Outrunning Shadows

Chapter 15: The Past Catches Up

Chapter 15 – The Past Catches Up





June slipped quickly away and it was already mid July. It was business as usual. Bright and early Monday morning, Engrid’s alarm clock went off at 7:00. She rolled over and looked blearily at the red illuminated numbers. She got out of bed and slipped into her pink bunny slippers and shuffled toward the bathroom to complete the waking up process. Afterwards, she went down stairs, got her morning paper out of the driveway and sat down at the kitchen table. She fixed herself a bowl of cornflakes and sat down to read the paper. The weather was going to be sunny and 97 with a heat index of 115. There were no shootings last night, nor the night before, nothing had been robbed in forever, so the news was mostly engagement announcements, what the local scout troops were doing, how the library’s children’s reading room was progressing. There was a nice article about the new children’s reading room and Dora was quoted in it a couple of times. She leafed through it until her flakes were eaten. She needed to go to the grocery store and pick up a few things.


She walked out to her Town Car and got behind the wheel. When she glanced in her rear view mirror she noticed Evan walking up to her car. She rolled down the window.


“I guess nothing’s going on today?” Evan asked.


“Not today, just got to run to the grocery store and pick up a few things. Do you need anything?”


“Not that I know of at least.”


“Okay then, I’ll see you later.”


“Bye,” Evan turned around and walked away.


“Actually,” Engrid said stopping the car, “You might want to see about some spray for the spiders in the ceiling of the gazebo. I don’t know what to do. Do we have any spray that’ll kill them?”


“I’ll look. If not, I can run to the feed store. They usually have that sort of thing.”


“Okay. Do that, I’ll pay you back for the spray.”


“That’s fine. Have fun grocery shopping!”


She backed out of the driveway and drove away. Evan walked around the side of the house to the gazebo. He went up the two steps and under the roof. There were the spider webs along the edges of the poles intersecting with the edge of the roof. He and Engrid had brought them crashing down with brooms multiple times before, but they always seemed to return with a vengeance.


He glanced over at Andrew’s gazebo. It desperately needed painting. He wanted to help, but it was too fiercely hot to do anything physically demanding as tearing down and reconstructing a wooden gazebo.


He went back down the steps of the gazebo and walked toward the tool shed. He slipped the bolt to one side and the door swung open. Evan stepped onto the concrete floor and scanned the room for some kind of death weapon for spiders. There was a selection of rat poisons, fish food for fish that died decades ago, tons of other things all neatly on their little shelves or hung in neat rows on nails that Evan made certain were straight. The floor was uncluttered. All the bottled items were in a row on their shelf. He went over and rifled through them to make sure there was no spider spray. There wasn’t anything of the sort.


“Hmph. I guess I’ll have to go to the feed store. He’d forgotten that the feed store was only about 500 yards from the grocery store that Engrid usually shops in. So, if he’d thought about it, he could have asked her to pick some up. Since he didn’t, he was going to have to go himself. He walked back across the yard and down the street to his own house. He got in his Cherokee and drove away.





                                       #





Engrid arrived in the parking lot of the grocery store. She got out and rescued a shopping cart from the parking space next to hers. She pushed it toward the door. As she was going, she noticed a red Subaru Outback parked near the entrance to the grocery store. She wouldn’t have noticed it except that it had an unusual license plate. It was uncommon in this part of South Carolina to see out-of-state plates. In the larger cities and near the coast, it wasn’t all that uncommon for out of state plates to appear, but in Deerfield, that was a rarity. She leaned in close to the plate to see from whence it hailed.


“New Hampshire. Live Free or Die,” she murmured to herself.


She went on in the store and filed that tidbit in the back of her mind. She went through the store and picked up a few vegetables, some fruit, ice cream, cheese, milk, bread, and other basic things. She was just getting a few things. She had no immediate plans to host any sort of meal. As she was going through the aisles, she kept noticing someone following her. She couldn’t seem to catch who it was, but it was rather disconcerting. She’d never been followed before. She would dart behind a display of sour cream and onion potato chips and then turn to see if the person was still there. Invariably, the person wouldn’t be there.


“I must be seeing things,” Engrid muttered to herself, “I’ve finally gone batty.”


She just shook her head and kept shopping. She was reading the label on a can of tuna when she noticed the man walk by again. She glanced up. She just couldn’t focus her old bifocals fast enough to see who it was. She walked quickly to the end of the aisle and looked in the direction the man went.


