“Oh, sure,” Addie said, but she frowned, her gaze narrowing as she turned a glare on Sadie. “Maybe now would be a good time to get my Nancy Drew books back.”
“I told you, I don’t have them,” Sadie said, her tone suddenly belligerent.
“You most certainly do! Remember? You wanted to readThe Secret of the Old Clock,” Addie insisted.
“I returned that,” Sadie muttered, exasperated.
Addie screwed up her face, and her head tilted to one side as if she were trying to remember whether or not Sadie was telling the truth. Apparently unsure, she said, “Maybe it wasThe Mystery at Lilac Inn, then.”
“Ladies, would you like some lemonade?” Shane asked, holding up a pitcher and a couple glasses. Glad to have his interruption save them from a potential argument, Andie mouthed, “Thank you.”
The two older women took their lemonade and wandered around the house, pointing at this and that. Each of them had memories for different pieces of furniture, or an old picture, or some knickknack. Andie and Emily let them reminisce until Sadie found her way into the new area they had sectioned off for the rental units.
She stopped abruptly, taken aback. There was a mixture of confusion and anger in her voice when she demanded, “What is going on here?”
Emily rushed to ease her mind. “You remember, don’t you, Mom? You sectioned it off because the house was too big.”
“Oh… right. Yes,” Sadie said, but then she pointed to the new wall, where Sally was busy skim coating the seams on the drywall. “But I didn’t know we were splitting it up like this.”
Sally turned with a smile and waved at Emily’s mother with the trowel she was holding. “Hiya, Sadie. Remember you told me to do this in case your kids want to move in?”
She looked at Emily and then Andie and attempted a bit of an explanation that she ended with another kindly smile. “Sort of like an in-law apartment, but in reverse.”
“Oh, yes, of course.” Sadie sounded doubtful, though, as if she were trying to convince herself she did, indeed, remember.
Andie led her mother and Sadie through the unit, hoping to get them into the main room before anything else could come up, but Addie stopped again in the portion that served as an entrance for the two units.
Addie’s face screwed up as she glanced from the original wall of brick and paneling at the end to the new wall with the doors to the units. “I don’t remember it looking like this.”
Casting an accusing glance at Sadie, she asked, “Where’s the old bookcase? My books could be in there.”
Sadie rolled her eyes. “Probably in the next room on the other side of the wall.”
Before Addie could rush off into the next room to search, Andie caught her by the arm and said, “Wait, Mom. You can look for your books in a minute. I was wondering if either of you remember there being a secret room here in the house?”
Addie and Sadie exchanged a sharp glance. Sadie shook her head. “Nope, I don’t remember anything like that. Do you, Addie?”
“Nope,” Addie insisted while shaking her head. “No, siree, no secret room here.”
Andie looked at Emily. Her mother’s expression said she was telling the truth. Of course it would be true for her. She knew about the room so it wasn’t a secret! But the flush of color on her cheeks was what let the cat out of the bag.
Andie grinned and nodded at Emily, urging her to continue. They were definitely onto something!
“Come on, you can tell us,” Emily encouraged kindly, but she could see in their mutinous expressions that neither woman intended to share.
“Nope.” Sadie mimed zipping her lips.
“You told me about it before, remember?” Andie tried, since Emily’s gentle prod had failed. “You won’t get in trouble for admitting it now.”
“Of course we won’t,” Addie said without looking at her daughter. In fact, Andie might say she was specifically avoiding doing so. “We didn’t do anything wrong.”
Addie’s eyes kept darting to the chimney and to the paneling at the end of the room. Probably still thinking about her books, Andie thought, but right now she wanted her mother to think about the alleged secret room.
“Mom, it’s okay if you tell me about it. I’m grown. We won’t get lost or hurt. We’re all adults now, and—”
“Oh, I remember where my books are!” Addie hurried toward the paneling at the end of the hall. She pressed around near the bricks a bit and then…
To everyone’s surprise, a panel slid open, revealing a three-foot-high opening and a set of rickety, narrow stairs that went behind the chimney. And what was sitting right on those stairs?
