by Terri Reid
The time period moved to more contemporary times. Mary saw her share of street people, prostitutes and pimps, gang bangers and distraught businessmen fade in and out of the scene before her. Finally, she noticed an altogether different group of ghosts.
Dogs, all shapes and sizes, and cats of every variety were moving within the crowds of people walking down the street. These invisible pets rubbed themselves against the busy pedestrians, cats purring loudly and dogs, with their tails wagging, looked beseechingly into the faces of the living humans on their way to work or shopping.
Mary turned and realized that she was standing in front of the Anti-Cruelty Society. These were the animals that had never found a family and died in the care of the society. Even in death, they longed to belong to someone. Mary felt a tug and looked down to see a large Golden Retriever playfully pulling on the corner of her coat. He dropped the coat and smiled up at her, his tongue lolling happily to the side. She bent down and patted his silken head.
“You’re a charmer, aren’t you,” she whispered.
He barked and wagged his tail in response.
Suddenly, the rest of the cats and dogs faded away. The drunk, who had slipped through several cars on his way back to the bar, disappeared. The prostitute who had leaned forward on a car stopped for the light vanished.
Mary turned and saw Bradley standing next to her.
“So, I’m a charmer?” he asked, one eyebrow raised.
She smiled. “Actually, I was talking to someone else.”
He looked concerned. “The deal was no connections,” he said.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t make a connection. I only patted a sweet dog.”
“Dogs can be ghosts?”
Mary shrugged. “Why not? They have spirits too.”
Bradley shook his head. “Yeah, why not?”
He put his hand on her arm and guided her back to the SUV. “So, how did our experiment go?”
“Well, I received a mini lesson on the history of Chicago. But everyone faded away when you came close,” she replied. “I don’t understand the reasons, but you seem to discourage unwanted paranormal advances.”
He smiled. “I’m sure it’s my brawny, tough exterior.”
“Or your breath.”
Bradley breathed into his cupped hand. “Really, my breath…”
Mary laughed. “Joking, just joking.”
“Funny,” he replied, putting the SUV in drive and slipping back into the flow of traffic. “So, tell me about you and hotel rooms.”
“I beg your pardon,” she sputtered.
He chuckled. “Sorry, I meant are you bothered by ghosts in hotel rooms or are you fine?”
“Oh,” Mary blushed, suddenly wishing that she too could fade away like the ghosts she had just seen. “I don’t really know. I haven’t stayed in a hotel since I was shot.”
“Then let’s see if we can upgrade to a suite,” he suggested. “That way, I’m close, but not invading your space.”
“Thanks. That would be nice.”
“So, is Kevin going to be staying with us too,” he asked casually.
Mary shook her head. “No, he has his own place. Sean didn’t really feel the need to have us living together.”
Bradley nodded and hid a smile. “I wanted to tell you that I really liked your family,” he said, adding under his breath, “Especially Sean.”
*****
Chapter Thirteen
”What was he thinking?” Mary asked in dismay as they pulled up to the hotel.
“What?” Bradley asked, confusion clearly showing on his face.
“This is the Congress Plaza Hotel,” she replied. “The most haunted hotel in Chicago.”
“Ahhh, well perhaps he thought that you would enjoy it because you’re not afraid of ghosts,” he offered.
“Or perhaps he thought it would be a good joke,” she countered.
Bradley nodded. “Yeah, that could have been it too. Do you want to find another place to stay?”
She shook her head. “No, I can deal with it,” she said, smiling over her shoulder at him. “Good thing I brought you along.”
He smiled back. “Yeah, remember that, okay?”
Bradley held back a whistle as he walked into the ornate lobby. Marble floors and pillars, tall ceilings replete with mosaic tiles, highly polished counters and a sense of resplendence expected for a showcase hotel built in 1893. “Like stepping back in time,” he said.
Mary nodded. “Al Capone used this place for his business meetings. There are secret passages between this and several other buildings in downtown Chicago.”
“Did Al tell you that himself?”
“Cute, Bradley. Cute!”
After a quick conversation with the reservations clerk, they were upgraded to a suite. On the way to the elevators Bradley heard his name called.
“Officer Alden is that you?”
Bradley turned to watch a tall, slinky blonde in high heels and a long fur coat glide across the lobby towards them. She wrapped her arms around Bradley’s neck and kissed him passionately on the lips.
Stunned, Bradley stepped back. “I’m sorry,” he stammered. “Do I know you?”
