by Alexie Aaron
“I thought he was with you?”
“Nope.” Ted looked into the butler’s pantry where Cid was busy checking camera feeds. He walked into the dining room where he found Audrey and Glenda putting on their coats. “Have you seen Burt?”
“No, we thought he was with you. I haven’t seen him since you went walkabout,” Audrey said.
Ted walked quickly to the control room. “Cid, page Burt.”
Cid did so. Nothing.
Mike got off the phone. “What’s up?” he asked.
“Burt’s gone,” Ted said.
“He’ll see the message, and soon they’ll all be back,” Cid said confidently.
“Depends on a few things,” Mike said. “If Burt undresses in daylight in front of a mirror… I bet it will be tomorrow morning when he washes.”
“If he washes,” Cid said.
Ted looked at Cid. “You’re not helping.”
“Most men washed weekly in those days,” Cid said.
“Pee-yew,” Audrey said.
“Burt’s a neat guy,” Mike said hopefully.
Glenda looked at the hangdog expression on Ted’s face. “Okay, spit it out, Ted. Why is Burt a problem being the boarder?”
“Nothing if he is the boarder, but if Murphy is still playing the boarder and Burt is Mia’s husband…”
“I’m confused,” Audrey said.
“It’s the past history, I’m worried about,” Ted started.
“Go on,” Audrey encouraged.
“Initially, Burt took Mia away from Murphy, and Murphy first kissed Mia when she and Burt were having problems. That probably was responsible for their breakup,” Ted said. “Burt won’t talk about it, and Murphy still won’t let Burt see him. I’m not worried about Mia as much as those two finally coming to blows.”
“They never seemed to have a problem with each other,” Audrey said. “Are you sure this is a problem?”
“Burt won’t recognize Murphy,” Glenda said. “He will either be Stephen Roustan or Stephen the boarder. Mia, on the other hand, he may…”
“Still be in love with,” Ted finished.
“But if that happens, Mia will see the message!” Audrey said.
Everyone looked at her.
“Oh,” she said, realizing.
“I think we better figure out why the ghost needs these three players before the game begins,” Mike said. “Mom, you and Audrey see the heir while we search for hidden spaces where information or bodies could be stored.”
“Careful, whatever damage you do, son, I have to pay for.”
“Mom, I’ll burn this place down to get our people out safely,” Mike warned.
“Hell, do it if you have to. It’s only money,” Glenda said and kissed him on the cheek. “Come on, Audrey, we have a few miles to go and it’s already started to snow.”
~
Stephen nodded to Mr. Hicks as he came into the library.
“I thought we should settle our business before dinner,” Burt said, handing the packet of money for the first month’s rent to Mr. Roustan.
“Would you like a drink, Mr. Hicks?” Stephen asked, lifting the stopper from the sherry decanter.
“No thank you. Please call me Burt,” he said, reaching across the desk.
“Stephen,” Murphy said, grasping the man’s hand, testing his grip. For a soft man, he had a vicelike grip.
Burt puzzled over the callous hand of the supposed teacher.
“My wife tells me you’re from New York City,” Stephen said.
“Yes. Your wife seems familiar to me, but she claims to not have been to New York.”
“She’s Chicago born and bred. She was born in this very house.”
“She is a beautiful woman. You are a fortunate man,” Burt said.
Stephen pondered the inappropriateness of the compliment but chose to take it in good humor. “That I am.”
The sideboard clock chimed six.
“Time to go in to eat. I hope you don’t mind the early hour. We insist on eating with our daughter.”
“I have an appetite. The hour is not too soon,” Burt said as they entered the dining room.
Mia stood beside the table, dressed for dinner. Her blonde hair was swept up in the fashion of the day, and she had changed her gown. She tugged absentmindedly at the lace at her neckline. Burt noticed that she would not make eye contact with him. He hoped he hadn’t inadvertently upset her.
Stephen walked over and kissed her cheek before pulling out the chair for her. Renee ran into the room and took her seat.
