Read Wilmington, NC 04 - Murder At Wrightsville Beach for Free Online Page B

never admit it to strangers but Mother doesn't really like this place."
    "She doesn't?" So Babe didn't like the house and J.C. wanted to level it. I couldn't imagine anyone not liking the graceful residence, but then old houses are my passion. I let the matter drop; any further questions would have been impolite. At the same time I caught our reflections in a pitted mirror. Kelly was so golden that an aura seemed to emanate from her very being.
    "Help me open the shades," she said, breaking the spell.
    On the left, double pocket doors opened into the living room and we moved to the windows there, pulling on the cords of wooden venetian blinds. Blinds like those had made a come back and were very popular today, but these were original, eighty years old. Some of the slats wouldn't turn, the ropes were frayed, but we managed to let in a fair amount of sunlight. And light flowed in from the adjoining sunroom that I'd noted from my van.
    "We'll send these blinds out for repairs," I said.
    "Oh, why bother? Can't we just replace them?" Kelly asked. She looked around at the overcrowded room with its threadbare rugs and dingy upholstery. "I'd like to get rid of all of this stuff and replace it with reproductions."
    I appraised the furniture critically. "You don't want to do that, Kelly. This furniture is authentic, the real thing. These pieces may look bad now but after they've been refinished and reupholstered, you'll be pleased. You've got real treasures here."
    "Treasures? What kind of treasures?" Kelly looked doubtful. Was I forever to be regarded as Melanie's little sister? My word and authority disputed because I was once an eight year old tagging along behind sixteen year olds?
    "You've got art deco pieces here," I said firmly.
    "Art deco? But that's the style of the furniture Melanie has in her house on Sandpiper Cove. And I love the way she decorated her house." Kelly added, "Now that you've pointed it out, I do see some resemblance."
    "Melanie and I decorated her house right after she bought it, one summer when I was home from Parsons. But her pieces are reproductions."
    "And I love them," Kelly declared. "If you can do something sophisticated like that here, I'd be thrilled." She reached out to give my hand a squeeze. "Melanie was right. You are good."
    I smiled, pleased. Kelly was like a different person when they were no men around. "Did Melanie spend much time here when you two were attending high school together?"
    "Oh, we were in and out. You know how it is when you're a teen."
    "I was just thinking that maybe this is where Melanie developed a taste for art deco and just didn't realize it. You've got a hodge-podge here. Some nicely designed pieces mixed in with what I'd call farm-style furnishings."
    Kelly explained, "I think Grandpa Joe moved a lot of stuff in here from the farm after they sold it."
    I moved through a large open archway into the dining room and pulled out a chair. I'd been carrying a yellow legal pad and I placed it on the table and withdrew a pen from my shirt pocket. "Let me make some notes, Kelly. Tell me about the house, what you know about its history. The information will help me with the decisions we have to make. We might even apply for a plaque from the Historic Wilmington Foundation."
    "Oh, I'd love to have one of those. Sure. I know more about the family history than mother does. Grandpa Joe was always talking about the old days, and I couldn't help but pick up the details. He had a tendency to repeat himself as he got older."
    "He was actually your great-grandfather, wasn't he?"
    "Yes, my mother's mother's father. That would be my grandmother Peggy whom I never knew. Now she was the queen of high drama if ever there was one, but I'll save that tale of woe for another time."
    "Do you know when he bought this house?" I asked, pen poised.
    "He had it built, Ashley. In nineteen twenty-five. For some ridiculous sum like ten thousand dollars. Can you imagine? It's worth hundreds of thousands