Mary snorted. “Seems kind of obvious to me,” she murmured.
The blonde’s face fell. “You don’t remember me? I’m Lily. You know, Lily from Heartbreakers Gentlemen’s Club? You busted me about ten years ago.”
“Hi, Lily, how’ve you been?” Bradley asked.
Lily perked up. “Oh, much better,” she said. “I took your advice.”
“I gave you advice?”
She giggled, high-pitched and nervous. “Yeah, of course you did,” she said. “You told me that I was much better than that kind of place. You told me I needed to clean myself up and get a respectable job.”
“Good advice,” Mary said.
Lily beamed at Mary and opened her coat to reveal a very voluptuous body stuffed into some barely there lingerie. “I’m a personal escort now,” she purred. “I’m making much better money and my clients treat me like the lady I am. You were right.”
“Lily, I told you to wait for me over here,” a rough male voice echoed in the lobby.
A bruiser, who could have easily been the entire defensive line for the Chicago Bears by himself, marched over. He wrapped a beefy hand around Lily’s tiny arm and started to pull. Lily slapped his hand and surprisingly, he released her arm.
“Stop it, Marty, this is my friend, Officer Alden, from DeKalb,” she said. “He was the one who got me into the business.”
Bradley choked. “No, well, actually,” he said. “This isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”
Mary had to bite the inside of her lip to keep from laughing.
“Batolli ain’t gonna be real happy with you talking to the cops,” Marty said.
“He ain’t a cop, he’s a friend,” Lily tried to explain.
“He’s a cop,” Marty said. “I can smell them a mile away.”
Lily folded her skinny arms over her ample chest. “Eddie won’t care,” she said. “He knows I’m loyal to him. Besides, he knows about Officer Alden.”
“He does?” Mary asked.
Lily smiled. “Oh, yeah, Officer Alden was the one who got him busted when he was a kid. He told me that when he meets up with you again, he was gonna thank you for all of those years in the slammer.”
“Lily, you bimbo, Eddie didn’t mean it like that,” Marty said, rolling his eyes in exasperation. “Eddie wanted to get even with him. Like take him out.”
Lily’s eyes widened. “No? Gosh, I’m sorry, Officer Alden, I don’t want you to get shot or nothing.”
“That’s okay, Lily,” Bradley said. “I’m not worried about Eddie Batolli.”
“You should be worried about him,” Marty threatened.
“Maybe it would be better if you don’t mention to Eddie that Officer Alden is in town,” Mary suggested.
“Now, why would I want to do that?” Marty asked, turning to Mar
y.
“You heard of Sean O’Reilly?” Mary asked calmly.
Marty nodded, “Yeah, I heard of O’Reilly. Mean SOB.”
Mary nodded. “And my brother,” she said. “I don’t think Eddie wants an entire task force investigating his dealings, does he?”
She pulled out her cell phone. “I could call Sean right now and get things going.”
Marty blanched. “Yeah, Eddie don’t need to know about Alden. Best for all involved.”
He grabbed Lily’s arm. “Come on, you got an appointment.”
“Bye, Officer Alden,” Lily waved as she was pulled across the marble floor. “Good to see you again.”
“You have the most interesting friends,” Mary commented.
“Yeah, you don’t know the half of it,” Bradley muttered. “Let’s get upstairs before something else happens.”
Upstairs they unlocked the door to the Lakefront Suite, which offered two bedrooms, a parlor and a breathtaking view of Buckingham Fountain and Lake Michigan. Mary dropped her bags on the floor and walked to the window. The fountain, shut down for the winter, was covered with several inches of snow and the lake waters were choppy and gray. “Too bad it’s not summer,” she said.
Bradley joined her at the window. “I bet watching the fireworks from here would be incredible,” he said.
“Wow, this place is so cool!”
Mary turned when she heard Joey’s voice next to her. She placed her hand on Bradley’s shoulder and motioned to where Joey stood at the window.
“This is amazing, isn’t it?” he asked Bradley.
Bradley nodded. “Yeah, it’s even better in the summer. That fountain over there has a light show where different colors are projected onto the flowing water. It’s incredible.”
Bradley heard another noise, looked across the room and then back at Mary. “Why do we have a dog?”
Crap, Mary thought. I figured I could sneak that one by him. Should have known better.
“A dog!” Joey squealed with delight and dashed across the room to where the Golden Retriever Mary met earlier that day sat in excited anticipation. They greeted each other as only a young boy and a big dog can, with hugs and kisses, wags and licks.