“Two can play this game,” she said aloud. She squinted her eyes and said, “The hunter has now become the hunted.” She went back to her cart and jostled to the other end of the aisle and looked both ways. She glanced back over her shoulder to see if he was there. He wasn’t.


“I must be seeing things.” She hadn’t gotten a good enough look at the stranger to know what he was wearing. He was wearing dark clothing, which was unusual around there, especially in the summer. She decided that she really was a fruity old bat and so picked up a bag of chicken seasoning mix and started reading the label, glancing up periodically hoping the prey would slip up. He didn’t. The mysterious stranger stayed just out of sight while she was reading. She put the bag in her cart and kept walking. She walked down the length of the store, looking up each aisle to see if he was waiting there.


“Well what am I gonna to with him if I catch him?”


“Do you need some help, Mrs. Matthews?” It was Ashley the produce manager.


“No, actually, I’m fine.”


“Are you sure? I was coming back from break and you looked like you were looking for something.”


“Actually, I was looking for someone. Have you seen a man in dark clothing walking around the store?”


“No, but then I’ve been in the back room for 15 minutes or so.”


“Oh. Well, if you see him, let me know.”


“I will, Mrs. Matthews, you have a good day.” She walked back towards her domain in the produce section. “You have a good day too, Ashley,” Engrid called after her. She looked around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the mysterious stranger.


Engrid still wasn’t convinced that she wasn’t being followed. She wasn’t normally the least bit paranoid and had been accused no few times of being flat out oblivious. So, if she felt there was someone following her, there must be someone there. She wasn’t the sort to just make something like that up. She walked around the grocery store a few more times to see if he was still there. When she was convinced that the mysterious man was gone, she went to the check out register.


“Good morning, Engrid, how are you?” The check-out person said cheerfully as she began to scan the groceries.


“I’m fine Martha, say, did a man in dark clothing come in here?”


“Yeah. He didn’t buy anything. It looked like he was looking for someone.”


“Really? Do you think he was looking for me?”


“I don’t know why he would be. Why do you ask?”


“I don’t know. I just feel like he was following me around the store.”


“I don’t think it was you he was looking for. He was here before you and he’s already left. So, he couldn’t have been looking for you.”


“Not looking for, I think he caught up with him here and he was following me.”


“Why would a total stranger be following you around the grocery store?”


“Beats me.”


“It’s strange.”


“It is. Oh well. Oh, say, did you see what car he left in?”


“A red Subaru.”


“The one with the out of state license plate?”


“I guess so. It was the only red Subaru in the parking lot, so I reckon it’d have to be the one.”


“I guess so,” Engrid picked up her bagged groceries and put them in her cart. She walked out the door and across the parking lot. She looked down and across the street. She noticed Evan’s Jeep parked on the street in front of the feed store. Evan often parallel parked on the street even when he didn’t have to. He said he would let other people have the easy spots. Parallel parking was just one of his citified skills, Engrid decided. She decided that Evan was just showing off his driving ability with that little display of aptitude. But, today, it was helpful because it made his car easier to spot. Down the street in the opposite direction from the feed store was the investment firm where Andrew worked. She thought about going down there to see what Andrew was up to, but remembered that she’d bought ice cream and ice cream in a car in 100 degree heat was probably not a wise move on her part. She got in her car and returned home. She got out and took her groceries inside. As she was putting her newly purchased culinary items away, Evan drove up and parked behind her.


After she finished she met him outside. He was out in the tool shed. She walked across the back yard and appeared in the doorway of the tool shed. Evan was standing in the room removing the lid of a garden sprayer.


“What are you doing?” She asked.


“I’m getting ready to spray the gazebo to get rid of the spiders.”


“Did you notice an unusual vehicle in town today?”


“Not really, why?”


“I think there was someone following me in the store.”


“Really? Why would they want to do that?”


“I don’t know. I just got the feeling that someone was following me.”


“What does that have to do with whether or not I saw a strange vehicle? Are strange people supposed to drive strange cars?”


“On the way into the store, I noticed a car with a New Hampshire license plate parked outside. Then a strange man followed me around the store while I was shopping. Then Martha said that a man fitting the description I gave of the man following me left in a red Subaru. There was only one of those kind of cars in the parking lot, so he would have to have left in that one.”


“I didn’t see anything unusual. If I saw a red Subaru, I probably didn’t notice.”


“I guess you’d have had no reason to.”


“He was parked in front of the grocery store. I was parked in front of the feed store, my vision nor are my powers of observation that good.”


