Natural Reaction - A Mary O'Reilly Paranormal Mystery (Book 6)

by Terri Reid

  “Rosie, what do you think?” Mary asked. “I can stay.”

  Rosie shook her head.

  “Don’t be silly,” she said. “Who would know I was here?”

  Stanley leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “You lock that door once we all leave, hear?”

  She giggled. “Yes, dear.”

  Chapter Forty-three

  Caleb Brandlocker was in the private care wing of the nursing home. He had a small room that was a cross between a hospital room and a residence. On his good days he could get himself up and around, but those days seemed to get farther and farther apart.

  Stanley knocked on his door. “Caleb, you taking visitors? It’s me, Stanley Wagner.”

  “Stanley, come in, come in,” Caleb said hoarsely, his voice barely a whisper. “How are you?”

  Stanley walked across the room and shook Caleb’s hand which was thin and frail, very different from the robust businessman who would visit the stationary store when Stanley was running things.

  “I can’t complain, Caleb,” Stanley said. “I got my kids running the store, time on my hands and I’m getting myself a pretty new wife in about a month.”

  Caleb smiled. “You old dog, you,” he said. “A new wife. Ain’t you too old for that?”

  “Never too old to fall in love, Caleb,” Stanley said. “And I seen some pretty cute little nurses out there, you ought to trying dating ‘em.”

  Caleb’s wheezing laughter filled the room for a few minutes and Stanley was happy to see some of the worry lines relax on his face. Finally, after a bout or two of coughing, Caleb was able to speak. “You’re a good man, Stanley,” he said. “And you got a fine family. I envy you.”

  “Well, hell, Caleb,” Stanley said. “I just saw your boy the other day, looks like he could run in the Olympics. He seems to be doing a fine job running your business.”

  Caleb shook his head. “I made mistakes raising that boy,” he admitted. “Thought too highly of him. Made him think he was better, more important than anyone else. Made him think he could have anything he wanted.”

  “Nothing wrong with ambition,” Stanley said.

  Caleb’s hand snaked over to Stanley’s and he held it. “Not ambition,” he said. “Cruelty. The boy’s got bad blood.”

  Stanley’s blood ran cold. “Caleb, I don’t want to disrespect you, but I got to ask you a question. My fiancé, Rosie, she’s got someone trying to hurt her because she was looking into the death of Coach Thorne. Did your boy have anything to do with that?”

  Chapter Forty-four

  Bradley and Ian were the last ones to leave and Rosie locked the door firmly behind them. She turned on the television and headed to the kitchen to pull out the baking supplies. A cooking show was demonstrating a new way to bake oatmeal cookies.

  “Well, oatmeal cookies,” she said, “that’s just the thing.”

  Opening the pantry door, she looked up and saw that Stanley had stored the flour canister back up on the top shelf. She glanced up and decided it really wasn’t all that high. Standing on her tiptoes, she reached up for the canister. She could just barely touch it with her fingertips. Sliding her fingers alongside it, she slowly moved it forward. Placing three fingertips on the bottom to hold it upright, she stretched and pushed it forward with the other hand. The canister teetered on the edge of the shelf and fell forward.

  POOF!

  Rosie couldn’t believe it. She was covered in flour, the floor was covered in flour and the shelves were covered in flour. She stamped her foot, causing another cloud of flour. “Well, well, well,” she sputtered, then looked around to be sure no one could hear her and let loose. “Damn!”

  Picking up the whisk brush, she figured she ought to get herself cleaned off first. Carefully, trying to avoid getting flour on anything else, she made her way across the kitchen floor and opened the backdoor. She stepped out on the porch.

  “Hello Rosie.”

  Rosie screamed. She tried to run back into the house, but Walter grabbed her arm and she couldn’t move. He placed a strip of duct tape over her mouth and pulled her to him. “I’m sorry Rosie, I really didn’t want to do this, but I don’t want to go to jail.”

  He pulled her arms around her and wrapped duct tape around them. Then he led her down the porch stairs and through the yard to his van, waiting behind the house. “Quite frankly, I never thought it would be this easy. Thank you, Rosie,” he said.

