by Alexie Aaron
“Brian, what can you tell us about Sabine?”
“Sabine comes here almost every day. She likes the musical theater. I never had the honor of making her acquaintance, but she was hard to miss.”
“We are trying to figure out why she didn’t return to her body. Did you see anything? Think, even the smallest thing would help us,” Mia urged.
“A few weeks ago I noticed a purple-caped man following her, staying in the shadows, but since he didn’t act menacing I left him be.”
Mia noticed that Brian was trying to reconcile that his inactivity was justified.
“Then yesterday I saw her running through the streets being pursued by this caped man. She would get away only to find him beside her. I got the feeling she was being maneuvered towards the river. I ran after her only to lose her amongst a crowd of corporal beings. I spied the caped man and followed him. He was oblivious to all but Sabine. He caught up to her at the river.”
“Take us there,” Bev demanded.
“Yes, my lady.” Brian pointed the way and started walking.
They followed him closely, not wanting to lose him as a group of commuters exited the Lake Street station and spilled out onto the streets.
He stopped across the street from the Chicago River. “Down there is a boat dock. I can get you to it, but you must follow my steps exactly. We have to do it in a straight line or we will perish,” he warned. Brian counted off a few steps and started in a line. Bev followed him, and Mia took up the rear. He stopped just the other side of the street and explained, “This is where he took off his filter of purple, and his cape was a swirling black eddy. He put this around her, and just before she disappeared she called to me. She said, ‘Help me.’ I thought it was an act, a play, I wasn’t sure.” Brian looked down at the ground. “How was I to know she really needed help? It has never happened before.”
“What happened next?” Mia prompted.
“Follow me,” he said, cautioning them to stay on a strict course. He stopped before a boat docked on the exact angle they had been walking. “He brought her aboard this vessel, and within a few minutes the boat took off. The boat returned last evening, but Sabine did not.”
Bev looked at the boat and the angle of the river heading out into the lake. She looked behind them and moved her arm as she closed one eye. “Ley line,” she said. “The ramp, the boat and the river follow a Ley line.”
“What’s a Ley line?” Brian asked.
Bev looked aghast that a bi-locater didn’t know the magical power lines that ran under the surface of the earth.
Mia explained, “There are these pathways that are perhaps magnetic in origin. They connect thousands of ancient places of burial and worship. They are straight lines that some travelers use to travel faster. There are rumors that you can cross the water if you stick strictly to the lines. There’s a line under the Dearborn Street Bridge. Because of this line I can cross the river there. Chicago has many lines. The trick is to find the one that will take you where you want to go.”
“There is a society that maps these lines,” Bev told them. “I think we need to investigate the boat owner and captain. Approach him in a corporal state. Find out who hired him and where he took the boat.”
“Do you think the caped man communicated with the captain during the voyage?” Brian asked.
“Can you talk to people on the street?” Mia asked.
“No, but I can get my sister’s attention by whispering in her ear.”
“Bev and Sabine can do this with each other. I’ve only been able to shortly communicate with my friend Burt, but his sensitivity was powered by an entity at the time,” Mia confessed.
“There’s something else I have to tell you.” Brian looked at the women for a moment, dreading their reactions. “I can hear Sabine. I don’t know where she is or why I can hear her, but I can hear her ask for help.”
Bev took a step backwards. Mia grabbed her before she walked out of the ley’s protection. “This astounds me. I’ve been working with her for years, and I can’t hear her now.”
Mia thought for a moment. “It could be that the original contact Sabine made was along this line. It super powered their connection.”
“Pah,” Bev said. She shook her head. “There’s a better explanation, one that’s not so scientific.”
Mia looked at her and said, “Go ahead, give us your theory.”
“It’s easy. They’re split-a-parts.”
“Bullshit,” Mia scoffed.
Brian looked at the two women. Each determined to best the other with their science and magic. “Excuse me,” he said to get their attention. “It doesn’t matter why. What matters is I can hear her and she’s in trouble.”