“He followed me home?” Mary said to Bradley.
“I distinctly remembered agreeing to no contact,” he responded.
Mary grinned. “Yeah, but he was so cute.”
Bradley laughed. “Like an 800-pound gorilla is cute. At least he won’t eat much.”
“And you don’t have to walk him,” Mary added.
She glanced over at Joey and the dog, rolling on the floor together. “Have you ever witnessed such complete and unadulterated joy?”
Bradley shook his head. “No, I haven’t. But I think we’re going to have to break up the party and discover why Joey came to see us in the first place.”
“Oh, you’re right,” Mary said. “Joey, did you have something to report about Jeremy?”
Joey sat up, his arms still wrapped around the dog’s neck. “Yeah,” he said with a breathless smile, “The bad people are really happy again. They are treating Jeremy real good. They’re even getting a babysitter to watch him while they go for a meeting tomorrow.”
“They’re not going to take Jeremy with them?” Bradley asked.
Joey shook his head. “No, they said they could get more for him if they held back. They said something about milk.”
Mary nodded. “Yeah, milking the couple for more money. This is not going to be as straight-forward as we thought.”
Joey stood up and walked over to them, the dog followed closely behind. “Is this bad for Jeremy?”
Bradley and Mary shook their head simultaneously. “No,” Mary said. “It just means that they want more money, that’s all.”
“It’s pretty common with people like this,” Bradley added. “They get greedy. So, actually, because they think they can get more money for Jeremy, he’s even safer.”
Joey smiled. “That’s good news.”
He looked longingly at the dog. “I guess I should go back, huh?”
Mary nodded. “Sorry, Joey, but we really need you there to tell us if anything goes wrong. But you can come back and play with the dog later.”
“What’s his name?” Joey asked.
“He doesn’t have one yet,” she confessed, “So you get to name him.”
“Really?” Joey asked. “That would be so cool. I never got to name a dog before.”
“I’m sure he’s happy he will be the first one you get to name.”
Joey ran over and gave the dog a big hug, turned to Mary and Bradley with a big smile and faded away. The dog whined for a moment, they went to the corner of the room and lay down.
“Sorry, boy,” Mary said. “He has to go for a while, but he’ll be back.”
Mary took her hand off Bradley’s shoulder, walked over to her suitcase and carried it towards one of the bedrooms.
“I can smell dog,” Bradley said, “even though I can’t see him, I can smell him.”
“You’re imagining things,” she said. “You can’t smell ghosts.”
He followed her into the room. “Sure you can,” he said. “It’s called Olfactory Paranormal Phenomena.”
She placed her suitcase on the bed and looked over to him. “Okay, that was impressive,” she said, “You’ve been doing a little homework.”
He folded his arms. “I can smell dog,” he repeated.
“Well, if you can find a groomer who will wash a ghost dog, I’ll be happy to bring him there,” she said.
“He’s sleeping in your room,” he said.
“He’s sleeping wherever he wants,” she replied. “You can’t really lock a ghost dog into a room.”
Bradley ran his hand through his hair. “I can never win, can I?”
Mary smiled. “The best thing to do is just get used to it.”
*****
Chapter Fourteen
The young couple, otherwise known as “the pigeons,” was actually Abby and Josh Martins. They were young professionals who worked and lived in downtown Chicago, in a trendy, upscale condo near Printer’s Row, only a ten minute cab ride for Mary and Bradley. Sitting together in a love seat in their living room, it was obvious they also had an affection and love for each other that would make them perfect parents, eventually.
“We didn’t realize the organization was criminal,” Abby explained, holding tightly to Josh’s hand. “We just answered an ad on Craigslist about an easier adoption process. I guess we should have known.”
Mary, seated between Bradley and Kevin across from Abby on a leather couch, shook her head. “These people specialize in manipulating your emotions,” she said. “They tell you what you want to hear and they make it sound so perfect.”
“Too good to be true,” Josh said. “That’s what made us nervous.”
“Well, your nervous reaction may be what will help us stop these criminals and reunite some babies with their real parents,” Sean said, standing behind the couch. “Can you tell us what contact you’ve had with them so far?”
“The only contact has been through e-mails and phone calls,” Josh said. “I’ve printed out all the e-mails and we’ve tried to remember what was said during the phone calls. Abby was better at remembering than me, but we wrote those down too.”
“Great, this will be very helpful,” Sean said.
“So, they’ve never met you?” Bradley asked. “They don’t know what you look like?”
