High Court (Cid Garrett P.I. Book 2)

by Alexie Aaron

  “No, son, you didn’t,” Calvin stressed. “I was a soldier like your daddy. We didn’t shoot boys because they threw rocks at us. A lot of the villagers did. The rocks and the words hurt more than knives to the heart, but we were soldiers and wouldn’t kill children.”

  Miguel looked up at Calvin, as if he was assessing his worth.

  “Miguel, who was coming up the stairs with the gun?” Macy asked.

  Miguel looked over and said, “All I saw was the gun and I ran. If I knew who killed me, I would have done something before now.”

  “Your mother doesn’t know either,” Calvin said.

  “My mama is dead.”

  “Yes, but she is haunting the motel, trying to get justice for you and the family.”

  “My mama?”

  “Yes, you are not alone in your investigation,” Calvin said. “Sheriff Will Grady, Cid, and Macy have been helping me to find out what happened at High Court. Are you sure you didn’t see anyone?”

  “Not with the gun. Before, yes. I see the druggies and the man before.”

  “The man. Where did you see the man?” Macy asked.

  “I went with Jeff to the town council meeting. The man was sitting there in one of the big chairs.”

  “The mayor?” Macy asked. “Is that why you wanted Faye to look up the town council?”

  “Yes. But I’m not sure it was the mayor. I only saw the back of his head… His son was there, Mark. He’s a druggie. Mama caught him shooting up in the laundry. She kicked him out.”

  “There was a man running for the Senate that was on the town council. His son hung out with Mark. Evert Wilson. His son’s name was Roland,” Calvin prompted.

  “Roland was there, but I don’t know his father. I’m sorry, I can’t be of more help.”

  “Don’t worry, Miguel. Tomorrow, we are going to open up the secret room in the cellar,” Calvin said. “Maybe the answers will still be there.”

  “I hope you find out who killed us. And then I can go to the lass in fields.”

  “He means Elysium, the fields,” Macy explained to Calvin.

  “Your daddy told me that’s where all good warriors go. I hope to join you one day,” Calvin said wistfully. “Until then, be at peace, Miguel. We will take care of getting you the justice you deserve. I promise you that.”

  “Thank you,” the boy ghost said. “Macy, I’m sorry I scared you in the bathroom. Mr. Baylor says that place is off limits to boys.”

  “It’s okay. You were just trying to get my attention,” Macy said.

  “Mr. Baylor says there’s a right and a wrong way to get a girl to like you.”

  Macy smiled. “You like me?”

  “Oh yes, you are the smartest, prettiest girl I have ever seen,” Miguel said.

  “Thank you, Miguel, you made my day.”

  “I have to go now. I want to rest up. I still have things to do,” he said.

  “What things?”

  “You’ll see,” Miguel said and disappeared.

  Calvin frowned. “I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”

  “I think we ought to be prepared for more rock throwing.”

  “I worry that it’s not going to stop with rocks.”

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Cid declined the offer of a pain prescription from the doctor on staff. “You construction guys are a tough breed.”

  Cid, who had benefited by Mia’s healing, just shrugged. “Maybe I just have a high pain threshold.”

  Wayne was waiting for him at the curb. Jesse was nursing a hangover from yesterday and was too nauseous to drive. Jesse saw Cid being wheeled out by a nurse. He got out and helped Cid up into the truck.

  Cid thanked the nurse.

  “Now, not too much activity,” she warned before closing the door.

  “Thanks for picking me up. They wouldn’t let me leave in a cab,” Cid explained.

  “Everybody has to have a set of rules. It keeps them out of court,” Wayne said.

  “I’d like to have a set of rules that keeps us out of the hospital,” Cid said. “You’re the safety guy; how about it?” Cid teased.

  “Okay, rule number one,” Wayne said as they drove away. “Don’t work on a site with paid assassins.”

  “Number two,” Cid continued. “Make sure all paranormal entities are benign.”

  “Good one. Three, live off-site,” Wayne said.

  “Yes, exactly! No more Miss Cheapo Pickles. I want to live away from the job site,” Jesse said.

