The Garden (Haunted Series)

by Alexie Aaron

  “Just watch me for a few hours. I really think we need to continue the investigation.”

  Mia looked at Ted and shook her head. “He’s a hard-headed son of a gun, for certain. Speaking of hard-headed SOBs, has anyone seen Murphy?”

  Audrey arrived with the ice packs. “Who is Murphy?”

  Alan raised his hands, “Not anyone I’ve met.”

  “Murphy’s special. Ted?”

  “He rode with us and then left to check out the woods. He’s not much of an indoor guy as you know. I told him to keep watch outside.”

  “Won’t he be cold?” a concerned Audrey asked.

  “Nah, Murph doesn’t feel the cold like we do. I better go out and check on him. Maybe he’s seen something that we should know about.”

  “Would someone mind telling me who Murphy is and why is he on my client’s property?” Alan insisted.

  Mia dug in her pocket and pulled out a dollar. “I’m hiring you to be my lawyer.”

  Alan took the dollar. “Okay, I’m your lawyer.”

  “Do I have privilege right now?”

  “Er, yes.”

  “Explain to the man, Burt. I’ve got to use the bathroom before I go and hunt down Stephen Murphy.” Mia left the room with Ted and Cid on her heels.

  Burt adjusted the icepack on his left ankle before beginning. “Stephen Murphy is a dead axe-carrying farmer. He’s a friend of Mia’s and works sometimes with PEEPs.”

  “You’re telling me you have a ghost on payroll?”

  “He doesn’t get paid; think of him as a consultant.”

  Burt went on to give a brief history of the evolution of their relationship with Murphy. By the time Mike reached them in the library, Burt had them in laughter explaining some of the stunts Murphy had pulled on Mike.

  “The kids went outside. Cid’s manning the command center. I came up to check on you guys.” His eyes travelled from the trio to the open wall. “So that’s the passage. I wonder where it leads.”

  “I wouldn’t go far. There may be a human involved, hiding in the walls somewhere,” Burt warned. “We may need some security here.”

  “Can’t Mia just have Murphy flush the guy out?”

  “And what do we do with him then? The only one of us that is armed is Murphy and… Well, you get the picture.”

  “I can have the place checked over again,” Alan offered. “It will have to wait until morning though.”

  “I think we should stay here until we can find out how this intruder keeps getting in,” Mike said.

  Burt nodded in agreement. He looked at his swollen ankle and said, “Might as well, I’m not going anywhere tonight.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Murphy moved through the dark woods, admiring the care that was put into these small patches of forest, sanctuaries for trees and shrub. Small nocturnal creatures moved stealthily as they foraged for something to ease the ache in their winter-starved bellies. He sensed Mia needing him long before her voice reached him. He moved quickly to the side of the big house where she and Ted stood. They made a funny looking duo standing shivering in the night chill, Ted standing tall with Mia tucked practically under his arm. They both wore oversized black hoodies and looked to Murphy like reapers.

  Ted pointed Murphy out to Mia. “Over to your right, he’s trudging up the hill.”

  Mia looked and saw the shift in the darkness, and as Murphy moved closer, she could make out the familiar work-stained clothes and the battered but still serviceable hat atop the handsome farmer’s head. The glint in his steel gray eyes matched the sharp blade of the axe he carried on his shoulder. Many a tree had fallen under that blade until one tree fell on the farmer, killing him axe in hand.

  “Hello, Murph, I was wondering how you were enjoying city life?” Mia joked.

  Murphy smirked.

  “It’s an oasis. But still there are planes overhead and cars polluting the air,” Mia commented.

  Murph nodded towards the house.

  “Yes, we have a problem. Something you may be able to help us with, Super Specter,” Ted told him. “There is a human, we think, or a powerful ghost. He attacked Burt and carried him into a walled passage.”

  Murphy looked surprised. He bent his knees and wobbled as if carrying something too heavy for him.

