Free Finished Off (A Bellehaven House Mystery Book 2) by Kate Kingsbury Page B

that's all. Just be careful in there, and give me a shout if you need me."
    She glanced up at him. He wore no hat, and his fair hair hung in wet strands over his forehead. His limp mustache drooped over his chin and a rivulet of water ran down his nose and clung there for a second or two before falling to his chest. "You really need to cover your head when it rains." She wagged a finger at him. "You'll catch your death of cold running around like that."
    "Nah, I'm used to it, aren't I." He shook his head, and drops of water flew off in all directions.
    "Well, I insist that you wait inside the carriage until I return."
    "Very well, m'm. Much obliged, I'm sure." He touched his forehead with his fingers.
    She nodded, then left him to turn the carriage around as she hurried down the lane.
    The house lay back from the road, with a driveway leading up to the main steps. Meredith paused when she caught sight of the ruined home. Part of the roof had burned away, and she could see the charred beams of what once must have been the main bedroom.
    She could almost hear the screams from that poor childas she watched her family burn to their death. How awful that they had no time to escape. That poor little baby who died with them. At least he was with them now in the hereafter, whereas poor little Emma still wandered alone, desperate to find her family again.
    Once more Meredith was struck with the awesome task she'd been set. Somehow she had to find the answers in this house, because if not, she had no idea how to go about reuniting the child with her parents.
    The front door stood slightly ajar, and swung open at her touch. The acrid smell of smoke poured out of the house to envelop her. It occurred to her that she could be treading on dangerous ground. There was no telling if the structure was unstable.
    Stepping inside the hallway, Meredith felt an awful sense of abandonment. Water had heavily stained the carpet on the stairs, and the scorched banisters at the top leaned at a perilous angle overhanging the entrance below.
    The stench of burning stung her nose and throat, and she left the front door wide open to allow clean air to enter. The walls had been stripped of paintings, and a broken chandelier swung in the light breeze drifting in from the doorway.
    The first door on her right proved to be the living room. This room showed no devastation, though it had also been emptied out. The smoke had not reached here, and the wallpaper still clothed the room with its golden glow of swirling leaves and elegant tendrils.
    In fact, apart from the fact that the room was devoid of furniture and drapes, standing in the center of the gold and green carpet, it was hard to imagine that anything untoward had happened to the lovely home.
    Meredith stood for a long moment studying the room, without really knowing what she was looking for, or even why she had come. What could she possibly expect to find in this sad, deserted house that had once been a comfortable and sumptuous home?
    "I need you to come here with me, Emma," she saidout loud. "I need you to tell me what to look for, what it is you want from here." She waited, willing the little ghost to appear, while the house creaked and groaned around her.
    When it became apparent that Emma was not about to make an appearance, Meredith's disappointment was acute. She had mistaken her dream for a message from Emma. It had been just a dream after all. She should not have come.
    She took one last look around the room, miserable in her failure to find anything that could help the little girl.
    Retracing her steps to the hall, she glanced up the stairs. Emma's bedroom would be up there. She hesitated, remembering the child's pleading face. What if the answer lay up there, in that bedroom? What if that was what Emma was trying to tell her?
    Slowly Meredith walked to the foot of the stairs. Up there was where the worst of the fire had taken hold. It could be dangerous, with all the damage the house had