Puzzle (Haunted Series)

by Alexie Aaron

  “Thank you for your concern,” Albert said automatically. “It should have never gotten this far. We found out that other parents had complained about the treatment of their sons at the hands of the coach, but it fell on deaf ears. Phyllis’s recording was taken to the School Board, and they fired the coach. They also recommended a police action, endangerment of a child, or something like that. The principal was found in collusion and transferred.”

  “Everything was hushed up in the press, how did you find out about it?” Phyllis asked Audrey.

  “Actually, I was researching the School Board’s suit against the maker of the gymnasium flooring. They claim that the mercury content in the floor made the coach crazy and several children ill. Ira’s suit was discovered when I read the transcript.”

  “This is the first we have heard about this.”

  “I ran it by a lawyer friend of mine, Alan Jeffries, and he thinks that it was kept under wraps for two reasons. The school, in citing that they knew in advance of some problem with their employee, was complicit in your son’s injury. And the company they were suing didn’t want the bad press, so this hearing went on behind closed doors, agreed upon by both parties.”

  “Those bastards!” Phyllis spat out, which surprised her as much as her husband. “Excuse me. You must think me quite low.”

  Audrey shook her head. “Understandable, under the circumstances. Mr. and Mrs. Levisohn, I’d like to share this information with the group. There is an outside chance that someone may be able to find out more about what happened to Ira. If so, we will get this information to you.”

  “We’d appreciate it,” Albert said standing up.

  Audrey walked over and shook his hand and hugged Phyllis as Phyllis put her arms around who they now considered their friend. Audrey excused herself and began to leave the room. She stopped, turned around and took one last look at the dark-haired teenager lying in the bed. He reminded her of someone. As with the earlier poke from her brain, it was fruitless, no information was revealed. She filed it away to examine later.

  ~

  Murphy patrolled the property. His long strides took him through the seedlings and brambles. He stopped to admire an elm that hadn’t been taken by disease. He concentrated and was able to put his hand against and feel the bark of the tree. A movement caught his eye. A woman was walking through the woods from the perimeter road. She wore boots to handle the spring mud and a coat to keep the weather off her slumped shoulders.

  He walked alongside her and took in her sadness. She was on a pilgrimage of some kind. She stopped just inside the tree line and gasped. Murphy caught what was in her line of sight. The PEEPs truck.

  She stood there a moment, frozen. To Murphy it looked like she was fighting a battle with herself over whether to continue or retreat. She chose to leave. Murphy saw the quiver of her lip stop when she set her jaw firmly. “I knew he was still in there,” she said. She stopped and took another look back before rushing off through the woods.

  Murphy stood and watched her leave. He didn’t know if he should bother Mia with this information. For right now, he chose to keep it to himself. He, however, would increase his patrols around the school property.

  ~

  Homely stood in the parish hall of the church, holding a cup of coffee in one hand and some delectable homemade pastry in the other when he spotted Anne. “Anne!” he called, regretting his raised voice when several of the parishioners glared at him. He mouthed an “I’m sorry,” and they turned back to indulge in their gossip or whatever business they participated in after they gave the Lord his due.

  Anne was a stout woman with a penchant for pantsuits instead of the dresses her peers wore on the Lord’s Day. Today she was dressed in a vivid green that complimented her rosy complexion.

  “Well, Homer, it’s been too long. Are you still riding with that motorcycle gang of yours?” she said, holding out a hand to be shook.

  Homely put his pastry on top of his cup before clasping her hand firmly in his. “Yes, I’m riding the lonesome road with a pack of the best of them.”

  “Good, I expect that’s why we don’t see you in church during the good weather?”

  “Gee, Anne, I didn’t know you were looking,” Homely said blushing.

  “As they say, a good looking man catches the eye,” Anne blatantly flirted. “So, you said on my answering machine that you wanted to pick my brain. What about?”

  “Are you still tending the veterans’ graves, the old ones, Civil War era?” he specified.