“Yes, she is,” Bev said. “Thank you for reminding us as to why we are here.”
Mia tapped at her wrist as if a real watch resided there. “My OOB time is almost up. Can we all meet somewhere and discuss our next course of action?”
Brian looked thunderstruck. “It will be most difficult for me to meet anyone in my corporal self.”
“Are you married?” Bev asked.
“Nnn… no,” he stammered.
“In prison?”
“In a way. Could you come to me maybe?” Brian’s voice was wavering, his confidence fading.
Mia nodded. “Just tell Miss Chicago here your address, and we will come see you as soon as we’ve rested.”
Brian gave the information to Bev as they walked carefully up the ramp and, once they were free of the pull of the water, went their separate ways. As Mia watched the young man travel, she saw that the purposeful stride resumed. He seemed to gain strength.
“I think he’s in love with our Sabine,” Bev pointed out before they turned away from the retreating figure.
“Now what would you know about love?” Mia teased.
“I’ve been in love more times than you have grains of salt.”
“Whoa, how old are you?”
“Never mind. Let’s go home.”
Chapter Twelve
Burt put down his phone and looked at the assembled PEEPs team. “That was Susan Hofmann. Evidently, her sister had another fright at the house. She is sending a vlog file to the PEEPs email. I asked her to send the last few entries along with the one in question.” Burt looked at Mike. “This thing is ramping up. Are you ready to leave ASAP?”
“No problem, I’ll just throw some clothes in a bag. Do we have a place to stay?”
Beth flipped open her folder and handed out reservation confirmations to the men. “It’s a small place, but our budget is tight.”
Ted who had his laptop open and was immersed in the vlog file just nodded and said, “You’re the man, Bethy.”
Beth started to rethink her masculine wardrobe of jeans and a PEEPs tee but realized that Ted was on automatic. He was on the scent of something, his fingers furiously tapping on the keys. He dove under the table, dug around his gear bag a moment and came up with a projector.
He aimed it at Mike’s mother’s dining room wall and asked him, “Be a dude and turn off the lights. You guys have to see this.”
Mike rolled his eyes, not in disinterest, but at the dude remark. He got up and turned off the imitation candle chandelier.
Burt walked around to the other side of the table to view the footage. There were hands on the back of the chair that their client was sitting in. They were as clear as day, but Marjorie didn’t react to them, not even when one of them touched her.
“Is that a ring on the right hand?” Bev questioned. “I wonder if it’s a signet ring. It may help me to figure out who this is.”
“Great eyes, Bethy, but maybe this will help.” Ted clicked on some keys and explained, “This is four days before Grandma went ballistic. I cut the sound because it’s not important. Look over the lady’s shoulder into the kitchen.”
The group watched as a man dressed in a colonial military uniform strode purposefully from the kitchen into the dining room. He leaned agains
t the table looking back into the kitchen where another man appeared. This man was dressed in servant’s clothing of the same time period.
“What the ef?” Mike said as the military man drew a pistol out and waved it at the other before disappearing. The other specter turned around and stalked off into nothingness.
“Are you sure the time stamp is correct?” Burt asked.
“As sure as you’re being a douche for assuming I didn’t check it four times,” Ted answered.
Burt picked up his phone and reconnected his last call. “Susan. Burt Hicks. Yes, the file came through fine. If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, send all of it. Yes. We found more evidence in the vlogs. We will keep it private. Good. Thank you. We will be out tomorrow morning. I’ll call when we get in. No. I wouldn’t recommend going into the house. Okay, see you then. Bye.”
The team looked over at Burt expectantly. “She’s sending all Marjorie has. She asks for our discretion on the content of the logs. Ted, continue to view them. Beth, I think those dueling pistols are more important than Mia and I thought. Mike, what’s your take on this?”
“It seems to be a whole different ball game than just Grandma Hofmann’s a bit pissed with the man of the house. How old is this house?”
