by Alexie Aaron
Burt tried to glare at Mike, who had settled back and propped his feet on the table, but couldn’t. “Any new business to discuss, besides the hollow?” he asked.
Cid and Audrey shook their heads. Ted was watching his wife in the small kitchen, and Mike gave him the wrap-up sign.
“Okay, I formally close the PEEPs meeting.”
“He needs a gavel,” Ted said.
“I’ll make him one,” Cid said, getting up. “Do you prefer ash or cedar?” he asked Burt who thought the techs and their suggestion was daft.
“Ash,” Murphy said, surprising the PEEPs.
“He knows his wood,” Mia called over from the kitchen.
“Ash it is then. Hey, Murphy, want to come and help me?” Cid invited.
The door to the barn opened, and Cid took this as a yes and walked out, reminding Murphy to stand clear of the lathe.
“But I don’t need a gavel,” Burt protested.
Audrey reached over and put her hand on his arm saying, “Let them make you one. It will keep their minds off of what is scaring the crap out of everybody.”
“Are you going to be okay?” he asked her.
“As soon as I get put in front of those research materials, I will be right as rain. I’ve been through worse than maniacal ghosts in my lifetime,” Audrey mentioned, “and survived. I look at this as another challenge. Plus, I know you’re not going to be stubborn; you will call in the cavalry when it’s needed.”
“About that. Mia,” Burt called over.
Mia walked back and handed a plate of warmed up cookies to Mike and sat down beside Burt and Audrey. “You rang?”
“We need to contact Father Santos and…”
“I’m not sure he’s the best one for this problem,” Mia interrupted.
“But he is familiar with the problem,” Burt insisted.
“True. I’ll call him, and perhaps I’ll have lunch with Father Alessandro after I visit Sabine, Brian and the babies tomorrow.”
Audrey clapped her hands together in glee. “Three little girls, can you imagine that?”
Burt looked at Audrey and thought he heard her biological clock ticking. “Give them my regards.”
“I will.”
“What did she name the brats?” Mike asked through a mouthful of cookies.
“They could have gone with Faith, Hope and Charity,” Audrey said.
“Too twee,” Mike said. “Come on, give it up, what did the fair Sabine and noble Brian call their little girls?”
“Leta Ann, Maisha Violet and Nura Louise,” Mia said. “Leta means one who is joyful, Maisha is a giver of life, and Nura means woman of the light. Before you ask, there is a story that goes along with the names. Sabine started off with a normal delivery. They were ready for a cesarean, but it wasn’t needed. Leta was born first. She looked up at the doctor and started laughing. Maisha took her time coming out. Sabine felt her turn around inside, her tiny arms moving, and according to Sabine, Maisha moved the umbilical cord away from Nura’s neck. She saved her sister who was dying. She brought Nura back from the light.”
“And you believe her?” Mike asked skeptically.
“Well yes. The science probably will say this was all coincidental, but remember these are Sabine’s children,” Mia said softly. “Oh, and they gave them ordinary middle names just in case the girls hated their given names.”
“Now that’s smart parenting,” Mike said. He dusted the cookie crumbs off his stomach, pulled his feet off the table and stood up. “Mind if I have a look at this reference material you have? Or is it just a girly girl thing?”
“I have it in the house. I didn’t want to open it here, as we need to do it in a circle of salt, and I didn’t want to exclude Murph from the office,” Mia explained.
“Since he’s busy with Cid, now’s as good a time as any,” Mike said, reaching for his coat.
Burt lightly touched Mia’s shoulder, getting her attention. She turned and took a moment to push through the memories and see the man who now stood before her.
“Have we come full circle?” he asked.
“No, I think it’s more of a figure eight. We’re crossing our past briefly to take care of things we should have before,” Mia answered. “A circle, or an eight, it really doesn’t matter, Burt. We’ll get through this.”
“You seem more confident than when we started this meeting,” he noticed.
“When we started, I didn’t take into account the firepower we have. Look around you. These people, who we are lucky enough to call our friends, are more than investigators, they’re superheroes.”