  “Yes, I look after them. I expect their kith and kin are long gone. Why?”

  “I’m looking for information on some graves that may have been interfered with in the last few years. I figured if it wasn’t one of your graves, you would have heard of it from another of your group.”

  “Nope, it was one of mine. Out on the Alver road there is a small cemetery, used to belong to the Alver Baptist Church, but that’s long gone. The range fire took the church and several of the farms in eighty-six. The congregation had been tending a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. When they rebuilt in Orland, it was left untended until it was brought to our attention. Two, or was it three, years ago? Where is my memory these days? Anyway, I noticed the ground around the tomb was turned over. The sod was pretty bad, so I thought that the county may have been preparing to redo the memorial. I called them, but they didn’t have any plans in the works. Mind if I get a coffee, this story takes a bit to tell,” Anne explained, excusing herself.

  She returned with a cup and a plate of pastries. She nodded over to a table, and the two of them sat down.

  “I didn’t think grave robbers at first; my mind doesn’t go in that direction right away. I thought perhaps the graveyard finally got a grounds keeper. Normally, I go out every month with a weed whacker and cut down the long grass. I was excited to think this would be one less chore.”

  “Was it?” Homely prompted.

  “Nope, dead end there. I got ahold of Stevensville Mortuary and asked if they had someone that would be willing to look into the mystery with me - I send a lot of business their way. They promptly sent out a crew and excavated the burial plot in front of the tomb. The vault was busted into. Not a bone left in there. They did find some rusted buckles but no remains.”

  “How long had it been that way?”

  “The guys estimated by the amount of water that seeped into the vault that it had been a few months before I spied the turned earth.”

  “Horrible.”

  “I agree. Not only were those boys lost, but their families had no idea what happened to them. And to add injury, some freak takes their remains for what purpose I dread to think upon.” Anne brushed some crumbs off the table into her empty plate. She looked like she was weighing her thoughts. “I love my hobby. Some people whisper that I’m a bit gruesome. It’s a relief to be able to talk about this stuff with someone.”

  “I hear you and appreciate you talking to me. Is there anything else?”

  Anne smiled. “I came upon some information years and years ago, some entry in a diary that someone bought at an estate sale. These poor souls were on a mission to bring one of their own to justice when they were fired upon by the man they were pursuing. I jumped to the conclusion that it was my soldiers, but I’ve got no proof it was them. And now, I’ve got no bones.”

  “I’d like to see that information. Be nice to have names for these boys even if they are missing,” Homely said solemnly.

  “I’ve got it at home. Not the diary, it’s at the Historical Society over in Bertram County. I had some copies made. I don’t know why I went to the trouble. I guess I just wanted to have names. Crazy as it seems, I like to talk to my charges as I’m planting some flowers or laying a winter blanket of evergreens. Makes them like family.”

  “Would I be pressing you to be able to see that information today?” Homely asked.

  A look of alarm was quickly replaced by curiosity on her round face. “You can follow me home, as long as y
ou come clean with why you’re so interested in the missing boys.”

  “I’ll tell you everything, but it’s a story best not overheard.”

  Anne leaned over the table, placing a hand on his arm. “Those are the best kind of stories. Come on, we’ll go in my car, and I’ll drive you back after. Start talking, Homer.”

  He got up and gathered their trash, placing it in the receptacle before gallantly offering Anne his arm. “It all started with a derelict bar down on Route 66 called Lucky’s…”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Ira moved methodically through the first floor hallway, searching each room for the four males. He didn’t understand his state of invisibility; all he knew was that it gave him super speed. Each classroom clock seemed to be at a standstill until he stood still. Then he could see the second hand move.

  He exited the last classroom on the first floor, aware of the whirl of the floor buffer moving towards him. He turned and watched as the janitor moved his machine with care along the hall. As he passed Ira, he turned his head. A look of understanding crossed his face, and he pointed up.

