by Alexie Aaron
“Oh, don’t worry, I fixed it before they left.”
Burt wondered just how long Mia had been lurking but knew better than to voice it.
Chapter Fourteen
“You said the doorknob was ice cold, but it looks like you have second degree burns showing. And Mr. Hicks has first degree burns on his arm, but he claims something cold attached itself to his arm.” The resident applied a pain-relieving salve before winding a layer of gauze around the hurt hand.
“You can get a windburn, can’t you?” Mia questioned the young man. “I assume you could get blisters...”
“Nitro...” Doctor Walters’s eyes lit up.
“Pardon?”
“Nitrogen. If some prankster shot nitro on the knob, it would be cold enough,” he reasoned.
“Holy shit, who would do something so stupid?” Mia acted upset. “Must have been the same goons that stole my road markers.”
“Kids... what are you going do?” Beth caught on. “Those bastards must have been waiting for us in the house.”
“Could have sprayed Burt and hit the doorknob on their way out. That’s a possible explanation,” Mia offered.
“You report this?” he asked, writing on the form.
“I talked to a Deputy Whitney Martin,” Mia lied.
“Okay, then all that’s left is to pay the piper. I think you should be able to claim it on homeowners, vandalism.”
Mia rolled her eyes behind the doctor’s back. She loved it when these professional types assumed they were an authority on everything.
Mia increased her speed as the stony silence of the truck cab was getting to her. Burt was mad at both women for dropping the ball by not insisting a ghost gave him and Beth their injuries.
“As I was trying to tell you, it wouldn’t do you any good arguing that a paranormal entity did that damage to you. Trust me, they just start commitment paperwork,” Mia argued.
“The idea was to get documentation,” Burt huffed.
“Was the doctor at April’s? No. He’s only going to attest to the wounds. He’s not going to take a step outside of his beliefs.”
“Burt, calm down,” Beth interrupted. “I have to agree with Mia here.”
“Typical. Girls closing ranks.”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say ‘girls,’” Beth chided.
Mia started laughing.
“Glad you’re in such a good mood,” Burt said.
“I’m sorry. It’s just I’ve never been on the debunking side of things before. I’m usually the loon sitting in the chair trying to convince someone I swerved off the road so I wouldn’t hit something that nobody else saw.”
“Must have been tough,” Burt said.
“It got easier. I found that lies worked better than the truth. I’m still the town crazy though,” she explained.
“Why didn’t you move?” Beth asked.
“I pretty much know most of the pitfalls here. A new place would be a whole new set of surprises.” Mia turned off the road and drove up to April’s house. She looked at her passengers and confessed, “Besides, being the town nutcase, everyone sort of looks out for me.”
“Thank you,” Burt said, opening the door.
“No problem. I’ll follow you to make sure everyone made it back okay,” she said. “Get some sleep.”
Beth slid over and got out of the truck. “If ever you need an ear...”
“That goes two ways. Nice to meet you.” Mia tried to suppress a yawn. “Here.” She put a scrap of paper in the injured girl’s hand.
Beth smiled, closed her hand and started walking towards her car. Burt insisted that he drive. Beth started to object, but being dead tired, nodded.
He followed the lights out of the hollow. He felt Mia’s truck headlights on the back of his head as he drove the last few miles back to the bed-and-breakfast. Beth pointed out the other PEEPs vehicles as they arrived and parked. She got out and waved to Mia before entering the quaint three-story B&B.
Burt got out and stared a moment at Mia before he shut the door and then watched as Mia drove off. He still wondered why she was lurking, but he would save it for another day. The early birds were singing by the time he reached the building. One thing he liked about this hobby of his was that he saw a lot of sunrises.
~
Mia pulled into her drive just as the sun rose over the treetops. The lake glistened with the promise of a clear day. She opened the gates, pulled the truck in and waited for the gates to close behind her. She kept an eye on the mirror, making sure no one drifted in.
She was tired but had a procedure to follow to ensure her piece of mind. After she pulled the truck into the garage, she turned it off, hopped out and took time to draw a salt circle around the vehicle. If anyone or anything clung to the vehicle, this should keep it trapped. Mia was much too tired to fight with anything this morning. “Salt, salt, brick, water, brick, salt,” she confirmed, looking at the lines of defense she had cleverly added to her landscaping as she walked towards her tidy cottage that was centered on the peninsula of Big Bear Lake.
“Damn,” she cursed as she broke the salt line at the back door. Mia dug into her pocket, and after opening the door, she turned around and filled in the line with a small shaker. She heard the gentle splashdown of a flock of Canadian geese. “Welcome back,” she greeted them before shutting the door to the world.
Chapter Fifteen
Whit was not having a good morning. His beautiful paint-dotted wife met him at the door when he came home off his midnight to six shift. She had been drinking and was so mad, she couldn’t even form words.
“Whoa, what the blazes is going on?” He caught her fist before it contacted with his face. “Sherry, calm down.” He grabbed her other hand as it sought out his face.
“How dare you... with crazy girl... Rose says... How dare you!” the artist spat at him.
