Free Barbara Levenson - Mary Magruder Katz 03 - Outrageous October by Barbara Levenson Page B

has been using this house.” I started packing my few groceries in a bag in the kitchen.
    “It does seem strange. I’ll check out the rest of the house while you pack up.” Dash went up the back stairs while I hurried into the bedroom and began throwing clothes into my suitcase.
    I carried the groceries and Sam’s food bag and dish out to my car. That was when I glanced at Dash’s Subaru. It was black just like the one I found in the barn. I finished loading my car and went back inside. Dash was standing in the living room examining the contents of the bookshelves.
    “Dash, I just remembered something else. There’s a car parked in the barn. It’s a black Subaru just like yours. Did Carolyn have a Subaru?”
    Dash paused for a minute and looked away. “No, not Carolyn. Lots of us drive them up here. They’re good in the snow with four wheel drive, but Carolyn had a white Lincoln Town Car. It was missing after the murder, but it was found a few weeks later abandoned on a dirt road over in New Hampshire.”
    “Want to check out the barn?”
    “I guess so. I couldn’t find anything upstairs that looked like signs of a resident. Everything is neat and clean, just like you said.”
    We tramped out to the barn and I slid back the big door. In front of us was nothing but empty space undisturbed except for a bird circling in the rafters.
    “Where is it?” Dash asked. “Where’s the car?”
    “It was here this morning,” I said as I walked the length of the place. “I know I saw it.”
    Dash gave me a funny look. Maybe he thought I was some kind of crazy lady who had escaped from a mental institution. “Well there’s no car in here now.”
    “I can see that, but I know what I saw.” I marched out of the barn and headed to my SUV. “You don’t have to go with me to Lucy’s. Just point me in the right direction.”
    “I’m happy to go over there with you,” Dash said. Her house is just on the other side of these woods, but to drive there you have to go back to River Road, turn right and then turn right again into the next gravel drive. Please just follow me and I’ll help you get your things inside. It’s getting cold and it looks like rain.”
    “Thanks. I don’t want to get into the wrong house again.”
    Sam jumped in the car as soon as I opened the door. I followed close behind Dash as we rounded a big turn and then turned immediately into the gravel road. It wound up a hill just like the drive into Carolyn’s house. The wooded area was on my right. Then we passed a sprawling meadow and finally pulled up into a circular drive in front of a magnificent two story white house with green shutters. A large flagstone terrace sat in front of the house.
    Dash got out and tried the front door which he held open as Sam and I got out of my car. We entered a foyer with a black and white tile floor and a circular stairway. Light streamed in from the stained glass window at the top of the stairs.
    “This looks nothing like the Brousseaus’. What a gorgeous house,” I said. I put a firm hand on Sam’s collar before he could go exploring on his own.
    “This is one of the nicest houses in High Pines. I remember Lucy coming here in the summer to visit her grandparents. She’s a few years younger than I am but all the high school kids hung out together. She was very pretty.”
    “She still is, even after three kids.” I glanced to my right and saw a Great Room with a stone fireplace and a huge flat screen TV.
    “Let me help you bring your things in,” Dash said. He went back out to my car without waiting for an answer. In a couple of minutes he was back, carrying the suitcase, grocery bag and Sam’s supplies. He carried all of it as easily as if he was bringing in the morning newspapers.
    “I think I’ve got it all,” he said.
    “I grabbed the groceries out of his hand and looked for the kitchen.
    “It’s down at the end of the hall,” he said. “Wow, Lucy must have had all this remodeled.”
    I