“What’s up?” he asked nonchalantly. He was digging in his pockets for something. Instinctively, my hand went to the console between Bruce and me. I carried a weapon at all times, just in case. I prayed that today would not be one of those times I’d need it.
“Oh, sorry, baby. This is Donnie, y’all. He’s my husband, or he will be soon. He drove me over today. Baby, this is Bruce and Mike.”
“Midas,” I corrected her. I extended my hand to him, not because I wanted to be his buddy but because doing so sometimes helped me get a read on folks. He limply shook it, and I didn’t pick up on anything except that this guy had a bad attitude. He sure didn’t want to be here. And if he ever got around to marrying Brittany Pettis, I would be a monkey’s uncle.
“Sorry. I meant Midas. So, are we going inside? You want to see the place where they killed my brother?” There wasn’t a tear in her eye, but I knew from experience that didn’t mean she wasn’t hurting. Obviously, Brittany was a very damaged lady, and part of that must have come from her loss.
“I’d like to talk to you, and then maybe take a walk around the place, yes.”
“Okay,” she said as she asked her boyfriend for a cigarette. He begrudgingly gave her one but lectured her about how she needed to quit while he lit up another for himself.
I rolled up the windows and shut off the SUV. “Bruce, I’m going to carry my sidearm with me. I just wanted you to know. Would you mind handing me my jacket from the back seat? I don’t want this guy to see the gun.”
Bruce nodded and undid his seat belt. “Good idea, but that Donnie guy is watching every move you make.”
“No problem. Why don’t you distract him by heading to the back and grabbing your gear?”
“Got it,” he said as he did just that. Naturally, the two were curious about what we might have in the vehicle, but there wasn’t much to see. I didn’t drive around with the expensive equipment; I kept that in the office or the van, which was always secured in the garage when it wasn’t being used on an investigation. Man, I hate this. I hated carrying a gun, but better safe than sorry. I slid on my jacket, reached in the console for my weapon, leaned forward and slid it into the back of my pants. I grabbed the keys, got out and hit the lock. I hit it twice to set the alarm and looked in Donnie’s car quickly to make sure there wasn’t a third person hanging out there. I didn’t see anyone, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t someone around. I totally got that vibe from this Donnie character.
“What do you want to know about Benjamin? I would think Bruce would have told you all about him. These carnival folks murdered my brother and left him to die here.”
“I am sorry about the death of your brother, Miss Pettis. It’s always hard when someone we love dies. Especially when we don’t have all the answers. I can’t promise that I’ll get to the bottom of it, but maybe my team can shed light on what really happened here.”
“You think my brother is a ghost, don’t you? That he’s kind of lost or something? Like he can’t find the light or whatever? I don’t believe that. I don’t believe my brother would stick around here like that. If he was going to haunt anyone, it would have been me.”
I found her statement curious and said as much to her. “You shouldn’t blame yourself, Miss Pettis.”
“Please stop calling me that. My name is Brittany, and no offense, but you don’t know anything about me and my brother.” She sneered at me as she leaned against the car. She didn’t say anything else but looked at her boyfriend as if she were asking his permission for something. Her hands were shaking, and she rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand.
“What’s in it for her?” Donnie asked me directly as he flicked his cigarette on the ground between us. Yeah, I didn’t like him at all.
“What do you mean?” I asked, playing dumb. This guy’s angle was coming into full view now. He wanted cash for her cooperation. What a piece of work. “I would think getting to the bottom of her brother’s murder would be reward enough.”
“That’s what you think, huh?” Donnie shoved his hands in his pockets.
Bruce intervened politely, “I think we all want the same thing. Justice for Benjamin, right?”
Brittany sobbed, “And you think you can do that? You can’t bring him back, Brucie. He’s dead. DEAD!” She screamed as she burst into tears. Okay, clearly this wasn’t going well. This woman was unhinged emotionally, but Bruce calmed her as he did everyone else.
“I know that, Brittany, but what if we can find more clues? What if we can help you find some peace? Isn’t that worth helping us out?”
