Read Online Ten Beach Road by Wendy Wax - Free Book Online Page A

says . . .”
    Nicole sighed as the Realtor nattered on, but this time she didn’t interrupt.
    “And look at this fountain,” he continued as they pushed their way through a stand of big leafed plants and stepped around a group of pointy-edged cactus-like things. It was a weathered concrete basin shaped like an upside down urn. A frieze of dolphins had been carved into its sides.
    “It’s beautiful,” Madeline said.
    “It’s classic Art Deco,” Avery added enthusiastically, but all of them were already looking over the top of the fountain to the house itself. Madeline’s pulse skittered in her veins as she considered it.
    The brick walkway opened to a series of steps, which led to a wooden double door framed in a rectangle of carved stone. Two-storied wings fanned outward on each side, stretching almost the width of the property before folding backward in an inverted U. The pink stucco was faded and splotchy like an old woman who’d had an ill-advised love affair with the sun but had nonetheless moisturized faithfully. The first floor was lined with full-length arched windows; those upstairs were square or rectangular and framed by stone and wrought-iron balconies. The tile roof angled and straightened in numerous directions. Above the roof line two chimneys and a bell tower rose up toward the sky.
    “This is a great example of Mediterranean Revival architecture,” Avery said. “The style was hugely popular in Florida and California in the twenties and early thirties. I actually did my thesis on the style’s greatest architects in college.”
    Franklin smiled his approval. “Yes, it was a style that was not only elegant but functional for the climate and the times. The walls are a foot thick and the profusion of windows and balconies provide cross ventilation, which was critical in those days before air-conditioning. And inside those foot-thick walls is hollow tile construction reinforced with steel. It was built to last, and it has.”
    Madeline knew John Franklin was giving them a sales pitch, but nonetheless her excitement continued to build. For the last three months she’d been clinging by her fingertips, praying for a miracle; now it looked like at least some of her prayers had been answered.
    She and Avery and Nicole crowded around John Franklin, the anticipation written on all of their faces as they walked up the steps. It’s a mansion, she reminded herself as Franklin fit the key into the front lock and jiggled it to engage the old brass lock. With a brick drive and a walled courtyard and a name .
    The heavy door creaked open and he stepped back with a courtly bow to allow them to enter. “There we go,” he said.
    Madeline felt an embarrassing urge to close her eyes and hold her breath as the three of them stepped over the threshold together. She managed to resist the first but apparently none of them did that well with the second. Because they’d hardly set foot in the foyer when there was a loud whoosh of released breath. Which was, unfortunately, accompanied by what sounded like the frantic flapping of wings.

Seven
    “Look out!”
    The bird dipped so low over their heads that Nicole could feel the air its wings displaced as it flew past them, just missed John Franklin, and shot out the open front door. Inhaling in surprise, the smell that assaulted Nicole’s nose made her want to bail out with the bird.
    She took another breath because there was no alternative and drew in a lungful of heavy air that smelled like a bathing suit that had been rolled up wet, stuffed in a suitcase, and then forgotten.
    “Oh, my God!” Madeline pinched her nose shut with her fingers. Her brown eyes were large with panic.
    Nicole cleared her throat. Avery did the same beside her. The Realtor stepped into the center of the foyer, which was large and square, and somehow managed to breathe normally. “It’s been closed up for quite a while,” was his only concession to the stench. “Let me open a couple of