“New, a year at most,” Beth answered him.
“Is it built over an older foundation?”
“I don’t know, I’ll check on it,” she said, writing herself a note.
“Why? Where are you going with this?” Burt asked.
“Remember that investigation we did in Florida?”
“In the gated community, Sunshine Acres,” Burt replied.
“Yes, that home was brand new but built on top of an old trail. That’s why the homeowner kept seeing people walking through the house,” Mike explained.
“Okay, but what does this have to do with the Hofmanns’ activities? I think the dueling pistols brought the men into the house. The chair has always had Grandma in it. This is a case of haunted objects.”
“But why so many? What fuels them?” Mike questioned.
“Anger,” Burt started, “There is a lot of anger in that house.”
“If this were so, then every household would have a wild marauding ghost in it.”
Burt nodded at Mike’s point. “So, you think there is something else going on?”
“I’ve not been there as you have, but I’d think we’d be wise to collect as much data on the site of the house as we can, along with investigating Grandma Hofmann’s chair and the origin of the missing dueling pistols.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Burt said, glad to have the old Mike back. “Do you want to take lead on this investigation?”
“No, you were there first. The client has already bonded with you,” Mike reasoned. “I realize I have been a prima donna lately. Apologies to the group.”
Beth and Ted looked at each other in disbelief but accepted his apology. Burt remained stoic and just nodded.
A tone coming from Ted’s laptop pulled his attention from the uncomfortable moment. “Dudes, the vlogs have arrived.”
Beth mentally checked off that she was now one of the dudes and vowed to look into her wardrobe.
~
Mia entered her body and opened her eyes, looking up at Sabine’s ceiling. “I’m up,” she said to the room. “Is that coffee I smell?”
Tauni shuffled over to look down at the petite young woman and commented, “You’re still on the floor, precious.”
“Well, that would make it difficult to drink coffee, wouldn’t it?” Mia pushed herself up on her elbows before letting her stomach muscles raise the rest of her. She leaned forward and massaged some life into her legs.
“Fucking hell!” Bev bellowed from the sofa. “I have pins and needles from my toes up my crotch!”
Mia started laughing. Tauni walked over and helped Bev with waking up her legs.
“You have to bend them. Wiggle your toes. That’s my girl,” the nurse instructed.
“Where’s Gerald?” Bev demanded.
“Mista Shem has gone out to the pharmacy. I fear our Sabine is heading into the point of no return. I called my daddy, and he prescribed something to keep her with us.”
This news got Mia off the floor. She rose quicker than her legs wanted. She teetered for a while but stabilized herself. “I need some caffeine, and then I’ll work on locating our boat captain. Bev, you call the ley line expert.”
Gerald entered the apartment, pleased to see the ladies had returned. He handed over the package from the pharmacy to Tauni and walked over to Bev who was drawing on the table cloth in the kitchen.
“You would think Sabine would possibly have a piece of paper in this place, but no,” she complained.
Mia stumbled out of the hallway, still working a cramp out of her left leg. “Gerald, boy am I happy to see you.” She proceeded to inform him on what they had found out, including the knight in shining armor that might be an asset to finding Sabine.
“He can hear her?”
“That’s what he said.”
“How are you coming on the research with the boat and its captain?”
“Dug myself a hole and I am quickly sinking.”
“This is an area that I’m better at.”
“I was hoping you’d say that,” Mia said. She thrust out her arm where copious notes were written on it in blue ink. “This is what I found out so far.”
Without comment, Gerald pulled his phone out of his pocket and began copying the information from her arm. He nodded when he had it all and starting dialing one of his contacts. Mia hobbled into the kitchen for another cup of coffee and was met by Tauni who attacked her arm with an alcohol swab, mumbling about poisoning the skin. Mia just smiled and took the reprimand graciously.
“Oh, leave the girl be, Tauni,” Bev said. “She had to write it somewhere.”
