Chapter Twenty-One
There was a knock at the back door, but before Hannah could cross the kitchen to answer it, Andrea rushed in. “Hannah!” she exclaimed, sinking down on a stool at the work island.
“Hi, Andrea.” Hannah pulled the last sheet of cookies out of the oven and slid them onto the baker’s rack. “Want coffee?”
“No, thanks. I’m excited enough as it is. Have you got anything chocolate?”
“We’re a bakery. Of course I’ve got something chocolate. You’ve got a choice between Chocolate Chip Crunch Cookies, Black and Whites, or Triplet Chiplets.”
“I’ll take the Triplet Chiplets. Then I’ll get chocolate three ways. Just wait until I tell you what happened with the furniture!”
“What furniture?” Hannah plucked three Triplet Chiplet cookies off the rack and delivered them in a napkin. “Milk?”
“That would be good. Doctor Bev and Roger’s furniture. They just finished delivering it.”
“Of course. I forgot all about it. Roger asked you to meet the delivery truck.”
Andrea accepted the glass of milk and took a sip before she nodded. “It’s gorgeous, Hannah. Just wait until you see it!”
“The furniture and not the delivery truck?”
“Right. White leather. Can you imagine? It’s just incredible against the midnight blue carpet. One piece is a twenty-two-foot curved sectional with four built-in recliners. That’s in front of the biggest flat-screen I’ve ever seen, even bigger than the one Mayor Bascomb bought for the Super Bowl. And the couches they bought to go in front of the fireplace are unbelievable! They’re the kind you see in old movies, the ones without arms that you could sleep on if you wanted to. Shrinks use them . . . you know.”
“Chaise lounges?”
“Yeah. Just like that. And the bed is up on a pedestal and it looks like something a queen would sleep in. Come with me right now. You’ve just got to see it! And the dome’s in now so we can go out and look at the things they bought for the rooftop garden. Don’t say no, Hannah. I need to take some pictures and post them on our website.”
Hannah began to frown. “Isn’t that a little invasive? It’s Roger’s furniture and I think you should ask him before you do something like that.”
Andrea stared at her in bewilderment for a moment and then she laughed. “Oh, no wonder you thought that! I forgot to tell you. Roger’s going to sell the penthouse furnished. He says he doesn’t want to live there now that Doctor Bev is gone. He was so sad when they delivered the furniture that he could only stay a minute or two. He’s a broken man, Hannah. I think he really loved her.”
“Hmmm.” Hannah made the most noncommittal sound she could think of. It seemed almost inconceivable that Roger hadn’t seen the nasty side of Doctor Bev, but she supposed it was possible.
“Come on.” Andrea stood up and jammed the one cookie that was left into her pocket. “Let’s go!”
Hannah grabbed her purse. “Okay, but that chocolate’s going to melt in this heat.”
“What chocolate?”
“The chocolate in the cookie you just put in your pocket.”
“Oh. You’re probably right.” Andrea removed the cookie from her pocket and gave a little shrug. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll eat it on the way to the car.”
Since the Albion Hotel was only a block and a half away, it took only a minute or two before Andrea was parking in the reserved area of the parking garage. “Come on, Hannah,” she said, getting out of her car and brushing cookie crumbs off her skirt.
Hannah smiled in amusement as she followed her sister into the lobby and across the floor to the private elevator that would take them to the penthouse. “How did you know where to put the furniture if Roger wasn’t there?” she asked.
“The delivery guys had a diagram and a man they called an executive account specialist drove in from Minneapolis to help. I really didn’t have to do anything except watch and lock up when they were finished.”
“So Roger never saw the penthouse with the furniture they chose in place?”
Andrea shook her head. “He said he couldn’t bear to see it, and that’s when he told me to keep the penthouse on the market and sell it furnished, that it would show better that way.”
“I guess that’s true.” Hannah followed Andrea into the elevator and watched her press the button for the penthouse. “I know it’s crazy, but this elevator makes me nervous. It shakes a little.”
“I know. I’m not that fond of it, either. But they inspected it and it’s perfectly safe.”
“What if the power goes out?”
“There’s a generator that’s supposed to kick in and take over if the main power fails.”
“You said it’s supposed to kick in. Do you have doubts?”
“Yes. The generator is old and Roger’s having it replaced with a new one in a couple of days, but for now all we have is the old one.”
“How about fire? You’re not supposed to use elevators in case of fire, are you?”
“No, but there’s a staircase. It’s like Sally’s old staircase that the servants used when the Inn was a private mansion. This one was for the maids and there’s a landing on every floor. The maids used it to carry up the linens when the Albion was first built. It’s right off the hallway by the regular elevator.”
“There’s no hallway on the penthouse floor. Where’s the door to the staircase?”
“In the kitchen. You probably didn’t notice it, because it looks just like another pantry door.”
“Interesting,” Hannah said as the elevator doors opened onto the foyer. They stepped into the living room and she gasped at the array of expensive furniture. Doctor Bev hadn’t been exaggerating when she’d said they’d spent the entire weekend shopping!
Andrea heard the gasp Hannah gave when she turned toward the living room fireplace. “I forgot to tell you about the grand piano. It’s a Steinway.”
“Did Doctor Bev play?”
“No, and neither does Roger. It’s just decoration.” Hannah was almost speechless. She’d never seen such luxury before. She’d always known that Roger and his father had money, but this was way over the line between sumptuous and conspicuous consumption.
“What do you think so far?” Andrea asked, after Hannah had seen the master bedroom with the furniture fit for royalty, the master bath with an indoor Jacuzzi that could have seated eight, and the gourmet kitchen that contained every piece of culinary equipment that a celebrity chef might desire.
