by Lotta Smith
Then she found the crashed SUV still blocking the way. “Hmm… it looks like some parts of my daydream were real. How interesting.” She sniffed and looked down at her white dress with blotchy red stains. “I smell barbecue sauce. Why do I have barbecue sauce stains?”
“Come on, you were munching on a barbecue chicken sandwich like a starving pirate,” Rick reminded her. The tone of his voice was still tight, but he added the word, “Mother,” to end the sentence.
Alice’s eyes widened. “Oh my God! You called me Mother for the first time in forever!”
“Did I?” Rick mumbled, looking oh-so-uncomfortable, prompting Brian, Jackie, and me to chuckle. “Anyway, Alice, you need to see a doctor as you were passed out, albeit for a brief time.”
“Oh no, I’m fine. I insist,” she protested.
“If you’re so fine, why don’t you see a doctor just to prove it?” Rick suggested. “By the way, can I borrow your phone?”
“I said I’m fine.” She let out an exasperated sigh, but she took her phone out and handed it to Rick anyway.
“Thanks,” he said. “After all, you can’t be seen walking around in stained clothing in this neighborhood. I have a hunch Dan will buy you a really nice dress on your way to the hospital.”
“Sounds good,” Alice muttered sarcastically, but the corners of her lips were forming a smile.
While Rick was making a phone call, Jackie said, “So, Mandy, he cares about his mom at the bottom of his heart, and he’s really, truly gentle-hearted despite his hard-lined attitude. You know what? He’ll make a truly great husband.”
“Maybe, hopefully,” I replied nonchalantly, suppressing a smile. Then I was tapped on the shoulder. I turned back to find Alice, who was grinning at me. “Yes? Oh, Alice, may I help you?”
“Thank you so much for a wonderful time, Amanda,” she said. “It really seems like I haven’t been myself for the past few hours, and I do remember feeling truly happy, but unfortunately, I seem to have some lapses of memory. Did I really eat chicken?”
“Yes, you did.” I nodded. “And you enjoyed it so much.”
“Hmm… really?” She pressed her lips together. “Actually, I had a hunch about that, as I still have the aftertaste of chicken and barbecue sauce. Okay, so I have to admit it was amazing. Perhaps I should reconsider serving vegan wedding cake to everyone.”
“That would be wonderful, Alice. I’d appreciate it very much,” I said, and I meant it. “You know, Alice, I’m afraid you’re tired, what with all the stress of planning our wedding. So perhaps you may want to sit back and relax, leave the planning part to us.”
“Thank you for kind words, Amanda.” She smiled. “But you know, Rick is going to be super busy with him joining the company. Amanda, I presume you’ll be as busy as him, with social functions, dance lessons, and everything. So, I feel obliged to help you.”
“Ah, Alice… you’re so sweet!” I cooed, trying to sound happy and excited. “Still, I’m worried about your well-being, you know. And I’m sure Rick and I can manage the wedding planning part. Actually, we’re hoping to decide on the venue as soon as possible. Besides, the two of us will have to work on many issues together as a married couple, right?” I forced a smile, attempting to keep the conversation amicable.
“So, have you and Rick signed up for a dance class?” she asked abruptly.
“Yes, of course!” I lied.
CHAPTER 10
After Alice left with a USCAB agent in a black Mercedes, we dropped by Rick’s condo to freshen up and change our—especially my—ragged and damaged clothes into something that wasn’t damaged or ripped. Then we headed for the FBI’s New York City headquarters downtown. From the track record of mayhem caused by the ring and Marion, our office seemed like the best possible place to question the ghost.
We gathered at the office of Paranormal Cases Division with Agent Woo, who greeted Brian, offering his hand to the exorcist and saying, “Hello, Mr. Powers. I’ve heard so many nice things about you.”
“Oh really?” Brian raised his eyebrows while shaking hands with the agent from the White-Collar Crime Unit. “I never really expected any compliments about me from Rowling.”
“Actually, my source involves my wife and daughters.” Agent Woo winked. “They love your TV show.”
