Nine Lives (Lily Dale Mystery #1)(15)

“Is it supposed to rain all night?” she asks. “I haven’t checked the forecast.”

“We don’t bother much with forecasts around here. This is lake-effect country. In the winter, we get blizzards that pop up in a matter of minutes; in the summer, we’ve had twisters tear through. You never can tell what might blow in off the Great Lakes.”

That’s all Bella needs to hear. “Maybe just one night. But that’s it.”

Odelia nods, looking pleased.

So does Max. “Now if my tooth falls out, the tooth fairy can find me!”

“She’d find you no matter where you are, Max,” Bella reminds him for the umpteenth time.

“But tents don’t have addresses. Houses do.”

She smiles. “So the tooth fairy needs an address?”

He nods. “That’s how people find things.”

Bella looks at Odelia. “We’ve been plugging addresses into our GPS all day.”

“I see. But the tooth fairy knows this neighborhood really well. The boy next door to me on the other side just lost his front tooth the other day. Of course, he knocked his out by accident.”

“Did the tooth fairy come?”

“She did.” Odelia tells Max, handing a fistful of silverware to him and the bowls to Bella as though they’ve shared countless meals together. “And he and his mom have only been here a few weeks.”

“Is that a guesthouse, too?” Bella asks as she and Max begin setting the small, round table.

“No, it’s a private home. My friend Ramona has owned it for years. She raised her orphaned niece and nephew there. Now they’re grown and she’s married and living up in Buffalo with her husband, Jeff, so she rents the house for the season.”

“Why?” Max asks, predictably.

“Because rooms are in demand. There’s only a handful of guesthouses in the area, and they’re filled to capacity beginning tomorrow. People make their reservations a year in advance.”

“Why?”

“Because everyone wants to come to Lily Dale for the summer,” Odelia says easily, smiling at Max. “Leona’s place is booked solid through August. I cleared my calendar for check-in day tomorrow, but I have back-to-back appointments beginning the next day. I’ve been wondering how I was going to manage everything, especially with my foot in a cast. Leona only had one living relative, her nephew Grant, and he’s taking his sweet time getting here. I’ve been looking for someone to help out and now . . . here you are.”

“Just for tonight,” Bella reminds her.

“Those kittens will be born any moment, and someone will need to keep an eye on them, too. This really is just perfect.” Odelia has a way of responding to things that makes you wonder whether she even heard you in the first place.

For now, Bella decides to let it go. A hot meal and a warm, dry bed for Max—and not having to drive out into the storm or say good-bye to Chance the Cat just yet—are more than enough incentive to stay put.

Just for tonight . . .





Chapter Four


Stepping over the threshold of Valley View Manor, Bella flips the light switch beside the door and inhales a scent as familiar as the mock orange still wafting in the air outside.

Home.

The place smells of old wood and lavender and that imperceptible something that always enveloped her like a warm hug whenever she walked into the apartment.

Until Sam was gone.

The homey smell went with him, though she didn’t realize it until this moment. Now here it is, wafting in her nostrils, filling her with nostalgia, making her feel as though . . .

No. This isn’t home.

This is a guesthouse that belongs to a total stranger in a peculiar little town in the middle of nowhere. A dead stranger, at that.

Well beyond Max’s earshot, Odelia told Bella that Leona Gatto, a fellow medium, had drowned in the lake.

“She’s always been leery of the water. She said it’s because Wyoming—that’s where she’s from—is landlocked. Now I know the real reason.”

“What is it?” Conversation with Odelia, Bella noted over their surprisingly delicious dinner, seems to have plenty of gaps that can be quite challenging to bridge.

“You know—because of what was going to happen to her.”

“You mean she had a . . . premonition?” Bella asked needlessly.

“You could say that.”

“How did it happen, exactly? Was she swimming?”

“Leona can’t swim. She keeps a couple of kayaks and an old rowboat on that rickety pier behind the guesthouse for guests who like to fish. The rowboat wound up drifting out into the lake a couple of times last spring, and she wasn’t sure whether kids were playing around with it or it came loose. Anyway, it was windy that night, so she must have gone out to make sure the boat was tied up tightly. It looks like she bumped her head on a piling, and she fell into the water. The next morning, the boat was found floating again—but this time, so was Leona.”

Bella shuddered, as disturbed by the image as by the woman’s matter-of-fact delivery. But as Odelia talked on, she noted the affectionate tone and the way she referred to Leona in the present tense.

Clearly, Odelia views premature death more as transition than tragedy.