Sand Trap (Haunted Series)

by Alexie Aaron

  “Murphy’s back,” Whit blurted out. “I just thought you would want to know.”

  Tears of joy sprang to Mia’s eyes. “How is he?”

  “Whacking his axe all over the place.”

  “That sounds like him. I was worried. Thank you for letting me know.”

  “Whatcha doing?”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “Where are you, and what are you doing?” he slurred.

  “We have the nightshift at the museum.”

  “Don’t they have guards for that kind of thing?” Whit questioned.

  “Yes, but they can’t see the ghosties like I can.”

  “Oh.”

  “Whit, I don’t mean to be rude. I appreciate you looking in on Murphy and calling to let me know he is, as far as you can tell, alright, but I’m kinda busy here. Come to the point.”

  “Geeze, Mia, stop being such a bitch.”

  Mia hung up on him.

  He called her back. She was in the process of hitting ignore but softened and answered. “Yes.”

  “Sorry about the bitch thing. Anyways, Tom and I were sitting here and…”

  “Put Tom on the phone.”

  “K. Tom, she wants to talk to you.”

  Mia heard Tom refuse and Whit force the phone into his hand.

  “Hey, Mia,” Tom’s cheery voice started, “How’s things?”

  “Oh, you know, busy. What’s going on there?”

  “Just sitting at the bar with Whit while he cries into his whiskey.”

  “You going to drive him home?”

  “We’re both walking home,” Tom said and giggled.

  “Ah, you’ve been drinking too?”

  “Oh yes, one can’t listen to Whit lament about blowing his second chance with you without the numbing benefits of fermented grain.”

  Happiness filled Mia, and she felt like dancing. She steadied herself before talking further, “Tom, tell Whit that I’ll call him tomorrow. Thank him for the Murphy update, and give your mother my love.” Mia hung up the phone and twirled around, happy with the knowledge that Murphy was okay and Whit liked her, maybe more than liked. She opened the office door, and the look on Ted’s face told her that maybe she shouldn’t tell him about Whit. “Murphy’s fine.”

  Ted got up and rushed over to her. He picked her up and twirled her around. “The axe man survives to fight another day!”

  Mia waited for him to put her down, but he just held on to her. She looked at Ted, and he was thinking. Phew, she thought that maybe he was going to make a move on her. “Ted, put me down.”

  “Oh, sorry, I was just thinking that we may want the Murphmeister here,” he said as he gently lowered her. “Do you think Whit can be trusted to bring him here or should I drive out and get him?”

  Mia thought a moment about Whitney pee pants and Stephen Murphy driving on I90 and grimaced. “Let me sleep on that. Speaking of which, do you want to catch a snooze? I’ll amuse myself on the internet.”

  Ted smiled and shook his head. “Not sleepy, doll, and the thought of you on the internet is funny. Do you even have a computer?”

  “No, but I’ve used them before. At the library, Burt’s, Beth’s and other people’s,” she said defensively. “And hey, don’t patronize me, fuckhead.”

  Ted’s face lit up. “Fuckhead? You charmer.” He picked her up again and held her so her face was level with his. “Don’t flirt with me, unless you’re serious,” he said softly.

  “I feel like I’m in a twilight episode. The geek and the freak,” Mia said to defuse the situation. “I wasn’t flirting, I swear.”

  “Sorry, I’m a bit punchy,” Ted said, not letting go of her. “You see, Mia, when you live a life in the shadow of Nerd Mountain, you get hurt a lot. Women don’t take you serious. They think because you’re uber smart that you don’t have feelings.”

  “Put me down. Come sit down,” Mia ordered.

  Ted did as requested, and they moved over to the couch. He sat down, and Mia sat next to him but pulled her body around to face him.

  “I’m not sure if it is the moment, the excitement of the hunt, or just plain that neither of us has been laid in a while. But I want you to think before we go any further. We’re friends, colleagues, and very vulnerable. If it were just the two of us then I don’t see why sex would be a problem. But it isn’t just us, is it? It’s Beth, Burt and Mike. They have to work with us. They need our talents, although they would never say it out loud.”

  “Yes, they tend to be closed-mouthed about it.”

