The Garden (Haunted Series)

by Alexie Aaron

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Ted watched the slow progression of the GPR with interest. The outer edges showed nothing but layers of soil, sand and rock. There was no surprise there. As the team moved inwards there were some anomalies. Ted called them out to Alan who marked the areas to be revisited.

  Burt watched the main monitor. His eyes moved around the large screen, checking each feed that came in. He smiled as he saw how focused Audrey was on her task in the dining room. He had a good feeling about her. Could she be wooed to join PEEPs? There was no promise of big money, just barely enough to live on. PEEPs had yet to move from cable television to the networks. Grant money was available, but that wouldn’t support a large team for long. Mike, after receiving a portion of the sale of the books they had found in Lund, had declined any of the profits beyond his expenses. Ted and Mia were frugal people. Ted’s inventions with several secure patents would keep the wolf from his door. Mia had a legacy that she tried not to draw from. She took handyperson jobs from time to time to augment her expenses. He, at present, was the only one that was well aware of not having enough money to live on.

  A banshee scream pierced the air over Burt and Ted. Audrey dropped what she was doing and ran into the foyer and looked up. Burt followed her eyes and thought he saw a glimmer of light before the hall table floated over the railing and dropped in the direction of where he and Ted were sitting. It missed them by inches.

  Ted looked over at Burt and mentioned, “I think someone wants a little attention.”

  “No kidding. Ask Mia if she could join us at the command center when it’s convenient.”

  “Done and Done,” Ted said to Burt. He contacted Mia. “Someone’s tossing furniture at me, pumpkin, do you think you can come upstairs and bitch slap her?”

  Burt opened his mouth, thought better of it and closed it.

  Audrey laughed as she reached for one of the legs of the table.

  Burt yelled, “Stop!”

  Audrey froze.

  Burt hobbled over. “Sorry I scared you. I didn’t want you to get hurt. Objects a ghost touches could be very cold, cold enough to burn you,” he explained. “Like…”

  “Liquid nitrogen,” Mia filled in from the doorway. She was breathing heavy. “I’ve seen it peel the skin off a hand.”

  Audrey straightened up and put her hands in her pockets. Burt silently bestowed upon Mia another Bela Lugosi award.

  “You make this mess, Miss Audrey?” Mia teased.

  Audrey shook her head, causing her curls to bounce around her face. She pointed upwards.

  “Want to check it out with me? Good. How about you, Burt? You want to climb some stairs?”

  Burt glared at Mia.

  The ghost screeched again, and he grabbed the big camera and limped over to the staircase.

  Mia winked at Audrey. “Come on, doll, we better get up there, or we may have Burt tossed at Ted in a fit of temper. Speaking of which, Teddy Bear, I’d move the command center a few feet closer to the door,” Mia suggested. “When Burt hits, it’s going to be messy.”

  “Cooper, get your ass up here,” Burt growled.

  Audrey followed Mia up the stairs.

  “Next investigation better be in a ranch house, Commandant Hicks,” Mia whined but continued to climb.

  “I hear you.”

  Mia stopped at the top of the stairs and looked down the hall. By the library stood a woman in a mini dress and boots. Her iron-straightened hair flowed around her shoulders.

  Mia motioned for Audrey to stay put. Mia took off a glove and boldly walked up the apparition and reached out a hand. “I’m Mia Cooper, I don’t believe we’ve met.”

  The woman looked at her, her hand, and then grasped it.

  Anger and frustration flowed out of her hand into Mia. She was no longer in the silent house, but in a house filled with loud music and guests.

  “Elly,” a young man called to her and asked, “Where’s Buddy?”

  “I’m not his keeper, try the billiard room,” Elly said, turned heel and stomped off. She took the stairs two at a time.

  “Hey, you don’t have a billiard room,” the young man called after her.

  “Where is he, where’s my prince?” she said under her breath. Rage built in her, she picked up the nearest vase and smashed it against the wall. The music stopped, and the library door opened.