Tauni sniffed and walked back in to watch over Sabine.
Mia poured a cup of coffee, offering one to Bev. She accepted the brew and motioned Mia to come and look at the diagram she had drawn out on the table.
Mia could make out Chicago and several ley lines that moved away from the river. She pointed out Big Beaver and the Manitou Islands off the northwest coast of the lower peninsula of Michigan.
“I don’t think a boat could travel to those islands, let alone round trip, by the time Brian said it had been gone,” Mia stated.
Bev tapped the table and drew some little circles. “These are undocumented islands that I know about. I’m sure there are more maybe a couple hours out.”
“I don’t understand undocumented. In these days of satellites and GPS, there are no undiscovered islands in Lake Michigan,” Mia scoffed.
“They could be cloaked in magic like…”
“Avalon. You have to be freaking kidding me,” Mia said, pulling out a chair and climbing on top of the seat.
“What are you doing?” Bev asked.
“Just trying to get away from your bullshit. It’s piling up,” Mia teased. She looked down at Bev and then at the map Bev had drawn on the table. A fleck of gold shimmered before one of the lines pulsed. Mia closed her eyes and opened them again. The other two lines were pulsing but not as vibrantly. More lines moved over the tablecloth, lines that hadn’t been drawn. She shook her head in disbelief. “Bev, put your finger on that line.” Mia pointed to the center of the three inked lines. “Move it up the line until I tell you to stop,” she instructed and waited until Bev’s finger hit the point where all the hidden lines transected. “There, put an X.”
“Here?” Bev asked as she made the mark.
Mia nodded just before she passed out, falling into the arms of the alert Tauni.
~
Sabine sat down on the cold, pebbled shore and stared off in the direction where she was hearing the breathing. She focused and thought, “Help me.”
The breathing hesitated and a small but audible male voice said, “We’re trying to find you.”
“We?” she qu
estioned.
“Ladies Mia and Bev, and your Sir Brian.”
Sabine’s heart leapt. She almost lost contact but settled down and asked, “Are you the knight on the street?”
“Yes, I am sorry I failed you, my lady of caliber.”
“Save me now.”
“I vow to save you. Stay strong, do not give up hope,” his voice faded and the breathing resumed. It was labored after their communication, but she could still hear him.
“Sir Brian of Chicago”, she thought and smiled, not feeling so alone anymore.
Chapter Thirteen
Mia opened her eyes and focused at the green boughs overhead. She sat straight up saying, “Toto, we aren’t in Kansas anymore.”
“I’d say you’d took a wrong turn at the Mississippi, if you was heading for there,” a familiar voice pointed out.
Mia spun around, almost wrenching her back in the process. “Murphy? How the hell did I… you… What the fuck?”
“Lordie, where’s my bar soap when I need it?” The axe carrying ghost patted his pockets.
“Okay, this is a dream.”
“What gives you that idea? “Am I the man of yer dreams?” Murphy stood tall and sucked his gut in. He winked at her.
“It has to be a dream. Oh shit, I’m dead. I’m not dead, am I?” she asked.
“No, you ain’t dead.”
“Well then how do you explain me being in the city one second and here now? I must have hit my head when I fell off the chair.”
“Tell you what. You let me tell you what I know,” he said as he lowered his axe to the ground.
“Pearls of wisdom from a dumb farmer, pah.”
Murphy pointed at her and warned, “You better stop calling me stupid.”
Mia opened her mouth but couldn’t come up with anything clever to add. “Go ahead tell me what you think is going on.” She was amazed that Murphy, who had only previously in her life said four words to her, was talking. His voice was scratchy and his accent strange for the Midwest but maybe correct for his time.
Murphy cleared his voice before speaking. He wasn’t used to talking and being heard. “I was cutting down that dead wood here when a whirly-wind popped up behind me. It was all sideways, and out of the middle a hand shot out. I caught ahold of the hand and yanked. Out you came.”
