Walter Dixon

Walter John Dixon (1935-2013) was the patriarch of the Dixon family and the biological father of Marie Dixon. He was also the only husband of Emily Dixon and the only grandfather of Chloe Dixon.

In Haunted, it was Walter who made the suggestion that Chloe come live with them. This was a decision that was made after Marie's sudden death.

Early Life
Walter John Dixon was born in Rochester, New York, on December 8, 1935; he she had two younger sisters, a housewife for a mother, and his father worked at a bank. His father's job helped keep the family wealthy during the Great Depression. He was born with good looks and was constantly praised for it, which made him vain as a result. His parents took pride in his looks, which he enjoyed. He also enjoyed his mother's pleasure of buying him the latest fashions which caught the attention of every woman he passed. However, unlike his social-climbing parents, who wanted more out of life despite their elevated status, Walter was just happy with the knowledge he was himself and that he was very handsome.

Like many Dixons before him, Walter attended Bridgeton Preparatory School as a teenager. Graduating in 1953, he went on to pursue a business degree at Columbia University. When he wasn't studying, he was often seen flirting with most of the female students on campus. Walter had a lot of girlfriends during this time, but he was very unhappy.

However, that changed when he met a twenty-one year old woman named Emily McClure in the late 1950s. They quickly fell in love with each other. Within a month of them dating, Walter decided that Emily had to meet Walter's parents. At first, they were hesitant about welcoming her into their home, but over the course of Emily's relationship with Walter, his parents gradually warmed up to her. They stayed together for four years before he proposed to her in April 1961.

After five years of struggling to conceive a child, Walter was ecstatic when Emily told him she was pregnant in November 1964. While enduring fourteen hours of painful labor, Emily gave birth to a healthy baby girl in March of 1965. They named her Marie.

When Marie was killed in a fatal car accident in September 2012, Walter and Emily were devastated when the news came that their only daughter had been killed. When the time came for Marie's daughter, Chloe, to move in with them, they agreed. Chloe stayed with Walter and Emily until the night of her eighteenth birthday, when they were brutally murdered in the library for not honoring a deal they had made with Marjorie Dixon.

Haunted
Walter retired from his job as a CFO at the New Amsterdam back two years prior to the beginning of Haunted. In the aftermath of Marie's death, Walter and Emily took Chloe in and let her live with them. At one point, they updated their own wills stating that Chloe's father was to take care of Chloe if they were to pass away suddenly and were able to do this without Chloe ever knowing about it.

When Chloe accidentally went back in time, Walter thought someone had kidnapped her only because she disappeared without a trace. Another reason was that he thought she ran away to her father's apartment in New York City, but was surprised when James said he hadn't really seen Chloe since her mother died. It was at that moment that Walter could not stop looking for Chloe, no matter what.

After Chloe came back to the present, she told Walter and Emily everything and acknowledged that they could ground her for breaking the rule of going up to the attic without permission; however, Chloe is not really grounded but given a warning that if she wants to go to the attic, there has to be a reason for doing so.

Golden Girl
Prior to the beginning of Golden Girl, Walter and Emily went on vacation to Italy for a couple months, coming back a month before Chloe's eighteenth birthday. By this time, they had already found and met Jack Flynn, who is later revealed by Chloe to be her boyfriend she had been dating for about a year.

Walter and Emily plan Chloe's birthday party at their house and help Jack and the rest of the staff surprise her when coming home after spending the afternoon shopping with her best friend, Lily. When the weather outside starts to get bad, everyone heads inside to continue celebrating. However, the fun is stalled when James shows up to the party, soaking wet. After apologizing for being late, James tells Walter that he say something strange out on the grounds and asks if he can take Chloe to help him go investigate. Walter has Mary get Chloe her rain coat and she hands it to Jack, who in turn hands it to Chloe. In the meantime, Walter and the others watch Chloe and her father search the grounds for whatever James saw only to find nothing. When they come back, Walter asks if they found anything only to be deeply troubled when the answer from both of them is no. The party goes on without any further interruptions.

After Chloe and Jack go upstairs to bed, Walter and Emily decided to have some quality time in the library downstairs. While down there, the power goes out a second time that night. Before Walter can find the emergency flashlight, a violent gust of wind slams the windows open and the radio blares the opening song from Andrew Lloyd Weber's The Phantom of the Opera for no reason. In the time that passes, Dixon Mansion gets broken into courtesy of an intruder, only for Walter to discover the person is none other than Marjorie Dixon, who has risen from the grave in hopes of getting revenge on Walter and Emily for not honoring their end of a deal that was made before Chloe was born. Walter, not knowing how to answer Marjorie's questions, tells Marjorie that they tried paying for Marie and James's divorce but that Marie insisted they stay out of it. He also informs her that they are not trading lives so they can get Marie back in hopes that Marjorie will lose interest and forfeit the deal altogether. His plan backfires when Marjorie states that Chloe messed everything up when she traveled to 1912, since she tried to alter the Titanic from sinking. However, Walter and Emily defend Chloe's actions and say they will not give Chloe up without a fight. After this, a Marjorie murders Walter and Emily, and makes a run for it before she can get caught.

Over the course of the novel, Chloe, Jack, and James take on the task of solving Walter and Emily's murder. Although it takes a few months, they eventually solve it and make Marjorie confess to killing them in addition to Chloe's mother the year before. After Marjorie's death, she knows her grandparents' souls can finally rest in peace.