It had been four days since the unexplainable goings on at their new home. Jax had contacted the realtor as soon as they got back to the penthouse and been assured that new locks had been installed after restoration of the structure had been completed. The manufacturer for the locks supplied only three sets of keys; Jax and Brenda had two sets and the realtor had the third set locked in his safe. At Jax's insistence he had looked again to verify they were in the safe and showed no sign of having been copied. They were and didn't.

Matthew was also at a loss for an explanation as to what had happened. He checked with all the delivery crews who were at the house that day and none of them had returned to the house for any reason that day after Matthew had left. He even got a look at the delivery route reports and sign-off sheets. None of the crews had been back in the area after their initial deliveries.

Brenda had contacted the chairman of the Port Charles Restoration Society to find out the restrictions on installing a modern security system in the house. She had been assured that as long as there were no obvious signs posted in the yard, there was no regulation prohibiting the installation of any type of security or protection system. Jax had immediately contacted the head of the security division of his company and had a team at the house the same day. The new system was being installed today, under the supervision of the head of security. His personnel were doing the work and the alarms would be monitored at the company security office. Jax wanted no connection to the Port Charles Police Department. He didn't want the access codes or security keys to be kept on file at a municipal building where they would be too accessible. This way only the head of security, Jax, Brenda, and Matthew would have the current access codes. When the house was finished and they moved in, the codes would be changed so only Brenda, Jax, and the head of security would have the code.

There had been no further incidents anywhere in the house since that day. Once all the excitement about the strange events of January 4th had begun to die down, delivery of additional pieces of furniture began. The dining room table and chairs had arrived by airfreight from London yesterday. The sideboard had been delayed because of the paperwork problem at Customs that Matthew had been resolving at the time of Jax and Brenda's initial visit to the house. That had now been scheduled for delivery on January 9th, along with the intimate dining table and chairs. Matthew was still looking for the serving table to complete the room. He had friends at the various antique shops throughout England and the United States looking for the matching table. If it still existed, these people would find it, especially since Jax had assured them that money was not a consideration in the search.

Brenda and Matthew had begun work on the master bedroom two days ago. This was the only room that Brenda had asked Jax not to participate in decorating. She wanted to make the completion of this room her gift to him. Jax had agreed under the condition that she would not use her own funds to furnish the room. He insisted that the money come from the same demand account that all the other furnishings came from. She had tried to argue the point but had eventually conceded to letting him pay for it if he didn't see it until EVERYTHING was in place. That meant, she explained, furniture, carpets, linens, draperies, etc. He was more than willing to agree when he saw how excited Brenda was about the project.

They had decided at breakfast this morning that since Jax would be spending much more time in the library/office than Brenda would that he would work with Matthew to decorate that room. He had agreed once Brenda explained that he would need to work with Matthew anyway to find the proper pieces of furniture to hide his computers, fax machine, and other office equipment when he wasn't working in there. Matthew had set aside time this afternoon to meet with him to find out what would be in the office and how much of it would need to be hidden. Jax actually found himself looking forward to their meeting. He wanted his contribution to the house to get Brenda's approval as much as she always wanted his input or approval on her choices. Her request to keep him out of the master bedroom intrigued him because of that. He couldn't wait to see what she had planned.

Matthew and Jax had met for about two hours in the living room of the penthouse, going over exactly what Jax would need in the library in the way of furniture. Being a Victorian-style home, the library was one of the largest rooms on the main floor of the house, which would work out well since there would be several pieces of rather large furniture needed to hide the various pieces of computer equipment. Jax had left the style choices to Matthew. His only stipulation was that the desk be large and have a very comfortable chair. Matthew had promised to be back in a few days with the plans for the room and his suggestions for the furnishings. With that decided, Matthew and Jax shook hands and Jax showed him to the door.

It was nearly 7:00 when Jax walked into the study of the penthouse. "Hey, you, I'm sorry I took so long. It seemed like the more progress I thought we made in the library, the more questions Matthew had for me. What have you been up to while I've been 'slaving' away at my decorating assignment? "

"Oh, nothing," she replied as she quickly hit the save key on the design program she was using and turned off the monitor. Jax was sure she had been working on their new bedroom, but he didn't press the issue. "Are you ready for some dinner? I can call the Grill to send something up if you want."