Hannah was silent for a moment, trying to think of the right words. Andrea was obviously impressed with the furnishings and she didn’t want to hurt her sister’s feelings. “It’s a real showplace,” she said at last.
“But?”
“How do you know there’s a but?”
“Because you’re my sister and I know you. And you must have a but because you had to think before you answered me.”
“Guilty as charged,” Hannah said, and then she wished she hadn’t put it quite that way in light of her recent circumstances. “You’re right, Andrea. There’s a but.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a real showplace, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable living here.”
“Neither would I! Just the thought of raising kids in this living room with the white leather furniture makes me nervous. And that’s where the television is. What if the kids wanted a snack while they were watching cartoons? I’d be spending a fortune in leather cleaner. And then there’s the Steinway. Tracey takes piano lessons, but she’s barely past the “Chopsticks” phase. And Bethie pounds the keys every chance she gets. They need a practice piano, not a fine musical instrument. That Steinway deserves to belong to a concert pianist.”
“Agreed,” Hannah said. “It just about killed me when you said Roger and Doctor Bev bought it for decoration.”
“And then there’s the location of the bedrooms. They’re so big and far apart that we’d never hear Bethie or Tracey if they called us at night. Don’t get me wrong. It’s beautiful, but it’s no place to raise a regular family.”
“Do you think different furnishings would make it . . .” Hannah paused to think of the right word. “. . . homier?”
“Absolutely. The things Roger and Doctor Bev chose are gorgeous, but they’re off-putting. They dictate a certain lifestyle that’s just not the norm here in Lake Eden.”
“Lifestyles of the rich and famous?”
“Exactly. And that’s why I asked the executive account specialist at the furniture store if the furniture could be exchanged for other furniture if the new buyers didn’t like it. He said yes, as long as it was an exchange and not a refund.”
“But can the new buyer . . .” Again Hannah hesitated. “What’s that phrase you used for buying something more expensive than what you were selling?”
“Buy up?”
“That’s it. Can the new owners do an exchange down? What I mean is, say the person who buys the penthouse doesn’t want the white leather sectional and what they’d like is something smaller in fabric. Can they exchange for something cheaper?”
“Yes, but they won’t get a refund. Instead they’ll have a store credit. So if they get something less expensive and smaller, they can also get a recliner for him, a rocker for her, chairs for the kids, and . . . well . . . anything they want. They just can’t get money back.”
“That’s perfect,” Hannah said, “especially with the Steinway. You could probably furnish a two-bedroom condo with the money they paid for that.”
“I think you’re right. I didn’t ask how much it was, but I’m willing to bet it was a bundle.” Andrea led the way to the staircase leading up to the rooftop garden. “Come and see their patio furniture, Hannah. I don’t think anyone will want to exchange that!”
“Oh, my!” Hannah exclaimed as she stepped out onto the rooftop garden and saw the dome. Curved pieces of what looked like glass rose to a height of at least twenty feet above their heads, framing a sparkling panorama of the town and the surrounding area including the blue sky and puffy white clouds above. The lake glittered through the pines in the distance and when a raven flew close to the dome, Hannah actually ducked. “Do birds ever hit it?”
“The manufacturer says no, that the struts between the panes give it structure and the birds know that they can’t fly through it.”
“That’s good. I wouldn’t like to be relaxing up here in the lap of luxury and see some poor bird hit the dome. It’s so clear it looks like glass, but didn’t you say it was some kind of Plexiglas?”
“It’s Plexiglas, but it’s a special kind that’s relatively new on the market. Each section is tinted, double-paned, and argon-filled. If it were just plain glass, it would be really hot up here. We’re in direct sunlight and it’s hot out today.”
“You’re right and it’s cool here.” Hannah held out her arm. “I can’t feel the heat of the sun at all.”
“That’s the argon filling between the panes. It insulates it, but you don’t see it.”
“Well, it’s just amazing. And you can see a full three-sixty except for the area with the staircase and that space right next to it. Why didn’t they put windows in that space?”
“Because that’s where the window-washing safety cage is docked.”
“The what?”
“The window-washing safety cage. I’ll show you.” Andrea stepped over to the edge of the dome and took what looked like a television remote out of a pocket built into the three-foot-high wall that supported the dome. “Watch this.”
Hannah watched as Andrea aimed the remote at the space next to the staircase and pressed a button. Almost immediately something looking vaguely like a cage began to emerge. As it moved closer to the place where Andrea was standing, she unlatched fasteners on one of the struts and pulled the section open.
“That’s really clever,” Hannah said, watching as the cage stopped directly in front of the open section.
“I know. The first time I saw it, I couldn’t believe my eyes. All you have to do if you’re a window washer is climb aboard with your equipment and drive it around the track on the outside of the dome. It’s got controls inside and you can stop, wash a section, and then move on. It’s rated really high for safety because once you’re in place, you can’t fall off like you could on traditional scaffolding.”
Hannah came over for a closer look. “I wouldn’t want to climb in there, but I’m impressed.”
“I feel exactly the same way. When Roger first showed it to me, he asked me if I wanted to go for a ride.”
“Did you?”
“Absolutely not! I told him I’d rather die than get into something that hung outside the dome above the third floor!” Andrea shut the hinged section, fastened it in place, and pointed the remote at the cage. “There it goes. It fits into an enclosure on the outside of the building where it can’t get rained or snowed on.”
“Pure genius,” Hannah said.
“I think so too. Let’s go look at that patio furniture. I’m willing to bet that if you bought this place, you wouldn’t replace it.”
Hannah grinned as she followed her sister to the pool area. Once a real estate agent, always a real estate agent. It was clear that Andrea hadn’t given up on trying to sell her the penthouse. That was ridiculous, but Hannah found herself hoping that she’d know the people who bought it and they’d ask her to visit them often.