She folded her arms and watched Evan put the concentrated spray in the sprayer.


He said, “Would you mind hooking up the water hose and having it outside the gazebo so I can fill up the sprayer?”


“Sure.” She walked out to the overturned bucket at the side of the house. Evan carried the sprayer out to the steps of the gazebo. He went back to the tool shed to get some safety goggles to keep it out of his eyes. When he got back, she was already filling the sprayer with water.


“I know I’m a nosy old woman, but I’m not paranoid or loony.”


“No, you’re right- you’re not.”


“So, I’m not making this up. So, if I think there was someone following me around that store, there was someone following me around that store, Evan. I just can’t figure out why someone would want to do that. I’m not all that interesting, you know.”


“I know,” Evan replied flatly, beginning to pump the pressure stem of the garden sprayer. She gave him a look.


“Do you think someone is stalking me?”


“Why?”


“Maybe he’s a con artist or something. They prey on the elderly sometimes. They dupe old people into giving away all their money. How they sleep with themselves at night I have no idea, but I guess they manage somehow.”


“About like everybody else I guess.”


“I guess so. It just seems wrong, but they didn’t ask me.”


Evan was finished pumping pressure into the garden sprayer. He put on his goggles. “You might want to go over to the steps. I wouldn’t want you to get any in your eyes. That would burn like fire.”


“Yes it would,” she stated walking away as Evan picked up the sprayer wand and went to work. He sprayed for a few minutes and then looked around to see what Engrid was up to. She was inspecting Andrew’s gazebo. She was going around the perimeter, looking up at it and then down at the ground surrounding it.


When Evan was finished spraying, she ventured back over as he was rinsing out the garden sprayer.


“Andrew’s gazebo needs some work.”


“It needs a lot of work.”


“Andrew hasn’t mentioned anything to you about helping him fix it.”


“He hasn’t asked for my help with anything,” Evan replied hastily.


“I thought you two had gotten kind of chummy lately.”


“Chummy? Me? You have met me haven’t you?”


“What’s that mean?”


“Andrew and I are still working on being friends. We’ll get to working together later. Right now, we’re just building a friendship.”


“Well you could build a gazebo at the same time, couldn’t you? It’d be like a little friendship building project for the two of you.”


“We could, but he hasn’t asked. I’m not going to make a pest of myself.”


“Like me?”


“No, that’s not what I meant. I simply meant that I’m not going to push myself on him. If he wants me to help him, he’ll have to ask.”


“I honestly don’t know if the boy has sense enough to ask for help. Maybe what he needs is a little intervention. You saw him trying to plant those poor impatiens. They look pretty good now, though. I guess he’s learning.”


“If he wants my help, he’s going to have to ask me for it.”


“If he asks, will you help him or throw it in his face that he needs your help?”


“Probably a little of both. He is kind of annoying.” Evan couldn’t help but smirk a little, it was hard to keep a straight face and speak ill of his new love.


“He doesn’t seem to annoy anyone but you. You two seemed to get along fine at lunch on Sunday. Have you two had a spat since then?”


“No. I haven’t seen him to have a spat.”


“I take it that suits you just fine.”


“It does.” Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth of the matter was that it was eating Evan alive that Andrew hadn’t called. Evan didn’t want to force Andrew in any way because he feared that Andrew would leave him high and dry. He desperately wanted Andrew to call and invite him over to watch a movie, eat dinner, play cards, any excuse to be alone with him.


“You are so cold-hearted. It’s no wonder Andrew doesn’t like you.” She said in disgust as she turned to walk away.


“What’s that supposed to mean?” Evan was startled by her outburst.


She turned around and started talking. Engrid had finally had it. “A man extends friendship to you, invites you to a fancy dinner and then you throw it in his face and still don’t give him the time of day. I’d have given up on you years ago if you’d treated me like that. I know you think he’s a spoiled rich city army brat. Which, in your mind, are the worse traits a human can possess short of being a homicidal maniac, but I mean give the boy a chance. He’s tried to be a friend to you, let him, let him for Pete’s sake.”


“I have.” He almost spilled the beans. He wanted so badly to confess what had been going on between the two men over the last months, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.


Engrid caught herself in her temper; she stepped back and took a deep breath before speaking, “Well, as long as you’re willing to try, that’s all I can ask.”


