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ChapterOne
"Didyou know your tenant was a hoarder?" Hannah McKenna asked.
Chloe Morgan stared in shocked silence at the living room of her family's rental house. The room was filled with so many towering piles of stuff that she could barely see the furniture. "I had no idea. Eleanor never let me in the house. On the few times I stopped by, she met me on the porch with homemade cookies. She always said everything was fine."
"Are we having cookies?" her son Leo asked, tugging on her hand.
She shook her head at the hopeful look in his four-year-old eyes. "Not now."
"Can we have cookies later?"
"We'll see how good you are," she said vaguely, as he let go of her hand to look at a train that appeared to wind its way along a track from the living room to the dining room. That made little sense. Eleanor Johnson had been in her eighties when she'd passed away two weeks ago, and she hadn't had any children living at the house. Nor had she had any family, so why did she have a train? That was only one of a thousand questions running through her head.
"Maybe you should tell your parents that this is their problem."
"It's not their problem; it's mine," she said. "My parents want to sell the house and, in return for my help, they'll split the profits with me. That's a huge chunk of money that would make a difference in my life."
"This is going to be an enormous job, Chloe. The paint is faded. That ceiling looks like there have been some leaks." Hannah waved her hand toward the spotted ceiling in the dining room. "And who knows what other horrors are under all this mess?"
"It's probably not as bad as we think," she said, trying to stay optimistic. "It can be cleaned up. Let's check out the upstairs. Come on, Leo."
"Can't I stay here and play with the train?" he asked.
She hesitated. "All right. But don't touch anything else and don't leave this room. Understand?"
He nodded and went back to pretending his stuffed turtle was taking a ride on the train. She led the way upstairs.
"I just don't understand how anyone lives like this," Hannah said, as they stepped into the master bedroom.
"It's sad," she agreed. The sight of the unmade bed and the lingering scent of perfume in the air made her feel even more depressed as she thought about how Eleanor had spent some of her last weeks on earth surrounded by this mess. "I wish I'd known. Maybe I could have helped Eleanor while she was alive."
"I'm sure she didn't want anyone to know."
"Probably not. Eleanor never complained about anything. She always sent her rent check on the first day of the month. When something broke, I'd send someone over to fix it, but I never came into the house. She always wanted to handle things on her own, and I respected her privacy."
"It makes sense."
"But now this house, my parents' investment, is in really terrible shape. My grandmother would turn over in her grave if she could see this place." The house had originally belonged to her grandmother, but after her death nineteen years ago, they'd rented it to one of her grandmother's friends, a widow named Eleanor Johnson. She'd lived here ever since. "I need to make this right," she added.
"You have a business to run and a kid to raise," Hannah pointed out. "Do you have time to make this right?"
"I have to make the time. Thankfully, I might get some help. Joel has a friend who's a contractor. Apparently, he's at loose ends after a job got postponed, so he's coming to Whisper Lake." She glanced at her watch. "He's supposed to meet me here in half an hour."
"Well, that's good. But you might need someone who lives here. This job could take some time."
"Unfortunately, everyone who lives here is booked. Now that the snow is melting, everyone is diving into their construction jobs. Joel assured me that his friend is really good and is interested in picking up some work."
"Joel seems to come up a lot in conversation," Hannah observed. "What's going on with you two? I thought you said you were just friends."
"It's moved beyond that. We're dating, but we're taking it slow."
"Why?" Hannah asked with a laugh and a sparkle in her brown eyes. "Fast can be fun, Chloe."
"I have a child to think about. I have to be careful who I bring around."
"I get it. Maybe you should bring him around your friends more, so we can tell you what we think about him."
She smiled at that. "He doesn't need to be interrogated, which you will all do if I give you the chance."