“Mr. Hicks, please take a seat next to my talkative daughter,” Stephen said.
The meal was served by a young maid. Burt enjoyed the meal.
“My compliments to your cook, Mrs. Roustan,” Burt said.
“I will tell her. She will be pleased. She mentioned that it was good to cook for more than just three. Gentlemen, Renee and I will leave you to your port.” Mia got up and took Renee’s hand before leaving.
Stephen watched the boarder as his eyes followed his wife out of the room. He frowned.
Burt looked over at his host. “Is something bothering you, Stephen?”
“Just a spot of indigestion,” he lied.
Mia stopped in the kitchen to deliver the compliment to the cook. “Cid, I mean, Mrs. Baker, our new boarder has sent his compliments. He is a hardy eater, so I think we can spare another chop for tomorrow’s meal.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Mia put her hand to her forehead. “I’m sorry, I think I’ll retire early. I’m out of sorts,” Mia told the maid who was drying dishes. “Please let Mr. Roustan know.”
Mia walked out of the kitchen and into the hall. She had climbed halfway up the stairs when a dizzy spell took her. Mia fainted and fell.
The maid’s scream pierced the air. The men burst out of the dining room. Stephen was the first to get to his wife. She lay crumpled on the hall floor. Renee looked down at her from the landing of the second floor.
“What happened?” Stephen asked his daughter.
“I don’t know. I was in my room,” Renee told him.
“Sir, I found her here,” the maid explained.
Mia moaned. She opened her eyes. “Murph?”
Stephen look down, puzzled. “I’m your husband, Stephen.”
“I got dizzy, and I must have fainted and fell. The baby, Stephen, the baby is in jeopardy,” Mia cried.
“I’ll go for a doctor,” Burt said, putting on his coat. “Just tell me who you use and where I can find him?”
“I’ll go. Please, Mr. Hicks, carry my wife upstairs.”
Mia watched her husband rush out of the house. She started to cry.
Burt lifted her and followed the maid to the woman’s room. He set her down and his hand came away red. If Mia hadn’t already lost the child, she would soon do so. The maid handed him a towel.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Roustan,” Burt said and left. He passed Renee in the hall. She didn’t look too upset about her mother’s condition. Burt actually thought the child looked pleased.
~
Glenda and Audrey walked into the atrium of the Chicago Care Community high-rise, affectionately called by the residents The Triple C. Grace Roustan Anderson sat in a wingback chair with a cashmere throw tucked around her lap.
“Forgive me for not rising, m’dears. My bones are sound, but my muscles have become lazy,” the ninety-six-year-old Grace proclaimed.
“You look fit for an antique,” Glenda said.
“My nephew says that you’re contemplating buying the Rose.”
“I have a packet holding it while I clean out the ghosts and other riffraff,” Glenda explained.
“Good luck. We’ve been trying to oust Miss Renee for decades. Just when you think she’s gone, people disappear. Always in threes,” Grace said.
“Do you have any clue why?” Glenda asked.
“Something to do with an incident so very long ago. My mother’s first fiancé was one of the unluc
ky ones.”
“You mean he died?” Audrey asked.
“No, he survived. It was hit or miss, but the lad came back from near death to be confined in a mental institution. You see, he claimed to have another identity. He claimed to be Albert Roustan and admitted to killing his wife and their boarder with an axe. He caught them together, or so he claimed. He said that after he chopped the adulterous couple to bits, his daughter Renee bathed in their blood.”
Audrey took meticulous notes. Albert Roustan and Renee Roustan, surely she could find something on these people.
“You said that Renee haunted the place?” Audrey prodded.
“I saw her when I was a child. She was tall for a girl of ten years. She had silky, straight brown hair and wore a frightfully discolored frock. It had…”
“A raspberry tart stain on the bodice,” Glenda completed.
“You’ve seen her?” Grace asked.