  “It’s not that I don’t find you desirable, because I do, but I also know that with me comes Murphy and maybe a few other skeletons.”

  “Sex would be wonderful,” Ted said. “But I see your point. I find you exciting, Mia. I’m human and horny as hell. I’m not the only one.” He stopped and pulled a wrinkled piece of paper out of the pocket of the loaned jeans. He handed it to her explaining, “I think he thought he was loaning these jeans to Burt.”

  Mia read the note. “Don’t hurt her. She’s all I have.” Mia’s nose burned but she would not let tears fall. “When were you going to show me this?”

  “Never.”

  “That would have been the smart thing.”

  “So there you sit. You could have me, the super geek, the maestro of the keyboard, the king of kinetics, or the cop. He has no skills except an ability to handle a flamethrower.”

  “Well if I had to choose…” Mia paused, looking at Ted. “I couldn’t, because now’s not the time for this. Plus, part of me thinks that we would be making a big, colossal, terrible mistake.”

  “The sex would be marvelous.”

  “It would be so good, that you never would want to stop.”

  “I would lose my focus.”

  “Considering my growing maternal instincts and all around broodiness, I would be knocked up in the first month,” Mia said, raising her eyebrows.

  “Oh, I didn’t think of that.”

  “That’s because you’re a guy.”

  “At least you noticed.”

  “Oh I noticed alright, but it’s your hands that I’m in love with. The way they fly across the keyboard, mmmm momma, they turn me on.”

  Ted looked at her, smiled and laughed until the tension between them faded. “I’m not ready to be a daddy, Mia.”

  “I know, Ted.”

  “It was nice to visit the idea though.”

  “I hear ya.” Mia got up and offered, “Why don’t I take a walk, so we can put some space between us? My phone is on.”

  “Cool beans, just stay away from the baddies. I can’t be running to help you all the time. I gots a trap to devise.”

  “A trap?” Mia questioned.

  “For the lady in the glass. We have to trap her before we can deal with her. She’s dangerous, and we need to do this soon. What if she gets out of the museum?”

  “We will have a hell of a time finding her,” Mia mused. “A trap huh?”

  Ted smiled as the solution flooded his mind. “If Burt is successful in getting us some of the pulverized dolomite or even if he’s not. We could have Father Santos bless some sand.”

  Mia caught up with Ted. “You’re going to build a…”

  “Sand trap,” Ted finished.

  Chapter Twenty

  Bernard pulled into the lot and smiled as he saw Mia’s truck parked there. He grabbed the bags containing changes of clothes for both young people. He didn’t have the balls to ask Mary to once again shop for him. This was way out of her job description, and he didn’t want to offend the woman. Tired as he was, he had perused the racks while talking to Ralph on his cell. Between the two of them they guessed that Ted wore boxers and Mia needed more support.

  He stopped by security at the west gate. He was greeted by the guard there.

  “Any problems overnight?” he asked the man.

  “No, Dr. Wesley, just a quiet night according to the crew.”

  He thanked the man and headed up to his off
ice.

  Mary was already there and on the phone. She nodded at him and smiled when he laid a toasted bagel with cream cheese on her desk.

  He opened the door to an empty office. He put his bags down and walked over to his desk where a note was scrawled in Mia’s handwriting. “In refurbishing.”

  He chuckled. Mia did need refurbishing, after the last few days, but he wasn’t going to be the one to tell her. He moved the paper and saw that Ted had begun to design a gadget of some kind. There was a material list. “Glass – ask Clara first.” Acrylic sheet and various other metals and wires were also listed. He looked at the design and followed the young man’s logic. Whether it would work was in question. Burt’s name was underlined several times.

  He carefully stacked Ted’s work and set it on the corner of his desk. He sat down and clicked on the screensaver. The monitor sprang to life. Bernard clicked on the museum’s server and in a flash he was there. Everything he was used to waiting for was accessed almost faster than Bernard was comfortable with. He played around and left the server and ventured onto the internet. Not only was he there in a flash, but he suspected Ted had streamlined everything so no time was wasted anywhere. Bernard closed the window and looked at his monitor. There was a file with a star on it that said, “READ ME.” He opened it, and there was a page listing improvements Ted made, suggestions on increasing productivity, and chastisement for Bernard’s lame passwords.

