Given Enough Rope (Haunted Series Book 20)

by Alexie Aaron

  Given Enough Rope

  A Haunted Series Novel by

  Alexie Aaron

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ~

  Copyright 2016 – Diane L. Fitch writing as Alexie Aaron

  ALSO BY ALEXIE AARON

  HAUNTED SERIES

  in order

  The Hauntings of Cold Creek Hollow

  Ghostly Attachments

  Sand Trap

  PEEPs Lite Eternal Maze 3.1

  PEEPs Lite Homecoming 3.2

  Darker than Dark

  The Garden

  Puzzle

  Old Bones

  Things that Go Bump in the Night

  Something Old

  PEEPs Lite Checking Out 9.1

  PEEPs Lite Ice and Steel 9.2

  The Middle House: Return to Cold Creek Hollow

  Renovation

  Mind Fray

  The Siege

  NOLA

  Never Forget

  The Old House

  Restitution

  A Rose by Any Other Name

  The Long Game

  Given Enough Rope

  CID GARRETT P.I. SERIES

  Cid

  Coming Soon: High Court

  CIN FIN-LATHEN MYSTERIES

  Decomposing

  Death by Saxophone

  Discord

  The Wages of Cin

  Unforgivable Cin: An Opera in Three Acts

  I dedicate this book to my family. They have sacrificed so much in order for me to bring you the Haunted Series. You will never meet more loving, gracious, generous, and funny people.

  I would like to also thank Bliss Cottage. You’ve inspired, tortured, and kept me writing. The Haunted Series was born in your basement. As I move on to Ravens Rook, I bring your essence with me, and, of course, Murphy.

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-one

  Glossary

  Alexie Aaron

  Chapter One

  There’s always an unnatural stillness that’s heard before disaster strikes. Time seems to slow. A bead of sweat tracks slowly downward, as overly alert eyes take everything in. Well, almost everything. There was no excuse, because Mia foresaw this happening. She knew the moment they entered that it was only a matter of time. But it didn’t matter how much she prepared for it; there was nothing she could do. First one fell, and then another, a brief prelude to the avalanche of danger. She abandoned everything and dove to pull Brian out of harm’s way. She turned her back and took the brunt of the assault, shielding her child from the plummeting melons.

  Cid started running the moment his super hearing picked up the first grinding sound of rind against rind and then the slide of the fruit. He had been at the front of the store. As he cleared the end of the aisle, he saw Mia with her back to the table that once held the beautifully displayed pyramid-stacked special of day. She was sitting with her arms surrounding the child who thought it would be interesting to pull out the load-bearing melon.

  Cid helped Mia up, and she handed him Brian who tried to speak, but one glare from his mother stilled the first of a dozen questions. She looked around her, grabbed a Styrofoam ice chest, and began picking up the damaged fruit. All of it was bruised. Most of it was cracked. “I’ve counted eighty-five,” she said as she filled the fourth cooler.

  “Eighty-seven, Mom,” Brian corrected.

  “This comes out of your allowance,” Mia said and hushed him with a lift of her eyebrow.

  Cid and the produce manager tried not to smile. It was a laughable situation to the employees of the store because they knew Mia would be paying for the damage her young genius caused. A crowd had formed during her cleanup. Mia turned, lifted her arms, but try as she may, nothing clever came out of her mouth. She turned back to Brian. “How did you know that one was the melon to pull out?”

  “I could see it. It made sense.”

  “How old is he?” a grandmotherly woman asked the store manager.

  “He looks to be two,” the manager answered her.

  “Can’t be. His vocabulary…”

  “He’s advanced,” Mia said loudly to stop the chatter. “Cid, let’s get these melons home. I hope you have a hell of recipe or a way to freeze them.”

  “I got you covered,” Cid said, frantically thumbing through the recipe cards in his mind.

  “Is that her husband?” the older woman asked.

  “No, I don’t think so. You know who that is, don’t you, Ms. White?”

  “No…”

  The manager waited until Mia moved towards the cashier station before whispering, “That’s Crazy Cooper.”

  “The girl who screams in graveyards,” Ms. White acknowledged. “She’s changed so much.”

  Cid frowned. He couldn’t help hearing the whispers of the people who had congregated to see what all the fuss was about.

  The store manager stopped the clerk from ringing up the Styrofoam coolers. “Those are on us. Mrs. Martin, it could have happened to anybody.”

  “Thank you, I appreciate your kindness,” Mia said as the bag boy ran for an additional basket to transport the ruined fruit.

  After she paid for them, Mia and Cid pushed the two carts full of melons out to the car. She was loading them into the back of the van when she heard someone calling her name.

  “Mrs. Martin, yoo-hoo!”

