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. Oh my God, is that it?” Jade pointed a black-tipped nail at the smaller structure located across a wide stone courtyard from its immense counterpart. The guesthouse was in much the same shape as the main house and outbuildings. Shingles were missing, the gutters were rusted, and most of the downspouts were disconnected or missing altogether. Many of the windows were boarded over as well, and the few that remained were cracked and yellowed.
    â€œCharming.” Jade let out a disgusted breath. “I can’t wait.”
    â€œI thought you’d feel that way,” Sarah said with a faint smile.
    â€œFunny,” Jade mocked.
    â€œCome on. Buck up. It’s just for a little while. Eventually we’ll move into the main house for good, if we don’t sell it.”
    Gracie said, “You should sell it now!”
    â€œIt’s not just mine, remember? My brothers and sister own part of it. What we do with it will be a group decision.”
    â€œDoesn’t anyone have a lighter?” Jade suggested, almost kidding. “You could burn it down and collect the insurance money.”
    â€œHow do you know about . . . ?” But she didn’t finish the question as she cut the engine. Jade, along with her newfound love of the macabre, was also into every kind of police or detective show that aired on television. Recently she’d discovered true crime as well, the kind of shows in which B-grade actors reenacted grisly murders and the like. Jade’s interests, which seemed to coincide with those of her current boyfriend, disturbed Sarah, but she tried to keep from haranguing her daughter about them. In this case, less was more.
    â€œYou should sell out your part of it. Leave it to Aunt Dee Linn and Uncle Joe and Jake to renovate,” Jade said. “Get out while you can. God, Mom, this is just so nuts that we’re here. Not only is this house like something out of a bad horror movie, but it’s in the middle of nowhere.”
    She wasn’t that far off. The house and grounds were at least five miles from the nearest town of Stewart’s Crossing, the surrounding neighbors’ farms hidden by stands of fir and cedar. Sarah cut the engine and glanced toward Willow Creek, the natural divide between this property and the next, which had belonged to the Walsh family for more than a hundred years. For a split second she thought about Clint, the last of the Walsh line, who according to Dee Linn and Aunt Marge, was still living in the homestead. She reminded herself sternly that he was not the reason she’d pushed so hard to move back to Stewart’s Crossing.
    â€œWhy don’t you just take me back to get my car,” Jade said as Sarah swung the Explorer around to park near the garage.
    â€œBecause it won’t be ready for a couple of days, you heard Hal.” They’d left Jade’s Honda with a mechanic in town; it was scheduled to get a new set of tires and much-needed brakes, and Hal was going to figure out why the Civic was leaking some kind of fluid.
    â€œOh, right, Hal the master mechanic.” Jade was disparaging.
    â€œBest in town,” Sarah said, tossing her keys into her bag. “My dad used him.”
    â€œ Only mechanic in town. And Grandpa’s been gone a long time, so it must’ve been eons ago!”
    Sarah actually smiled. “Okay, you got me there. But the place was updated from the last time I was there. Lots of electronic equipment and a couple of new mechanics on staff.”
    To her amazement, Jade’s lips twitched as well, reminding Sarah of the younger, more innocent girl she’d been such a short while ago. “And a lot of customers.”
    â€œMust be bad car karma right now,” Sarah agreed. There had been an older woman with her little dog and two men, all having problems with their vehicles; the little group had filled the small reception area of the garage.
    â€œIs there ever such a thing