  He chuckled, and his esteem of the young man increased. There was a knock on the door. “Come in.”

  Mary walked in, chewing on a bite of bagel. She held up her finger, indicating she needed to swallow before talking. “Sorry, I was starving.”

  “Anything new to report?”

  “Not on Courtney Fairchild. The police called and want you to call them back. I pushed and found out that they are ruling Dr. Tan’s death an accident. Freak accident, but the museum is in the clear. They still want to talk to you first. The kids are all hyped up on caffeine and, last I heard, are begging equipment off of various departments including the construction crew revamping the picnic area. I have been okaying this and that since I got here.”

  “Where were the dynamic duo seen last?”

  “Grainger Hall.”

  “Really? Mia doesn’t like the Hall of Gems much.”

  Mary raised her shoulders in a shrug. Do you want me to have security send them back?”

  “No. But do let me know if they are pushing their welcome with the staff.”

  Mary laughed. “Dr. Wesley, between the two of them they have charmed, teased, and flirted their way into even the stodgiest of academic’s cold prune-like heart.”

  “Oh, you must be talking about Dr. Winthrop.”

  “Indeed I am. I better get back to the phone,” Mary said and left the office.

  He heard them well before they entered the outer office. Laughter and voices raised in accordance with the amount of sugar and caffeine in their systems.

  Mia burst into his office smiling and dripping sweat. Ted followed her, hat on backwards and grinning ear to ear.

  “Bernard! We have so much to tell you,” she said in a singsong voice. Not waiting for him to respond, she continued, “Ted’s got a plan. We met the most interesting people. Emma’s got a stick up her butt. Dr. Winthrop has a hidden ping pong table. Ted and I beat him and Dr. Mosley three games to two. We need lab space for Ted. Has anyone heard from Ralph?”

  “Sit down, munchkin, and I’ll do my best to catch up with you.” He turned to Ted who had eyestrain showing. “You too, Theodore.”

  Mia sat on the couch, and Ted took the chair. Bernard noticed the chemistry had changed a bit between them, but he still had hopes that Ted would win his goddaughter’s heart.

  “I overlooked the rough sketch on my desk of your plan, Ted, and it is genius. You could be a millionaire if you changed direction. I bet you’ve been told this before. Let’s see… Emma had a recent colonoscopy and no trace of wood was found. Dr. Winthrop’s ping pong table is moved around with the knowledge of a few of us. We keep the info away from the board, as they can’t wrap their minds around the idea that anthropologists, archeologists and all the other ologists are human and need the occasional diversion of games too. There is an empty lab a couple of doors down from here. And Ralph is finished with your place. He is heading back to town today.”

  “Good I need to get home and shower and…”

  “Can I ask you to stay closer in town? I worry about you two driving back and forth fatigued as you are.”

  “We’ve got no clothes.”

  Bernard pointed to the sacks in the corner.

  “No place to sleep.”

  Bernard got up and handed Ted an envelope with two Renaissance keycards in it. “It’s for a two bedroom suite.”

  “Ted, it looks like we’ve been kidnapped,” Mia said, raising an eyebrow.

  “It would be nice not to have to drive,” he reasoned. “It’s okay with me.”

  “Thank you, both. I will make it up to you. In the meanwhile, your shift is up. I want you to take a cab and don’t come back until you’ve both had some quality sleep, a shower and a meal that is void of sugar,” he instructed.

  “What if the lady causes more trouble?” Mia asked as she got up.

  “I’ll call you. You’re going to be five minutes away, ten in heavy traffic.”

  “K.” Mia picked up the bags, noting the expensive toiletries. “Come on, Teddy bear, let’s go jump on some expensive beds.”

  “Right behind you.” Ted gathered up his papers and put them in the sack containing his clothes. “Thanks for the opportunity to help you out,” he said shyly. Mia left the office. Ted waited for the door to close before speaking again. “She had an episode. When she came out of it, she thought I was her father. When she woke again she didn’t remember it at all.”

  “There was a lot of trauma in her childhood, Ted. Some of it occurred in this very museum. Don’t take it personally, she doesn’t think of you like she thinks of her father.”