“Wow. That’s even better.” The exorcist’s grin widened. “I’m more than happy to offer you some signed photographs.”
“That’ll be great. I’d appreciate it.” Then Agent Woo turned to Rick. “So, shall we get started?”
“Yes, let’s get it over pronto,” Rick said, crossing his long legs at the sofa in the corner of the office.
“All right, then. I’m opening the ring wrapper,” Brian announced and opened the white washi paper covering the ring. As the ring came out, I saw Marion appear.
Brian went on. “As a precaution, I’ll be keeping the ring half-covered so its curse stays disabled. Usually, my paper craft soaked in holy water contains the curses, however, I can’t give it 100% guarantee.”
With her long eyelashes fluttering, Marion opened her eyes. “This place…. Oh, so I was brought back to the office.” She looked around skeptically. Her voice was devoid of emotions, but she seemed to be disappointed.
I cleared my throat. “Marion, the ring’s power is currently disabled. This gentleman here can exorcise you immediately, but I don’t want to go that extreme unless absolutely necessary. So, I’d appreciate it very much if you’d honestly answer the questions we’ll be asking.”
“For your information, I have a different opinion regarding your treatment from that of hers, and I’m eager to get rid of you immediately.” Arms crossed in front of his chest, Rick threatened the ghost of the ring.
“Get rid of me if you can!” Marion glared at him, stomping her feet, except Rick couldn’t see her in the first place.
“So, Marion, you told us yesterday that you, too, were killed by the ring. I doubt you’re an active participant who’s been delivering the ring’s curse,” I said.
“You don’t understand. The ring’s curse is tremendously powerful,” Marion insisted, blinking rapidly. After that, she fell silent, completely clamming up.
“She’s not talking,” I said to Rick.
“Hmm… perhaps we can try soaking the ring in a glass of water,” he said casually.
“You can try, but it won’t work,” Brian interjected. “Not to mention, an attempt to damage this ring will most likely backfire.”
“Ha. That’s why I brought you here, to have the curse backfired to the ring,” Rick retorted.
Ignoring him, Brian turned to Marion. “I feel the grudge and resentment from the ring. Many women suffered untimely demises soon after having it in their possession. It’s filled with aggregated curses made from the dead women’s fury and jealousy directed at happy families.”
Marion shut her eyes tightly, looking like she was forcing herself not to cry.
“On the other hand, you’re not caught in your own spite, are you Marion?” Brian went on. “You’re not jealous when you see a happy family, are you? I’m guessing you were sensitive to spiritual things when you were alive, and the ring enslaved you after your death, am I correct?”
Marion kept her eyes closed for several seconds; then she opened them and admitted in a small voice, “Yes. I’ve been working for the ring… but I can’t disclose many details about it.”
“Did you hear that, Mandy?” Brian looked at me, prompting me to nod. “This girl couldn’t go to a better place, or join the circus of the curse. She’s been trapped and forced to work for the ring.”
“For over a hundred years?” I gasped, startled. Considering the track record of my relationship with paranormal things, I wouldn’t have been surprised if the ring had swept me away and forced me into working as its subordinate. Good thing I didn’t put it on. At the same time, I recalled how excited and overjoyed the girl ghost seemed to be. If I were the one who’d been enslaved by the evil ring for a h
undred-plus years, I’d definitely want to enjoy everything, including food, while I was taking over someone else’s body. “I’m so sorry, Marion,” I muttered.
Marion raised her chin and turned her face away from us. “No need for sympathy.” She took a deep breath, then turned back to us. “Besides, I’ve never lied to you. It just happens to be that there are certain things I cannot disclose to you.”
I saw desperate courage in her eyes, as if she had prepared herself for some severe punishment.
“I understand your situation, and I believe you,” I said.
As Marion’s face softened following my reply, Brian wrinkled his forehead and Rick’s jaw clenched. According to them, I tended to be too soft on dead people.
“Mandy, don’t let your guard down so easily,” Rick warned me.
I nodded to him and turned to Marion. “So far, many things have happened today, starting with a signboard almost smashing us and an SUV crashing and barely missing us.”
