think something’s wrong.”
“What? Anything we can do something about?”
“Well—no.”
“If we don’t know, and she doesn’t ask for help, seems like we aren’t wanted,” Eileen said, giving me a straight look.
I nodded glumly.
At the first house, the owners were on their way out as we pulled up to the curb. Eileen had cleared the showing with them first, of course, and she went up to talk to them while I surveyed the yard, which badly needed raking.
“How are the two of you?” Eileen said in her booming voice. “Ben, you ready to go out with me yet?”
“The minute Leda lets me off the rope,” the man answered with equally heavy good humor. “You better get out your dancing shoes.”
“Haven’t you found Mr. Right yet, Eileen?” the woman asked.
“No, honey, I still haven’t found anyone who’s man enough for me!”
They chuckled their way through some more faintly bawdy dialogue, and then the couple pulled off in their car while Eileen unlocked the front door.
“What?” Eileen said sharply.
I hadn’t known anything was showing on my face.
“Why do you do that, Eileen?” I asked as neutrally as I could. “Is that really you?”
“No, of course not,” she said crisply. “But how many houses am I going to sell in this small town if Terry and I go out in public holding hands, Roe? How would we make a living here? It’s a bit easier for Terry in some ways .. . Franklin actually wanted someone working for him who was immune to his charm. He didn’t want to fall into bedding an employee. But still, if everyone knew .. . and the people who do know have to be able to pretend not to.”
I could see her point, though it was depressing.
“So here is the Mays’ house,” Eileen said, resuming her realtor’s mantle with a warning rattle. “We have—three bedrooms, two baths, a family room, a small formal living room .. . mmmm ... a walk-in closet off the master bedroom ...”
And we strolled through the Mays’ house, which was dark and gloomy, even in the kitchen. I could tell within two minutes I would never buy this house, but this seemed to be a day for pretense. I was pretending I might, Eileen was pretending the preceding conversation hadn’t taken place. Idella had been pretending she wasn’t upset by the phone call in her office.
My lack of sleep began to catch up with me by the hall bathroom, which I viewed dutifully, opening the linen closet and yawning into it, noting the hideous towels the Mays had wisely put away.
“Are you with me today, Roe?”
“What? Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t sleep too well last night.”
“Do you even want to go see this other house?”
“Yes, I promise I’ll pay attention. I just don’t like this one, Eileen.”
“Just say so. There’s no point in our spending time in a house you don’t want.”
I nodded obediently.
We were short on conversation and long on silence as we drove to our next destination. Lost in daydreams, I barely noticed when Eileen began to leave town.
Just a mile east out of Lawrenceton, we came to a house almost in the middle of a field. It had a long gravel driveway. It was a two-story brick house, and the brick had been painted white to set off the green shutters and a green front door. There was a screened-in porch. The second story was smaller than the first. There was a separate wide two-car garage to the left rear, with a covered walk from a door in the side of the garage to the house. There was a second story to the garage, with a flight of stairs also covered, leading up to it.
The sun was beginning to set over the fields. It was much later than I’d thought.
“Eileen,” I said in amazement, “isn’t this—”
“The Julius house,” she finished.
“It’s for sale?”
“Has been for years.”
“And you’re showing it to me?”
She smiled. “You might like it.”
I took a deep breath and got out of the car. The fields around the house were bare for the winter, and the yard was bleached and dead. The huge evergreen bushes that lined the property were still deep green, and the holly around the foundation needed trimming.
“The heirs have kept it going all this time,” I said in amazement.
“Just one heir. Mrs. Julius’s mother. She wanted to turn the electricity off, of course, but the house would just have rotted. There’s been surprisingly little vandalism, for the reputation it has.”
“Well. Let’s go in.”
This was turning out