  “What’s all this?” A stocky man in an expensive Nehru jacket charged out. He looked at Elly and his lip curled. “Why aren’t you enjoying your party?”

  “Where’s Buddy? He’s supposed to be here!”

  “Buddy, that dago with the missing front tooth?”

  “He’s a hockey player, for cripes sake,” she spat.

  “Is this the behavior of a cultured woman?”

  “No, Father,” Elly answered.

  “Go into the gray room, and we’ll have a little conversation.”

  “But my guests.”

  “They won’t miss you, now get.”

  “I’m too old for the gray room. I’m thirty-years-old today!” Elly turned to leave.

  Her father grabbed her arm, spun her around and punched her in the face. Elly fell hard.

  Mia let go of Eleanor’s hand. “I’m sorry. Did you ever find Buddy?”

  Eleanor shook her head. She pointed to Mia.

  “You want me to find him?”

  She nodded.

  “Eleanor, I’ll do this, but I have to know. Why did you hang yourself?”

  She shook her head.

  “Did someone hang you?”

  She shook her head again. Eleanor patted her chest and said, “I’m Eleanor.” She pointed to the library and said, “She’s not.”

  “Who is she?”

  Eleanor shrugged her shoulders.

  “How did you die?”

  “My father beat me that night. He threw me down the stairs. I don’t remember anything after that.”

  “Do you know where you’re buried?”

  “We all end up in the garden, but not Buddy.”

  “I’ll try to find him. You rest.”

  Eleanor nodded and faded away.

  Mia rubbed her jaw and turned around. “I think we have a problem here.”

  Burt set the camera and walked over and examined Mia’s jaw. “It’s bruised.”

  “I took a right cut or Elly… Eleanor did.”

  Audrey put her hand on Mia’s arm. What happened? All we could hear was your side of the conversation.”

  Mia shook her head to clear it. “I’m sorry, I forget sometimes. Eleanor is looking for a beau of hers named Buddy – I fear that’s a nickname at best. I have a feeling he was Italian. Her father used a racial slur I’d rather not repeat. Buddy didn’t come to her thirtieth birthday party. She pitched a fit and broke an expensive vase. Her father belted her.”

  “That’s the bruise you have,” Audrey confirmed.

  “There’s more, Cooper, out with it,” Burt ordered.

  She looked at Audrey a moment. “Alan’s not going to like this.”

  “Tell us!” Audrey pleaded.

  “Eleanor died at the bottom of the stairs after being thrown down them by her father.”

  “No, she hung herself,” Audrey corrected.

  “That’s not Eleanor. The real Eleanor Bonner died the night of her birthday party. She’s in one of the graves in the garden. She doesn’t know who the woman is that hung herself.”

  “That’s why there are two of them haunting the house,” Audrey realized, “because there were two of them. The father, or someone, substituted Eleanor with a look-a-like so she wouldn’t be missed. So who’s the fraud?”

  “That’s a good question,” Mia said, pulling on her glove. “Burt, I’d like permission to return to the porn pit and collect the photos of John. There are a few women in them; maybe one of them is the fraud.”

  “That can wait. I think we need to finish with the subbasement before Sanctum Man shows up.”

  “It’s your call. I�
��ll head down there. Might as well take the servants’ staircase, it will save me some time.” Mia walked over to the panel between the front rooms and opened it. She descended the stairs. She couldn’t get the bad feeling out of her head that if the hanging Eleanor was a fraud, then Hagan didn’t legally inherit this property. But if John knew that, wouldn’t she have been exposed when Richard died in 1970? Mia hoped that Audrey could make some sense of their history.

  Murphy was waiting for her at the bottom of the steps. He nodded to his right. Mia looked and saw Sanctum Man standing there. Mia touched her ear and whispered, “Ted, send an SOS. Sanctum Man is in the basement with me and Murphy.”

  “Done and done. Be very careful, he flung Cid away like he was a booger on his finger.”

  “Thanks for the visual, over.”

  “My pleasure, over.”

  Mia slowly approached the ghost and asked, “Are you Terrance?”

