Broke: Read Free Page B

this stuff. Even if it is kind of old. "
    He nodded. " Yes ss. Y ou might not want this old stuff. You might want all new things, don ' t you think? "
    Immy laughed. " I can ' t afford to furnish a whole house. I can barely afford the rent. "
    " Look at that chandelier, will you? " He was rapt.
    " It ' s, um, big, " Immy said.
    " What ' s that? " Vance glanced toward the stairs.
    Immy heard it too--a moaning sound. " Maybe the wind is getting in somewhere. " Surely there weren ' t more vagrants. She and Jersey hadn ' t inspected the other two bedrooms of the five on the second floor .
    " We ' d better check that out, in case there ' s a broken window. " He led the way up the stairs.
    Immy hoped they wouldn ' t discover an other man. But this time they checked all the bedrooms , the two hallway bathrooms, and the window at the end of the hallway. All the windows were intact.
    Another moan came from the bedroom where Dewey had been. Immy ran to the room, but it was still empty. A wisp of smoke, or fog, shimmered at the door way into the adjoining bathroom. An arm -like filament appeared to snake out of the form and waft t hrough the door.
    Immy blinked and shook her head and the mist disappeared. But she went to the door of the bathroom , as the apparition had seemed to suggest . This was the biggest bedroom and probably the master. Accordingly, it had its own bathroom. The other two bathroom s , off the hallway , serviced the rest of the bedrooms, five in all.
    She pulled the door open to the bathroom she hadn't yet looked at . There was a small man reclining in the tub . But this one didn ' t s it up when she saw him.
    Vance came up behind her and gasped.
    T he man ' s eyes were open . The man's tongue was out . The man's head was lolling at an impossible angle, a nd he looked very dead.

 
    Chapter Four
     
     
    The singlewide felt cramped that night, after Immy had spen t time in the spacious old man s ion , even if it did have an unwanted dead body in the bathtub .
    " You have a perfectly good abode right here, you know. Are you sure your fiduciary situation permits you to lease such a place? " Hortense asked. Immy's mother had a large vocabulary as a result of having been a librarian and she used it whenever she could. Hortense tucked her topmost chin into her others to create a stern look toward her only child.
    " It ' s the cheapest one I looked at, Mother, " said Immy. She handed her mother the listings page Jersey had given her for the house .
    " This photograph is not flattering, " Hortense said .
    " I wanna see! " Drew jumped onto the green plaid couch beside her Geemaw. She pressed her chestnut curls into the soft, pliable flesh of Hortense ' s upper arm. " It ' s a haunted house. "
    Marshmallow, Drew's pure white pot-bellied pig, curled up beside the couch like a puppy dog. He liked to be near Drew, but then he liked most people.
    " It ' s, well, it 's very nice on the inside , " said Immy . " It has a Great Hall. " She emphasized the grand words so her mother and daughter could both appreciate th at feature of th e place. " The owner, Mr. Tompkins, will let me do anything I want to it. I can have Ralph put up a fence for Marshmallow. "
    " Are you certain you w ould n ' t become ill in such a domicile ? Is it drafty? "
    " No . I didn ' t feel any openings . And I can ' t even see how those men got in. "
    Her mother gave her the Librarian Look. " What men? "
    " Oh, I haven't told you? " Immy perched on the edge of the recliner and twisted a strand of hair between her fingers .
    " You just arrived home. You haven ' t told me anything, except that you signed a rental agreement for this, this ... . "
    " H aunted house, " supplied Drew.
    " Well, it does need painting , " Immy admitted . " And some porch railing s are missing . "
    " And others precipitously l eaning . Does the roof leak? "
    Immy assured her mother that it didn ' t, although she had no idea. If it did, Ralph could fix it.
    A distinctive knock sounded on