Chapter 10

"Wow," was all I could say when we pulled in front of the house.

"Yeah, not your typical home, and not your typical location, is it?" Darius said.

The house sat inside a curve of the Russian River and seemed to almost be built into the side of the hill behind it. The house was elevated slightly from the rest of the area in front of it and had a nice view of the river and the road in front of it. The road was visible from the house but it was set back in a draw about a quarter mile. There wouldn't be any problems with road noise.

The house itself was one of those awesome modern cedar log homes. There was a huge triangular window in the front of it that suggested quite a view from inside.

"Its completely custom built," Darius said as I fumbled with the keys he had given me earlier. "It's super-insulated, has two full stories, as well as a full basement."

"This is a lot of living space for just two people."

"That it is, and I know your parents had some people hired to help with the cleaning and maintenance. If you decide to stay, you may be able to keep them on."

The tour was interesting and creepy at the same time. There were little things here and there; pictures, books, paintings that suggested some importance, but except for a picture of Cooper, in uniform and standing somewhere dry and dusty, nothing that had any impact on me.

The ground floor of the house was made up mostly of a huge living room that was faced by the huge picture window we'd seen from outside, a large kitchen with a huge walk in pantry, stainless steel professional grade appliances, a library/study/office that was quite a bit larger than I expected. This was not a converted bedroom, it was too big. There was a downstairs bedroom towards the back of the house. A mudroom connected to a huge, long garage that looked more like a converted horse barn or stable than a garage with a large work area at the back. The garage was empty of course. Across the hall from the mudroom was a door that led to the basement.

The second floor was two bedrooms and a sitting room that looked as if it had been used as a second office. Based on the decorating touches, I guessed that this one was Mrs. James' office and the one downstairs was her husband's.

The smaller bedroom was nice enough, and shared a bathroom with the upstairs office. The master bedroom was definitely what one would call a master suite. The bed was a king, there were two walk in closets and the master bath had twin sinks, a very large jetted tub and a custom made shower that looked big enough for three or four people at a time.

"This place is incredible," I said to Darius when we got back downstairs.

"And you haven't even seen the basement yet," he joked. "Actually, it is pretty empty, except for the laundry room and the utility room. The furnace, air conditioning and water heating systems are all in an enclosed space that separates them from the rest of the basement. The main electrical panel for the house is there as well. The whole house is wired up for an internal computer network, but it didn't look like there was an active internet connection at the time of their death."