Chapter 1
Penrod couldn’t believe how many kids came forward with their parents to tell on Ms.Jacobson.She’d been abusing her students for nearly forty years.Taking them to her home on the ruse of tutoring them, when all she had them doing was cleaning her house from top to bottom, all the while beating them with a stick as well as socks full of apples and quarters.The reason that none of them had come forward was that she told them that no one would believe them over her, and if they were caught in the lie to the police, they’d go to prison.It was a good scam she had going all those years, and he was happy to have her off the streets.She also lost her job as a teacher at the local middle school, as well as her pension and other privileges that she would have gotten had she only retired without the abuse charges.
“Do you have a comment for the paper?”Stamos, the youngest brother of them all, was working at the local newspaper and was really good at his job.He and Penrod were the closest of all his brothers, and he enjoyed his company.“I can quote you without telling anyone your name.”
“No thanks.”He thought about it.“Yes, I have a comment.It’s been a long time in coming, and I, for one, am glad that it worked out for a lot of the community.If not for the local doctor, there is no telling how much longer this would have gone on.”
“Good one.I’ll put it in the first lines.”He put his notebook away and leaned back in the chair he was sitting in.“I have something I need to ask you.Have you been dating much?I have to admit that I’ve not been.Not that I’m afraid of finding someone to love me, but I’m pretty set in my ways and don’t want to have to change my lifestyle around to suit a woman’s needs.”
“Have you met the women in the family?They’re going to kick your ass if they hear what you’ve been spouting off.”The two of them laughed.“But in answer to your question, yes, I have been dating more.I don’t really feel like it’s doing me any good.I haven’t met anyone who turns me inside out like the other two have been.”
“I know what you mean.It’s been brought to my attention that I’m not a good date when it comes to going out.”He asked him what had been said to him.“I only date the one time and never call them back.If there’s no spark, I can’t stand to have a second date.I have no idea why that is, but that’s just the way that I feel.”
“You’re going to get yourself in trouble if you keep saying things like that.And I’m going to tell on you.”He laughed, but it didn’t have much humor in it.“Maybe it doesn’t happen that way for us.Perhaps it’s not a spark on the first date.”
“I don’t know.I just know that I’m sick of dating only to feel like I’m being dated because I have money.And that’s what it feels like.The last date that I had was disappointing because I wanted to have some burgers and fries.I know that’s not a good first date, but I really had a craving for it, and she thought that I should take her to someplace fancy so that she could be shown off as someone I was dating.Women are strange.”
“Again, I wouldn’t say that to anyone in this family.You can tell me that, but if you were to say something like that to one of our brothers, I have a feeling that you’re going to be in traction for a long time.”They both laughed, and he told him that he thought that he’d better be changing his attitude or he really was going to be in trouble.“I love you too much to see you in the hospital all the time.”
“I know.I don’t know what’s wrong with me.Perhaps I’m just bored.I know that I’ve been doing the same thing for years now, and I’m just jaded about people.I guess if I were to do what I’ve been thinking about for a while now, I might have a better attitude toward life.I was thinking of writing a book about a murder mystery.It’s not like I don’t have enough experience with it, working where I do.”He told him he should do it.“I’ve already done an outline for one.It’s going better than I thought it would.”
“So you’ve started on it already?”He said he just had the outline.“Well, that fucking fantastic.I’m happy for you.You’d be really good at it, too.Like you said, you have enough experience on the subject.”
“I think I might do it.It might get me out of this funk I’ve been in for a while now.”He asked him if he was all right.“Not really.Like I said, I’m bored, and I need to have something to occupy my mind other than just trying to find myself a date that will spark something in me.”
“Do you believe that there is someone out there for the rest of us?”He said that he had to believe that because there was no other choice in the matter.It was that or spend the rest of their lives alone.“I hope you’re right.Like I said, I’m lonely, too, but I’m not going to be looking all that hard for someone.I have plenty of life left in me for me to be looking for someone to love.”
Penrod hoped that he was right.Or not.He wouldn’t mind someone in his life like his other two brothers had.He just didn’t know how to go about finding that one special person.Not that he was looking all that hard, but it would be nice to have someone there when he needed a boost to his life.As soon as his brother left to go and write his article for the paper, Penrod got to work on the paperwork that needed to be done.He also had a trial set for the morning as a key witness, and he wasn’t looking forward to that either.His life was just too boring.
