Jack turned the key, opened the door, and Kate briskly stepped past him and went inside. Jack and Sara followed her.
“This is it!” Kate was twirling about in a circle, her arms outstretched. She was like a child at play.
They were in a two-story entrance before a beautiful curved staircase with an ornate iron railing. On the ground floor, doors led off in three directions. The house appeared to be furnished, but sparsely.
“That’s the ballroom.” Kate pointed left. “The living room is that way. Aunt Sara, there’s an office off the living room, but come through here first.” She started toward the far doors, but halted, frowning at a wall. “Where’s the big cabinet? It was the best hiding spot. Greer and I used it.” Kate kept going.
Jack and Sara looked at each other and mouthedGreer? Jack nodded to the shape that was outlined on the wall. It showed that something large had been there. They hurried after Kate.
“The big dining room is that way. They had dinner in there because the man wanted it, but we liked to eat in here.” She went through a doorway to enter a pretty room with a half-round wall and tall windows. A round oak dining table and chairs filled the space.
Through the windows, they could see a tangle of weeds outside. “There’s a fountain in that mess,” Sara said.
“There is!” Kate replied happily. She was looking about the room. The two built-in cabinets in the corners were empty. “The dishes are missing!” She sounded angry. “They had pink flowers on them. The kitchen is this way.” She ran out of the room.
Sara was staring out the window and Jack went to stand beside her. “Remind you of when you were here with Granddad?”
“Yes. There’s a round pool and it was always filled with moss. Cal and I cleaned it out.”
“This hasn’t changed!” Kate called to them.
Jack took Sara’s hand and kissed the back of it. “Come on and let’s see what the kid is up to now.”
Sara laughed. Kate did sound like she was about six years old. “I want to know who ‘the man’ is.”
“I bet Randal will know,” Jack said.
“I’m sure he does.”
They walked through to the kitchen, then stood there with grimaces on their faces. Worn out linoleum was on the countertops, and half the cabinet doors were missing. The kitchen was an awful place. The only redeeming factor was the heavy oak table in the center.
Usually, Kate looked at houses with the eyes of a remodeler. How did she make it livable enough to sell? But she seemed to be seeing this kitchen as though it was a beauty with granite countertops and maple cabinets. She ran her hand down a deep, long cut in the tabletop. “I did that. Rachel said I could use a knife. I think she meant a fruit knife, but I...” Kate trailed off.
“Used a meat cleaver?” Sara asked.
“I did.”
“Glad you still have your fingers,” Jack said.
“That’s just what Barbara said. And Uncle Roy said that if he’d been here, he would have tanned my hide. We can use the back stairs to go up.” She didn’t wait for a reply, just disappeared through a doorway.
“Uncle Roy?” Sara asked Jack.
He looked at her with wide eyes. The only Roy they knew was Jack’s late father, Roy Wyatt.
They heard Kate’s footsteps above them and hurried up to the second floor. She’d already opened several doors. “A lot of the furniture is gone.” She sounded ready to do battle.
“If the land was sold, maybe the furniture had to go too,” Sara said. “Who used all these bedrooms?”
“Barbara was in here, Lea here, the man in that one and the big bedroom was Billy’s.” Kate disappeared inside the last room.
Sara and Jack were staring in astonishment.
“How does she remember people?” Jack asked. “She couldn’t have been too old when she was here.”
Sara knew what he meant. When Kate was four, she was taken from Florida and spent the next twenty years living outside Chicago. “It had to be before she left here.”
“I don’t remember what happened when I was four. Do you?”