“I think you’ve been hanging around Batman too long,” Burt said, pointing to Ted who sat at the keyboard of the big computer typing madly. “A little of his crazy has rubbed off on you.”
“It’s made me brave, Burt. He makes me brave,” Mia said quietly before grabbing her coat and joining Mike and Audrey at the door.
Burt looked at his team. The seen and the unseen had made PEEPs more than an amateur ghost hunting group. They made it a force to be reckoned with.
Chapter Four
Mia sealed the ring after Audrey stepped in with the carafe of coffee. The trio had decided to sit in the dining room around Mia’s old dining table. She had brought some of her favorite pieces of furniture with her, mixing them with Ted’s family’s castoffs. Ralph called their style Late Bad-taste. He wanted to redo the whole house for the newlyweds, but Mia put her foot down, mentioning he had a wedding to plan and pay for. She would get around to it by and by.
Audrey caught her staring at the table and asked, “Problem?”
“No, it’s just, the first time I looked through this box was at this table,” Mia answered. She left out that it was with Whitney Martin. He certainly had played a big part in researching the hollow, but his betrayal of her still hurt. The less his name was mentioned the better.
“Do you want to do the honors or do you want me to?” Mike asked.
“I’ll do it. Inside are just papers, ledgers, journals, and deeds to property. But we may find something, a reference, a piece of gossip, that may give us a better understanding of who owned the middle house and who lived there,” Mia explained.
She took off her kid leather gloves and pulled out a vacuum-sealed bag containing a slender set of white gloves. “These are an invention of my husband’s. He soaked the gloves in salt, flash-dried them and encased them in plastic.” She broke the seal and pulled the gloves on. They fit her hands like a second skin, skin that would protect her from the memories the box held.
Audrey watched as Mia tenderly unwrapped the altar cloth and folded the excess on either side so the box would remain on part of the cloth. She stopped and frowned, looking at the clasp and the black feather drawn through the hasp securing the box.
“What is it?” Audrey asked, leaning to get a look at the front of the box. “Is that a feather?”
“Angelo had this box, didn’t he?” Mike asked.
“Yup. I hope he didn’t take anything,” Mia said.
“If he did, he let you know he’d been in it,” Audrey said, pointing out his calling card.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I know that I’m supposed to put all that kidnapping nonsense behind me but…”
Mike started laughing. “No, you’re not to put it behind you. That’s a load of bullshit. Who fed you that information?”
“The judge of purgatory,” Mia answered. “Roumain made me forgive him.”
“Ah, but as Ma says, ‘There’s forgiving and then there’s forgetting. Forgetting is damn stupid.’ I’ve been raised on those words, Mia, and they haven’t steered me wrong yet,” Mike said proudly.
Mia nodded, seeing his point. She pulled the feather out with relish. The box hissed as it popped open.
“That can’t be good,” Mia worried.
“Trapped air,” a voice said behind them.
Mia whirled around and standing, leaning in the doorway of the kitchen was Tonia Toh.
&nb
sp; “Murphy let me in. Said you were monkeying around with hollow crap,” she explained.
“Sounds like Murph,” Mia said.
Tonia smiled at the other two PEEPs. “I’m Tonia Toh, and you are?”
“Shit, where are my manners? This is Mike Dupree and Audrey McCarthy,” Mia said, fighting the irritation that was seeping into her voice.
Tonia nodded her head in the direction of the investigators. “I know I’m not exactly welcomed here. I bring with me a load of problems. I assure you, if I could remedy this situation alone, I would. My partner Lorna says that I’m a bit pushy; I’d say that was an understatement. There just isn’t any time for niceties.”
Mike stared at the woman before them. She was tall and willowy. Her bone structure was European although her face was Asian. A dotting of freckles seemed out of place below the dark eyes that reflected the light from the window behind him. Her sun-bleached strawberry-blonde hair was secured in a French braid, the end secured with a twist tie. She was dressed in blue jeans and an old, black, cashmere turtleneck sweater. She had a denim jacket slung over her shoulder.
