Home For Keeps. Lynn Patrick

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       PROLOGUE

      JUST AS NELLIE MARTIN opened the kitchen door to empty her garbage, her glasses slipped down to the tip of her nose. Stopping to punch them in place, she jerked when a ball of fur streaked through her legs. Her fifteen-year-old cat had just gotten out! There she went, all twenty pounds of her tottering straight into the dark.

      “Olive!” Trying not to panic, Nellie dropped the garbage bag and followed.

      She’d moved from a two-story home to a first-floor apartment in Sparrow Lake’s new green community only a week ago, and her cat had never been outside here. Oh, dear, what if she got lost?

      Her pulse pounding, Nellie yelled, “Olive, you naughty girl, you come back here!”

      How could such a rotund cat move like that? With her arthritic knees complaining, Nellie couldn’t move fast enough to catch up to the old girl. And where did Olive think she was going anyway? The area outside the apartment building was woodsy. Wisps of fog rose from the ground, making it a little scary at night. Imagining a coyote darting from the dark and snatching her beloved pet for dinner, she forced her legs to go faster. Even so, the cat slinked around a tree and then simply disappeared.

      “Olive, sweetheart, please!”

      Where had she gone? Nellie’s heart was in her throat as she slowed to scan the area. Nothing! Then through the fog, she saw movement.

      “There you are,” she muttered, heading in that direction.

      But the shape ahead turned into something other than a cat. A pale, floaty figure shot from one tree to another.

      Oh, dear, it looked like...like a...a...!

      Starting, Nellie couldn’t take her eyes from the vision, not until her foot hooked on something hard and heavy. Then she went flying, arms waving, but unable to regain her balance.

      “Ohhhhhh!”

      Landing on both hands and knees, Nellie saw stars from the pain. She couldn’t see anything else because her glasses had flown off her face and everything was a big blur. She gasped for breath. Tried to move. Sobbed from the pain as she felt around for her glasses.

      Sobbed some more for the loss of her cat.

      “Oh, Olive, how am I ever going to find you now?”

      “Meow...”

      Nellie’s eyes widened. “Olive?” She found her glasses and put them on just as her cat strolled up to her and gave her a full-body rub.

      Grabbing Olive, Nellie kissed her head and clung to her furry companion with all her strength. Now all she had to do was figure out how to get to her feet without letting go. If she put Olive down, the naughty girl might take off again.

      Fog swirled around them both, reminding Nellie of the distraction, the cause for her fall. She knelt there, cradling a now-purring Olive, her gaze scanning the area. She saw nothing amiss...yet...

      Could the rumors be true?

      Did a ghost really haunt the new development?