  “You’re right, it would have to take a monster to move Burt’s butt, but it happened,” Ted assured him. “We saved him. We know he’s moving through the walls, and we’d like to investigate but…”

  Murphy shook his head and pointed to them then he nodded and pointed to his chest.

  “Problem is,” Mia explained, “There is something dark that seems to hold spirits there. There are many trapped souls. I worry about you being caught unaware.”

  Murphy thought a moment. He smiled. He pointed to Mia and to himself, raised one finger on each hand and put them together.

  “We could go together. Have each other’s back.”

  Ted cleared his voice.

  They looked up at him.

  “Can you protect her from a human monster?”

  Murphy raised his axe and nodded towards an ornamental slab of stone. He raised his axe over his head and dropped it into the stone. A thunderous crack echoed through the forest when his spirit-charged cast-iron came in real contact with the stone. It moved through it like butter. As the sound faded away, the stone was divided in two.

  Ted looked at Mia and said, “I guess he made his point.”

  “I see you’ve been practicing. Don’t let Father Santos catch you doing that,” Mia warned.

  The ghost paled and looked at the house.

  “No he’s not here, but I expect him any day now,” she informed him.

  He nodded and wiped his brow.

  “What do you think, Teddy Bear?” Mia asked him.

  Her genuine need for his approval touched the tech. “I trust you know what you’re doing and that Murphy has your best interests at heart. I want you wired and to not take any chances. This is just a job.”

  Murphy saluted to Ted.

  Mia suppressed a giggle as she watched Ted return the salute. They walked to her truck first to retrieve some insurance in the guise of a Louisville slugger and a Blackhawk’s hockey stick.

  ~

  Audrey felt ridiculous. But her terror was real at the time. To their credit, none of the PEEPs looked at her in disgust. Mia even promised to tell her about a creepy doll she had to deal with in a prior investigation. Burt apologized for leaving her in the dust. She told him she was at fault for not keeping up with him.

  Alan just moved from the desk to the opening of the passage and back again. “I wonder how many more of these are in the building?” he asked.

  “Well, we’re about to find out,” Mia said as she entered the library.

  The three looked at the diminutive woman, outfitted as if she was climbing Everest. She had a length of strong cord coiled around her waist and a backpack, with god knows what in it, strapped close to her body.

  Alan admired her bust. Audrey caught him at it but said nothing.

  “I trust you are not alone in this endeavor,” Burt said, feigning a fatherly concern. “And you okayed it with Mike?”

  “More or less, yes.” Mia tapped her com. “Ted, did you talk to Mike yet? What do you mean he’s still in the bathroom? Slip him a note under the door. Burt’s not going to let me in the wall until we okay it with Mike.” Mia laughed at something Ted said but didn’t share it with the others. She walked over to Alan and whispered, “Do you know you have an old lady hanging over you?”

  Alan got up quickly and moved across the room. Mia leaned against the desk watching something above her.

  Burt smirked as she moved her head back and forth with the supposed swing of the apparition. He touched his com and said quietly, “Mia just earned another Bela Lugosi award. She’s creeping out the clients.”

  “She doesn’t seem to be active. More of a memory. But then that brings up, who is screaming in the hallway an
d breaking all that nice porcelain?” Mia mused.

  There was a scratching of metal on wood.

  Mia turned around and said, “I’m waiting on the okay, Murph. Be patient.”

  Audrey’s face lit up.

  “Who are you talking to?” Alan asked.

  “Murphy,” Mia said and waved her hand as someone was talking in her ear. “Mike gave his okay and warned that the feta cheese pizza bites may be bad.” She raised her hands to Burt and angled her head towards the open passage.

  “Go ahead, but be careful.”

  “Alan, could you go down and relieve Cid. He’s going to turn on all the lights on the first floor and doesn’t want to leave Ted shorthanded.”

  Alan got up, relieved to be leaving the room with the hanging woman in it. Audrey smiled at him before he left.

  Mia waited a beat before talking. “He’s kind of sweet on you, Audrey.”

  Audrey laughed. “Good to know. I don’t mix business with pleasure though. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, no offence.”

