Spooked on the Gulf Coast (Gulf Coast Paranormal Trilogy Book 3)

by M. L. Bullock

  “Change?” Jean asked her.

  “Change your clothes, he say,” she replied as she pointed to the half-open door. She was obviously having a difficult time with our language.

  “Who says we have to change?”

  “Lee-Moynie. He say, change your clothes. Tonight we have…” She fussed with a word she could not remember. “We have eating.” She used her hands to show us exactly what she meant.

  “Like a party? A feast?”

  “Yes! Par-tee. We have eating and partee.”

  Others complained at such a proposition, but not Jean. She did not whimper. To her mind, this was why we were here. Instead, she called the girl to her. “What is your name?” Jean busily claimed the softest-looking pallet and began to unpack her clothing, obviously searching for the most appropriate gown.

  “Leela. I am Lee-la.” The woman pointed to her chest with a smile.

  “My name is Jean, and this is Gabrielle. We need water, fresh water to bathe. Go now, Leela.”

  I could tell the woman didn’t know what to make of Jean, but she didn’t ask for further instruction. I followed her to the door and peeked outside. Another cluster of young women approached. Leela spoke to LeMoyne in her wild language. He had no difficulty understanding her and apparently offered her the clarification she needed. As she hurried away, LeMoyne left too, but one other stayed. He leaned against a lone palm tree and tucked his thumbs under his suspenders as he watched the girls approach.

  This young man was older than I, probably twenty. He had hair the color of golden wheat and pretty tan skin, and unlike the others, he was clean-shaven. His eyes were an odd brown, warm, almost amber. I thought him rude to stare at ladies in such a way. The observer didn’t offer to help us at all. In fact, he laughed to himself, as if he found us all quite beneath him and certainly amusing. Was he laughing because LeMoyne had tricked us? Did he laugh at us because we looked a poor sight? What did he expect after we had spent three months at sea? How many of us had died to come to this wild place? Several, including Dead Claudette and other girls, my Poppa and many sailors.

  And then he saw me peeking from behind the door. He didn’t laugh at me. He watched me soberly and tilted his head as if to invite me outside. I had to admit, I was curious to see more of him. He was a very pretty man, much prettier than his companions, and he seemed intelligent. But then Jean’s words came back to me again.

  “Come away from there, dear. Close the door now.”

  “But the others are coming.”

  “Lock the door, Gabrielle. They will have to find other arrangements. We are full here. There are four of us in one cabin. Let’s make a curtain. We can use these blankets. I hope Leela will be back soon with that water. We’ll have to make do with this bucket for bathing. It’s large enough, and neither one of us are very big. Come on now.”

  I slowly closed the door but gave the stranger the only thing I had.

  My smile.

  It made my heart leap to do so. I decided then and there if I were to marry anyone, it would be him.

  Chapter Seven—Sierra McBride

  “Joshua! Move it or lose it, buddy!” I yelled from the kitchen as I stuffed my face with a handful of fresh strawberries. I couldn’t get enough of these sweet treats. At least they were all natural. I rubbed my belly and quietly urged my child to stop flipping around. He was still small, and according to the doctor I shouldn’t be feeling “butterflies” yet, but tell that to the McBride kid. I wondered for the nine-hundredth time if the baby would be a him or a her. I couldn’t guess. I think Joshua wanted a girl, but I could go either way.

  “Josh!” I said between mouthfuls. I turned around and there he was, wearing nothing but his sweatpants; his hair was wet, and his eyes had dark circles under them. “Sorry. Hey, you look like hell. Are you feeling sick?” I stepped back, clutching my bowl of strawberries. I didn’t want to get sick at this point in my pregnancy. Or any point, actually.

  “I didn’t sleep at all, Sierra. Thanks for noticing.”

  I put the bowl down and poured him a cup of coffee. “My snoring again?”

  “No, it wasn’t you. I just couldn’t sleep until, like, five this morning. I had these horrible nightmares about…well, it’s not important. Let’s just say they were bad dreams. Thanks for letting me sleep in.” He accepted the coffee and then kissed my forehead.