After work, he headed home.He had on his list of things to do tomorrow to go and look at houses.He, like his brothers, was sick of living in a condo.There were too many people around all the time, and he wanted his own yard.He didn’t want to mow it, but he did want to have the option of doing that.He figured that once he was ready to move into his own home, he’d be able to stretch out like he wanted.
On his way home, he saw a for sale sign that was by owner.He usually would have made an appointment to see the house, but he found himself pulling into the curved driveway and falling in love with the look of the place.Trying not to get his hopes up too much, he got out of his car and looked around.It had just enough yard that he could do what he wanted, and there was enough landscaping around it to make it look like it would be perfect to have people over and awe as his house.
He wasn’t going to get his hopes up, however.The inside of the house could be crap, and he thought that he could walk away from the best yard he’d ever seen just for that reason alone.A couple came out of the house just as he was walking up to the porch.
“Hello, young man.Can we help you?”He said that he was here about the house.“There’s an open house tomorrow afternoon, but since you’re here, you might as well have a look around.The missus and I were about to head out to dinner.Since you’re a police officer, we’ll just leave the key with you, and you can look until your heart’s content.”
“Are you sure about that?I mean, I could be anyone.”He said they were looking forward to dinner, and he looked trustworthy.He thought it was the strangest thing he’d ever heard of.“I promise you that I’ll leave it like you left it.If you’re sure.”
“As sure as rain.”They left him there with the keys to the place.The only thing that they told him was that the house had been redone just recently, as they wanted to sell, and that they’d be back in a couple of hours.He didn’t think he’d be there that long, so he shook hands with Mr.and Mrs.Abrey, and they left.Calling his brother, he asked him to come to the house with him as the couple had left him to it.
“That’s odd.Did you at least get their name?”He said that they were the Abreys.“I know them.Or at least I’ve heard of them.They’ve been looking to sell their business in town, too.I think it’s a knick-knack shop of some kind.I heard they buy up lots at auctions when no one else wants them and they sell them in their shop.I thought about doing that, but I don’t have the time or the energy to sort through things like that.I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
He was glad that Axel had the time to come with him to the house.His older brother was an attorney, and people trusted him over a cop at any time of the day or night.He didn’t go into the house until his brother arrived and was glad to have waited on him.
“It’s really big.”He said he hadn’t thought to ask about how many bedrooms were in it.“I’d saythere has to be at least five.Are you ready to go in?”He told him that he was almost afraid to.“Yeah, I can understand that.The yard is perfect.I hope that they didn’t spend everything on the yard and not the house.That would be a real shame.”
The double staircase greeted them as soon as they walked through the door.He was already in love with the place and decided not to say anything just yet.If he was this much in love with the front entrance, he was going to be hard-pressed to find anything wrong with the house.He was glad that he’d asked Axel to come with him.He’d be the voice of reason when it came to finding things wrong with the house.
“Look at the top of the stairs.There’s a stained glass mural there that is beautiful.I’d buy it just for that.”He told him he wasn’t helping.“I had no idea I was supposed to find fault.I know my part now, and I’ll stick to the rules.I’m the bad guy in this buying thing.”
They both laughed and toured the house.When they got to the kitchen, newly remodeled too, they found flyers on the countertop, no doubt ready for tomorrow’s open house.He took one of the flyers and read over the specs on the house.
“It has six bedrooms and ten bathrooms, two half baths.I wonder why so many.I mean, it’s great, but it seems like a lot of bathrooms.”Axel said that they more than likely had daughters, and that’s the way they could make it work.“Wow, are you saying that a daughter in the house needs their own bathroom?”
“Yes, I am.”They laughed again and looked over the flyer.“It says that the fireplaces work.And that there are two of them.Also, the furnace is new, as well as there is air conditioning on the second floor for the upper levels.I’m sorry about the rules, but this house is perfect so far.And the price isnt so bad either.I mean, look at it this way, you’d be able to save money on it by making an offer tonight instead of when a lot of people will be here tomorrow.”
“I don’t think it works that way.”They looked around the living room and dining area.The dining area was big enough to hold a fourteen-chair dining room table as well as three China cabinets full of things to go with the set of dishes in the corner cabinets.
