Old Bones (Haunted Series)

by Alexie Aaron

  Cid rolled out the massive office chair for the priest and placed it facing the arranged seats.

  The PEEPs crew sat down, leaving the two middle seats open for the Bassos. Maria guided her father to the chairs and sat down. Mia looked around, the only one absent was Stephen Murphy.

  Father Alessandro, who always had a flare for the dramatic, strode purposefully to the chair and sat down. He spread the papers on his lap and took a moment to make eye contact with all that were in the room before speaking, “I was asked early this morning if I could come to this house of misfortune and translate a carpenter’s notebook from Italian to English. I was told that it may hold a key to what was found in the wall of the study just a few hours ago.”

  Drago stirred in his seat. His daughter put a calming hand on his arm until he settled down.

  “Giuseppe Basso, the writer of the notebook, was the lead carpenter for the finishing work of this home. Pietro, his brother, had arranged the job for him, and Nico, his nephew, assisted Giuseppe, as did several others, with his work. The job was well under way when Pietro secured a very profitable job for Giuseppe out west where a group of summer homes for the rich were being constructed. Giuseppe would have to split his time between the city and the country, but he had confidence that his nephew Nico would be able to finish the parish house without much supervision. And so Giuseppe went out west and worked with a team of apprentices while Nico worked with another group here.”

  Father Alessandro took a moment to set the stage. “This was a time of prosperity. The robber barons had taken root here and needed homes. The houses built during this time were impressive and large. But along with the riches there was darkness. Here in this part of the city, little girls were being taken from their beds never to return home again.”

  “Giuseppe Basso and his apprentices toiled in Cold Creek Hollow oblivious to the danger growing in the city. By the time the news reached him of the disappearances, three little girls had been taken. He rode all night, concerned for Esta, his daughter by his mistress, who was the same age as the girls who were abducted. When he arrived, his Esta was full of complaints about her half-cousin Nico. Giuseppe became concerned and decided to stay in the parish house for a while. He wanted to watch Nico to see if Esta’s complaints warranted him going to Pietro with his concerns.”

  “Nico wasn’t the molester, Giuseppe was,” Drago said, getting to his feet.

  The priest looked at Drago and said, “No Nico was not, neither was Giuseppe. Sit and listen to Giuseppe’s words.” He cleared his voice and read:

  I followed young Edgar one night as we left the house after toiling all day. I wanted to catch up to him to offer him a position at the hollow. I called to him, but my words were lost in the wind. I decided to follow him home and ask him there. A strange thing happened. Instead of turning right to go home to his mama’s, he turned left and walked into a poorer neighborhood. I watched him climb some back stairs and look in the windows. I waited for the wind to die down. I shouted, ‘Edgar, are you lost? Your home is this way.’ He came down from there, and he continued home in silence. I felt something was not right and did not offer him the position. The next day I asked Nico about the young apprentice. He said he worked hard putting in many hours in the library, building the shelves the priests ordered. He also made the closets.

  I spent the day looking over Edgar’s work. I found that the closets had trick panels in them. I approached Edgar and asked him about them. He told me they were requested by Nico. I confronted Nico, and he denied asking Edgar to make them.

  Nico met with Edgar. I don’t know who the liar was, but from that day on, I felt as if someone was watching me. I overheard whispers amongst the men, and they looked at me oddly. Nico and his father had long discussions that did not include me.

  One night I walked into my room and found a white rag stuffed under my pillow. I pulled it out and was shocked to see it was a child’s nightdress stained with dried blood. I ran to Esta’s room and found her well and not harmed. The garment was not hers. I heard a pounding of feet on the stairs. Footsteps ran past Esta’s room and into mine. I handed the dress to my daughter and asked her to put it with her things. She did so without asking.

  I walked into my room to see my bedding torn off the bed and Pietro standing there in a rage. Nico glared at me and asked, “Where is it?”

  I said I didn’t understand. They went away, and I righted my room. When the house quieted down, I went to Esta’s and she gave me the nightdress. I stuffed it into a brass rod that usually holds the blueprints I am working with. The next morning I supervised the delivery of the grandfather clock. Edgar arrived and looked stunned to see me there. He slunk away, and I did not see him the rest of the day.

  The next day a rider came from the western job site. There had been a problem with the risers of the staircase. Pietro said I had to return there. I left Esta in Nico’s care and took Edgar with me. This way I could watch the boy until I could prove that he was the guilty party.

  “This is a nice story, but I don’t see the point. My grandfather sent his brother to Cold Creek in the morning. Later they found Esta had gone missing. Giuseppe took his daughter with him when he left, and the abductions ceased.”

  “Did they?” Father Alessandro asked. “Last night the corpses of six girls were pulled from the wall, not three. One of them is Esta Basso.”

  Drago sat down hard. Maria leaned over and said, “Sit and listen, papa.” She nodded to the priest to continue.