The spit did connect where the hands hadn’t. He dropped her hands and walked past her to the kitchen to wash his face. His temper was gone, but his regard for his wife stayed his reactions. The water felt good as he ducked his head under the tap. A migraine had been forming all night, and this tirade from Sherry wasn’t helping.
He wiped his face with one of her fancy dishtowels and sat down at the kitchen table. “Now, do you mind telling me what this is all about?”
“Rose saw you and Mia drive off together the other day, and she said the two of you didn’t come back for hours,” Sherry said as she walked into the kitchen and took out a glass from the cupboard. She located the wine but found the bottle empty. “Damn!”
“I was helping Mia put up road markers, which she paid me for.” It wasn’t a lie, just stretching the truth.
“What about yesterday morning? You weren’t working. Rose saw you head off towards Mia’s.”
“That’s a damn lie. I went to check out the house we were looking at in the hollow. Rose gave me the keys!” Whit was fed up. “That bitch was winding you up, honey.”
“I went over to Mia’s, and I couldn’t get in the gate. She wouldn’t answer the intercom.” Sherry caught her breath. “The two of you were in there laughing at me.”
“Did you ever think that maybe Mia wasn’t home?” Whit pounded a hand on the table. “I have done nothing but bend over backward for you and you... you...”
Sherry looked at him, but a night of paranoia-building had her eyes clouded. “Where were you all night?”
“Working the fucking midnight shift so you can have your dream house. Sherry, what’s your fucking problem? You spend all night drinking, and not once did you pick up the phone and call me or the station?”
Sherry opened her mouth to speak and closed it again. She pulled out a chair and sat down.
“Tell me all about it,” he said calmly.
“I was at the grocer, and Rose comes up to me and asked if I knew what you were doing with Mia all Thursday.” Sherry rubbed her temples with her fingers. “Before I could say anything, she asked me if I knew ho
w close you and Mia Cooper had become. And she added that she thought she saw you drive off in the direction of Mia’s house yesterday morning.”
“Rose was fishing. She wanted to get you riled up so you would say something she could use,” Whit explained. “Rose is bad news, baby.” He reached out a hand and touched Sherry’s face. “I went to Cold Creek Hollow which is in the opposite direction of Big Bear Lake. She gave me the keys to the big houses herself.”
“Why did you go by yourself?”
“I heard a rumor about the houses that I wanted to check out. You remember the big brick one we liked so much?”
“The one with the attic access in the bedroom?”
“Yes, that one. Well, I found out that a former owner had hung himself in the attic,” Whit said, waiting for this to sink in before continuing, “I wanted to see for myself, and sure enough, the Restoration crew hadn’t completely sanded down the beam. I could still see the place where the rope rubbed against the top of the wood,” he lied.
“Oh my god.” Sherry grabbed Whit’s hand.
“So, I went back to Restoration and tossed the keys on Rose’s desk and told her that we wouldn’t be buying anything from them anytime soon.”
“That vindictive bitch.” Sherry got up and walked to the sink and ran the water. Once it was cool enough, she filled a glass and drank it.
“She must have run right over to the store when she saw you go in.” Whit got on his feet and joined her at the sink.
“But what about Mia?” Sherry looked up at him.
“What about Mia?”
“Do you love her?”
“Hell, no. I love you.” Whit drew Sherry closer to him, and she rested her head on his shoulder.
Sherry wasn’t sure if she was more upset about the thought of losing the house or her husband. She held on to Whit, but instead of listening to the sound of her heart, she listened to the voices in her head.
~
April was finishing her coffee when Beth came down the stairs to the breakfast room.
“Morning,” Beth said.
“Morning. You look tired.”
Beth looked over at the Johnston woman through her bloodshot eyes. “Late night.”
“Of course, I’m sorry, I didn’t think,” April apologized.
“Goes with the territory.” Beth quickly poured herself a coffee, grabbed some pastry and retreated upstairs before April could ask any more questions.
As she rounded the upper landing, she heard a door open. She hung back a little so she wouldn’t have to converse with anyone else before she had her morning coffee. The door opened, and Amber slipped out, shoes in hand, and tiptoed down the hall to her room and closed the door.
Beth walked quietly down the hall past the room Burt and Ted shared, and she paused a moment in front of the room Amber had just vacated. Mike was snoring loudly without a care in the world. So that was the lay of the land or rather the lay of Amber. Beth suppressed a giggle. She now had some ammunition to use on Miss Psychic Abilities when the time was right.
~
Mia woke up refreshed at two in the afternoon. Her stomach complained, and her bladder barely let her reach the bathroom in time. What a night. She turned on the shower and stepped in and enjoyed the pulsing jets on her tired body. Water had always been a blessing to her. It helped her think. Today, she mulled over the events of last night.
“Who moved the marker?” she asked herself. Mia had witnessed just how solid the stakes were after Whit pounded them in. “It better not be Murph.”
Mia stepped out and toweled off. She avoided the mirror until she had tugged a comb through her short, straight tresses. Her scalp screamed at the assault. Mia rubbed the condensation away from the mirror and examined her bruised forehead which had gone from a nice purple to a yellow-green. “Oh nice,” she complained.
