Chapter 1
Holiday music played in the kitchen of the Victorian while Courtney and Mr. Finch prepared some chocolate fudge.
Standing at the stove, Courtney held a wooden spoon and stirred chocolate, marshmallows, and condensed milk in a sauce pan. “I’m ready for the nuts and cherries.”
“All set.” Finch, an older man who had been “adopted” into the Roseland family of four sisters, limped over to the stove balancing the chopping board in his hands. He used a spatula to gently push the chopped nuts and dried cherries into the mixture.
Euclid, the huge orange Maine Coon cat, and Circe, the black feline with a white spot on her chest, perched on top of the refrigerator watching the activity.
Ellie stood at the kitchen counter using a cookie cutter to shape stars out of the buttery dough while Jenna sat at the table with a pen and a piece of paper making a list of gifts to buy for her sisters, Mr. Finch, and her new husband, Tom.
“I’m not sure what to get Tom.” Jenna tapped her chin with her index finger.
“Does he need any new tools?” Ellie asked as she placed a few stars on the cookie sheet. Tom had his own house construction and renovation company.
“Maybe.” Jenna fiddled with the pen. “Should the gift be something practical or something fun and unexpected?”
“I guess I’d vote for fun,” Courtney said. “Tom can always buy what he needs for his business so getting him something he wouldn’t get for himself would be a great gift.”
“I just don’t know what that could be,” Jenna said. “I’ll have to give it more thought.”
Twenty-eight-year-old Angie Roseland, the oldest sister, entered the kitchen through the back door carrying three gift bags. Setting them down, she gave a shudder and dusted some snowflakes from the shoulders of her coat. “It’s freezing outside and it’s flurrying again.”
Ellie shook her head. “We already have a couple of inches of snow on the ground and it is only December the first. Is this a sign of a long, snowy winter ahead?”
Jenna pushed her long, brown hair back from her face and eyed the bags. “Have you been holiday shopping already?”
“I thought I’d get a jump on it.” Angie hung her coat in the back closet and went to pour herself a cup of tea. “I waited until the last minute last year and I stressed myself out. I vowed to shop early this year.”
“I’m already done with my Christmas shopping,” Courtney announced.
“You are?” Sitting down at the table next to Mr. Finch, Angie looked at her youngest sister with an expression of disbelief. “And here I thought I was getting my shopping done early.”
“Let’s put the trees up tomorrow,” Courtney suggested. “I’m in the holiday spirit.”
Angie glanced over to see what Mr. Finch was doing. The older man had recently rekindled an old hobby … he’d started drawing and painting again and he was working on a charcoal picture of the Victorian mansion decked out for Christmas on a page of his sketchpad.
“It looks great, Mr. Finch.” Angie praised the man’s artistry.
“I didn’t realize how much I missed drawing.” The man carefully made an adjustment to the roof of the house.
“What made you take it up again?” Ellie asked, slipping the cookie sheet into the oven.
Finch raised his head from his sketchbook and looked across the room, thinking. “I used to paint and draw all the time when I was a young man. The joy went out of it after my brother, Thaddeus, tried to … well, you know what he did.”
Thaddeus Finch had been a mean, nasty, greedy man who, decades ago, attempted to kill the good Mr. Finch by pushing him down a steep flight of stairs.
“About a week ago, I found myself doodling on an order form at the candy store and decided to buy a pad and some pencils and charcoal. I worked on a few sketches that night and became so immersed in the art that the hours flew by.” A wide smile spread over the man’s face. “It made me happy again.”
“Maybe you can make each of us a drawing and give them to us as Christmas presents.” Courtney used a metal spatula to evenly spread the fudge in the pan.
“I had that very idea,” Finch said with a wink. “I’ve also purchased an easel and some oil paints and I’ve been working on a painting when I get home from the candy store.”
“What’s the subject of the painting?” Jenna asked.
Finch made eye contact with the young woman. “It’s a secret.”
Letting out a chuckle, Jenna joked, “Maybe we’ll need to sneak over to your house some evening and peek in the windows to see this mysterious artwork.”
Angie’s face took on a serious look. “That reminds me. I stopped by Francine’s stained glass shop earlier today. She’s been working really hard trying to get all of her orders out in time. She told me she was working late the other night in the store’s back room, it was almost midnight. There was a noise outside one of the windows … she said that something about the sound made her freeze in place.”
Everyone turned to Angie.
“Why did it make her freeze?” Ellie asked.
“Was she afraid someone was about to break in?” Courtney took a seat at the table next to Jenna.
“That crossed her mind,” Angie told them. “Francine had the feeling someone was staring at her through the window. It was only a feeling, but she told me the sensation was strong. She was afraid to turn around and look.”
“What did she do? What happened?” Jenna asked.
