, taking a second to glance behind her at Caroline. The quiet, stealthy sound coming from the steps was different from the one that had alerted her mother.
Below them, the person continued up.
Gretchen had more immediate concerns than tinkling bells. Clouds passed in the sky, obscuring the moonlight and making the intruder on the steps invisible. She got ready to strike, torn with indecision.
What if the person was a friend?
But why would a friend sneak up on them?
You snuck up, she thought to herself.
Her mother touched her with a light hand. They stared at each other. Gretchen was sure they were having the same thoughts, both hesitating to harm the wrong person.
“Who’s there?” Caroline said softly. “Identify yourself.”
Nothing. The clouds shifted and Gretchen could see movement, still coming up at them, faster now that they’d
