by Alexie Aaron
~
“Explain it to me again?” Cid asked as he bribed Mia with his last remaining ribs.
Mia smiled as Cid placed the meaty, sauced ribs on her plate. “Since the ancient times, people have been making pilgrimages to what they considered places of power. Their trail held a bit of their energy. After hundreds of years, the paths themselves became super highways for those knowing how to use them. I can access them in a bilocated state.”
“How about Murphy?”
Mia looked at her friend who was lurking by the jukebox. “I don’t know. Ira and I saw Elvis, or a persona of the gentleman, riding the lines.”
Ted whirled around from where he was typing furiously on the keyboard of the iPad, sucking on a rib bone. He said something Mia didn’t understand so she took the bone out his mouth. “I said, you didn’t tell me you saw Elvis.”
“Elvis Presley not Costello, Teddy Bear.”
“Oh, that’s different.” Mia put the bone back in his mouth, and he went back to work.
“Murphy pulled me out of a vortex once. I never considered that he would want to enter one.” Mia looked at the man that punched the same song before the quarter of the corporal dropped. They had already heard Patsy belt out her signature song Crazy three times. “Excuse me, don’t let the waitress take my plate,” she ordered Cid, “I’m not done yet.”
“Where ya going?” he asked.
“To save the manager from having to call in a repair person for the jukebox,” she explained as she wandered over and glared at Murphy as she dropped a few quarters into the hand of the woman who was trying to select her songs.
“It kept playing, Miss Kline. Now the first time I could understand, but by the third she was singing about me.”
“We all get a little crazy at times,” Mia said as she covertly hooked a finger around Murphy’s back pocket and pulled him along with her.
Ted looked up and dropped his bone as his jaw fell open.
“What? Tell me what you see?” Cid pleaded.
“I see my fiancée dragging Stephen Murphy backwards through the restaurant by his back pocket.”
“Damn, I wish I could see that. How’s Murphy taking it?”
“I do believe he’s embarrassed.”
Mia got to the table and said, “Sit.”
Cid felt the bench give beside him.
“Now sit there and be good, so I can finish my meal. If you’re a good boy, I’ll let you stay with Mike tonight,” she told the space in front of her.
Mia picked up a rib and started eating. Cid took it for granted Murphy acquiesced.
“I’ve hacked the St. Louis police records and have found out something very interesting.”
Cid and Mia stared at Ted as if he’d sprouted horns.
“What the fuck, dude, shush,” Cid said looking around. “This place is crawling with the boys in blue.”
Ted took a moment to acknowledge the uniforms and had the decency to look a little sheepish. “As I was saying, there had been ten homeless unaccounted for who had been using the warehouse for their personal flop house. Now, I know they may have moved on, but they haven’t been by to pick up their disability checks from the shelter in weeks. Something either frightened them away or…”
“Carried them away,” Mia finished. She closed her eyes and focused on the vortex. She thought she felt something move in the recesses of her mind. It felt like a small pressure change as if a door opened. She opened her eyes and felt it close again. What the hell was going on with her visitor? My mind is not a bed and breakfast, she screamed with her thoughts.
Ted’s phone vibrated. He looked at the text and smiled. “The cavalry has just crossed the Mississippi and is headed for the hotel.” He responded with a text and returned to his keyboard. “I’ve sent Audrey the information I have,” he said as he packed up the iPad and keyboard. “What’s for dessert?”
Cid rubbed his stomach. “I’ve some room, Mia?”
Mia smiled. “There’s always room for Jell-O. Speaking of, Theodore Martin, how do you know what it looks like going down the drain?”
Ted and Cid started laughing. Murphy and Mia looked at the two, hoping one of them would confess. It was Ted.
“Well you see it involved me and Cid not receiving an invite to Mory’s pool party…
~
“Whew, this is pretty posh for the likes of us,” Mike commented as the three got in the elevator. “Can we afford this?”
