As Sophie pulled up she could see the two story Victorian's front yard gone to weeds, the gate of the wrought iron fence hanging askew by one hinge and much of the sky blue paint with purple trim peeling. At least none of the windows were broken.
Sophie parked behind the red Prius with a woman clutching a leather binder who Sophie assumed was the realtor standing on the curb next to it.
"Mis Jacobson?" Sophie asked as soon as she stepped out of her truck.
"You must be Sophie!" the woman said cheerfully and walked quickly over to shake Sophie's hand, "You can just call me Beth, Mis Jacobson sounds to much like my mother in law."
Beth gave a theatrical shudder as she beamed at Sophie.
"And therein lies a story," Sophie said with a laugh, "I hope I haven't kept you waiting to long."
"No, no, not at all," Beth replied but with a hesitant glance towards the house, "I don't mind waiting a few minutes, we rarely get any inquiries about this property so I was very happy to swing by to show it to you."
Sophie nodded politely while taking in Beth's slacks, cream blouse, blazer and high heels before glancing once more at the house and the treacherous uneven paving stones of the walk as well as the front steps of the porch with one step missing completely.
"Why is that?" Sophie asked even though she had already read the newspaper articles about the house, "it's such a beautiful property and from the listing all the wiring and plumbing has already been brought up to code!"
"Oh," Beth began and glanced nervously back towards the house, "Well, we do have to provide full disclosure when we show a property.
"You see, two years ago the owner of the home committed suicide inside after his wife was tragically killed in a car accident."
Sophie waited for a few moments and then glanced from the house back to Beth, "And all the stories about the haunting?"
"Those... stories," Beth said while glaring at Sophie, "I hope you are actually interested in buying the property and not just trying to get another ghost story to go to the press with!"
"I am definitely interested in purchasing the house," Sophie reassured her, "But is it true that no one has stayed more than a week in the home since the suicide?"
Beth was still glaring but nodded almost against her will.
"So, what did happen?" Sophie asked as she pushed her way through the rusty, squealing gate and began to walk up to the front porch.
After a moment Sophie realized that Beth hadn't followed her through the gate and turned around in confusion. After another few seconds Beth seemed to take a deep breath and then hurry to catch up to Sophie.
"You know about the suicide?" Beth asked as the two women began to walk up to the porch again.
Sophie nodded, "Someone hung themselves in the turret?"
"That's... only part of the story," Beth continued as she carefully made her way up the uneven steps, "A week before Jonathan Lane took his own life his wife, Kellie was killed by a drunk drive on the interstate."
"Oh," Sophie replied, "I hadn't heard that part."
"Jonathan and Kellie had just gotten married and moved in a few months before," Beth continued, "And from the autopsy Jonathan found out that Kellie had even been pregnant."
"That's terrible!" Sophie said sincerely.
"It was just too much for Jonathan," Beth said, "A delivery person spotted him through the windows and called the police the day after the funeral."
Beth unlocked the dark oak front door that had an oval frosted glass pane taking up the top two thirds and pushed it in with another nerve grating squeal of rusty hinges.
"I have to admit, you look quite a bit like Kellie," Beth said as she led the way inside.
Sophie felt a chill race down her spine as she glanced sharply at Beth, but the woman was already stepping inside. For the next two hours the women covered every corner of the house from the basement up to the attic. Sophie was happy to see that other than a distinct smell of mildew the two years of neglect hadn't caused nearly the amount of damage as what she had been afraid off. When the two women finally made it back to their cars Sophie couldn't stop beaming.
"I love it!" Sophie said, "I'll get the mortgage company started on the paperwork tomorrow!"
A little over a week later Sophie was walking back up the front sidewalk and glancing around critically. Her uncle owned a landscaping business and she was sure that he could have the yard and sidewalk fixed up in a week and could probably recommend a company to take care of the minor repairs and the painting as well. Sophie unlocked the front door and pushed it open, a thrill of excitement racing through her as she stepped inside of her house.
Her home. She still couldn't believe how good it felt to own her very own home.
And such a beautiful home too. The front door opened smoothly with the hinges having been oiled as workers had come and gone over the past week. The electricity was still off, but the water was running now even if there wasn't any hot water. The furnace was out as well, but Sophie wasn't to worried about that since the temperature had been in the high 90's all week. The house was stuffy, but cool even with the heatwave and Sophie made a quick tour to check how the cleaning company had managed. Eventually Sophie found herself in the master bedroom, the bay windows streaming in light with a beautiful view of the West Hills and silvered ribbon of the Willamette river in the distance. The room was definitely stuffier than the rest of the house with all the natural lighting so Sophie threw open a window to let in some air.
Sophie jumped and turned around as a door downstairs suddenly slammed shut.
"Hello?" Sophie called out.