  Mia smiled glancing briefly at Burt. “None taken. K. Time for me and Murph to navigate the walls.” Mia climbed into the wall and headed into unexplored territory.

  Mia let Murphy take the lead. This way she could follow the faint luminescence he emitted for her and didn’t have to use a flashlight. In the darkness, Mia could examine every crack that light poured through. The angles of the ramps were no problem for Murphy. Mia, on the other hand, crab-walked down them. They came up against a T with a choice between left or right. Mia took out a small spray can and sprayed an arrow in the direction Murphy decided they should take first. The level passage stopped at a hole in the floor where an iron ladder descended. “Ted, over.”

  “Go ahead, mon petit cafard, over.”

  Mia shook off the term of endearment. “Murph and I found a vertical passage. I am going to descend the ladder now.”

  “Leave a trail of breadcrumbs, over.”

  “Done and done, over and out.” Mia eased herself over the edge and felt a tingling as Murphy guided her foot and placed it on a rung. “Thanks, Murph.”

  Mia continued downward, stopping to shine her light as soon as her head cleared the flooring. She was moving downward into a room. Murphy was already moving with great speed, upending the furniture, making sure no one or no thing hid unobserved. Mia’s feet hit the floor, and she jumped a few times to test the security of the wood flooring. “Ted, I’m in a room. Eight by eight. I don’t know where in the house it is. I suppose Cid will be able to figure it out with that big brain of his.”

  “Mia, I assure you, nothing on Cid is bigger than a walnut.”

  Mia heard a sound of protest in the background. She pulled out a LED disc and lit it. The room burst into view. She squinted as the light danced off glossy photos that were hung on both sides of a clothesline that bisected the room. The subject matter was shocking. “Ted, I found a major stash of nineteen forties porn. No children, thank god, but a lot of light S&M and bondage.”

  Murphy shook his head in disgust. He took his axe and sliced through the clothesline they were hung on. The pictures fluttered to the floor. Mia ran her hand over the standing furniture and came away with the grime of years. “I don’t think this is a hidey hole for our present problem. But it is a man cave for some degenerate of the past. He is quite the photographer. Some shots look like they were done onsite. I recognize the steel counters in the basement,” Mia said as she picked up a few of the pictures. “There are a few books down here.” She took a few off the shelf and fanned them. They appeared to be published porn, nothing more. Mia opened up drawers and squealed in disgust at what she could only guess what the items in them were used for. “Gross. I’ll leave the inventory of this stuff for someone with a stronger stomach,” she commented.

  Mia looked behind the bookshelf and found only wall. The wall was brick and mortar. “Ted, I think this room is somewhere in the vicinity of possibly the central chimney.”

  Murphy scratched his axe along the opposite wall. Mia walked over, and he pointed out the metal posts of the bed. “OMG, Ted, we have manacles here. I think the perv had a visitor or two. Yuck. I think we’re done here. Murph and I are climbing out, over.”

  “Be safe. Let’s hope your next discovery is more dignified, over.”

  “I hope so too, over.”

  Mia picked up the light disc and climbed up the ladder. Murphy was waiting for her. Together they reversed their steps, and before Mia moved on, she sprayed an unhappy smiley next to the arrow. She sprayed another arrow in the direction they were going in now and the time they passed it, one-thirty am.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Something was affecting Mike in the most painful way. He was nauseous, his intestines were overactive, and his head pounded. As a precaution he hung around Ted. He didn’t want to be alone in the house. He studied the video feeds while Ted kept up a conversation with Mia who was moving through the walls.

  Alan excused himself and headed upstairs to consult with Audrey. Cid walked from room to room with a glass which he put to the wall and listened.

  “Remind me to order a stethoscope,” Ted said as he watched the young man again put his ear to the bottom of the glass.

  “I think it’s a good idea,” Mike agreed. “I’ll sign the purchase order.”

  “Ted, this is Audrey, over.”

  “Go ahead, over.”

  “I think Alan and I are going to call it a night. But I don’t want to leave Burt up here alone, over.”