“Would you like to join us?” Mia asked.
“Yes, I would. Mind if I snag a cup of coffee? If it is as good as it smelled from outside, I’m in for a treat.” Tonia turned around and padded in her stocking feet to the drain board and shook the remaining droplets of water out of a large mug. “I left my boots on the porch. They’re way too muddy for indoors,” she explained. She stepped over the salt line and settled herself in between Audrey and Mike, facing Mia.
“I appreciate that,” Mia said, not ready to welcome this interloper into her life with open arms. The sure cheek of Murphy letting the women into the farmhouse was staggering. Was Murphy mad at being excluded from the research? How had her friend warmed up so quickly to the spirit tracker? He, above all, should be wary of the paranormal bounty hunter. Mia opened the lid and looked inside.
The bundled papers seemed to be all there. She fingered the grosgrain ribbon she had tied around some of the bundles as they had read them. She instinctively reached for the journals and handed one to Audrey and Mike. “Some of these may be pretty dry if memory serves me,” Mia apologized.
Tonia stood up and looked over the open lid and asked, “May I?”
Mia nodded. “Help yourself.”
Tonia’s hand brushed Mia’s wrist lightly as she reached into the box. Mia’s senses were bombarded with information. The fresh odor of the woods filled her nostrils; she tasted fresh wintergreen; and the sound of wind almost deafened her. She saw a circle of women. One familiar face looked over at her and mouthed her name.
Tonia, realizing she had touched the sensitive, pulled away quickly. “I’m sorry, Mia, I had no idea,” she said clumsily.
Mia sat down on the chair, oddly comforted by the hard wood under her.
“What just happened here?” Mike demanded, pulling Tonia back.
Audrey looked up puzzled from the journal, wondering what she had missed in the few seconds her attention was diverted.
“I had no idea you were that sensitive, I’m sorry,” Tonia said evenly. “I knew you could communicate with ghosts, but I am flabbergasted at the extent of your power.”
“How is she there, in your mind?” Mia asked.
Mike and Audrey had no idea now what was going on. They looked at each other, communicating the same question. Who was Mia talking about?
Tonia looked at the investigators and back at Mia. She gently disengaged Mike’s grasp around her waist. The pure maleness of the investigator was nice, but now was not the time.
“You can say whatever you must. I trust them with my life,” Mia said, giving her answer to the silent question.
“Mia and I got our circuits crossed. I thought she just saw through her hands or I would have been more careful. I touched her arm, and we connected.”
“Connected is a mild way of putting it. You steamrolled me,” Mia accused.
“I didn’t have my defenses up or it would have never happened,” Tonia argued.
Mia waved away her apology. “Let’s move on.”
“Who did you see?” Mike asked. “You said, ‘How is she there in your mind?’”
“My grandmother was sitting in a circle of women. She called out my name before Tonia and I disconnected,” Mia explained. Tears ran down her face as she spoke, “Fredericka Cooper died a decade ago, but yet she’s sitting there with… with…” Mia struggled to find the words.
“The Council of Women,” Tonia finished. “Both of my grandmothers sit there too. Close your eyes and bring back the vision,” Tonia instructed. “See Fredericka, see the wild red-haired woman to her right and the calm, distinguished dark-haired woman seated next to her. They are my family. Seems to me that we were destined to meet, Mia Cooper.”
Mia didn’t speak for a moment. She wiped the tears away with the cuff of her shirt. “We’ll talk later, you and me. Let’s continue with the investigation. You said that time was a factor.”
Tonia watched as Mia got stronger with each word she spoke. She had closed off the rooms of her mind, shut the window of her soul and sat there resolute that their personal business would not get in the way of the task before them. “Very well, mind if I grab those bills of lading?”
“Knock yourself out,” Mia said and forced a smile.
~
Ted walked out of the office, and as he approached the house, he caught sight of Murphy looking in the window of the dining room. “What’s going on that has you so fascinated?”
Murphy swung around surprised and dropped his axe.