  Mia looked over to see an older woman pushing a cart briskly towards her. “I thought you might want these groceries.”

  Mia forced herself to smile.

  “I don’t know if you remember me, but I took you in when your house burned down.”

  “Ms. White?” Mia asked, trying to pull up the memory of the woman who had made sure Mia had clean clothes to go to school in. “You look a lot younger than I remember you.”

  Ms. White smiled ear to ear. “I won the Lotto. This is what having no financial worries does for your complexion.”

  “I must have been living elsewhere when that happened. Congratulations!”

  Cid, who had just finished strapping Brian into his car seat, walked back to see if he could help Mia.

  “Cid, this is Ms. White. I’m sorry, I d
on’t remember your first name?”

  “Bertha, but call me Bea. I always hated that name.”

  “Bea, this is my good friend Cid Garrett. He lives with us out at the old Murphy place.”

  “I heard you came back, but I thought you lived on the lake.”

  “I still own that place, but the farm gives us more room,” Mia explained. She turned to Cid. “Bea rescued my groceries. What do I owe you?”

  “Nothing, just paying it forward. I have a hunch that son of yours is going to be something special.”

  “I keep telling myself that.”

  “Mia, for what it’s worth, I’m proud of you.”

  “Me? Why?”

  “I remember the night you ended up on my porch, smelling of smoke, your hair full of soot from trying to rescue some of your things. You had this enormous chip on your shoulder. But still, you were respectful to me and those other poor souls who roomed in my house. You never took out your anger on anyone. You got the wrong end of the stick, but you still thrived. Very impressive… Married, with a bright son and another child on the way.”

  “Thank you, Bea. I’m not sure I deserve this praise, but thank you. It means a lot.”

  “Here’s my phone number,” Bea said, handing Cid her card. “I have a dandy recipe for melon cordial, I think you may want to try.”

  “I’ll be calling you,” Cid promised.

  “Where are you living now?” Mia asked.

  “I bought the brownstone three houses down from your old house.”

  “The Giffords’ place,” Mia said. “Um…”

  “You don’t have to say it, I know. The place is haunted. Nice old chap named Edwin. He and I have drinks before dinner together. Otherwise, he just reorganizes my cupboards. He can be an old fuss bucket at times.”

  “Well, if you need a referee…” Mia dug a PEEPs card out of her purse and handed it to her.

  “I’m so glad you finally found your calling. I better get back in there and claim that nice filet of steak they have on special. Goodbye, Mia and Cid. Don’t be too hard on the boy. Remember whose genes he comes from.”

  Ted stood staring at his son. “You knew what was going to happen when you decided to pull the melon out?”

  “Yes, Dad.”

  “Did you consider that you could have been hurt or, worse yet, your mother?”

  Brian frowned. “It didn’t come up when I was thinking.”

  “You didn’t think through the problem. You just saw the surface. Brian, I expect more of you than this.”

  “I’m sorry, Dad.”

  “What do you think would be a reasonable punishment?”

  “I’m paying for the melons out of my allowance.”

  “And…”

  “And…” Brian scrunched up his face. “I don’t know.”

  “You’re going to go back to the grocery store with me to apologize to the produce manager and the store manager.”

  Brian paled.

  “They had to clean up the floors. Maybe you should offer to do some work in exchange.”

  Brian’s eyes opened wide. “I’m just a kid.” He looked over at his mother. “Tell him, I’m just a kid.”

  “Brian says, he’s just a kid,” Mia told Ted.

  “Well, then I can’t have Brian working with Cid and I on the robots. I can’t have irresponsible kids around when I’m working.”

  A fat tear rolled down Brian’s face. “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”

  “And…” Ted said.

  “I’ll go and apologize to the fruit man and the man with the shiny shoes. I’ll ask them if they would like me to clean up the mess.”

  “There, that’s the son we raised. Now go upstairs, wash up, and change your clothes. You have melon seeds on your socks.”

  “Yes, sir,” Brian said and got up. He hugged Mia on the way to the stairs. “I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t know you could have gotten hurt.”

  “Next time you’re wondering about something, tell me first. I may save you a few apologies and a lot of allowance.”

  “Yes, Mom.”

  Ted waited until they heard Brian close his door before he rushed over to Mia. “How did I do?”

  “You were very stern.”

  “My stomach was in knots,” Ted admitted. “I thought I was going to hurl, I was so nervous.”

  “It’s the first time you had to give Brian a real talking-to.”

  “I know.” Ted sat down. “I just thought about all the times my dad had to talk to me, and I went from there.”

  “He is a bit young for cleaning floors at the market,” Mia cautioned.

  “I think that will be the universal thought. But the important thing is that he has to know that his actions have consequences. Real life consequences.”