“Yes, I think I played with her when I was a girl. My aunt lived down the street. She seemed so real.”
“Oh, she’s real alright. I bet you the girl is as solid as you or I. She’s a horrible spirit. She feeds on the terror that is brought out of the people she picks to play her game. If the wife and the boarder stay virtuous, then the three people starve to death. If the man playing the husband kills the other two, he is released. He wins, but not really.”
“How many times has she played this game?”
“Every generation. While I have been alive only one man survived. He actually killed his own wife and best friend. After he was acquitted, due to insanity, he jumped from the Sears Tower - when they were calling it that.”
“Couldn’t she be stopped?” Audrey asked.
“Oh, we had priests, mediums, I think a gypsy or two, but they weren’t able to oust the child from the house. We gave up and decided to not have any dinner parties and to never have two men and a woman alone in the house. We rented it out to man-hating spinsters. Seemed to work. Renee was seen now and again, but it’s been awhile since she took someone.”
Glenda and Audrey looked at each other.
“Oh no, she’s taken people you know,” Grace surmised.
“If we could find out what originally happened, we feel strongly that we can stop her,” Audrey told the old woman.
“Go to the library on the first floor. Pull out the sixth shelf in the bookcase to the right of the large glass window. If it’s still there, and the child hasn’t hidden it, you’ll find the diary of Albert Roustan. Be careful. People who touch that book tend to die. Wear gloves.”
“Thank you, Grace, you’ve been a peach,” Glenda said.
“Come back please. Let me know what happens, good or bad,” she insisted.
“I will,” Glenda promised. “I’ll bring my poker deck.”
“You’re on,” Grace said.
~
Mia opened her eyes. She tried to roll over but was prevented by the pillows stacked to either side of her. She looked up into the strange canopy. Where was she? “Hello?” she called.
“Father, mother’s awake,” a child’s voice called from somewhere in the room.
Mia tried to rise, but fatigue and something tangible kept her pinned to the bed.
Murphy loomed over her.
“Murph?”
“Who is this Murph? That and Ted. These names you called out in your distress. Were you going to name our son Ted?” Stephen asked her.
“Were?”
“Yes, dear, you lost another child. This time my son,” Stephen said curtly.
Mia was crushed and started to cry.
“If only you were more careful on the stairs, Mother,” Renee said. “One would have thought you didn’t want this child, the way you danced up them.”
“No, that’s not what happened. Stephen, I became dizzy.”
“Get some rest, and we’ll discuss it in the morning,” Stephen said and left her to her tears.
Renee briefly loomed over her. “Don’t worry, Mother, I’ll send someone to comfort you.”
“No, I want to be alone. Leave this room. I will not cater to lying little girls,” Mia said firmly.
Renee gave her a vicious pinch before she left.
Burt walked out of his room. He saw Stephen Roustan walking down the stairs deep in thought.
“Sir, may I inquire how your wife is doing?”
“She lost the child. It was a boy. She can’t give me the son I need. She can’t do anything right.”
Burt was about to protest but held his tongue. It didn’t do to get in the middle of marital matters.
He noticed Renee lurking in the hall. He studied her while she wasn’t looking. For a ten-year-old, she certainly carried herself well. She walked with an air of authority. He wondered, in this family dynamic, who were the parents and who was the child?
“Can I help you, Mr. Hicks?” she asked.
“How is your mother?”
“Why don’t you go upstairs and see for yourself,” she said smiling. “She’s been asking for you.”
“I doubt that, young lady,” Burt said. “It doesn’t do to lie.”
“I assure you, whatever I say is true. My father believes me. For now that is enough,” she said and rolled her eyes at Burt. “Go upstairs and see for yourself.”
Chapter Seven
“Careful, don’t get any dust on you,” Audrey cautioned. “The book is supposed to be dangerous to touch. Maybe the pages were laced with a poisonous substance that could transfer to its surroundings.”