  “Notice she doesn’t live on-site, just us,” Wayne told them.

  “It’s because we’re expendable,” Cid said.

  “Are we though?” Wayne said. “Kiki needs us. She may have the brains and the connections, but she can’t do it all alone, and she knows it.”

  “Maybe we should negotiate hazard pay,” Cid suggested.

  “Damn, wish I would have thought of that. Kiki should ask for more or at least negotiate a better insurance plan.”

  “I think that, if she could, she would wrap us in bubble wrap so we didn’t end up in the hospital, so she’d get her early completion bonus,” Cid said.

  “She isn’t all about the bottom line,” Wayne said softening.

  “And she pays better than most of her peers,” Cid agreed.

  “Where does this leave us?” Wayne asked.

  “With higher insurance deductibles,” Cid said. “So, how’s the cleanup on Cabin 4?”

  “There’s not going to be any. After we’re done investigating the secret room, Calvin wants us to tear it down. I think it’s a good move. There’s not much worth saving. The insurance adjuster will be here tomorrow,” Jesse told them.

  “Why not today?” Cid asked.

  “Today, we go in, and Calvin doesn’t want any witnesses besides the sheriff and the Egglestons,” Wayne confirmed.

  “So, what do you think we’re going to find?” Cid asked as Wayne pulled into the motel’s drive, waving at the deputy as they passed him.

  “Counterfeiters,” Wayne said with confidence.

  “Maybe, but was that enough to kill a whole family for?” Cid questioned.

  “No, but I get the idea those kids were hopped up on something. Something that took the commandments out of play,” Wayne mused.

  “Ah, the thou shalt not kill one,” Cid said, nodding.

  “I think their enforcer, at the time, took his job way too seriously. I think it was Hank Dodd,” Jesse said.

  “The kid of the state police investigator?” Cid asked.

  “Yes. Why do you think daddy swooped in and took over the investigation so fast? To save his son.”

  “I don’t know. There are four other teens involved,” Cid pointed out.

  “Two of them are dead and lying behind the printer,” Wayne said.

  “That leaves us Hank Dodd, Roland Wilson, and Mark Lamb,” Jesse listed.

  “Two of the most powerful men of this area,” Wayne said.

  “Power doesn’t impress Calvin or Sheriff Grady,” Cid observed.

  “The advantages of being rich and, in Grady’s case, ready to retire,” Jesse commented.

  “No, with Grady, it’s solving his father’s cold case,” Cid said.

  Wayne pulled in next to his fifth wheel. “I hope you don’t mind walking home.”

  “Not a problem. What time do I need to be at the meeting?” Cid asked.

  “You have a few hours. Get some rest. You look like someone blew you up or somethin’,” Jesse drawled.

  Cid walked around the corner and right through Faye.

  “Watch what you’re doing,” Faye said and brushed off her dress.

  “Sorry, I didn’t see you there,” Cid apologized.

  “Don’t go into your trailer,” Faye warned.

  “Why?”

  “Because Mimi’s there naked.”

  “Oh my lord, what did I do so wrong in my youth to deserve this?” Cid asked. He stood there a moment and decided to go to the construction office instea
d. He knocked and received a cheery, “Come in,” from Kiki.

  Cid walked in and sat down with a thump.

  “You look beat. Take a few hours off. Go and get some uninterrupted sleep.”

  “Where?”

  “Um, your trailer.”

  “Can’t.”

  “Why?”

  “According to Faye, Mimi is in there.”

  “Shit. But how? The extra keys are…” Kiki opened one of the desk drawers and rooted around, “gone. Give me your keys.”

  Cid tossed them to her.

  “You wait here,” she ordered.

  “Yes, boss.”

  Kiki eased her stiff knee down the steps and then started walking. She moved swiftly towards the end trailer. She didn’t bother knocking. She unlocked the door and pulled herself up into the Airstream. She looked around the living area but didn’t see her sister. “I swear if this is a joke, Garrett,” she said under her breath.

  “Clark, is that you?” Mimi asked, walking out of the bedroom draped in a sheet. “I hope you don’t mind… Fuck, Kiki, what the hell?”

