"Guess what? We're moving." Steve waited for his wife's response. It didn't take long.
"Moving? Where? Why?"
"We're moving out of Schuyler Square and back to Chicago. I'd rather put up with the traffic, noise and expense that stay in this house and try to sleep every night with you lying next to me as rigid as a board."
Dee Dee looked at her husband steadily. "Are you serious?"
"You bet I am. I've even found a buyer for the house. We'll make enough money to buy a small condo in the city. It will be better, Dee Dee. This town hasn't been a good fit for us since Day One."
Dee Dee considered what her husband was saying and had to agree with him. Small town living really wasn't what it was cracked up to be. While many of the people they'd met in Schuyler Square were perfectly nice, it was clear that Steve and Dee Dee were never truly going to belong. They'd always be outsiders. At least back in the city everyone else was an outsider too. "Who is going to buy the house?"
"Mike Olson made me an offer. A pretty good one too. We can close whenever we want to."
"Who is Mike Olson?"
"Some guy I met at the coffee shop. His wife works for the Schuyler's. She must have told him about your visit to Mavis the other day."
"And he just offered to buy our house out of the blue? Isn't that a little odd?"
"Honey, at this point who cares? I'm tired of things that go bump in the night, I'm tired of living with a ghost and I want to be able to go out for a cheeseburger at two in the morning of the mood moves me. In other words: I'm tired. So what do you say: are you willing to give up this Green Acres fantasy we both had and move back to where we belong?"
"I do hate to give up on figuring out who killed Mary Austin," Dee Dee fretted.
"Think about sleeping all night long," Steve instructed. "Try to remember what it's like to wake up and not find something smashed in front of the fireplace. Unloading a haunted house isn't always easy, Dee Dee. I say we take the money and run."
"All right," Dee Dee agreed, "but before we move I'd like to have a party for the people we've gotten friendly with. A farewell party for us. We can invite Mike and his wife too and it can be a kind of housewarming party for them."
Steve looked around the house they had occupied for less than six months and grimaced. "They're welcome to it," he replied.
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