Cid and Ted pulled up the PEEPs shirts they had tied around their faces to act as a face mask. They wore plastic gloves under the work gloves Mia insisted that everyone carry on a haunt. “One never knows what one has to pick up,” she had warned as she handled a very gooey hand that was found inside a trunk in a homeowner’s attic.
Cid pulled hard on the sixth shelf, and as it moved away from the bookcase, a recess opened. Ted reached in and found a wooden box. He handed it down to Audrey who walked it carefully into the kitchen where the team had already prepared by enclosing the room in a thick layer of salt and the table with plastic.
Mike had run a sink full of water into which he dumped a whole box of kosher salt. If that book tried anything, it would be getting a saltwater bath.
Jake posted a chart that Mia and Burt had previously worked out on how to handle spirit-infested papers. Mia had more experience than Burt, but the two of them had worked out a comprehensive plan between them and put it into the large computer file that was the PEEPs manual.
Jake kept an eye on the camera feeds while the remaining group sat around the round table.
“I’ll read the book,” Glenda insisted. “If it’s supposed to kill you, I’ve had a decent life. Plus, I got you monkeys into this, and I’ll be damned if I won’t do my best to get you out.”
Audrey set the box before Glenda. Glenda donned Mia’s salt-soaked gloves and lifted the lid. Inside was a slender leather-bound book. Glenda opened the book and looked at the still vibrant writing inside. “My god, it looks like it was written yesterday. The handwriting is a bit scratchy, but I can make out most of it. Shall I read it to you aloud?”
“Please, Ma,” Mike said.
The Diary of Albert Roustan
July 12, 1891
Joyous news! My dear wife’s pregnancy, of what I hope to be my son, has been confirmed by Doctor Schneider. We have been trying since Renee was born to no avail. Rebecca’s womb is fragile, but she is determined to give me what I want and that is an heir for the Rose. I had taken her family’s name when we married to keep the house under the Roustan name, and now my son will proudly continue not only the Roustan line but my own.
My beautiful wife has spoiled our daughter. Renee will have to learn to share our time and affections with my son. As it is, Rebecca insists we eat early so Renee can participate in dinner conversations instead of eating in the kitchen as girls her age are supposed to do.
July 30, 1891
Today my
wife came to me with her concerns over our dwindling savings. The doctor’s fees have eaten away the money she has inherited. My salary from teaching only seems to cover the basics. If we are to keep this house, we will need to bring in a boarder. I consented to putting a card up in the club. This way, we will get a man of means and not some unknown from the streets.
August 10, 1891
Robert Simons has answered our advertisement. He is a businessman from New York City. His company has just relocated out here, and he would like to give Chicago a year before bringing his family out. Rebecca is pleased that we have found such an affable man to board with us. Renee seems to have adjusted well to another adult in the house.
Tragedy! Rebecca had a fall on the stairs. We have lost our son! She is bedridden, and the doctor warns me to stay away from her until she has fully recovered. Will my dream of a male heir ever come to fruition?
“Okay, can I just say something?” Glenda asked, putting the book down. She made eye contact with Mike, Cid and Ted. “If any of you put your issue before your wife, I will smack you silly.”
Audrey hid a smile at the looks of astonishment on the men’s faces.
Glenda adjusted her glasses. “I’m just going to read aloud the pertinent passages. We’ll leave a thorough examination of this diary for another time.” She continued:
August 30, 1891
Rebecca still won’t let me in her room at night. She pleads for a longer time to recover. She fears another miscarriage. I try to understand.
September 20, 1891
It has been a month since we lost my son. I forced myself upon my wife. She cried but in the end was submissive. Time will tell.
October 15, 1891
Rebecca is sullen. Still no child in her womb. She is distant from me. She continues to spoil Renee with trips to the theater. Last time I refused to go, and Mr. Simons accompanied the women.
November 30, 1891
Renee has come to me with her suspicions. She told me that Mr. Simons has been spending a lot of time in the house while I am away at school.