  “I was going to ask you the same thing. What are you doing in here naked? Put your clothes on!” Kiki ordered as she pulled off the sheet. “As if you haven’t humiliated me enough, you try to seduce my best carpenter.” That’s when Kiki saw the knee brace on Mimi’s leg. “I can’t believe this. You’re impersonating me? Naked?”

  “It was just a joke, lighten up. I was just going to give Cid a little homecoming present from the boss.”

  “Just when I let my guard down and let you back into my life, you pull this. Get your clothes on. Get in that car. Pack your stuff, and get your ass to the airport. I’ll have a return ticket waiting at the counter for you. Don’t you ever contact me again. You are dead to me. D E A D to me.”

  “Mom and Dad…”

  “Are going to understand. Sometimes you can’t fix what one of us doesn’t want fixed.”

  Mimi pulled her clothes on.

  Kiki went through her sister’s purse and pulled out all of her own company credit cards. “I don’t want to know what you’ve already done with these. This isn’t who you are. You’re a teacher with a purpose.”

  “I got fired months ago,” Mimi confessed.

  “I don’t understand. Mimi, you’re preparing to present a paper to Congress.”

  “I just told everyone that to explain why I wasn’t working.”

  “Do you mind telling me why you were fired?”

  “Conduct unbecoming a teacher.”

  “No. I know you, and you’re a teacher through and through. There is no one who loves her kids more than you.”

  “Maybe a few parents too,” Mimi said.

  Kiki felt as if her world was falling apart. Ideals she thought were as solid as concrete were now crumbling. “Why would you do this?”

  “I’m bored.”

  “Why?”

  “Do you really think teaching is enough to fill up my life?” Mimi asked. “I need more. I need to be adored.”

  “But your students adore you.”

  “That’s not what I mean. I want what you have. All these studly males at your beck and call. I want to be you.”

  “Careful, Sister. You’re sounding a tad too mental,” Kiki warned.

  “How can you pass all that meat up every day?” Mimi asked.

  “Very easy. They’re my colleagues. I depend on them to get the job done right and on time.”

  “Come on, you don’t even fantasize about… let’s say, Cid…”

  Kiki pushed down her emotions. “Cid isn’t interested or looking. I’m not looking, and I’m his boss. There are certain lines that are not to be crossed.”

  Mimi snatched her purse away from Kiki. “I’ll leave but not before I have a talk with our parents about how badly you’ve treated me. You’re not going to have a family anymore, Sister dear.”

  Kiki steeled her spine and blocked the door. “Jake, have you been filming this?”

  “Yes, Kiki,” said the cartoon voice from Kiki’s iPhone. “Would you like me to send it to Mr. and Mrs. Pickles?”

  “Hold on,” Kiki said. “Well?”

  Mimi looked beaten. She sat down and started to cry.

  “Jake, hold off, but please keep a record of this,” Kiki requested.

  “Will do.”

  Kiki sat down next to Mimi. “Honey, I think you need some help. I’ll go back home with you, and we’ll go and see that nice counselor Dad wanted us to see. I think it’s time to resolve the problems between us.”

  “But your job?”

  “Wayne can handle it until we have our lives sorted.”

  “But this is an important job?”

  “Family is more important,” Kiki said. “We need to try. If we can’t resolve this, then we’ll have to work out some boundaries. I think we need a professional to help us do this. What our parents did to us as kids was criminal. We don’t have to compete with each other. Each of us is amazing.” Kiki flipped open her utility knife. She grabbed her ponytail and sawed it off.

  “Oh my god!” Mimi said.

  “Instead of being the same but different, let’s be different but the same,” Kiki said and left the hair in Cid’s trash can.

  “You really should donate it.”

  “I’ll leave that up to Cid. Now let’s go home,” Kiki said.

  Cid woke up in the office trailer. He couldn’t quite remember how he got there, but as he looked around him, it all came flooding back. He looked at his watch and then at his cell phone where he found a text from Kiki.