“You can thank me for the fact that you’re still breathing,” Rick chimed in, muttering.
I cleared my throat, ignoring him. “So, Marion, did you cause those incidents? Perhaps in an attempt to kill me?”
“No.” Marion shook her head. “I don’t have such power to move heavy objects. All I did was imitate the voices of Jackie and Rick.” She looked around, perhaps anticipating the ghost of a drag queen to jump into the conversation.
“Jackie isn’t here, and she won’t attend this meeting,” I informed Marion. Although Jackie was on somewhat friendly terms with Brian, she was cautious about not getting too near to the exorcist. She was afraid of being exorcised as collateral.
“Anyway, all the havoc was caused solely by the ring. My job was luring you to the locations where the objects would have dropped,” Marion concluded.
“Why did the ring try to kill me?” I asked.
“Sometimes it targets the loved ones of its owner.”
“We’ve already heard about that,” Rick interjected after I related her words.
Marion was furrowing her eyebrows, her lips forming a tight, straight line.
The ring was trying to kill its owner’s loved ones, but I wasn’t a loved one. Then it hit me.
“You mean I’m not the ring’s target to kill?” I asked.
Marion kept her silence, her ghostly face turning even paler. Presumably, that topic was untouchable.
“If so, who’s the ring’s current target? Alice’s loved ones?”
“I don’t think so. She’s not the owner after all.” Rick frowned. “Besides, the purpose of the mayhem seemed more like a distraction to interfere with the task of finding Mrs. Miller’s address.”
As he said that, Marion’s blue eyes widened.
Suppressing the urge to exclaim, “Bingo!” I said to Marion, “He’s right. You were indeed doing your best to distract us, right?”
Marion’s whole body was visibly shaking, and I was certain we were getting close to the truth.
“Mrs. Miller?” Agent Woo rubbed his jaw as Brian relayed my conversation with the ghost. “Does that mean the ring knows we’re just temporarily keeping it, and its owner is still Mrs. Miller? Then again, the owner is in the hospital, and distracting the investigation has no effect to Mrs. Miller’s condition. If the ring’s really targeting her, it’d better cause some glitches with the medical devices at the hospital or dupe the nurse or doctor into administering the wrong drugs.”
“Agent Woo, you said no one has filed a missing person report on Mrs. Miller, right?” Rick said.
“Right.” Agent Woo nodded. “It’s strange, unless the woman allegedly called Mrs. Miller left her home of her own will. Had she actually lived with her husband, he should have already reported his wife missing.”
“The ring brings its curse to its owner,” I muttered, shaking my head. “The curse doesn’t necessarily kill its owner. Sometimes it kills its owner’s loved ones. Why can’t anything be simple?”
“What if Mr. Miller couldn’t report her missing? Suppose he had some kind of accident and can’t move around to report it? Perhaps Mr. Miller might be the one needing help more desperately rather than Mrs. Miller.”
“Hmm… that seems to make sense,” Agent Woo commented. “If the ring’s real target was Mr. Miller, then meddling with the investigation seems to work for the ring’s purpose.”
“Still, I’m not quite convinced about the part with the ring letting Marion tour the Upper East Side. If the ring’s intention was to keep us from thinking about Mr. Miller, taking us to the Upper East Side could have backfired. We could have accidentally located the Millers’ residence.” Rick turned to me. “Mandy, ask Marion’s opinion about my theory,” he urged me.
“Marion, you heard his words. Can you answer—”
Marion didn’t say anything, but as her lips quivered, fat tears rolled down her cheeks. It didn’t take long for the girl’s tears to form a stream.
“Marion?” I tried to come up with something sensible to tell the crying ghost, but nothing came out. When I was in med school, I had lectures on dealing with a crying patient, but obviously I wasn’t really paying attention in that class.
While I opened and closed my mouth like a suffocating goldfish, Marion wailed. “I’m so sorry! I… just wanted to… take a walk in Manhattan,” she said between hiccups. “At first, all I wanted to do was observe the city, but then the lady tried the ring on her finger and I was able to control her body. I enjoyed having a body after waiting for a hundred-plus years and actually eating the food… but I put you and Rick in danger.”