Evan was glad that he’d staved off Engrid’s curiosity for another round. It killed him on the inside to lie to her right to her sweet, loving yet disgruntled face. He knew he couldn’t ever bring himself to tell her that he was madly in love with Andrew. He loved Andrew with a fire that would consume him if he didn’t allow Andrew close enough to feel the heat. Engrid could never understand what there was in Evan’s heart. Not in a hundred lifetimes could she love him if she knew he was so deeply and hopelessly in love with Mr. Andrew Garrison.


They were finished, so Engrid went in her house and Evan left to parts unknown.





                                       #





By the time his workday was through, Andrew was a nervous wreck. He went out to his Pathfinder in the narrow parking lot behind the row of 2-3 story brick office buildings. He tried to breathe a little deeper. Those women were honest and they knew what could happen to him if word got out. As he sat there, Betty walked by and motioned for him to roll down his window.


“Hi Betty.”


“I’m so sorry about all this. But you really can trust us.”


“I hope so.”


“You can. Now go home and get some rest.” She tapped the bottom of his window frame as she walked away. He started the car and drove home. The evening passed in slow drudgery. Andrew was so bored that he spent most of the evening dusting the stair treads and banister spindles. He wanted desperately to call Evan and invite him over; but, he didn’t want to be pushy. Plus his disclosure at work that morning had him racked with guilt. He wouldn’t know what to say to him, and then Evan would sense the uneasiness and then force the facts out of him. Who knew how Evan would react to that disclosure. So, Andrew decided it was best to sit on it for a while. Thus, his staircase was scuff and dust bunny free from top to bottom.


Later, he went and washed all the dishes by hand because it took longer and heaven forbid one should have dusty dishes. He watched Engrid’s shadow moving through her house. She was wondering around the upstairs bedroom. Andrew couldn’t tell if her back and forth motion was her vacuuming or pacing.


Soon, it was late enough to go to bed without feeling like a loser. Andrew crawled under the sheets and stared at a framed painting reprint he’d bought in a gift shop at the National Gallery in Washington, DC. He clicked off the lamp and the room was bathed in the shadowy twilight of the streetlamps filtering through the slats in the Venetian blinds. Slowly, his body relaxed and he drifted off into the empty void of a dreamless sleep.


Andrew awoke with a start. He had an odd feeling. Something wasn’t right. He had the feeling that he was being watched. He rolled over far enough to see up the slats of the blinds. Engrid’s bedroom light was off and her curtains drawn, so she wasn’t watching him. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Something moved. He was sure of it. He lay back down at an angle so his face was toward the bedroom door leading out to the landing at the top of the stairs but was careful to keep one eye open just wide enough to see what was going on. He was certain he’d seen something moving. But maybe it was just his imagination. Then his eyes slowly adjusted to seeing again and he could make out the figure of a person standing in the door way.


The icy fingers of panic shot through his body as he lay perfectly motionless on his bed. Andrew closed his eyes and reopened them. The shadowy figure remained. Who was that? It just stood there. It suddenly popped into Andrew’s head that it must be a ghost. Surely a house as old as his must have at least one ghost in it. He suddenly remembered a story that Engrid had told him about the house’s history.


Apparently, Richard had been a history buff and had bought this house because it was reputed to have a ghost. Of course Engrid neglected to tell him this until after he’d already signed the papers and had moved in. Since nothing happened right away, he’d put the story out of his mind. The story had something to do with a traveler on a rainy night. In 1876, this house that Andrew now lived in was only about three years old. It replaced a house that was built in 1825. In 1876, this was the only house around. None of the other houses that now lined Maple Avenue existed. The previous house had been destroyed by a tornado. With cars in the modern day, the almost a mile between the house and the main part of town was quite a distance on foot. Local legend had it that a very malevolent doctor lived in that area and frequently traveled that road at night on his way to a house of ill repute a few miles further out from town. He had failed to save the only son of a poor farmer. Well, the farmer’s wife was a practitioner of black magic and tried to conjure up something to scare the doctor with. It turns out the thing that the old farmer’s wife got to scare the doctor was a vicious ghost hound. One evening in July, the doctor was outbound toward the house of ill repute when he noticed something in the woods keeping pace with his horse. He kept his eye on it. The hound seemed to glow in the full moonlight of that 19th Century evening. Suddenly it leapt onto the road, spooked the horse and caused the doctor to fall off his horse. No one really knows what happened to that doctor that night. All people know for sure is that his bloody clothes were found on the roadway directly in front of Andrew’s new house.