  Chapter Forty-five

  Mary parked in front of the Morris’ house and hurried up the sidewalk. She had a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach and wanted to talk to Lo and get back to Rosie.

  She waited for only a moment after ringing the bell and Lo answered the door. “Hi, I’m Rosie’s friend, Mary,” she said.

  “Of course, I remember you,” she replied. “Won’t you come in?”

  Mary followed Lo into a comfortably appointed home furnished in the colors of autumn; warm and bright. They walked into the living room and Mary sat on a large wheat-colored couch across from Lo. “I was thinking about something you said regarding Coach Thorne,” Mary said. “And I want to ask you about it.”

  Lo nodded.

  “You said he saved many lives and he didn’t care if you were rich and powerful or just one of the little guys,” she said. “I got the feeling there was more to what you were saying than just that. I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t important, but I need you to tell me what happened.”

  Lo shook her head. “He’s been dead for forty years,” she said. “Why even bother? Who is it going to help?”

  “Last night someone shot at me,” Mary explained. “But they thought I was Rosie.”

  “Oh, no,” Lo gasped. “Is everyone fine?”

  Mary nodded. “For now,” she said. “But now that we started investigating we can’t stop until we find out what happened. For Rosie’s sake.”

  Lo nodded slowly and clasped her hands together. “Brandlocker,” she whispered. “Ephraim Brandlocker. He was a senior and I was a sophomore. His parents were wealthy beyond my imagination and my parents, well, we were not wealthy. He picked me up in his car and took me to nice restaurants. He was nice to me; at least I thought he was being nice to me.”

  “What happened?”

  “He was on the Varsity baseball team,” she said. “He was a pitcher and he was one of their best homerun hitters too. His dad said he was going to the majors.”

  Mary remembered what Charlie said about parents who thought their children were cut out for the big league.

  “So, what happened?”

  “They just won a big game,” she said. “They were going to the Division Finals. Ephraim asked me to wait for him. He went into the locker room with the other guys and I waited by the bleachers for him. By the time he came out it was getting dark and the bleachers were deserted. I told him I needed to go home. But he told me he wanted to celebrate.”

  She shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself.

  “I told him I couldn’t stay and he pushed me into the bleachers. He said I didn’t understand; I was going to be his celebration. I screamed and he put his hand over my mouth. He told me that no one would believe I didn’t want to have sex with him. That no one would believe the poor girl. That his father would ruin my family if I didn’t...cooperate.”

  Lo stood up and walked to the other end of the room. “I kept shaking my head and crying. He pushed me down on one of the seats and started to climb over me,” she took a deep breath. “That’s when Coach Thorne grabbed him by the back of the neck and threw him onto the ground. He grabbed his shirt and pushed him up against the building. He told him if he ever heard of him doing something like this again, he would not only be expelled, he’d be arrested.”

  “What happened to Ephraim?”

  She shook her head. “Money does buy everything,” she said, “Especially in a small town. Coach tried to get him suspended, but the school board wouldn’t allow it. He tried to get some disciplinary action against hi
m, but nothing ever happened. He even kicked him off the team, but the school wouldn’t let him do it. But, the one thing he could do was bench him. Ephraim never played another game with the team. He ended up going to a Junior College and never got a baseball scholarship. He blamed the coach.”

  “Blamed him enough to kill him?” Mary asked.

  Lo nodded. “Ephraim had a lot of anger,” she said. “And no one ever told him no. No one except Coach Thorne.”

  “Did you ever try to press charges?”

  “I left town and moved in with my aunt for the rest of my sophomore year and my junior year,” she said. “My family thought it would be best for me to be gone.”

  “Why?”

  Lo turned back and looked at Mary. “When we were dating, Ephraim would bring me to his father’s fertilizer plant, out on Henderson Road,” she said. “There were huge bins with giant augers that would mix and crush the ingredients together. Ephraim liked catching small animals and throwing them into the bin, just to watch them die. That’s the kind of person he was. That’s why my parents sent me out of town.”