  Cid walked in the room. “Bravo. Heard all of it, and Murphy and I approve.”

  “Murph?” Mia looked around her.

  Stephen Murphy was behind her, leaning against the front door. He had his axe balanced against his leg and his hat in his hands. “I still think he could use a pat on the behind.”

  “I respect that,” Ted said to Murphy. “But what he did wasn’t mean.”

  “No, he’s just too smart for his britches,” Murphy said.

  Mia wanted to stand with Ted on the spanking issue, but there was too much tension in the air at the moment, and she needed to defuse the situation quickly. “Cid, did you get that recipe?”

  “Yes, and an invitation for tea for next Thursday.”

  “You’re a fast worker,” Mia said, lifting her eyebrow.

  “The invitation is for all of us. That includes you, Ted, Brian, Dieter, and me.”

  “Dieter?”

  “Bea and I got to talking, and she wanted to meet your foster son.”

  “Who’s Bea?” Ted asked.

  “She’s the kind lady who paid for our groceries.”

  “And Mia’s old landlady,” Cid added.

  Ted looked confused.

  “After I burned down the house, I stayed in her rooming house until I graduated, and… You know the rest.”

  “Long story short,” Cid started. “She won the Lotto and bought a big old brownstone three houses down from Mia’s old place.”

  “The Gifford house,” Mia told Murphy.

  “Old Edwin’s place?”

  “Yup.”

  “Who’s Old Edwin?” Ted asked.

  “He’s a cranky ghost,” Murphy said. “A bit of a boozer.”

  “He used to pick wild strawberries with me,” Mia said.

  Murphy frowned.

  “I was a child. I didn’t know you then,” Mia explained.

  Ted tried to calculate what would happen now. He put into the equation that Mia and Murphy didn’t agree on spanking. He added that Murphy didn’t know that Mia had a prior history with another male ghost. He figured that Murphy would storm out in thirty seconds after Mia flipped him the bird.

  It took ten.

  Chapter Two

  Mark Leighton’s mother dropped him off at the Martin farm. Mia watched the harried woman from the porch swing. Ted had offered to take Dieter and Mark to the new climbing center a dozen miles west of town. Today, Sarah Leighton was expecting a healer from New Zealand. This healer had a great reputation for innovation and free thinking. He was helping to heal the brain-damaged patients under his care. Sarah was hoping he could help her husband with his locked-in syndrome.

  Captain Glen Leighton had been a reservist specializing in keeping the supply train open. The building he was working in blew up, and he had been locked-in ever since. Ted and Cid had engineered a device that enabled Mark to speak with his father for a limited amount of time. Unfortunately, it depended upon Mark’s natural abilities to make it work. They had tried it with Sarah, and with a team of sensitive medical technicians, to no avail. Mark was the only one who could hold a conversation with his father.

  Sarah and Mark came into some money from the sale of some valuable farmland they’d
inherited from Wyatt Wayne near Wolf’s Head Lake. They used it to buy his old mansion in Big Bear Lake. The Leightons and the Veterans Administration worked together to turn the large old mansion into a rehabilitation center for the returning veterans. There, she was able to keep Glen close. She was happy with the knowledge that he would be cared for by the best money could buy, as were all the vets who stayed there free of charge.

  Brian walked out of the house with Maggie on his heels. Murphy moved behind the toddler.

  “Did you have a good time with Uncle Murphy?” Mia asked him as he climbed up beside her on the swing. Maggie put her head in Mia’s lap. Mia stroked the mixed breed’s head a moment. “Why do dogs always know when you need a hug?”

  “Which question should I answer?” Brian asked.

  “Try for both,” Mia encouraged.

  “Uncle Murphy and I discussed how long it took a farmer to grow those melons, and about the people who would not have any melons for their meals. I didn’t think that far. He also suggested that when I want to play, I should do so with toys.”

  “He’s very wise.”

  “Yes. He gave me a bag of marbles…”

  “Marbles!” Mia shrieked.

  “I’m not going to put them in my mouth, my ears, or anywhere else,” Brian said quickly. “He said you would behave this way.”

  “Well, he should have asked me first.”

  “He said you were going to say that too. Mom, focus,” Brian said. “If I want to study what happens to ball-like things, I should do so with these and not melons.”

  “Ping-Pong balls would have been a better choice,” Mia said, eyeing Murphy.

  “You can’t keep them in your pocket, silly woman,” Brian said.

  Mia’s eyes snapped open. “What did you just call me?”

  Murphy moved quickly to put himself between Mia and Brian.

  Brian stuck his head through Murphy and repeated, “Silly woman. That’s what Uncle Murphy calls you.”

  Mia looked up, her face inches from the ghost’s, and said, “Really. We’ll discuss this later.”