"I have a better idea, why don't we actually go down to the Grill to eat. Come on, Brenda, we've been so caught up in this decorating, we haven't taken time for us lately. After all, we are still 'newlyweds,' you know!" There was that twinkle in his eyes again. Brenda couldn't resist the offer, especially what would be served for 'dessert!'

"I like the way you think, Mr. Jacks. Give me 10 minutes to get ready, and I'll meet you in the living room." Jax knew that meant he had at least 30 minutes to read the financial sections of the newspapers he had brought home.

Much to Jax's amazement, Brenda came waltzing into the living room in exactly 10 minutes. She had managed to make herself even more beautiful than she was before in just ten minutes. Jax never could figure out how she could continue to do that. Just when he thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, she would take 10 minutes to transform herself into someone even more beautiful, inside and out.

They had enjoyed a long, leisurely dinner in the Port Charles Grill followed by a night of long, leisurely lovemaking that had lasted until well past 3:00 A.M. That's why, when the phone rang at 7:15, neither he nor Brenda was awake yet.

"Who is it?" Jax grunted into the phone, not nearly close to being awake.

"Jax, it's Matthew. Can you come to the house?"

"Matthew, it's only 7:15 in the morning! Can't this wait?" Jax was beginning to get irritated. What could possibly be so important that he had to leave his beautiful wife in their warm bed to go running off to the house? Then it dawned on him. "Matthew, has something else happened? Is the house okay?"

"The house is fine Jax. Can you come out? Oh, by the way, there really is no need to wake Brenda this early to come out here." Matthew's tone of voice told Jax immediately that his hunch was right. Someone had been in the house again. How was that possible? They had the finest security system available installed in the house. He'd have to check on that as soon as he found out what had happened now.

"I'll be there in 20 minutes. Don't let anyone in the house until I get there, understand?"

"Don't worry, Jax. I won't. And if Brenda wakes, please don't let her know anything is wrong. I don't want to worry her needlessly."

"You can count on that, Matthew. See you in a few minutes." Jax quietly hung up the phone. He gently moved Brenda's arm from across his chest and slowly got up from the bed. As he pulled the covers back up over Brenda, she woke up. "Go back to sleep, Brenda. I have to go out."

"Jax? Where are you going? It's too early for you to get up!" she said, reaching to pull him back into bed with her.

"Go back to sleep, honey. I have to go out for a little while. I'll be back before you wake up." He kissed her lightly on the forehead as she snuggled back into her pillow. By the time he came out of the dressing room, she was sleeping soundly again, cuddled up to his pillow as if it were he. He couldn't resist smiling at the picture before him and he hated to leave her like this, but he knew he had to find out what Matthew was so concerned about. If someone were playing games with the house, he was going to put a stop to it. No one was going to spoil this house for Brenda. It had given her more pleasure than anything had he had given her throughout their entire relationship.

7:45 A.M.

Matthew was waiting on the front porch when Jax drove up. He came down the stairs to meet Jax as he got out of his car. "Thanks for coming so quickly, Jax. I hope you didn't disturb Brenda about this." Matthew looked at Jax with real concern in his eyes, making Jax that much more uncomfortable about this.

"No, I left her sleeping peacefully. So, tell me what's wrong. Did someone break into the house? Has it been vandalized?"

"Why don't you come see for yourself? I don't think I can really describe the problem to you." With that said Matthew led the way to the front door. He used the key he had gotten from Jax and Brenda and punched in the security code. He opened the door, leading the way in for Jax.

Everything in the foyer looked normal. There was no obvious damage or mischief anywhere to be seen, at least not by Jax. He did notice that the large round mahogany table had arrived and been placed in the center of the foyer, under the crystal and brass entry chandelier. "So, what is it that you wanted to show me? Everything looks okay to me."

Matthew led the way upstairs to one of the bedrooms. "Jax, the same thing that happened that first day happened again last night. When I secured the house last night before our meeting, all the furniture for this room was still boxed and wrapped over by the window wall. I wanted to review the arrangement plan with Brenda this morning before I unpacked and inspected it. Now look." With that he opened the door to one of the extra bedrooms to let Jax in.