“Mia’s picking up the tab. She says since we are helping her find her father, her trust fund could put us all up in style,” Burt said. “Ted got a deal by booking five rooms. There’s a hot tub and indoor pool.”
They got out of the elevator, and Audrey pointed out the window of the landing. “There’s the Arch. The Gateway to the West,” she said and pulled out her camera and took a few shots of the skyline.
“And right next door is the back of the FBI,” Mike said and gently lowered her camera.”
“No, that blue building? Who paints the building bright blue? Aren’t they supposed to be unobtrusive?”
“They, not their buildings, evidently,” Burt said. “Come on, our rooms are down here.”
Audrey had just started to unpack when there was a knock on her door. She walked over, cautiously looked out the peephole and saw no one. She chained the door and opened it. Still no one. A bit puzzled she hissed, “Murphy?”
A chill of air caused her to be able to momentarily see her breath. She shut the door quickly and put her back to it. She pulled out her phone and speed dialed Mia.
“Patsy Kline’s place of worship,” she answered
“Mia, there’s something at my door…”Audrey said and launched into what happened after the knock.
“Did you invite it in?”
“I may have said, ‘Just a minute,’ as I walked there. I don’t remember, but I didn’t say come in.”
“How many knocks?”
“Five.”
“I think you’ll be alright. Do you have any salt?”
“Yes, but the maids are going to think I’m nuts.”
“We’ve got a battery-charged hand vacuum in the PEEPs command center. Salt is no problem. I’ll have Murphy check out the hall when we return. Have you eaten yet?”
Audrey rolled her eyes. Mia was always hungry and assumed everyone around her was too. “Yes, just an hour ago. I was going down for a swim and to unwind in the hot tub but…”
“Listen, go ahead. Odds are, whatever knocked on your door will be long gone by the time you’re ready to leave. We’re just finishing up. I’ll meet you at the hot tub,” Mia said and ended the call.
Audrey walked away from the door, feeling a bit silly. She put her phone down and dug out her swimsuit from her suitcase. When she traveled with her parents, a knock on the door was usually a maid or someone mistaking your room for theirs. Her experience with the Basso entities had made her overly cautious. Still, knowledge was power. Knowing that most ghosts do not want to throw you down a story to your death over finding an envelope, eased the stress. She quickly donned her swimsuit, threw on some sweats, grabbed her key, and boldly opened the door.
A normal temperature hallway greeted her. She stepped out of her room and shook her head at herself for overreacting. She got as far as Burt’s room before she felt the chill return. She knocked on his door, and he opened it immediately.
“Burt, there’s something…”
“In the hall knocking on doors?” he finished.
“You too?”
“Yes, Mike just called. He was on his way to the exercise room and felt the chill. I’ll have Murphy check it out. Here, let me escort you. I was headed for the hot tub. Not often PEEPs gets to stay in a swank place like this.”
While Audrey waited for Burt to get his things, she noticed the salt line at the door. Evidently she wasn’t the only one disturbed by phantom knocks. Seeing this somehow made her feel brave and a lot less stupid.
Chapter Twenty-six
&n
bsp; Mia and Murphy entered the hall on the third floor. She looked down the corridor at the maid who pushed her phantom cart towards them, knocking at doors as she progressed. Mia nudged Murphy, and he walked up to the woman. Mia hung back, not wanting to intrude as the farmer talked to the maid. She handed Murphy a towel, and he thanked her and returned to Mia.
“She’ll talk to you,” he said.
Mia walked over, read the maid’s name tag, and before she could say anything to Eunice, the older woman launched into a tirade about the bus being late. She had to take a cab because she didn’t want to be late on her first day on the job. She remembered getting into the cab, but that was all.
“Do you know you’re dead?” Mia asked bluntly.
The woman looked around in surprise. “If I’m dead, where’s the pearly gates? I don’t know about you, young lady, but although this is a nice hotel, it is not my idea of heaven.”
“I think you got lost somehow. You were probably thinking so intently on getting here and starting work that your spirit continued the trip after your body had lost its pulse.”