Engrid had said that usually on hot balmy nights, Rose and Richard both said that a shadowy figure would be in their house late at night. Rose said that on a number of occasions she would get the feeling that she was being watched. She would look around and in some dark corner or unlit doorway, the shadowy doctor from long ago would be standing there watching her. Rose never said she felt threatened by it. It was just there. Some say the doctor was not that bad and was keeping watch over that house to make sure that the ghost hound never came inside. Andrew did not find Engrid’s story very comforting at that moment.


Andrew was suddenly taken with a bout of courage, fear, and stupidity. Andrew threw back the covers and stood up. The figure turned and ran down the stairs. Andrew took off after him. He heard heavy thudding footsteps on the stairs. His own, lighter, fleshy padding came down after it. He heard the intruder as he got to the bottom of the stairs. He ran down the wide hallway to the back door with Andrew hot on his heels.


“Stop! Wait!” Andrew yelled. For some reason, he wanted to know why the ghost still stayed in the house and hadn’t moved on.


About halfway through the house, the ghost vanished. Andrew kept running. He ran out into the backyard calling out for it to stop that he wanted to talk about what happened. He walked around the gazebo and tried to find it. In his mind, he was convinced that the ghost of a reconstruction era doctor was hiding in his backyard.


Andrew saw the flickering of lights as he walked around. His shouting had awakened Engrid. She pulled her robe tightly around her waist and worked her flashlight with her other hand.


“What in the world are you doing out here?” She asked. “Oh!” She gasped and pointed her flashlight at the sky.


“What’s the matter?” Andrew asked. He stopped long enough to feel a draft. He looked down and realized that he wasn’t wearing anything. His lean, nude body was glistening in the moonlight of that balmy July night.


“I am so sorry,” He said and bolted towards his back door. He threw it open and went inside- his face burning hot with shame at what had just happened.


Engrid stood on the grass motionless, her flashlight trained on Andrew’s back door. She wasn’t sure what to make of the spectacle she’d just seen. She just stood there quietly in the pale, summer moonlight. Movement called her attention away from the door. A shadowy figure was moving beneath the watchful gaze of the streetlights pouring in between the houses. It was Dora. She was moving quickly, an expression of concern and confusion across her careworn face.


“What’s the matter? What’s all this ruckus out here?”


“I’m not sure,” Engrid said, shifting her gaze to Dora, “I think Andrew saw the ghost.”


“What ghost?”


“You know. The ghost Richard used tell about the dead doctor.”


Dora raised her hand to shield the glare from the flashlight Engrid was now pointing in her face. “Don’t tell me you’ve been filling that boy’s head with all that nonsense. You’ll have him scared out of his wits.”


“It’s not nonsense. What else would explain what I just saw?”


“What was that?”


“Andrew was running around in his backyard at 3:45 in the morning buck naked yelling ‘stop’ ‘wait’ and all.”


“I know what he was saying, I heard him too. I thought the police were chasing an escaped convict through the neighborhood he was making so much racket.”


“He was chasing the ghost, I’ll bet you.”


“What was he planning on doing with it when he caught it?”


Engrid just shrugged.


“Richard was just pulling your crusty old leg, now go back to bed.”


Engrid pointed her light back at his door. Dora cleared her throat and said, “I don’t think he’s doing an encore, Engrid, now go to bed. The boy’s been under a lot of pressure and you and your stupid stories have driven him plumb batty.”


Dora turned and walked back toward her house. “Go to bed!” She called over her shoulder at Engrid who hadn’t moved from the spot from which she last saw Andrew. She was at a loss to explain what she’d just seen. She wasn’t about to give up. Andrew was a smart person; he wouldn’t do something like that without good reason. She suddenly got the idea in her head to find out if there really was someone out there. She wanted to see the ghost too. She walked back toward her house; but kept an eye on Dora to make sure she went home. Once Engrid could see that Dora was safely back in her own house, she turned and made a beeline for the old tool shed at the back of Andrew’s property. It was the only place she could think of that a ghost or potential criminal could be hiding. Andrew must not have seen the criminal leave. There was no gate in the privacy fence behind Andrew’s house. The only ones were behind Engrid’s house and behind Evan and Myrtle’s house. Both households were careful to keep them locked, especially at night- on account of just such an occasion.