  A surprised Too Tall Terry stared back at her his mouth agape. He patted his chest and nodded.

  “Stall him, they’re moving the machinery up the steps,” Ted’s voice hissed in her ear.

  Mia knew she needed to keep Terrance on this side of the basement. She hoped the distance between would absorb the sound of the men. “Can you tell me how you died?”

  Terrance put a finger to the back of his head, execution style and moved his thumb. He put his hand then over his eyes as if he was seeking something. “Wife, girls,” the large ghost managed.

  “I’m so sorry, your daughter Rebecca died of the measles, I don’t know about your wife, not yet anyway. Your daughter, Maryanne, lived to be an old lady. She had children and grandchildren.” Mia knew she had to stay away from the subject of the gold coins until she was sure that the men had exited the basement and were safely upstairs. “They both had Christian burials.”

  This seemed to calm him.

  “The basement is clear, the guys made it, Chatty Kathy,” Ted informed her.

  “Terrance, do you know why the jazz quartet was brought here?”

  “Came with me. We were headed to St. Louie. Bugs sent us to open up a few drinking establishments down there. The city was getting too hot with the dagos taking over the south.”

  Mia decided now was the time to get to the heart of the matter. “Bugs thought you stole his money.”

  “That’s a lie! Richard killed me for the money.”

  “Why would Richard need the money?”

  “Mother was sending all Richard’s money to that Gruber woman that he knocked up. She wanted to avoid a scandal.” Terrance moved closer to Mia.

  Murphy stepped between them and raised his hand.

  “Don’t be worrying about the doll, old man. She saved us from the trap. She’s got one on account.”

  “Is the gold still here?”

  Terrance smiled. “Richard took some but buried the rest with me. The idiot forgot that my rotted corpse would foul the money for quite a while. It’s still there.”

  “Is that why you’re still here? Guarding the gold?”

  “Where am I to go? My reputation’s besmirched. If Bugs thinks I’m a thief, there ain’t no way Saint Pete’s going to let me in those pearly gates. I figure by now Moran runs the joint.”

  Mia smirked at the thought of the Irish mob of 1929 running heaven. “I can change that. I can tell your family, and my friend Audrey McCarthy can tell her father.”

  “McCarthy? There’s a McCarthy in the house? Good people. They’ll set the record straight.”

  Mia noticed that the lights were flickering. Terrance was fading but trying to stay with her.

  “How would you feel about us digging you up and giving you a Christian burial? Maybe near your daughter Maryanne?”

  “If you can’t find my wife then yes.”

  “What do I do with the gold?”

  “Give it back to Bugs Moran, or his family if any of them are left.” Terrance loomed over her and Murphy a moment. “They been digging for it, but they weren’t even close.”

  “That was your nephew’s grandson and friend that were digging,” she told him. “Are you buried in the garden by Little Eddie?”

  “No, and I’m not in that stinking pit neither. Robert put me in with the hog shit. Said I deserved no better, running like I did with Bugs. Ma wanted me in the garden, said ‘I wasn’t much use to her in life, might as well fertilize the plants.’ Robert promised her the boys if she kept her yap shut. Those two was thicker than thieves.”

  “They were twisted.” Mia shook her head and changed the subject, “So Richard was running around on his wife?”

  “He stuck himself in anything that moved. Mary swore she’d get even. I wonder if she did.”

  “Me too. Terrance, I and my friends are going to try to do right by you. I take it your sanctum is out where the hog barn used to be?”

  He nodded. Terrance leaned into Mia and looked her over really well. “I want to remember your face. I’ll tell Bugs to let you in heaven, if we see you standing in line.”

  “I’d appreciate it,” Mia said.

  Terrance laughed as he faded away.

  Mia looked at Murphy and said, “I sure read that character wrong.”

  Murphy patted his chest and nodded.

  “So who’s emanating all that hate?”

  Murphy shrugged his shoulders and nodded in the direction of the woods before disappearing.

  “Ah, the call of a ripe and ready hardwood,” Mia said aloud.