“Imagine that. Well that explains things. I’ve been knocking on doors all day, and no one had the decency to let me in.”
“Eunice, do you think you could backtrack and find your way to your body, or home?” Mia asked.
“Lordy, girl, I certainly know my way home.”
“I’ll trust you to find it then. I’m sure the gates will be open and ready for you once you settle your affairs,” Mia assured her.
“I’m sure you’re right. Oh, that man of yours. He’s carrying an axe.”
“Yes, I noticed it. Goodnight, Eunice, may you find peace.”
The woman nodded and disappeared.
~
The group had assembled in the hot tub by the time Mia got changed and walked over to the enclosure. Ted watched her toss off her oversized PEEPs tee and walk over. “Where’s Murphy?” he asked when she arrived.
“He’s checking out the building. Oh, Audrey, the ghost was a maid who must have died on her way to work. I advised her, and she shouldn’t cause any more trouble tonight. I’m sorry, one doesn’t expect a newish building to have a ghost problem.”
“There is a haunted hotel here in town,” Mike informed them.
“I don’t get it, people actually book hotel rooms in places they know are haunted?” Audrey said. “I think I used to be one of those, now…”
“It’s like bringing work home with you,” Mike said, trying not to ogle Mia. Audrey was bad enough with her one-piece racerback swimsuit. He had to stay much longer in the swimming pool than he wanted to after she walked in. He sought out the hot tub just before Mia arrived dressed in what his mother would call a teensy weensy. He concentrated on looking her in the eyes when he asked, “How are you holding up?”
“I’m a bit on edge. I don’t like the present situation, but I’m resigned to seeing it through.”
“No, honey, I’m not asking about your engagement…” he teased.
Ted growled at him. Mia laughed.
“I’d like to head back over to Cahokia early in the morning to check a few things out with Murphy,” she told them.
“Are you going to bilocate?” Burt asked concerned.
“Ted, Cid and I discussed it. I think I can move faster that way and see things a bit clearer when in that state. I won’t however be OOBing anywhere near the warehouse. That vortex scares me.”
Burt nodded. “I’d like to take a look at it myself, set up a camera.”
“Be careful, don’t go alone,” Mia advised. “With the information we’ve gathered so far, it looks to be something very dangerous to the living.”
“Heard and warned,” Burt said.
“I’m going to hit the pool,” Cid said as he got up. “I think I’ve been cooked to a medium rare. See yah later, lobsters.”
Audrey watched as the handsome man with the washboard abs and construction-hardened muscles moved gracefully to the pool. She wasn’t the only one watching Cid. Mike was a bit put-out. Normally he would be the head turner of any group. But Cid had youth on his side.
Mia watched Mike’s face and felt sorry for him. He hadn’t realized yet that there was more to attracting females than being handsome. Sure, there are a tremendous amount of shallow creatures out there, but did you want to spend your life worrying that the next firm body and chiseled chin was going to turn your sweetheart’s face away from yours? Mia looked at Burt who sat next to Mike. She appreciated his looks and his mind. He was a hero in her eyes. It didn’t matter the cause, Burt was in there fighting. Sure, as with most men, ego got in his way from time to time. She wasn’t that sure that ego didn’t get in her way too.
“Do you want to go for a swim?” Ted asked, rousing her from her thoughts.
“Yes, I think I would like to swim a few laps. Clear the mud from my mind.”
“Mud?”
“Mud dissolves in water, Mr. Science.”
“It doesn’t actually dissolve…” Ted went on to tell Mia in detail about the separation of water and dirt particles which were actually tiny rocks.
Audrey sighed as she watched the two of them, Ted with his thin wiry frame, hands moving in front of him as he instructed Mia in mud. “She’s very patient with him,” she observed.
“I think he’s the only one she’s patient with,” Mike commented.
“I think you’re right,” Burt agreed.
“I beg to differ, she’s patient with me,” Audrey said. “And the two of you try her patience. There’s a difference,” she said sagely.