  “That explains a lot of things,” she said. “Thank you for telling me.”

  “Please, don’t let Stevo know,” she said. “Even after all these years, he might be angry...”

  Mary nodded. “I understand,” she said. “I won’t let him know.”

  Mary hurried out to the car; the feeling in the pit of her stomach was growing stronger. She nearly jumped when her phone rang.

  “Hello?”

  “Mary, it’s Ian,” he said. “Rosie’s gone.”

  Chapter Forty-six

  Rosie lay on the back floor of the panel van on a pile of old moving blankets.

  This is so unsanitary. And what is he thinking, there are no seat belts back here, if we were to get into an accident, I could be thrown from this vehicle and killed.

  Killed.

  Walter wants to kill me. Well, I’m never going to date him now, even if he asked nicely.

  That’s ridiculous, stop thinking silly thoughts, you’re engaged now. You can’t date other men anyway.

  Stanley.

  If I die I can’t marry Stanley. I love Stanley. And I think I’ve found the perfect dress. Mary wouldn’t get herself in a situation like this. Mary would have kicked their butts. She gave her head a little shake. No, Mary would have kicked their asses. There I thought it – asses.

  What would Mary do?

  She looked around the van, there really didn’t seem to be a good way to escape, especially since it was moving and her hands were tied. She twisted her wrists; the tape wasn’t sticking very well. It must have been the flour. She wriggled her arms back and forth and the duct tape loosened even more. Soon she was able to slip one of her hands out.

  I’m channeling Mary. I can do this.

  She was jolted around when the van stopped. Remembering Walter shouldn’t know about her hands, she stuck them back together and waited for him to open the door.

  The van door opened and Rosie could see a loading dock. She could see by the collection of weeds and brush overgrowing the area; it hadn’t been used for a long time. Walter reached in and helped her out of the van and the he ripped the duct tape off her mouth and she winced.

  That hurt!

  “I’m real sorry, Rosie,” Walter repeated. “If you had just not seen that ghost...”

  How would Mary answer him?

  “Did you know that Coach Thorne saved your dad’s job?” Rosie asked, trying not to shiver in the cold wind.

  Walter stopped and shook his head. “No, he was preventing my dad from getting tenure.”

  “No, he was covering up for your dad because of the Parkinson’s. Your dad was afraid he was going to get fired,” Rosie said. “Coach Thorne stayed late or came in early so he could put together the experiments for your dad’s classes.”

  Walter shook his head. “No, that can’t be true.”

  “Come on, Wally, you remember when your dad got Parkinson’s,” Rosie said. “You must have known there was no way he could measure chemicals for the experiments. Your life would have been ruined without Coach Thorne.”

  Walter grabbed Rosie’s arm and pulled her up the ramp and into the warehouse. “I won’t listen to you,” he said.

  She quickly looked around. The warehouse was nearly empty. There were some pieces of broken wooden pallets scattered around, a rusted dumpster with pipes, cardboard and lumber overflowing from it and a number of white plastic 55 gallon barrels that looked fairly new.

  “You won’t listen to me because you know I’m right,” she said, pulling away from him towards the dumpster. “Don’t be a coward, Wally, at least admit that.”

  Walter was breathing heavy, sweat rolling on his forehead, when he stopped and looked at Rosie. “Maybe it’s true and maybe you’re right,” he said. “But there’s nothing I can do about it now. My hands are tied.”

  She slipped one hand out of the duct tape. “Well mine aren’t,” she yelled, grabbing one of the pipes and swinging it towards Walter.

  The pipe swung forward, but then stopped. Rosie looked over her shoulder and saw a tall man had caught the end of the pipe.

  “He’s trying to hurt me,” Rosie said, struggling to pull the pipe out of the man’s hands. “You have to let go.”

  “Wally, will you please take control of this situation,” Ephraim ordered, ripping the pipe out of her hands.

  Wally grabbed both of Rosie’s arms from behind and held her. “What do you want me to do?”