  “Does Burt think he can make it down the stairs, over?”

  “He said he’d give it a try, over.”

  Ted waved Cid over. “I’ll send Cid up to help, over and out.” He turned to Cid. “We need to get our fearless leader down here with us. Do you think you could manage him?”

  Cid nodded and started up the stairs.

  “He’s a good guy, I wish we could get him on contract,” Mike confided.

  “He’s a Garrett. Garretts take a long time to make decisions. He’ll let us know soon,” Ted promised.

  Mia followed Murphy on the even grade. They turned a corner, and it started to move downward again. When it evened out, Mia saw a vertical sliver of light. “I think we have another exit.” She ran her hand up and around the area and didn’t find a lever, so she took a small pry bar out of her pocket and worked it up and down the crack. “It appears to be nailed shut.”

  Ted who had been listening in spoke, “Careful, old houses have a lot of nasty things in the walls.”

  “K.” Mia continued to move the bar, concentrating on nail heads when she found them. She removed each nail and tucked it in a pocket. The sliver of light was now large enough to see through. “Ted, I think we’re in the dining room. I’m looking at the back of what I think is the china cabinet. I’m not going any further at this time. I’ll mark it on this side of the passage, over.”

  “You made it to the first floor. Want to take a break?”

  “No, I think I’ll push on. I would feel better if I knew whether we still had a visitor in the house before we settle in and start communicating with the other denizens of the place. I don’t want our data to be corrupted.”

  “Burt would be impressed. Speaking of which, we are moving him downstairs.”

  “K, who’s watching my exit?”

  “I didn’t think of that. I’ll have Cid prop it open and keep the lights on.”

  “Thanks.”

  Ted contacted Cid and caught him in time to take care of the problem. He then gave himself a demerit.

  Mike looked over at him and the red Sharpie mark he put on his arm. “What’s that for?”

  “It’s a demerit. I goofed up.”

  “Everyone makes mistakes, Ted. Don’t be so hard on yourself,” he comforted.

  “In this case I deserved it. I left Mia’s exit out of the wall unguarded.”

  They watched as Cid turned the camera away from the window and pointed it at the exit. Ted saw ho
w Cid wedged the library stepstool in the gap in the wall. “Ted to Cid, over.”

  “Cid here.”

  “Looks good, come on down, over.”

  Mia rolled her head about, easing the stress in her neck. Murphy was moving at a good pace in front of her. They seemed to be at a shallower angle, and when the passage hit a dead end, Mia was puzzled. “Murph, anything on the other side of that wall?”

  He bobbed his head in and out again. He shook it and said, “Dirt.”

  We must have missed something. She retraced her steps. She felt the floor give a little bit as she walked. Reaching their last turn, she moved her hand along the wall and found two levers.

  “Ted, I found two levers. One may lower the ramp and one may send me to certain death, which one do I choose?”

  “I’d pick the one that lowers the ramp.”

  Mia laughed. “I mean, what do I do?”

  “Remember when I scared you when you were doing laundry?”

  Mia thought back to his prank that almost gave her a heart attack. Ted had put his back to the wall and his legs on the opposite side of the small hallway. He walked himself up and hid by the head of the doorway. She walked in, and he said, “Boo!” She looked up and screamed. Then she got the broom and hit him with it.

  “Yes, excellent idea.” Mia raised herself off the floor and pulled the top lever. The floor opened up and a horrendous stench wafted up. She closed it. “First lever, certain doom,” she said. “Pulling second lever.” There was a screeching of metal before the floor angled downward. It stopped at the familiar forty-five degrees. “The second lever lowered the floor. It made a horrible racket. Did you hear it from the foyer?”

  “No, but the heating kicked on just before you pulled it. Maybe it masked the sound,” Ted suggested.

  “Heading down the ramp, over.”

  Ted looked up and nudged Mike. Mike got to his feet and ran up the steps to help spell Alan and took Burt’s arm. Cid and he balanced the hurting Burt until they reached the bottom step. Burt sat down on the steps and waved them away.