“Mike, I do believe we’ve been insulted,” Burt said.
“And by a rookie,” Mike added.
Audrey got up, turned around and stared at the two of them. “I may be a rookie in the ghost arena, but in life, I’ve got a few notches on my belt,” she said, got out of the hot tub and walked over and started to towel off.
“Well, we’ve been told off,” Mike said.
“Indeed we have. Lesson learned here is, when it comes to Audrey, Ted, and Cid, Mia can’t do any wrong.”
“Don’t forget Murphy.”
“No, I believe, Mia’s pissed off our axe-wielding friend enough that he sees her faults.”
“Doesn’t stop him from caring for her though,” Mike said. “I can’t see or hear the man, but his actions speak volumes.”
“Indeed they do. Tell me, if you died suddenly would you stick around?”
Mike thought a moment. “No. I think I’m interested in the next adventure. You?”
“I used to be able to answer that question, but now, I just don’t know. The more we discover, the more I want to know. If I stick around, like Murphy, maybe I’ll be able to send information back so the veil will be lifted.”
“Sounds like you’d be cheating the next generation of ghost hunters, man.”
Burt looked at him and asked, “Care to elaborate?”
“One word. Spoiler.”
Burt laughed, and Mike joined in with him. Audrey looked over at the two. She envied their friendship. They seemed to have found a balance which was great for PEEPs. They were both type A personalities, but each managed to take second seat when the other’s expertise was needed. She sat down and turned her gaze on the terrible two-some of Ted and Cid. They too were similar, but aside from some very snarky comments, they had a great working relationship.
Mia who had just exited the pool headed over towards her.
Audrey greeted her. “This is a nice reprieve after the last few days.”
“I think every group needs a bit of R & R,” Mia said, sitting down on the lounge chair next to her and stretching out. “I, for one, can use the rest.”
“Tough day.
“Yes indeed. I’m not sure where all this is going to lead, but I’m thankful to have friends along to support me.”
“You have wonderful friends for the knuckle-dragging gender,” Audrey commented.
“How are your knuckles?”
&nb
sp; “Sorry?”
“I consider you my friend.”
Audrey turned to her and gushed, “You do? I’m so pleased.”
Mia looked at her oddly. “I think we’ve been friends from the start, but I’m new to this socialization crap, I could be wrong.”
Audrey was overwhelmed and tears flooded her eyes. “It’s just that I have so much respect for you, I’m a bit overwhelmed.”
“Time will take care of that,” Mia confessed. “Most girls lose patience with my awkwardness toot sweet.”
“They have no class. Speaking of no class, I wonder what Mike and Burt are laughing about in the tub.”
“Odds are, fart jokes,” Mia said and closed her eyes. “You’ll get used to it. Fart jokes, intense discussions over comic book heroes and villains. Who would win if two characters, not remotely ever to exist in the same space, would fight each other? They went on for months discussing whether or not Professor Snape or Gandolf would win in a wizard fight.”
“Snape,” Audrey said.
“Of course Snape. Gandalf has morals, and isn’t played by the dishy Alan Rickman.” Mia sighed.
“He’s a wonderful villain.”
“Diehard,” the two women said in unison.
“Speaking of dishy villians, Jonathan Pryce in Something Wicked this Way Comes.”
“I’ve never seen that movie,” Audrey admitted.
“When we get back, come over, and we’ll watch it together. I saw it not long ago. Cid was educating Murphy on the lesser known classic movies. I snagged the DVD and brought it home.”
“We could have a sleepover,” Audrey suggested.
Mia’s face brightened. “I’ve never been to a sleepover before. I mean with guys, but that’s different.”
Audrey laughed. “I expect so. I’m thinking snacks, booze and giggles.”
“Sounds like a night with Burt,” Mia said, regretting the words as they left her mouth. “Ah shit.”
“Don’t worry. I expect the two of you had some fun.”
“Yes we did. Tell me, I know you’ve been in relationships before, is it normal to think about them from time to time even though you’re with someone else?”