  “I’m right here,” Ted whispered in her ear.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Mia walked into the kitchen from the stairwell. She opened the refrigerator and scanned its contents. Nothing interested her there. Her brain was fried and her body tired. She and Ted had brought along sleeping bags and planned on spending the night in the house. Audrey was keen on the experience so they had agreed to camp out with her. The others would be heading home soon.

  Ted walked into the kitchen and over to her. He drew her into his arms, and they just stayed there hugging for a while.

  “You wouldn’t have one of those energon cubes for me, would yah?” she asked him.

  “No, I haven’t worked out all the bugs yet. They tend to spontaneously combust if any pressure is put on them.”

  “Speaking of bugs, I wonder if Bugs Moran has any family still around?”

  “Any particular reason?”

  “I know where the gold coins are.”

  “Really!” Ted pulled away to gaze down on Mia. “I figured you had some luck down there talking to Too Tall Terry, but I didn’t want to pry.”

  She smiled up at him. “Oh, he answered some questions but in doing so brought up more. This house is a nightmare. How’s Alan handling that Eleanor is a fraud?”

  “No one’s mentioned it yet. Audrey and Burt thought we should gather more information and present it to him in the light of day.”

  “I agree. Right now I just want a meal, a cuddle and a nap.”

  “This time of night? The meal would have to be fast food. The cuddle, I have a few ideas, and the nap we can take turns after the hoard has left.”

  Ted and Mia walked into the foyer. The remaining PEEPs were huddled around the computer monitor looking at the data they collected. Burt looked up and smiled.

  “We’re going to grab some food before you guys leave, anyone want anything?”

  Mike and Cid shook their heads.

  Burt tossed him the big truck’s keys. “Could you gas up the equipment truck? It’s running on fumes.”

  “No problem,” Ted said with a twinkle in his eye.

  Mia repeated the offer to Audrey and Alan in the dining room. “Bring me back a shake, any kind. I need the sugar.” Audrey looked at her thighs and corrected, “I don’t need the sugar, I want the sugar.”

  “We’re going to take our time so don’t worry, we’ll be back before the guys leave. Alan, if you go before we get back, I wanted to say that you did a great job today. I’m impressed enough to give up my
lawyer jokes for a while.”

  “Good to hear. I’ll be back tomorrow after court,” he informed her.

  Mia saluted him, turned heel and walked away.

  Alan chuckled. “She’s an odd one.”

  Audrey shook her head, “No, I think she’s perfect. Now show me where the handwriting changed…”

  ~

  The suspension of the truck got a workout. Ted and Mia could not get enough of each other. When they finally lay curled up together in the makeshift bed Ted had thrown together, they were oblivious to the cold and that they were parked in a truck stop parking lot. The only thing they knew was, from an engineering stand point, that tab T fit nicely in slot M. Ted looked at his watch and proclaimed that they had better get the food and get back.

  They pulled on their clothes and cleaned up their mess in the back. The only tell of what they had been doing was that the back of the truck smelled of sex. Ted opened a new pine freshener and hung it over the vent.

  “I’ve dreamed of making love to you here since I met you,” he said as he helped her down and rolled the door down and locked it.

  “You’re so romantic, Teddy Bear,” she said.

  “Mia, I love you,” he said grabbing her hand tight as they walked towards the all night restaurant.

  “I love you too,” she said, wondering if she had any panties on. They had pulled on their clothes so fast she wasn’t sure. “Um Ted, I think I may have forgotten something in the back.”

  “Nope.” He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out something silky. “I took them as a souvenir.”

  “You are a perv.”

  “Yup. Now we better get inside before you freeze your…”

  “Don’t say it,” Mia warned.

  ~

  Audrey sipped her shake while she watched in amazement how much food Mia and Ted ate between them.

  Ted caught her eye. “Mia has hobbit blood, and I have a high metabolism,” he explained.

  Mia offered the last burger to Audrey. She declined and asked, “So how are we going to handle this night watch?”