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.“I certainly hope so,” I told her, wondering how the woman found time to sell real estate while heading up every committee in school and, one imagined, giving blood three times a week.“It will be so lovely when it’s done,” Kerin went on.“Who’s your contractor?”A chance to show off! “I’m doing the work myself,” I said.Her mouth narrowed.“Oh.” It would have been nice to punch her, but I had an interview to conduct and Paul was watching.Paul’s theory had been that if Terry came to the house, he could orchestrate her interview.That is, he could tell me what questions to ask, and hear the answers.I would act, for all intents and purposes, as a PA system.Which was fine by me.I had asked Terry to come by on the pretense that she might be interested in helping me find full-time tenants for some of the rooms once the renovation was complete.Of course, I had no intention of taking in people on a full-time basis, nor was I even licensed for that, but inviting a real estate agent over to ask about two murders would probably be something of an off-putting experience, we’d decided.(Okay, Paul had decided.)“This is all going to be the original hardwood flooring, sanded and re-stained,” I told Terry, doing my best to ignore Kerin.I indicated the den and living room floors, which were now semi-covered in a wall-to-wall carpet that had probably been sold to the original owners by Ali Baba himself.Terry nodded.You could practically see the thought balloon over her head: “Why is this woman showing me around the house I sold to her?”“It’s going to be gorgeous,” she responded.Like she’d say if she thought it would be hideous.“I can’t wait to see it.”Kerin simply stared, mostly at the enormous hole in the hallway wall.Leave it to her to find my soft underbelly and gape at it.“Ask her about the owners before Maxie, the Prescotts,” Paul hissed from the dining room entrance.Maxie, sort of floating over the room, did her best to look bored.“The Prestons,” Maxie said.“Get the name right, gumshoe.”“All right, the Prestons,” Paul rasped back.“And keep your voice down!”“Why?”“The people who owned this place before, the Prestons,” I said to Terry, as if there were no conversation going on in the room but ours.“I was wondering about them—I remember when I was growing up they had a lot of children.”Terry nodded.“Yeah, they had nine kids,” she said.“Why do you ask ?”“Their names were on some old documents and letters I found in the kitchen,” I lied.“I thought maybe I should give them back.”Terry’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.“You found old papers in the kitchen?” she asked.“Yeah, a few.” I had, in fact, found nothing in the kitchen, but what could I say—one of the ghosts in the house told me to ask?“What are you going to do about this wall?” Kerin asked, pointing to the hole.She seemed fascinated by it.I fought the urge to push her in.I’m a professional.I did revel in the look I saw Terry give her and the way Kerin cringed just a little bit when she saw it.“Ask Terry why the Prestons sold,” Paul suggested.No, demanded.“What were they?” Terry asked before I could get Paul’s question out of my mouth.“What were what?”“The papers you found in the kitchen.” Terry’s eyebrows were doing the cha-cha on her forehead.I’d clearly struck a nerve.“Just letters and some warranties for work on the porch and the roof,” I said.“Nothing really interesting.But I’m curious, why did they sell the house?”“The Prestons? I don’t remember.”“When was that, Terry?” Kerin asked.“Before you started with us,” she answered.“I’m not really sure about the date.”A real estate agent who didn’t remember a transaction she had brokered? “I guess they didn’t need all the space when the kids grew up, huh?” I said.Paul scowled at me.“Don’t ever give them the answer to a question!” he barked.“Now all she has to say is.”“Yeah, that was it,” Terry said.I lowered my head in shame.“Something wrong?”“Oh, it’s nothing,” I said.“I just have this pain in the neck.” I glared at Paul.“All this work.”Kerin strode over from the gaping hole in my pride to join us again.“Do you need the name of an acupuncturist?” she asked, rummaging in her purse.“I think I have a business card.”“No.Thanks,” I managed.“Find out where the Prestons are now,” Paul said.“Where did they move to?” I asked.“The Prestons?” How many times would she ask that? No, the Leibowitzes.Who are we talking about?“Yeah,” I echoed.“The Prestons.”“Why?”“Because you want to give them the stuff you found,” Maxie said.“Geez, this woman is slow!” I hadn’t even realized she’d been listening.And I wasn’t sure which one of us she was talking about.I parroted her suggestion to Terry.“I’ll have to look it up,” she said.“I could take them with me if you want, forward them along, if that’ll help.”“Um.” There really were no documents.Paul finally rescued me.“You’d like to ask them questions about the house,” he said.I told Terry that, and while looking at Maxie, added, “Because I obviously can’t ask Maxie Malone for help.”Maxie rolled over on her side, as if sleeping.I’d probably never get used to seeing people float in the air.“I’ll have to look it up and call you,” Terry answered after an awkward pause.“But most questions you have about the house I can probably answer myself.”“Of course you can,” I told her.“But they have a more.emotional connection to the place.I want to hear the stories.”Maxie stuck her finger down her throat.She could be subtle that way.“I think they’re in Eatontown,” Kerin volunteered, and Terry shot her a poisonous look.At least I knew I wasn’t the only one Kerin could infuriate.“Okay, then,” Terry said, a touch of irritation in her voice.“I’ll give you a call with their contact information, and you call me if you have any questions I can answer.” She snapped her purse shut so hard it echoed through the empty room.“I’ll do that,” I said, and before I could blink, Terry had turned on her heel and headed for the front door.Paul didn’t wait until we heard it close behind her.“That,” he said, “is a woman who is hiding something.”Maxie yawned.“Which one?” she asked
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