She rubbed at her nose with the back of her hand one more time and nodded. She looked at her boyfriend for assurance; he shrugged, and she sighed as a sign of her halfhearted surrender.
“I guess so. What do I need to do?”
Bruce said gently, “Just walk with us. We’re going to walk around the park with this device. This is an EMF detector, which detects fluctuations in the invisible magnetic field. Many people, including me, believe that when you see fluctuations, that’s possible evidence of ghosts. What if Benjamin’s ghost is here and trying to talk to us? Talk to you? I want to hear what he has to say. I know you do too, Brittany.”
“What kind of investigator are you?” Donnie asked as he dug out another cigarette. “You’re talking about ghost busting stuff, aren’t you? Is this some kind of joke?”
“No joke,” I said as I leaned against my own vehicle.
“Well, I took off work to bring her down here. I need some gas money for my trouble, and I would think that a decent fellow like yourself might also make it worth her while. This is going to bring up all kinds of bad memories, and you don’t know what she’s like sometimes when her head gets all screwed up.”
To my surprise, she spoke up. “It’s okay, Donnie. I’m okay. If Benjamin’s ghost is here, I want to see him. I want to talk to him.”
“I don’t have any cash on me. I didn’t know I would need to bring any,” I said sharply. I was quickly losing my patience with this twerp. Even if I could scrounge up a few dollars, I wouldn’t give it to him. Not like this. As soon as I reached for my wallet, he’d knock me in the head and steal my vehicle. That’s the kind of guy he was. Yeah, I knew the type.
“I’ve got a twenty, I think,” Bruce said as he pulled his wallet out of his pocket. Thankfully, it was all he had, but that didn’t mean Donnie wouldn’t want to steal those credit cards. Dang it, Bruce. I thought as I shoved my hands in my jacket pockets.
“Thanks, man. You’re a real good fella.” Donnie opened his Velcro wallet and slid the bill into it. I seriously doubted that twenty would ever see a gas station. More like the crack house.
“Let’s go inside, then, but everyone stays together. There are a lot of hazards in there, broken metal and glass. Be careful where you step,” I said as I walked toward the fence. Bruce and Brittany were right behind me, but I noticed that Donnie hung back. I didn’t like that at all. I sure didn’t want to come back and find my stuff missing.
“What’s up with him?” I asked suspiciously.
“He’s not cool with ghosts and such. Donnie is kind of scared of stuff involving the spirit world. In fact, I shouldn’t take too long with this. I’m sure you understand.”
What else could I say? “Well, this will only take a few minutes,” I promised her. “How long has it been since you’ve been here? I mean, after your brother’s death.”
She frowned as her dirty blond hair flew around her face. A blast of wind swept around us. “I’ve never been back here. I never planned to come back.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” I looked at Bruce, who was staring at his device. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Yeah, I think so. I didn’t go to Ben’s funeral. I was in the hospital, so I couldn’t go, but I always felt bad about it. I wished they would have let me, but I was kind of a mess back in those days.”
Bruce put his hand on her shoulder comfortingly, but I noticed that she flinched
. No, this lady hadn’t been treated right. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that there was a bruise or two on her body. Some guys.
“This is far enough, Bruce.” My partner gave me a questioning look but didn’t argue with me. I wasn’t going to take her to the carousel. I just couldn’t do that to this already-fragile lady. That would be totally wrong. “Brittany, we’re going to do what’s called an EVP session. We use an audio device to record our conversation. Sometimes when we play it back, we hear other voices on there.”
“Like ghost voices?” she asked as she twisted her hair.
“Yeah, like ghost voices. You ready?”
“Do I have to ask anything?”
Bruce smiled and said, “Only if you want to. That’s totally up to you, Brittany.”
“Okay,” she said, her voice sounding shaky. “I think that’s okay.” She glanced over her shoulder as if she were looking for her scumbag boyfriend.
Bruce removed the audio recorder from his bag. “Kind of windy out now. I hope that doesn’t affect the quality of the recording, but we’ll give it a try.” He smiled politely and turned on the device. “Standing in the midway of the Gulf-A-Rama with Midas and Brittany. Is there anyone there? Anyone who might want to chat with us?”