  Ira opened his mouth to speak, but the man shook his head. He pointed up once more and resumed his slow progression down the hall.

  What was this strange world he found himself in: janitors working all day and night; men and teenage boys roaming the halls, entering classrooms, solving riddles and cyphers - put there by whom? He needed to find the group and get them to understand that he was there beside them, trapped in a dimension he didn’t understand, a world where time stood still. He had a plan, but first he needed to find where the next test was being set up. Ira ran to the end of the hall and up the stairs. He passed the group, being careful to move around them. In Ira’s world, they were wax figures. Ira heard a scratching of chalk on a board up ahead. He pushed through the classroom door just enough to see the coach, the man who had trapped him in the floor, writing on the board. Ira moved quickly to a dark corner, hoping the man wouldn’t detect his presence. From there he would wait for his opportunity. He observed how slow the coach’s movements were. His pale body, dressed in his uniform of shorts and a sweatshirt, seemed bloated and moved not with the grace of an athlete but more mechanically. His head was tilted to one side until he turned; this caused it to roll unimpeded to the other side.

  Ira waited until the coach finished his lesson plan. He moved as fast as he could to the front of the room as the coach moved towards the door. Ira concentrated hard and was able to lift the smallest piece of chalk. He scratched out numbers, repeating them over and over, until the empty spaces of the chalkboard around the lesson plan were filled. He looked behind him. The coach had made it to the door and had his hand on the light switch.

  Ira ran back to the middle of the room, turned, and with all the energy he had, ran and jumped, launching himself at the classroom clock over the chalkboard. He maintained the thought that he was a solid not a gas as he curled his fists.

  Just as the coach flipped the switch and opened the door, Ira hit the clock, causing the glass to crack. Spent, Ira slid down the wall, reading the coach’s lesson plan… the toe bone’s connected to the… as he sunk into the floor.

  ~

  Mia was pulling open boxes and looking into them.

  Her sighs and muttered curses caused Dave to turn around and with extreme irritation ask, “Is there something I can help you with?”

  Mason lifted an eyebrow. He thought his friend lacked manners and waited for the investigator to lambast him with lip. Instead she rolled her eyes.

  “I will never get used to Ted’s filing system, as you know from Boosty Betty or Betty Boost. Anyway, I’m trying to find an energon cube.”

  “T for Transformers,” Dave offered.

  “T? I never thought, but it’s worth a try,” Mia said and opened the box. “Fuck me and leave me a rose, here it is.”

  Mason refrained from commenting about taking her up on her offer and instead asked, “An energon cube, really?”

  “It may not power an Autobot, but it may just energize ghosts if they draw from it. Sometimes in an investigation, the spirits draw from the video and recording batteries. We lose a lot of evidence that way. Ted had this idea to give them an alternate source of energy to draw from. This block of batteries is supposed to be strong enough to light half the space station.

  Mason whistled. “That’s amazing. What are you going to do with it?”

  “Well, we have some ghosties in the woods who have a problem with the ghost in the school. I thought that once we are able to warn the fellas and give them a way to escape, the ghosts could enter the building, cause a ruckus and keep the entity busy so our guys can beat feet out of there.”

  “I thought that ghosts couldn’t enter. Your guy bounced off, if I remember right,” Dave pointed out.

  “That was before we found out the reason. The air was filled with salt. We turned off the water to the school. The water softener and humidifier can’t run without water. Anyway, soon that problem will be solved as the air recycles. Cid says something cleans the floors of the school constantly, so the salt shouldn’t be a problem in the halls. I don’t know how long the ghosts can last in there, but I’m betting on them giving us enough time to get our guys to safety.”

  “So now you have the cube, what’s next?” Mason asked.

  “We …” Mia stopped as she heard a faint voice in her ear. She ran to the edge of the truck and shouted, “Cid, get in here!”

  He was there in seconds.

  “I heard Ted’s voice. They must be on the second floor!”