  “I hope not because the more I hear of that guy, the less I like him.”

  “Sadly, he is a man so besotted with his wife that Mia never mattered to him. She has Ralph, me and you PEEPs now. She’ll be just fine.”

  “I hope so, sir.” Ted shook his hand and left the office.

  Bernard pondered what Ted had told him. Mia seemed so strong in recent months. Her aunt sang praises about Mia’s abilities and the strength her niece was exhibiting. Was this all just a front? Mia hid a lot, but he was certain that this was just a one-off. She did have a handle on her past. He wondered what the incident was that pulled a nightmare from her childhood memories to light.

  ~

  Burt woke up, and it took him a minute to orient himself to his new surroundings. Homely Homer’s guestroom. The clock on the nightstand read 9:45am. He sat up and felt the ache of too many beers hit. His forehead pounded, and the room seemed a little too bright. He found his way to the bathroom where a set of large towels had been set out for his use. He ran the shower and got in, appreciating the hot water on his sore muscles. He needed to check in with his team. He told Beth to be prepared to travel to Chicago first before they would come back down here. Mike was happy with the plan. The windy city and its attractions were more to his tastes than the homespun country fare he had been brought up with.

  Burt followed the smell of coffee into the kitchen. Homely stood at the stove and greeted Burt with a question, “How’d you like your eggs?”

  “Like my head, scrambled.”

  “Don’t worry, get a little grease in your system, and the hangover will fade.”

  “Wise words.”

  “You left your phone on the table. It’s been dinging like a crazy fucker since I came in from the garage this morning. You may want to check your messages.”

  Burt walked over to the table and picked up the phone. He pulled up the list of outstanding text messages. Ted, Ted, Ted, Beth, Ted, Ted, Mike, the development
group, Ted, Ted. He moved over to the voicemail and he noticed a similar pattern. Maybe he better read Ted’s text’s first. He started laughing.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Ah, my tech, Ted, starts off with a problem, and as the texts continue, I can see him solving the problem on his own. He must have been up all night. He sent me an email with a scanned plan on it for a sand trap, but it depends on me getting some of that blessed dolomite.”

  “As I said last night, I think that is possible. Any other news?”

  Burt read further. “Beth wants to know when I’ll be in Chicago. She hasn’t heard from Ted or Mia. I sense she is feeling me out to see if I think there is a ‘thing’ between the two of them.”

  “Jealously.”

  “Poor kid thinks she’s in love with Ted. Ted is oblivious, and aside from a brotherly concern, I don’t see Ted feeling anything towards the girl.”

  “What about Mia?”

  Burt scratched his head. “Don’t know. Never saw any chemistry, but they are thick as thieves when it comes to Murphy.”

  Homely set a plate of eggs in front of Burt and told him to help himself to some coffee. He sat down and chomped on some toast while Burt ate. “Good news on the glass. They had it in stock, and it should be here anytime now. I’ll need some help with the windshield. It’s a two man job.”

  Burt cleared out the Ted texts and worked his way down the list. The development group left a phone number and asked for him to call after one in the afternoon. He set an alarm on the phone to do just that. He then, as he sipped his coffee, listened to his voicemail. Ted, hyped up on caffeine, talked very fast. Basically the calls mirrored the texts. The last call gave him the location of the Renaissance hotel he and Mia were now crashing in. He mentioned it was a two bedroom suite overlooking where the Decepticons warred with the Autobots. Burt’s mind took a minute to catch up. Oh, he thought, the Transformers. Ted was a man-child who needed to get laid. He just prayed it wasn’t with Mia.

  ~

  Whit rolled out of bed and threw up. Fortunately, he had placed a bucket there the night before after a bout of porcelain hugging in his bathroom. After he and Tom weaved their way home, he hit the bottle he kept for company. Hell, he was company. The small apartment he rented on a weekly basis was only big enough for sleeping in. His stuff that he didn’t junk from his house was stored in one of Tom’s mother’s outbuildings. She offered to put him up, but he declined, telling her one cop’s hours were bad enough but two, she would be driven insane. She just smiled and didn’t push the idea, knowing he was trying to figure out his life after Sherry’s death. In short, he needed space.