Jax walked past Matthew into the room. Just like the first day, every piece of furniture had been unpacked and positioned about the room. The only difference this time was that the bed had not been assembled, but was placed against the wall as if someone had been interrupted before they finished. Other than that, everything was unwrapped and placed in an orderly arrangement. As had happened the first time, all of the invoices, packing slips and deliver tags were neatly stacked on the top of the dresser, all the correct tags with each packing slip with the appropriate invoice.

"Are you sure no one was in the house when you were securing it yesterday? You didn't leave anyone in the house when you left?" he asked with a note of worry in his voice.

"I'm positive I was the last one out yesterday. Besides, if I had left a workman in the house when I set the alarm it would have gone off immediately. Did you get a call from your security department anytime last night?"

Jax had to admit that no one had called. Even though he and Brenda had turned off the phones last night, if a security problem had occurred the dispatcher could have reached him either by cell phone or through the hotel security office. That only served to make him angry. Obviously his security people had missed something when they put in the security system. Someone was in here last night and had done all of this. What Jax couldn't understand about either of the incidents was that it seemed whoever had been in the house had no intention of damaging it, they actually seemed to be helping.

"Matthew, is the furniture arranged the way you and Brenda had planned the room?" Jax had an idea. He figured if the arrangement was exactly according to the plan it might narrow the list of suspects down to those who had access to the house and design plans.

"Actually, no. This is nothing like the arrangement we came up with. But just like the last time, this one suits the room much better than ours did. Jax, I don't think whoever is doing this is out to damage the house. Think about it, if their intentions were criminal, wouldn't they have destroyed the furniture or vandalized all of the rooms? I honestly have no idea what is going on here, but I don't think anyone wants to harm the house."

"I hope you're right, Matthew. But in the mean time I'm going to have my security people run a check on everyone who has access to the house. I want to find out everything there is to know about all of the people and the companies that are working here. I don't want anyone who hasn't been cleared anywhere near this house.

"Also, I'd like you to research the history of this house. I want to know who built it, when, what happened to them, where their descendents are -- everything!

"Would you start on it immediately? I'll explain to Brenda what's happened and that you are going to take a couple of days off to research the house for us so you won't be working on the hunt for the furnishings. I'm sure she'll understand. Besides, it'll give her a chance to catch up on ordering the linens and stuff she keeps talking about." Even as he was saying this, he wasn't sure how he was going to explain this to Brenda. He knew he had to tell her the truth because they had made a promise to each other when they had gotten back together that there would be no secrets and no lies. He was not about to break that promise to her now because of some silly prankster!

"Sure thing, Jax. I'll get started on it right away. It shouldn't take me more than a day or two. Most of the information is in the Port Charles Library or Port Charles Restoration Society. And what isn't, should be on the Internet. Should I contact you at the office when I get the information?"

"No, when you get the information bring it to the penthouse. I want Brenda to hear what you find out.

"In the meantime I'm going to meet with the team who installed the security system in the house to find out why whomever was in here last night didn't set off any of the alarms. Either they missed something when they designed the system or there was a malfunction. Whichever it was, I promise you it is NOT going to happen again."

With that said, Jax and Matthew headed back downstairs. Just out of curiosity they looked around the rooms on the first floor. Nothing they could see was out of place or missing, which only added to the mystery surrounding what was going on in this house.

"You know, Jax, if I believed in those kinds of things I say the only explanation for what has been happening around here is that your house is haunted!" Matthew and Jax stopped, looked at each other, and burst out laughing, which continued until they were both outside and the door was locked and security system engaged.

Jax and Matthew each got into their own cars and drove off in different directions. Matthew to his office to begin research on the history of the house at 214 Port Charles Place, and Jax back to the penthouse at the Port Charles Hotel to explain to Brenda all that had happened and what he and Matthew had decided to do about it. For some reason he couldn't explain, Jax could not shake Matthew's joke about the house being haunted. He knew there were no such things as ghosts, but now that Matthew had mentioned it...