As she drew near to the tool shed, she thought she caught motion on the far side of the dilapidated gazebo. She turned to face that direction. The moonlight was shining down and illuminated her surroundings fairly well. She clicked off her flashlight and listened carefully. For the first time that evening, she realized the crickets were so loud she could barely hear herself think. She crept slowly toward the gazebo, the tail of her bathrobe and night gown fluttering in a slight breeze that happened to be rustling by. Slowly, she made her way around the perimeter of the gazebo. Satisfied no one was hiding in its vicinity, she trained her attention back to the dilapidated tool shed. Slowly, so as not to be heard approaching, she made her way toward the shed. She noticed that the door wasn’t locked. It could only be locked from the outside. She reached out her hand and grasped the rusty handle. She wrapped her fingers around it and pulled it slowly toward her. She stepped back as she pulled the outward swinging door past herself. She clicked on her flashlight and shone its brightness through the tiny space. The lawnmower was in place. The rough hewn wood workbench was covered with its usual assortment of useless junk. She noticed a large tarpaulin in the middle of the floor. She didn’t remember that being there before. There’s no telling what Andrew might have moved around in here. She decided to take a peek and see what was hiding under that tarp.  She walked up to it and reached down. The tarp moved- or did it? She wasn’t quite sure. All she knew was that she was sure it had moved. She stepped back. The tarp definitely moved that time. The tarp rose before her. Her eyes got wide behind her thick lenses. She took several large steps toward the door. The tarp was standing it was as big as a man. The tarp rushed towards her. She screamed and stumbled out of the door. She fell to the ground as the tarp shoved her as it ran by. The man wearing tarp shed it and ran.


“That was no ghost,” Engrid said, slowly picking herself up off the ground and dusting off her knees. She debated whether or not to call the police, but decided there wasn’t much point. There was no way to catch up with him now. She stood in startled amazement, watching as the figure fled into the shadows between Dora and Andrew’s houses. She had no idea who that could be. She shook her head and turned toward her house.





                                       #





The next evening, Tuesday, Engrid was sitting on her front porch waiting for Andrew to get home. She was going to have a word with him about last night. She wasn’t upset as much as confused. She also wanted to tell him what she’d seen in the tool shed after he’d gone back in the house. The birds were chirping as the stifling heat bore down. Since the summer solstice was just a few weeks ago, it was still light until after 9:00, so the sun hadn’t really begun its decent toward the horizon.


Sure enough, like clockwork, 5:25, a black Pathfinder crested the hill and approached. It turned into Andrew’s driveway and parked. Engrid hopped up and went down the grass. Andrew was almost to the first step when he heard footsteps on the gravel. He turned.


“Good afternoon Engrid, sorry about last night.”


“It’s okay. I just want to know what happened is all.”


“Come inside. I’ll make you some dinner.”


“You don’t have to put yourself out like that.”


“I don’t want to eat alone. Unless you’ve got other plans, I’d like you to stay.”


“Okay.” She wasn’t going to start an argument, if he wanted to feed her; it was more than fine with her. She followed him to the steps and into the house.


They went into the kitchen where Andrew started making some chili and beans to go with the sandwiches he was about to make. He pulled the meat out of the refrigerator and put it in the microwave.


“What happened last night?” Engrid was curious.


“You can start by making some salads.” Andrew smiled over his shoulder.


She hopped up and opened the refrigerator and pulled out some lettuce and carrots. She sat them on the counter while she rambled around for a cutting board.


“You still haven’t answered my question.” She said, carefully slicing the carrots.


“I had a dream that someone was in my house.”


“Really?” the pace of her cutting slowed considerably.


“I woke up and had the strangest feeling that I was being watched. Then I realized that there was a shadowy figure standing in the doorway. I told it to go away. It turned and ran down the stairs. I chased after it. I remembered your story and I wanted to stop the ghost and ask why it was still there. I guess people think the strangest things in dreams. But I chased after it. I totally forgot I was naked and I had no idea anyone would see me that late at night,” He said to the light inside the microwave.


“Hmm. Did you say you heard it running down the stairs?”


“Yeah. Real heavy footsteps. Then it ran out the back door. I just kept chasing.”


“Wouldn’t a ghost have just vanished or gone through the door without opening it? That’s what Richard said happened with the dead doctor, as soon as they saw it, it vanished into thin air without a sound.”


Andrew turned to face her. She had completely stopped slicing carrots.


“Engrid, do you think that there was someone actually in my house last night?”


“I guess it’s possible.”


“Should I call the police?”


“I don’t see what the point would be.” She was afraid to tell him the truth. She didn’t want him to panic over something he could do nothing about.


“I guess you’re right. But how did he get in?”


“I don’t know. Maybe he came in the back door. Are you sure you locked it last night? Sometimes I forget.”


“I’m pretty sure. I thought it was locked, but it must not have been.