  “No problem, sweetie. I figured you’d need the rest before you went to work tonight.”

  He shrugged and didn’t seem as excited about his new security job as I was. “What time is it, by the way?”

  “It’s almost two o’clock. We have a GCP case; Midas wants us to be at the office in thirty minutes. He mentioned something about the Mobile History Museum. Should be pretty interesting and highfaluting. You up for this gig, or do you want me to go solo on this one?”

  He gave me an are you kidding? grin. “No way. You know I can’t pass up an investigation.”

  I knew that without him saying so, which worried me to no end. We were quickly running out of funds, and my paycheck wasn’t enough to cover everything. “Well, if it came down to work or a case, I think you should go to work.”

  He sighed and tossed his towel over his shoulder. “I get the picture, Sierra. You want me to work; I got a job, remember? I’ll be ready in a few minutes.”

  I felt desperation rising up within me. I knew I was being a pain, but I couldn’t help myself. “I’m just saying, Joshua. We can’t get any further behind on these bills, and now we have baby bills to pay for. I do not want to ask your parents for help; I just don’t want to do that. Not if I can help it.”

  He sighed and leaned against the counter, looking at me like I’d lost my mind. “Calm down. Neither do I. We will figure it out, Sierra Kay. I promise, even if I have to get two jobs! And trust me, I know how you feel. You tell me every day. Just give me a break, all right? I got a job, didn’t I?” He walked toward the kitchen door and I gasped.

  “Oh my God, Josh. What happened to your back? Did you fall or something?” There were three red streaks on his back, close together like an animal scratch. A big animal. Like a big cat.

  “No, I don’t think so, but it stings like hell. Maybe I did fall.” He wrenched his blond head around but obviously couldn’t see what I saw.

  “Let’s put something on that.”

  “Fine, got any painkillers?”

  “Yeah, I’ve got a cream that will help.”

  “I don’t want to know what it is, but bring it on. It’s hurting worse by the minute.”

  Ten minutes later, Joshua was doctored up and we were headed out the door. I questioned him about the scratches, but he couldn’t recall a thing. “It’s so weird too because I dreamed this big black thing was chasing me. Like a shadow man, but no, that’s not right. More like a shadow woman because of the way it screamed at me. And now I wake up with scratch marks.”

  I felt the stomach butterflies again, only this time it wasn’t the baby. My sixth sense had ratcheted up. I had the distinct impression that something screwy and supernatural was happening, but I couldn’t say what. I left it alone. Joshua didn’t mind investigating the supernatural as long as it didn’t touch him in any kind of way. When it did, that was another story.

  “I don’t know how I’m going to handle wearing that uniform for eight hours. This is killing me.”

  I kept my eyes on the road and eventually eased into one of the narrow parking spots in front of the Gulf Coast Paranormal office. My phone had been dinging all afternoon with emails from Cassidy mostly and some from Midas. While Joshua slept, I’d cruised the internet and searched for everything I could about the Pelican and the story of the Pelican girls. I couldn’t wait to share what I knew about the horrible yet heroic story. But like Midas always said, first guesses about who’s haunting a place are often wrong. If there’s even a haunting at all.

  Joshua’s phone rang, and he answered before it got to the second ring. “Yes, this is Joshua.” After a second h
e began rubbing his forehead. Never a good sign. I gathered my stuff and waited for him. I was his wife, so I had a right to be nosy. “But I already purchased all the equipment. I got the permit, the uniform…great. Well, thanks.” My heart sank. He looked at me and shook his head. “The Blue Badge Security Company changed their mind. Can you believe that? They hired me and then changed their mind. Apparently, the previous guy came back with his hat in hand and they plan to rehire him. I’m out and he’s in. What a bunch of BS!” He banged his fist on the dashboard, then looked out the window at the GCP office. “I’m sorry, Sierra Kay. I’m the world’s worst husband.”

  “I don’t think so, not at all, but don’t start feeling sorry for yourself, Joshua McBride. You hated that job anyway. You’ll just have to find something else. Or you could always go back to school, Josh. We could make it work.”

  “You think so?”

  “Yeah, I think so. We’ll talk about it tonight over sushi.”