  Taking Mimi home to California. Wayne’s in charge of the High Court construction until further notice. Your keys are in the inbox. Will explain later.

  Kiki must have come in to find him asleep. He grabbed his keys and headed for his trailer. This time, Faye wasn’t there to warn him. He opened the door, and other than a wicked-long black ponytail in the wastebasket and his top bedsheet wadded up in the corner of the banquette, nothing looked disturbed. He rescued the hair and put it in a Ziploc bag. “Whose hair?” he asked himself. “What went on here?” He didn’t have time to investigate. One look at his watch told him he had twenty minutes to get cleaned up and over to what was left of Cabin 4

  ~

  Wayne had the full crew carefully cleaning out the fallen ceiling from the explosion in Cabin 4. He did what he could to rescue the half-century-plus timbers. The reclaimed wood was stacked and covered with tarps until the smoldering supply shed could be replaced by a pole barn. It would be built to withstand the winter’s snow and designed to blend in with the rustic exterior of the High Court cabins.

  Jesse had his hands full. The Espinas had arrived ready to work. It didn’t take a genius to see that Dita’s crew were nervous about being around so many law enforcement personnel. Jesse explained to Dita and Belinda about the attack on the motel and assured them, he felt the saboteurs were satisfied with the obliteration of Cabin 4.

  “But it’s not obliterated,” Dita pointed out, using Jesse’s fancy word to show him she was his equal.

  “It’s important for anyone outside this worksite to think that it is. If one of your workers blabs to a townie, it could get one of us killed.”

  “Don’t you worry. My crew knows how to keep a secret. Where’s Kiki?”

  “Her sister had a breakdown of sorts. She’s taking her home.”

  Dita nodded appreciatively. “Family should come first. I bring my family with me,” she said, putting her arm around Belinda. “There are times when we could strangle each other, but we know what it’s like to be separated by bars. It takes the temper away.”

  He started them on the completed cabins. “Your materials, fortunately but inconveniently, are housed across the street in the warehouse of the gallery. I’ll arrange for them to be brought over.”

  “No, Jesse, we’ll take care of that. That’s what we get paid for.”

  “If you need me, I’ll be within radio distance,” he said, handi
ng two radios to Dita and Belinda. “Come along, and let me introduce you to the security team.”

  Luminosa looked over at the four RVs full of strong Spanish-speaking women who were now milling around the renovated cabins. There was no language barrier for Luminosa. However, the slang the girls spoke was confusing at times. Still, the ghost was pleased to see these women taking on the traditional male occupation of being a roofer and be respected for it. She wanted to stay longer with the women, but Faye reminded her that they were almost ready to open the sealed room of Cabin 4. She prayed that, in doing so, it would clear up the mystery of who killed her and why. Justice was getting closer and closer, and Luminosa was ready to give it.

  No one was more surprised than Cid to get a text from Father Paolo Santos. Father Santos was the priest the paranormal investigative world sought out when they could not cross a malevolent spirit. He did a lot more than exorcisms. He prepared the soul for the light by hearing confessions, counseling the dead on their options, and, if he had to, forcibly send them to a place where they could no longer hurt the living.

  I have been in contact with Mia and Ted. They are confident that you can handle any situation before you, but Mia worries you have no clergy to help move your powerful spirit into the light. I’ll be arriving at High Court tomorrow. I’ll be staying at the St. Paul Parish house.

  “Father Santos is coming here tomorrow,” Cid said, pushing his hand through his hair nervously.

  Faye manifested. “Who is Father Santos, and why are you upset?” Faye asked.

  “He is a friend and a very powerful priest. I suggest, unless you are ready to move on, that you give him a wide berth.”

  “He can’t make me…”

  “He can,” Cid said. “Excuse me, I have to consult with the others over this development.”

  Faye watched Cid leave his trailer. “You can come out now,” she said.

  Miguel Bautista materialized. “A holy father is coming here,” he said as if he were keeping a diary instead of showing any alarm.

  “I think he’s either from Mexico or Spain,” Faye said mater-of-factly. “Cid has worked with him many times. I think he’s some kind of superstar in the paranormal investigation world.”