  “Excuse me, gentlemen,” Cid said, picking up the headset and taking the chair Dave quickly got up from. Cid’s hand flew across the console. “Ted, Burt, come in,” he said loudly. “Ted, Burt, come in.”

  Nothing.

  “Mia, I’m going to disengage all the other coms but theirs,” he told her.

  Mia nodded. She leaned over Cid, watching.

  Mason got up and tapped her on the shoulder instructing, “Sit down.”

  Mia sat down with a thud, her mind totally engaged with what Cid was doing.

  “Burt, Ted, come in. If you can’t talk right now, tap the com.”

  There were two distinct taps coming through the speaker.

  “We are working on an exit strategy. We will be sending Murphy and friends into the school to cause a riot downstairs to attract the entity. You are to get yourselves to the center second-floor classroom in the front of the school for extraction. Tap if you understand.”

  They responded each with a tap.

  “Ted, when do you think Mia’s going to want that wedding?” Burt asked Ted loudly, surprising the people in the command center, Mia especially.

  “Soon as I can find my way past a few barriers,” Ted responded.

  Cid and Mia nodded. It was their way of communicating with the outside in code.

  “They’re blocked off from the front of the building,” Mason realized.

  “I’m sure this is a test of your relationship,” Burt pointed out.

  “I think the next test will see us clear of any problems,” Ted said confidently.

  “They must be entering a room with an exit door on the other side towards the front of the building,” Mason said quickly and continued, “Mia, the school is a maze of hallways, but the center classrooms open up in both directions,” he explained.

  “Ted, Burt, we’ll have everything in place. Let us know when you exit the classroom, over,” Cid instructed.

  Two taps were heard before Ted and Burt stopped communicating. Mason knew that they needed all their wits to concentrate on the test before them.

  Mia jumped out of the truck in search of Mike. She found him talking to Patrick. “We’ve made contact. I need to find Murphy, and you two better draw straws to see who goes through the window first,” she said and ran off calling, “Murphy!”

  Mike heard a loud crack. “She’s found him,” he said. He turned to Patrick and asked, “How do you
feel about heights?”

  Mia had just finished briefing Murphy on the plan when Homely pulled up in his utility van. “Doc’s about a half hour behind,” he explained. “I’ve got some information that we may be able to use to identify the soldiers,” he said, patting his pocket. “I’ve not read it yet because I wanted to get here first. There was a break-in a few years ago at a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier not far from here. Bones and other remains were taken,” he confirmed.

  “It validates our theory.” Mia walked over to the large sea chest and patted it. “I don’t want to deal with this just yet. We’ve heard from the boys inside, and soon they will be in position for us to extract them from the second-floor window,” Mia explained. “Can you help us on the ground? I don’t have a ‘normal’ person to open the door for the ghosts. It may open under your hand, or you’ll have to break the lock,” she cautioned. “Murphy’s forte with an axe may do more harm than good.”

  “Whatever you need, I’m your man,” Homely replied. He grabbed her hand. “Mia, this has been tough on you, with both Ted and Burt in there. How are you holding up?”

  “Yes, it’s been rough, but now I’ve heard their voices, I feel better. But let’s not celebrate now; they’re not out of the woods yet.”

  ~

  Richie lagged behind the others and entered the room last. He listened in on the PEEPs dudes’ brief conversation about marriage and barriers. He remembered fondly the little spitfire Mia who had visited him in the hospital. She had renewed his confidence and didn’t lie to him. She said things were never going to be the same for him, and she was right. But she also gave him props for saving Dave. Manny, poor Manny, there wasn’t a chance for him. Richie fingered the blue lock of hair on his forehead. This was for Manny, his way of remembering his friend each time he glimpsed his own reflection. He had wanted to get a tattoo, but his mother eighty-sixed that. She said, touching Richie’s heart, “Remember him here, not on your arm.” Tears flooded Richie’s eyes, and he sniffed.