The wind certainly was picking up. The older man turned his body to shield the device from it, but it wasn’t doing any good. “I think we might have to go to one of the buildings, just stand on the side to block this wind.”
Brittany said in a soft voice, “We need to go to the carousel, don’t you think? I need to go see it, Brucie. Ben didn’t die out here on the midway. You know that. If he is here, he will be over there.”
Bruce clicked off the device and said, “We don’t want to cause you any more heartache.”
“I think we both know that heartache is all I have. I might as well go. I don’t know when or if I’ll ever get back here.” She sounded defeated, but she didn’t wait for our answer or our approval. Next thing I knew, she was running toward the carousel. And we were running after her.
Chapter Six—Benjamin
Nobody showed up at the water fountain. Brittany stood around for a good ten minutes and dozens of kids went walking by; any one of them could have set the thing up. Quite a few of them were laughing, not necessarily at my sister but maybe. It was hard to tell with teenage girls. They were mean as hell. I would never have guessed if not for the fact I had to console my sister more than once during her freshman year. But as I said, she had a smart mouth on her. She was one to say what she felt no matter what the cost. Her best friend, Betsy Jordan, moved away last year, and ever since then she’d been kind of lost.
I watched from the other side of the concourse as she dropped the note and walked away. Damn it. She wasn’t going back into the auditorium but was headed to the parking lot. I didn’t want to come to this lousy dance, anyway. Screw it. I followed her, but before I cleared the concrete pillar I spied a boy, a gangly freshman; I didn’t know this kid’s name, but I’d seen him before. Trying to be casual, he bent down to tie his shoe and picked up the note. He shoved it in his jacket pocket before glancing around. I raced toward him.
“Hey, what are you doing, bud?” I said as I grabbed him by the collar and shoved him against the concrete.
“What? Nothing.” The kid had braces and kind of a lisp. “I’m not doing anything.”
“What are you doing with that note?”
He sniffled like he had a cold or something. “What note?”
I dragged him inside the bathroom and pinned him against the wall. There were other guys in here, but nobody was going to get in the way of my interrogation. If this was some kind of joke on my sister, I’d kick this kid’s ass. “Don’t give me that bullshit. I saw you pick up the note, so stop lying to me. Who put you up to this?”
“What? Nobody. I found the note, but that’s it!” I thought the kid was going to cry.
“Loser! Stay away from my sister!” I shoved him hard, but as soon as I let him go he made the mistake of taking a swing at me. I nailed him, of course. He hit the wall and then the ground. Without another word, I dug my hands in his jacket and took the note back. Kids were crowding into the bathroom now, and some of them were chanting, “Fight! Fight!” I didn’t want to fight. I got what I came for. I shoved my way through the screaming idiots and stormed down the concourse to find Brittany.
She was waiting for me at the car with her thin arms crossed. We didn’t talk, and I didn’t tell her about the kid or the note. I actually threw the note out the window, and she didn’t even notice.
Disgusting punk! He’s lucky I only hit him the once.
“Ben, let’s not go home yet. Please? I don’t want to answer a lot of questions, and you know Mom will badger me to death until she hears why I’m home early. Let’s go somewhere and do something fun.”
“Where did you have in mind? Pizza Shack?”
“No. I hate that place.” We rode in silence a few more minutes. I was about to turn onto our road when she half turned in the seat and asked, “What about the Gulf-A-Rama? I haven’t been in so long, and they say it’s Soda Night. All the rides are free until midnight. That will give us plenty of time to have some fun together. Just you and me, Benny.”
“Yeah, Brit, the rides are free, but we have to pay to get in.”
She sighed in exasperation. “Stop being a cheapskate, big brother. I’ve just been stood up at a dance, but I can pay my own way in if you can’t,” she said as she rolled her eyes and dug for a piece of gum in her purse. She offered me one too, and I accepted it with a smile. Strangely enough, I liked the idea of doing something fun, and I wasn’t heartless. I hated seeing my little sister treated like a joke. I mean, I was her brother.