  “Sushi? How about Chinese?” He grinned back at me with his schoolboy grin, the one I fell for hook, line and sinker.

  I kissed him. “Fine, but I get egg rolls. Let’s go inside and get everything ready. Looks like you’ll be investigating tonight after all.”

  “Yeah,” he said with an even bigger grin. I tried not to let it bother me. Something had to give in the financial realm. Boy, his parents closing that Laundromat really screwed us up. But for better or for worse, right?

  Ten minutes later, I got the coffee going while Joshua powered up the screen and connected my laptop. We didn’t have to wait long for Midas and the rest of the team.

  “Geesh, you look like hell, Josh. You sick?” Midas said in his deep, booming voice.

  “No, I haven’t been sleeping, is all.”

  “And he has this horrible scratch on his back,” I added and showed Midas the picture.

  “You didn’t tell me you took a picture. Heck, that looks worse than I thought.” Joshua stared at the image.

  “How did you do this?” Midas asked with a serious expression.

  “Heck if I know; all I know is I had horrible nightmares and woke up with this pain in my back. This thing, a woman, like a shadow woman, screamed at me. And then she scratched me, and then I woke up—with these.”

  Cassidy plopped her purse down and took a look at the picture. “Looks paranormal. See the way the welts have that reddish tint around them? Oh…” She caught my expression after I saw the look on Joshua’s face. “Sorry,” she added apologetically and went for a cup of coffee.

  “Paranormal? Come to think of it, I did wrestle with this thing. It was terrifying!” Joshua’s panicked expression hurt my soul. “Could it attack you in your dreams, do you think? We’ve never had shadow people in our house before.”

  Midas’ face was a mask, but I could read him. Yeah, that meant something, but he didn’t want to alarm Joshua. He knew my husband was already skittish about such things.

  I said as brightly as I could, “It’s probably not that at all. Let’s get started. Hey, Pete’s here. Anyone else coming, Midas?”

  “Helen and Bruce are still out of town in Gadsden. Aaron’s at a doctor’s appointment with his grandma, but he’s going to meet us at the museum. And our client, Patricia Atkins, might want to tag along with us at least on the Night One investigation.”

  Everyone paused at that announcement. It was rare to have a homeowner or business owner participate in an investigation. We’d done it once or twice, including at the Crescent Theater, with dangerous and dramatic results. Usually, Midas wouldn’t even consider it. I wondered what changed his mind in this case. “It will be fine, guys. Let’s see what we’ve got. As you know…Pete, you going to join us here?”

  He’d come in but was distracted by a lengthy phone call. “Yeah, let me put this phone on mute.” We gathered around the oval-shaped table in the front office, and I dimmed the lights as Joshua lit the screen.

  Midas began his case assessment. “All right, guys. Patricia Atkins is our contact at the Mobile History Museum. She contacted us on behalf of her stepfather and boss, Carl Fletcher. Carl is the current administrator and curator of the museum. Here’s what we know.” For the next ten minutes, he relayed the story to us and Cassidy shared the photos she took. I’d seen them before, in the emails she sent, but I clicked on each one so the guys could see them too.

  “Now, I think it is important to point out that the museum’s former curator, Deter Simon, died recently and that he and Carl were close friends. If there is an actual haunting, it could be Deter. And there’s more about Deter you should know. He died of a certain type of fast-moving dementia. Cassidy wrote down the name of it. Anyway, while under the influence of this disease, he wrote a bunch of graffiti in his office closet. You should see it. It is disturbing. And it is in French, old French. We took pictures, so you should have gotten those too, Sierra.”

  “I did, and wow. That’s just nuts. He wrote all over that closet. As near as I can tell, it was the same sentence over and over again, ‘She haunts me now. She haunts me now…’” I shivered as I showed the picture on the big screen.

  “It’s even more disturbing in person,” Cassidy added.

  “Yeah, I want us to put a camera in that closet and in his office. Deter is in this story somewhere, but I’m not sure where,” Midas said.