  All the way to Cold Creek I thought about the closets and the bookshelves. Before I left, I compared the blueprints and found small difference in the rooms. It is as if someone has subtracted space. Edgar looks at me with hatred. I look back at him with worry. If Edgar has done these bad things, I will find out, and he will be punished. I have taken the nightdress with me as proof I did not imagine what I saw. I will secure this with my notebook. If something happens to me, look in the wall in the study. This is the only place Edgar could have hidden his crimes.

  Father Alessandro put his papers down and looked at the group that he held spellbound and said, “Two great injustices have occurred in this house. The first was the murders of little girls. The second injustice was the false accusation of Giuseppe Basso as the murderer.”

  “It looks like Edgar did it,” Audrey said. “How did it get turned around?”

  “My grandfather Pietro and Nico,” Drago started, “were concerned about the attention and gifts Giuseppe lavished upon the bastard child, Esta. When the other girls started disappearing, they, like everyone in this part of town, looked at their neighbors and relatives with suspicion. I am sure Edgar planted the bloody nightdress in Giuseppe’s room to frame him after Giuseppe challenged him about his trick cabinets. He told my grandfather he had seen Giuseppe rubbing his body with a bloody dress.”

  “His brother believed the apprentice?” Mike asked horrified.

  “The information that I tell you is from the whispers that were passed down from Nico to my father to me. It was thought that Giuseppe Basso had murdered his own daughter and the other missing girls. You see, they never found her after Giuseppe died. Edgar too disappeared. It was assumed that he ran off.

  “How did Giuseppe die?” Mia asked

  “My grandfather stabbed him in the back,” Drago said. He followed him to Cold Creek. When he went to confront his brother, Giuseppe got angry and pushed him away and started up the stairs. My grandfather wasn’t a strong man, and he would certainly lose in a fight, so he stabbed his brother in the back. Giuseppe fell down the stairs and broke his neck. Pietro had him buried quickly, citing the hot weather. No one was the wiser. He thought he was dispensing justice.”

  “You mean hiding a scandal.” Mia sniffed.

  “That too.” Drago looked ill. “All this time I thought my grandfather was a hero. He saved Chicago from the murderous Giuseppe and the family from the shame his arrest would bring. Now I find the only murderer was he.”

  “I�
�m not too sure that Giuseppe didn’t dispense a little of this kind of justice too. Edgar disappeared after all. He could have run off, but he would have killed again,” Burt reasoned.

  “How did Pietro die?” Mia asked.

  “He had a heart attack in this very house. He was hanging a carved mantel over the …

  “Fireplace in the back bedroom of the second floor,” Mia finished.

  “Yes, how did you know that?”

  Mia looked at Audrey. “He’s the Basso ghost. He was enraged that the scandal was rearing its ugly head again.”

  “Impossible, my grandfather was given a Christian burial.”

  “But how can he move on, knowing he killed his own brother?” Mia said. She got to her feet and ran up the stairs. At the top she called, “Pietro Basso!”

  Ted pulled up the back bedroom’s video feed from the iPad screen. He watched as a black mass moved out of the fireplace. “Heads up, Mia, he’s coming out,” he called.

  Everyone got to their feet. Father Alessandro walked quickly into the study. Maria grabbed her father and pleaded, “Let’s leave, Papa.”

  “No, I want to see this. This trickery. It’s a show, like the priest’s story, nothing more.”

  Mia stared down at Drago. The arrogance of the man pissed her off. She stood her ground and accused the approaching entity, “Pietro Basso, you murdered your brother.”

  The mass grew in size. Arms shot out and grabbed for Mia, she twisted and ran for the stairs then stopped and turned around and said, “Your brother was innocent. The apprentice Edgar killed Esta and the five other girls.”

  The mass wavered and boiled. “BASSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

  “Some parlor trick,” Mike said behind Drago. “That’s your ancestor up there. Do you have any words for grandpa?”

  Cid patted Ted’s shoulder and took the iPad from him. “I think you better find Murphy.”

  Mia put her back against the wall of the staircase and walked down, watching the entity as it moved towards her. As it did, it formed into the image of a man.

  Drago gasped. “Grandfather Pietro!” he exclaimed. “I’ve pictures at home. But how?”

  Pietro’s ghost put his hand on the staircase and looked down at Mia and called, “Liar!”

  The wood quivered, and Mia swore she saw the ivy move.

  “Uncle Pietro?” a tiny voice sounded from the door of the room where Audrey had found the doll.

  The entity whirled around to see Esta standing there in her nightgown holding her precious doll. “Is papa coming home?”

  Confused, the entity looked from her to Mia and back again. “No, Esta, papa is not coming home,” he said gently. “How are you here, little one?”

  “Edgar came into my room and told me papa was stuck in a closet. He needed my help, but I had to be very quiet. I went with him, and now I’m here waiting for papa to come back home.”

  The entity turned to Mia. She could see his face was full of anguish. He fell to his knees and cried, “What have I done?”

