Melody smiled at the departing cars. “Gee, what a shame, everyone’s leaving.”
The heavyset woman in the shawl stood on the sidewalk and looked at the house. “This happen often?”
“Yeah,” Melody said. “Sometimes it smells like this all winter. You get used to it.”
The woman sniffed her shawl. “It’s in my clothes.”
“If you let them air out for a couple weeks, they should be okay,” Melody told her. “It’s the slime stains that don’t come out. You were lucky you weren’t slimed. Well, I think the worst of it’s over. We can all go back to sleep now.”
The woman pressed her lips together. “Are you crazy? I’m not going back in there.”
Melody put her arm around the woman. “Don’t worry about the slime. It almost always comes before the smell.”
“I don’t think this house is haunted. I think it’s possessed. And I think you’re one step away from the funny farm.”
Melody narrowed her eyes. “No need to get personal about this.”
The woman picked up her suitcase and turned on her heel. “I’m leaving. And I’m not paying for my room.”
“Fine,” Melody said. “You don’t like rude ghosts? That’s okay by me. I understand. Sorry this didn’t work out for you.”
Lucy was on the front lawn, fanning the air around her. “Ghost from hell?”
“I couldn’t stand those people a second longer,” Melody said. “They were so boring.”
Stephanie kept her distance from the house. “According to my calculations, we haven’t a single guest left.”
“With friends like Melody, you don’t need enemies,” Ivan whispered.
“So, you think Melody’s responsible for this?”
“Yup. Don’t you?”
“I think she’s responsible for the smell. I can’t believe she’s responsible for the dead man and all the things that have been going wrong with my house.” She tried not to smile. “I hate to admit it, and I’d never tell Melody, but I’m definitely relieved to be rid of those people. They were awful.” She backed farther down the sidewalk. “What is that smell?”
“Grade A Maine stink bomb,” Ivan said. “I used to make them all the time when I was a kid.”
“I bet you were really popular.”
“I could close a school down with one of those.”
“Is it going to last long?”
“Somewhere between a day and a week. I’d say closer to a week. This one is pretty powerful. Whoever made this was a master stink bomb maker.”
Lucy ambled over to them. “Smells like one of your stink bombs, Ivan.”
“Yup.”
“Clever,” she said.
“I didn’t do it.”
Lucy looked surprised. “You’re the only one I know who can build a stink bomb like that.” She looked at Stephanie. “He was great. He used to close down the school!”
They heard the motor catch on the pickup at the rear of the house and turned in time to see the truck peel out of the driveway. Even in the dark, it was easy to recognize Melody’s orange hair. A second person sat beside her.
Stephanie grabbed Ivan’s arm. “It’s Melody! And she’s with someone.”
“Yeah. Probably the body tosser.”
Stephanie felt the disappointment squeezing her heart. She could forgive Melody for the stink bomb. Desecrating the dead was something else. “They’re getting away.”
“And they’ve probably got the body,” Ivan said, walking to the backyard, giving a wide berth to the house.
Lucy tagged along. “Somebody want to tell me what you’re talking about?”
“We saw someone throw the old geezer in the gray suit off the roof. And then we saw Melody drive that pickup into the yard and take a box into the house.” Ivan kicked at the scattered leaves. “This is where they hid the body. It’s gone, of course.”
Lucy yawned. “I’d probably be more excited about this if I hadn’t spent the past fourteen hours cooking and cleaning up after ten people who would have tried the patience of Mother Teresa. I’m too tired to think about mysterious dead guys. It’s after midnight, and I’m beat. I’m going to hold my breath and dash into the house to retrieve my purse, then I’m going to move in with my parents until Haben smells better.”
Ivan took Stephanie’s hand. “Let’s open some windows and lock up the downstairs. We can spend the night on the Savage.”
“I hate to go off and just leave Haben empty. Suppose one of the guests decides to come back?”
“Believe me, no one is coming back to Haben tonight.”
“Suppose Melody comes back?”
Ivan gathered her to him and pressed a kiss to her temple. “I don’t think she will.”
Stephanie fought back tears. “How could she do this to me? I trusted her.”
“Let’s let it rest for tonight and pick it up in the morning when we’re not so tired,” Ivan said.
“That poor dead man. My Lord, they’ve been throwing him out windows and dropping him off roofs.”
He had to admit, it was pretty grisly.
Stephanie gave an involuntary shiver. “It’s like a horror movie. Invasion of the Punk Body Snatchers. I was wrong not to call the police. I suppose all along I expected it to turn out to be some tasteless practical joke.”
“Maybe that’s all it is.”
“You don’t sound very convinced.” She shook her head. “No. I’ve got to report this.”
He didn’t want her to. Not yet. First he had to do some investigating of his own. “Wait a while longer. At least until tomorrow.” Ivan’s eyes focused on her mouth. His lips softened and brushed against hers. “You know what we need? We need a fun activity. Like going to bed.”
Half an hour later Ivan closed the hatch cover to the aft cabins and lit one of the two oil lamps that hung suspended from the small salon ceiling. He started a fire in the delft fireplace and stood in front of it for a moment, warming his hands, trying to dispel the feeling of unease that sat heavy in his stomach. Something very odd was happening, and he had a sick feeling that it involved old friends.
Tomorrow he was going to get to the root of it, but for the moment he was going to try to forget about it and concentrate on Stephanie. He finally had her alone-really alone-and he intended to make the most of it.
“You know, the best way to survive in the cold is to get naked with a friend.”
Stephanie’s breath came out in a cloud of frost as she huddled in a wool blanket. “That’s a vicious rumor started a hundred years ago by some pervert who didn’t have central heating.”
She was looking forward to snuggling with Ivan in the cozy bunk, but she couldn’t imagine taking her clothes off in the freezing cabin. She tapped her toes and wrapped the blanket tighter, waiting for the fire to bake away the chill and the dampness, hoping it would happen soon. “So you think this fire’s going to get us toasty, huh?”
“You look doubtful.”
“It’s not a very big fireplace.”
“It’s not a very big room,” he said, going into his cabin and returning with a bottle of brandy and two snifters. He poured the brandy and handed one of the glasses to Stephanie. “Here’s to love and friendship and honesty.”
Stephanie sipped the brandy and felt fire burn down her throat and race through her body. She took another sip, and the vertebrae in her back relaxed. “Were you thinking of Melody when you made that toast?”
He slid his hands inside her blanket, his fingers massaging lazy circles on either side of her spine. “No. I was thinking of us.”
She was growing deliciously warm deep inside. It was a drugging liquid heat, working its way along her spine, moving like hot molasses to her toes and fingertips. She set her glass on the table and let the blanket slip from her shoulders.
“This looks promising,” Ivan said. “Getting hot?”
“It’s the brandy.”
“Mmmm. I keep it for medical emergencies.”
Stephanie moved closer, fitting herself into all the hollows and crevices that naturally occurred between men and women. “Am I a medical emergency?”