“Fine, but look on the bright side. You gave it a shot. That’s more than I would have done.”
She smiled broadly and said, “Yeah. I made a fool of myself, but let’s not talk about it, okay?”
“Okay.” I turned the radio back up. My favorite song screamed from the scratchy speakers. I loved Journey; their sound was raspy and full of emotion. There were lots of screaming guitars too, which were my all-time favorite instrument. I always wanted to play guitar or the drums. Chicks dug bands. I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel as the band sang about “the wheel in the sky.” Cool song. To my surprise, Brittany screamed the words along with me and the band. By the time we got to the amusement park, we were both in a better mood. During the drive, I resolved to leave Kendra behind and try and make it up to Stephanie after ditching the dance. I would take things slow with her, not rush into anything like I did with Kendra. Or maybe I would play the field for a while and just enjoy being single.
Yeah, that’s right. Single. Let’s hope I wasn’t also expelled a week before graduation for fighting a freshman in the bathroom.
“Hold on, let me change my shoes,” Brittany said as I slung my car in park. She’d brought her gym bag with her, but I had no idea she’d brought a complete change of clothes.
“You came prepared, didn’t you?”
“Didn’t you? I mean, we were obviously going to go somewhere after.”
I grinned at her as I peeled off my jacket and offered it to her. It’s not that it was particularly chilly out, but she was in a sleeveless dress. It seemed like the chivalrous thing to do. “I guess I’m not as thoughtful as you, sister. I’m okay. Let’s go.”
“Hang on,” she griped as she slid on her jelly shoes, grabbed her change purse and put on my jacket. “Okay, I’m ready. Let’s roll. Thanks, Benny.” She hugged me, and we walked toward the amusement park arm in arm. The place was packed, despite the end-of-year dance. It occurred to me that I really wasn’t going to miss high school. Not a bit. Even though the future was uncertain, I felt a sense of accomplishment but not much in the way of nostalgia. Maybe it was the whole Kendra-cheating-on-me thing, but I wasn’t sure. I didn’t like thinking this deeply.
“This is really cool,” Brittany said as the wind to
ssed her stiff bangs high above her round forehead. Lights were flashing; people were walking in and out of the park. Music was playing over the loudspeaker, but it wasn’t carnival music. It was rock and roll, and I totally loved it. Someone was rocking out to that new band, what was their name again? Night Stranger? I couldn’t remember. They were singing a song about a sister, oddly enough. I took it as a sign. I’d done the right thing. Brittany and I rarely had moments like this when it was just the two of us doing something fun. Partly my fault, partly hers I guessed, but at least we were here now. I probably should have told our parents about our excursion, but hey, we were just teenagers out to have a good time.
“Look, Ben! That is one big wheel!”
“You want to give it a try?” I asked as I paid the fair entrance fee. I noticed she forgot all about paying her way in, but after the night she had I didn’t remind her. She squealed her answer, and we raced through the midway to the Ferris wheel. The line wasn’t that long, so we waited to get on. I had to admit that I was kind of put off by the size of the thing, but I couldn’t be a coward now. Not when Baby Sis needed me to be there. It was suddenly quite chilly, and I kind of regretted not keeping my jacket. I imagined it would be even chillier as we went up to the top of that thing.
Brittany smiled up at me. When had she ever been this happy with me? “All right, Benny. You first. Looks like this is the last bucket.”
“No, you first,” I said. I was pretending to be polite, but really, I was just stalling.
“Why? Are you afraid or something?” She grinned as she cracked her gum.
“Hell no. I was trying to be a gentleman, but I see that’s impossible ’cause you ain’t no lady.” I stepped into the bucket and fumbled with the seat belt. By the time I got the thing locked, I realized I was by myself. And the wheel had begun to move. “Brittany!” I yelled as I watched her run away from the ride. “Hey! Stop this damn thing!”
A Ghostly Ride in Gulfport (Gulf Coast Paranormal Book 10) Page 4