“At least you enjoyed food,” Brian muttered to the openly sobbing ghost. “That’s a rare perk for a dead person.”
“Brian… you’re so right about the ring,” Marion went on. “This ring is haunted by the women who suffered untimely, tragic deaths. Their fury, remorse, and desperation to cling to the world of the living aggregated into an uncontrollably powerful blasphemy.”
According to her, the curse started with a woman named Brigitte, the second owner of the ring. She was the wife of a very wealthy businessman, but she fell ill and died. When Brigitte was on her deathbed, her husband vowed never to have another wife following her death. However, he remarried just two weeks following Brigitte’s death, without the slightest clue of his deceased wife’s anger and resentment. To add fuel to the already blazing fire of Brigitte’s fury, the new wife gave birth to a baby boy six months after marriage, meaning Brigitte’s husband had been having a serious affair with the woman when he was making empty promises to Brigitte that she was his one and only. The sapphire and diamond ring that used to compliment the fair, smooth skin of her hand was handed down to the new wife. The ghost of Brigitte put a curse on the woman who stole her husband. At some point, the ghost had turned into an evil spirit, and her curse worked. Soon after having a baby boy, the new, young wife fell ill with severe fever, unexplained warts all over her body, and nonstop hallucinations until she passed away, her whole body purple and swollen, looking like a rotten eggplant.
“Looking like a rotten eggplant? Why does it sound like an infection?” Rick whispered into my ear while I relayed Marion’s words. I shushed him before he killed Marion’s motivation to cooperate with us.
“Since then, the ring has caused tragedies whenever it lands on happy couples and families.” Marion sighed. “It tends to despise happy women. Sometimes, the ring kills her husband or her children, perhaps to aggravate and maximize her agony. I’m so worried about Mr. Miller… because Mrs. Miller is so fond of him, and she’s been so caring. I think Mrs. Miller loves Mr. Miller more than life itself, so the ring is trying to kill him.”
“Thank you for confiding in me,” I said.
“Wow. Enslaving one of its victims, ordering her to distract you guys, all the while attempting to kill its owner’s husband? I’ve seen my share of stolen objects—some of which had reputation as being haunted—but I’ve never seen anything like this ring.” Agent Woo shook his
head.
“So, the ring is powerful enough to knock over a signboard as large as an SUV. Why doesn’t it kill Mr. Miller on its own?” I knitted my eyebrows.
“To maximize the agony of its owner?” Brian suggested. “Anyway, you guys want to find Mr. Miller pronto. From the way it’s been meddling with your investigation, Mr. Miller should still be alive. Then again, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s safe.”
“Okay.” Rick nodded. “We’ve got to find the building where Mr. Miller’s presumably trapped. But taking the ring out on the search isn’t an option. Aggravating the situation with potential collateral damage isn’t in our best interest.”
“So, the Millers live in a whitish building with an art gallery on the ground floor. Marion, is there anything else you can recall about the place?” I asked. “Like any other shops in the building?”
“Well….” She closed her eyes like she was trying to recall something. “Actually, there was this place on the fifth floor Mrs. Miller regularly visited, but I have no idea about it as she always removed the ring whenever she visited there.”
“Taking the ring off whenever she visits the place?” I parroted. “Is it a nail salon?”
“What is a nail salon?” The ghost tilted her head to the side.
“A nail salon is a place where they polish your fingernails,” I explained. “Did you see Mrs. Miller sporting newly painted nails after visiting there?”
“No. She never had her fingernails painted.”
“Was the skin of her fingers smoothed after visiting the fifth floor?” I tried to dig deeper, only to prompt Marion to shake her head again.
“How about a chiropractor?” Rick interjected. “They tend to ask their patients to remove watches and accessories.”
“Assuming from the information that Mrs. Miller has had bad knees, she might have had regular visits to a chiropractor,” Agent Woo said.
