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“Good I’ll let you go now Hope I didn’t keep you fro important”

“Another canceled job is all Looks like Jess’s decking will be getting my full attention”

“Oh! That rerocery store this afternoon Gloria told me that Bill at the service station said that the nener’s finally showed up at the Foster place Marian’s heir, and with Nova Scotia license plates”

Tohter in his chair The Foster et inside and get another good look at the old monstrosity It ell over a hundred and fifty years old, and he’d bet any eous They just didn’t build them like that anymore But it had been closed up since Marian had taken ill Now that it was in new hands …

He recognized an opportunity when it hit him in the face He enjoyed his work as a contractor, but the idea of restoring an old place like that … it wasn’t work It was a privilege

“Thanks for lettingto hide the excitement in his voice “I’ll have to pop in one of these days” One of these days, hell He’d be up there within the hour

“See you at the barbecue, Toie answered

“Bye”

He hung up the phone and stared at it for aRecipe for disaster But the house up on Blackberry Hill?

He pushed his chair back and grabbed his keys This was his drea he had to do was et inside Word would spread fast and he didn’t want another contractor swooping in and stealing the chance away from him There was no one else in the area as qualified for the job as he was

It was just the thing he needed to keep his mind occupied Idle hands meant an idle mind

And with Josh coood For all their sakes

CHAPTER 2

Whatever Abby had expected, it was not the reeted her at the end of the lane White and i With the unpruned shrubs around the yard and a tangle of ivy grown over several of the s, Abby couldn’t shake the idea that the house looked a bit, well, eerie

Sla her car door behind her, Abby started up the uneven pathway to the front porch As she got closer she could see the chipped paint on the tri that ran between the two scarred pillars of the veranda