She dug into the drawer to the side of the sink and came up with a scissors. Carefully, she combed down some hair and snipped until a set of bangs fell on her forehead, hiding the bruise. “Oh hell,” she whined as the solution made her look more like a Japanese anime than a posh woman. “Who am I kidding?”
Picking up the golden hair, she tied a ribbon around the strands and went in search of an envelope. She was oblivious to being naked as she scratched “Mia age 30” on the sealed envelope and put it in a file with other such offerings.
The desk was a mess of odds and ends, as well as serving as the dumping place for her cell phone. She picked it up and checked the charge. It was fine, but it showed three unanswered calls. Only one of the callers had the balls to leave her a message. The area code was unfamiliar as was the name Bouvier. “Ah, let’s take a chance.”
“Hey, this is Beth. You’re probably sleeping. Wish I were. I am trying to locate info on the Johnston house. Burt thought maybe there was a historical society nearby. I’m at a loss, and Rose isn’t picking up her phone.”
She gave her number and the one at the B&B.
“So, the plot thickens,” Mia said to the empty house as she went back to her room to dress before calling Beth back.
~
Whit towered over Rose. His body language upon entering the realty told everyone else to keep clear. Rose looked innocently up from her desk.
“What exactly is your problem?” he said and glared at the too-calm woman.
“I’m sorry...”
“Don’t give me that act. You know you lied to my wife. For what purpose?” Whit turned and looked at the executives that had walked out of their offices. “Are you aware that your agent/receptionist is spreading lies across town? Are you aware that you as a company are liable for her actions when she is on the job?”
Whit looked down at her again. “If you ever spread one more false word about me, my wife or any citizen of this town again, and I hear about it, you will find yourself sitting in a cell for a while.”
“You don’t have the power.”
“Excuse me, it occurs to me that you’ve been spreading some vicious tales about Judge Waters too. I’m sure he would like to see your tongue stilled for a while,” Whit said.
Ruth’s face paled slightly. “He wouldn’t dare.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Whit said before he turned around and walked out the door.
Chapter Sixteen
Mia tried not to stare at Old Man Taylor who was trying, without success, to pick up a book from the scarred library table. She and Beth had met up to work together on the history of Murphy’s farm. There wasn’t much interest in this neck of the woods for historical preservation, but the deceased librarian had carefully placed documents he inherited from prior librarians in a dusty room in the back corner of the building.
“I can’t believe all this stuff just lying in stacks. Back in Kansas...” she went on to explain how things were done proper in Kansas, but Mia had stopped listening.
Mia had gotten up, picked a book off the table and was holding it for a while, staring into the corner. Eventually she walked over and turned once again to the corner before placing it on the shelf.
Beth was happy that she and Mia had the room to themselves. There was no one to overhear their conversations or shush her when she got too excited.
“So if I were looking for papers pertaining to the Murphy Estate, where would I look?” Mia said aloud as she ran her finger down the books.
Beth watched Mia stare at the corner and turn slowly back and run her hand down the third shelf until her fingers found a cardboard file folder tied together with a ribbon.
Mia read, “Stephen Murphy Estate.” Inwardly her heart sung as she now had a first name for Murph. Stevie is what she’d call him and could not wait to see his reaction. Beth was talking again. “I’m sorry, I was caught up in a thought. What were you saying?”
“I was just asking... Oh, never mind. What did you find?”
“Well, I knew who the original owner was so I thought maybe, instead of working backwards, why not start at the beginning and...”
Beth lightly smacked the table which caused Old Man Taylor to wag a finger at her. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
Mia brought over the file and gave it to Beth. While Beth sorted through the documents, Mia walked back to the shelves and wondered aloud whether all the hollow’s houses had files like the Murphy place did.
Old Man Taylor drifted over to a tall set of shelves and pointed to a wooden box tucked up in the top right corner. Mia smiled a thank you and proceeded to climb the shelves.
“Mia,” Beth scolded, getting up quickly to put a hand to the other woman’s back to steady her, “You know there’s a ladder out in the fiction section.”
Mia grabbed the box, the weight of which surprised her. If it weren’t for Beth’s securing hand, Mia would have found herself crumpled on the floor. As it was, she barely balanced it on her shoulder in time. Mia climbed down and, with Beth’s help, managed to get the box to the table.
“What’s this?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll let you know when I figure it out,” Mia said in a distracted voice.
Beth sighed.
“Oh, thank you, I think you saved my life over there.”
“No problem. Just let me know before you decide to scale any more shelves.”
Mia smiled. “That was pretty dumb, wasn’t it?”
Beth nodded her head and walked over and sat back down to study the Murphy papers.
Mia waited a beat before looking over the ornately carved box to determine the best way to open it. She recognized the bird and ivy motif from the white house’s staircase. This box must be from the hollow. It was hinged with dull brass fittings, and the clasp on the front just needed to be swung up from the locking post.
She pulled over a chair, sat down and stared at it. “Beth,” she called softly.
“Um, yes?”
“If I get all weird, please get me outside as quick as you can,” she said seriously.