  Ephraim smiled and walked over to electrical box and flipped the switch. “We’re going to allow our friend Rosie to get closer to nature,” he said softly, walking to another control panel.

  He pressed a button and a harsh mechanical noise vibrated the building. “I apologize,” he said. “It does get a little loud. It’s our auger. We use it for making fertilizer. An amazing piece of equipment, not only does it mix and grind material together, but it also pulls them up a metal shaft filled with stainless steel blades to ensure the pieces are microscopic.”

  He looked at Rosie. “Unfortunately, pieces that are too big to fit in the shaft get hacked up into smaller, less...” he paused. “...noticeable pieces of material.”

  Walking closer to her, he ran a finger across her cheek and she moved her face. “I remember one of the first times I saw it in use, I was fascinated,” he said. “A rat had slipped into the bin and couldn’t get out. I watched as it was pulled closer and closer to the blades. It was mesmerizing.”

  He looked at her, his eyes bright with enjoyment. “Finally it was caught, the blade ripped it up in a matter of seconds and the blood just mixed with the rest of the minerals.”

  He chuckled. “Extra protein, that’s what my dad called it, extra protein.”

  “This can’t be real,” Rosie whispered. “This doesn’t happen in the real world.”

  She tried to look over her shoulder. “Wally, you can’t let him do this. I can’t die, I’m getting married.”

  “I’m sorry Rosie,” Walter said, “I don’t have a choice.”

  Chapter Forty-seven

  Stanley’s phone rang and he stopped his conversation with Caleb to answer it.

  “Hello,” he said.

  “They’ve taken Rosie,” Mary said.

  Stanley felt his heart drop to his feet and he looked at the old man in front of him. “Caleb,” he said, his voice shaking. “They’ve taken my Rosie. They’re going to hurt her. You’ve got to tell me...”

  “Stanley, you don’t know,” Caleb said. “You’re not sure.”

  “Caleb, I remember your wife and how much you loved her,” he said. “I love my Rosie. She’s my life. Please don’t cover up for him this time. Please.”

  Caleb closed his eyes and bowed his head. “The fertilizer plant,” Caleb said. “On Henderson.”

  “Mary, the fertilizer plant,” Stanley repeated, his voice shaking.

  “Already on my way,” she said. “Tell Bradle
y.”

  Stanley stood up on shaky legs. “I gotta go, Caleb,” he said. “I gotta go find my Rosie.”

  “Godspeed,” Caleb whispered. “Godspeed.”

  Stanley ran down the hall, towards the door to the parking lot. He pulled his keys out of his pocket when his phone rang again.

  “Yes?” he yelled into the phone.

  “Stanley, it’s Bradley.”

  “They’ve taken her to the fertilizer plant,” he cried. “You don’t know what he does out there.”

  “Ian’s on his way to get you,” Bradley said. “He’ll be there in a minute. I’m going to the plant.”

  “Hurry Bradley,” Stanley whispered, after Bradley had ended the call. “Hurry.”

  Chapter Forty-eight

  Mary shifted the Roadster into fifth gear and whipped onto Henderson Road. The dust from the gravel blew a cloud behind her car as she increased her speed. Not Rosie, not Rosie, she prayed.

  She nearly missed the entrance to the old plant, but sent the Roadster skidding in a curve and then punched the accelerator feeling it bite down on the gravel and jump forward. She drove over to the loading dock, threw the car into park and ran up the ramp into the warehouse.

  “Mary!”

  Mary looked up in the direction of Rosie’s scream and saw her on a metal catwalk two floors up that led to a giant steel bin, her arms caught in Walter’s grasp. “Give up now, Walter,” she yelled over the din from the auger. “The police are on the way.”

  She started to run to the stairs that led to Rosie when her legs were knocked out from under her. She fell hard and landed on her back, the breath knocked out of her.

  The floor was cold and damp against her back and the room was filled with shadows. The warehouse moved out of focus, suddenly she was back in the basement.

  Ephraim stood over her, but all she could see was Gary.