  Cassidy raised her hand and said, “I’ve been painting, and the subject is clearly a young woman on a ship. The ship is the Pelican. I don’t believe that is a coincidence. The young woman I have been painting is Gabrielle Bonet. I have one painting of her, but I think she wants to show me more. She wants to tell her story. Something happened to her, and she wants us to know about it. She’s desperate for help, even in death.”

  “Wow, Cassidy. Please send me a picture. I’m dying to see what you have. Here’s what I know: concerning the ship reproduction, it is a half-replica of the Pelican, a ship that arrived at Dauphin Island in 1704. It would have been the Lottery ship. There was precious cargo on board, twenty-three young women who would later be called the Pelican Girls. These young women were selected by the French government to become the wives and mothers of the new French colony in Mobile. The King of France himself had a hand in the selection, and only the most pious and loveliest girls were selected for this ‘Lottery,’ as they called it. The winners of the Lottery were given free passage to the New World and were promised marriages to French patriots. Unfortunately, after a stop in Havana, many of the sailors and passengers on the ship became sick from yellow fever. Many were buried at sea. Most of the women did make matches and went on to marry and have children. However, there was one tragic case concerning a Gabrielle Bonet.” I paused at Cassidy’s gasp. “Oh, that’s your Gabrielle.”

  “That’s her, that’s the name I know,” she confessed and breathed a sigh of relief. I didn’t know why she doubted herself. We all believed in her psychic-painting ability. Everyone was quiet, and I kept reading. “Gabrielle married one of the French patriots, but he deserted her after their wedding night. And after deflowering her—these are the writer’s words, not mine—he rowed away with one of the native women and was never seen again. Gabrielle lost her mind and walked around in her petticoats with her dark hair unbound and without shoes. One woman whose name has been lost to history tried to help her, but Gabrielle disappeared one day and never returned. And here’s a partial list of the girls…” I handed the list around the table.

  “Jean’s name is not on here. She must be the woman you mentioned. Jean was her friend. But there was another girl, Claudette Toussaint. Gabrielle called her Dead Claudette. She died on the ship, or she was thrown overboard on the ship and drowned. She might be haunting the place. There is a ship replica there, so she might think it is the actual Pelican. And who knows? It could be that some of those artifacts belonged to Claudette.”

  “Well, let’s keep our minds open. We have Deter, and we have Gabrielle and maybe Claudette. Let’s talk about tonight’s investigation. That is, if yo
u guys are interested.” Midas grinned, knowing good and well every one of us wanted to check out the museum.

  For the next few minutes, we worked out our plan. I tried not to notice how excited Joshua was. He didn’t for one minute regret losing that job. No, this was what he loved doing.

  Now if we could just think of a way he could earn a living doing it, that would be great.

  Chapter Eight—Midas

  We parked the vehicles behind the museum and abstained from wearing anything that would identify us as a paranormal investigation group. Sierra knew me well enough to know that I wasn’t crazy about having Patricia here for this investigation, but sometimes that was how things went, especially in a high-profile case or one involving a prominent business. I got mixed signals from Patricia; I wasn’t sure what that was about. I guessed she wanted me to assure her that there was nothing paranormal going on, but I couldn’t do that. Not with a good conscience.

  Aaron was waiting for us in the museum parking lot. “Everything good with Nina?” I asked.

  “Yep, all good and ready to roll, Midas.”

  “Glad to hear it. You want to go inside and meet the client with us? She’s going to be hanging out with us tonight. It’s…it’s a long story. It’ll be okay.” We left Sierra in the van and went inside the museum. I shook Patricia’s hand and said, “Hey, Patricia, this is my team. You met Cassidy. This is Joshua and Pete—both are tech experts. This is Aaron; he’s new to our team but a seasoned investigator. Our last team member is in the van; her name is Sierra. She will be monitoring tonight’s activities from there with Aaron.” I clicked the walkie-talkie and said, “Say hi to Patricia, Sierra.”

  “Hi, Patricia. You’re going to do just fine.”

  I said, “Copy that.” To the rest of the crew I said, “Let’s set up cameras, two in the exhibit area and two in Deter’s office, with one of those on the closet. Then we want two in the storerooms, one trained on that breaker box.”