Angie said, “Francine stood there for a few minutes listening for any more sounds and then she got angry that someone might be looking for trouble. She stormed to the side table to grab her phone, picked up a sharp tool, and flicked the lights off in the room so whoever might be outside the window wouldn’t be able to see her.”
Courtney leaned forward. “Did she hear anything else? Did she see anyone?”
“She thought she saw someone at the window. When she turned off the lights in the work room, Francine thought she saw a dark figure dash away … for a second, he was caught in the glow of the security lights at the side of the building.”
“So, it was a man?” Finch asked.
“She thinks so, yes.”
“Did she call the police?” Jenna questioned.
“Not right away. She forced herself to finish the piece she was working on and then packed up to go home. Before locking the door and going out to her car, she worried the man might be waiting for her outside so she called the police and asked for an escort to her car.”
“That was a good idea.” Ellie nodded. “Did an officer come to walk her to the car?”
“Yes, and when Francine reported what had happened, the officer told her that there have been other incidents in town of someone lurking outside windows at night staring in.”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake.” Courtney hit the table with the palm of her hand. “What’s this about? Some nut is going around town peeking in people’s windows? Who would do that?”
“Someone who wants to frighten people,” Jenna said with disgust.
“Hopefully,” Finch said, “frightening people is this person’s only goal.”
“You mean it might escalate from just watching people to something more sinister?” Angie asked.
“Sometimes, the watching is only the beginning,” Finch said. “At least the police are aware of what’s going on. They’ll keep an eye out for this person.”
“I hope they catch him and lock him up.” Courtney folded her arms on the table. “How many incidents of being watched have been reported?”
Angie gave a shrug. “Francine didn’t know.”
Ellie stood and went to remove a batch of cookies from the oven and when they had cooled, she brought a plate of them to the table. “Let’s talk about something else and enjoy our evening together. I’m going to make some hot chocolate, then let’s take our drinks and the cookies to the family room and relax for a while.”
Jenna had been quiet for the last part of the conversation … things felt off to her, like trouble was coming, and it left her so uneasy and anxious that she wanted to get up and head home, go to bed, and wake up to discover this nonsense about a Peeping Tom was only a bad dream.
“Can you show me some of your sketches?” Angie asked Mr. Finch in order to change the subject to something more pleasant.
“I’d be happy to, Miss Angie.” Finch flipped the pages back to the start of the sketchbook and turned it so Angie could see better.
“Oh, look,” Angie smiled. “It’s Euclid and Circe.”
Courtney swung her chair to the other side of the table. “Wow, it’s a perfect likeness. I’m impressed.”
“Here’s one I did of Main Street.” Finch turned to the next page.
“It’s terrific, Mr. Finch,” Angie said. “You have an amazing talent.”
“I did some quick sketches of all of you.” Finch showed the first one he’d done of Ellie. It was a drawing of the tall blonde standing on the front porch in profile.
Angie and Courtney praised Finch’s work.
“Come see, Jenna,” Courtney said to her sister.
She didn’t know why, but Jenna did not want to look at the drawings. Unable to rationalize her feelings of wariness, she reluctantly got up and went to the other side of the table to stand behind Angie to look at the sketches. The one of Ellie was beautiful. Mr. Finch had done a masterful job of capturing the young woman.
“This one is of Angie.” Finch flipped to the next page to show Angie in her bake shop, wearing a blue apron, piping frosting over the top of a cupcake.
While her sisters oohed over the picture, Jenna’s vision began to swim and the room started to spin. The blood seemed to be draining out of her head. After closing her eyes for a moment, when she opened them again, a shot of adrenaline raced through her body. Jenna trained her gaze on the drawing, and with her heart racing, she rubbed at her eyes and blinked.
The picture of her fraternal twin sister in the sketchbook no longer depicted Angie in the bake shop.
Now a circle of bright, red light sparkled in the center of the page, and in the middle of the ring of light was a drawing … a drawing of Angie … in a coffin.
Chapter 2
When Jenna gasped, her sisters and Finch swung around to see what had caused her alarm.
Courtney stared at her sister’s pale face. “What’s wrong with you?”
Sinking onto the chair, Jenna shook her head and placed a hand on the back of her neck. “I don’t know. Nothing, I guess. Well, something was on the page.” She gestured at Finch’s sketchbook.
“Like what?” Angie watched Jenna’s face and then took another glance at the drawing. “It’s just a drawing of me in the bake shop.”
“I….” Jenna made eye contact with her twin sister.
“Do you feel okay?” Angie asked with concern in her voice.
Finch looked from young woman to young woman trying to understand what had upset Jenna.
Ellie sat down across from Jenna and used a calm tone when she asked softly, “Did you see a ghost?” Like the other Roseland sisters and Mr. Finch, Jenna had unique paranormal powers … she could sense and sometimes, see ghosts.
“No.” Jenna didn’t know how to describe what she’d seen.
“Miss Jenna,” Finch said. “Is there something upsetting about my drawing?”
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