Ted jumped out of the way, wincing as the blade landed mere inches away from where his feet now rested. “That’ll teach me to walk up on a ghost unannounced.”
Murphy, who was feeling bad enough for letting Tonia Toh into the farmhouse, was now mortified to be caught peeping in the window by Ted.
Ted glanced in without recognizing for a moment the woman sitting and reading a long yellow piece of paper. When realization hit, he looked back at Murphy. “How did Miss Toh get here?”
“She walked,” a woman said from behind him.
Ted turned around and focused first on the long legs of the white horse that was standing still a few yards behind him. His eyes moved to the booted heel and moved up the leg to the seated woman holding the reins.
“I don’t believe we’ve met. Theodore Martin, owner of this farm.”
“Lorna Grainger,” the woman of Native American stock said as she slid out of the saddle, landing lightly on the ground. “This is Airgead,” she said, patting the neck of the white horse.
“Nice to meet both of you. Did we have a meeting scheduled?” Ted asked. “I was under the assumption that a letter or call of reference was to precede your arrival.”
“Really? This is the first I’ve heard of it. Ton is very bad at details when she has the bit between her teeth. She’s worse when it comes to the social graces. She was supposed to wait for me back at the trailer, but I found the horses unattended and an arrow scratched in the ground pointing more or less in the direction of your farm.”
“Care to come in? I can offer you a cup of coffee and a place to tie your horse,” Ted offered.
“I don’t want to disturb whatever is going on in there. Is there any place else we could talk?”
“My associates Burt and Cid are in the office. I’m sure one or both of them are at the window, wondering who the hell just rode in on a white Arabian horse.”
“Well, let’s not keep them waiting, Theodore. Mr. Murphy, will you be coming too?”
Murphy’s mouth dropped open, and he shook his head mutely.
“I’d watch her too. Ton has a bag of tricks. You’d do well to keep your eye on her,” she advised. She grabbed hold of Airgead and led her to the newel post of the apartment stairs and looped the reins around.
Ted opened the door, and Lorna walked inside.
Burt, who had moments before been at the window spying,
now sat looking at a blank screen. He turned around casually, got to his feet and introduced himself. “Burt Hicks.”
She shook his outstretched hand and said, “Lorna Grainger.”
Cid walked in from the barn, holding two pieces of wood. “How long would you like your handle? Oh, sorry.”
Lorna looked at the younger man and smiled.
“Cid Garrett, this is Lorna Grainger. She just rode in on a white horse named Airgead,” Ted said with some amusement.
“Reducing your carbon footprint?” Cid asked interested.
“I should be, but no, just like to ride. You?”
“Afraid of horses, ma’am,” Cid said. “Would you like some coffee? Burt’s brewed a fresh pot.”
“Yes, with a little milk, please.” Lorna sat down and looked around her. “This is some setup. A lot of hardware in this building. How do you manage keeping it cool?”
Ted launched into a detailed description of the design of the building and mentioned that he had put in several of his own devices to pull the heat away from the processors. Lorna wasn’t just listening, she was learning. She offered a few suggestions that Ted said he would think about.
Burt watched the woman who was so comfortable in her skin. Her knowledge of Tedisms was comparable to Cid’s, and the techs felt free to talk to instead of down to her like they sometimes did with him and Mike.
“You seem to have quite a grasp on new technology,” Burt said when there was a break in conversation. “Is this your trade?”
“Just a hobby. I sell pharmaceuticals. The income, from the pushing of today’s meds on unsuspecting hypochondriacs, more than enables me to fund my desire for all things ether.”
“You talk about your job with such contempt,” Burt observed.
“It is contemptible but necessary,” she said and dismissed the subject. “Tell me about PEEPs.”
“You could get a summary online. What exactly are you asking?” Burt challenged.
“Are you ready for a real challenge?”
“We haven’t exactly been playing around, lady,” Burt said sharply.
“Please don’t misunderstand me. Ton says I have the tact of a charging rhino. What I’m asking is, are you ready to walk into hell again, Mr. Hicks?”