  Mia climbed back up a few steps and stood before the kneeling ghost. “You did what you thought you had to do. God will forgive you…”

  “But Giuseppe will never.”

  Mia heard the squeak of wood rubbing together. She turned to see the ivy unwind itself from the balustrade. It crept along the floor beside her and swirled and bent as it climbed higher and higher. Legs formed, arms grew and finally a head lifted as if interrupted in prayer.

  Esta clapped her hands and said, “Papa!”

  It reached a wooden hand to her, and she grasped it.

  “Mia, open your mind,” Father Alessandro encouraged from the foot of the stairs.

  She did so, and a man’s voice filled her head.

  Ted ran back into the room after not being able to find Murphy. He turned the corner to see Mia with wooden ivy encircling her hand. He heard her say, “I will speak for Giuseppe, who is here, but has no voice.”

  Pietro cowered on the ground. Esta skipped over and took the ivy man’s other hand.

  “Esta, my heart, I have missed you,” Mia’s voice was her own, but the words were Giuseppe’s.

  “I’ve been waiting for you, Papa.”

  “Pietro, get off your knees. It is unbecoming.”

  The entity looked up at the Giuseppe and did as he was told. “I am your murderer, my brother, have mercy on my soul…”

  “That is up to God, Pietro.” Giuseppe released Esta’s hand and reached out for his brother. “I forgive you. You did what you thought you had to do. I too am a murderer. Edgar met his end after he confessed to taking pleasure in twisting Esta’s neck and hearing it break. I treated him to the same fate. His bones rest on the bottom of Cold Creek, never to rise again. If we must wait out our days in purgatory, let’s do it together, brother.”

  Esta felt her neck and rolled her head. She shrugged her shoulders, sat on the floor and began to play with her doll.

  Ted glanced over at the PEEPs team. They were filming and recording the event with whatever they had on them. Drago held on to his daughter, tears streaming down his face. Father Alessandro put on his vestments and started up the stairs. Ted followed him, making sure he did not come to harm on the climb.

  The priest looked up at Mia and the strange accumulation of paranormal entities on the upstairs landing and called, “Giuseppe and Pietro Basso.”

  The entities turned and looked at the priest. They watched him climb the stairs towards them. Giuseppe let go of Mia’s hand. She walked away and sat near Esta who pointed out how her dolly could dance on the floor.

  “Do you confess your sins and ask forgiveness?” the priest asked.

  The ivy man nodded and Pietro said, “Yes, Father, I do.”

  Esta handed Mia her doll and walked over to her father. She looked at the priest and told him, “I have lied to my papa, Father.”

  The priest looked down on her and said, “Go on, confess your sin.”

  “Nico did not pinch me. He spanked me once when I drew too near the carpenters. He said it was dangerous. My bottom hurt, and I was mad. I’m sorry, please forgive me.”

  Giuseppe nodded and looked to his brother. He put his hand on his chest and then near his brother’s and back again.

  “Esta, Giuseppe and Pietro Basso, God forgives you, go in peace.”

  The ivy unwound and crawled back onto the staircase. Esta moved with it until the last tendril was in place before she disappeared. Pietro looked down upon the face of Drago and said, “You know what you have to do.”

  Drago nodded. “Rest in peace, Grandfather.”

  Pietro turned and looked to his right. He smiled, walked a few steps and vanished.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  “He promised me he wouldn’t pull a fast one,” Mia told Murphy, who refused to go into the house until the priest left. “He wants to meet you. He can’t force you to cross over – besides, aren’t you Lutheran?”

  Murphy tilted his hand back and forth indicating more or less.

  “He has helped me, and I trust him. Come on, you’re making me look bad,” Mia pleaded.

  Murphy pointed to the house and then to him.

  “You want him to come to you?” Mia sighed. “He’s an old man…”

  Murphy crossed his arms and looked upward.

  “Yeah yeah, you’re older. Honestly. K. Promise you’ll be here. I’ll go get him. Don’t you embarrass me. He’s under the misunderstanding that I have some influence over you,” Mia said before she turned and ran across the paved yard. She found the priest having a cup of coffee in the kitchen with Audrey. “Excuse me, but Murphy has consented to see you, and be seen by you, I guess.”

  Father Alessandro laughed. He set his cup down, got up from the chair and smoothed the wrinkles from his trousers.

  Mia held the door open and pointed to the back corner of the property.

  The priest held out his arm in a courtly manner. “Let’s not keep the man waiting.”

  Mia took his a
rm, and they walked over to where Murphy stood waiting.

  Father Alessandro nodded at the farmer who was fiddling with the blade of his axe as they reached him. He took in the simple clothing of a dirt farmer, the hat that had seen too many summers, and the sturdy, lethal axe to which the man held on so tightly. He looked into the ghost’s face and met the steel gray eyes with his brown ones.

  “The years were tough on you, Mister Murphy. May I call you Stephen?”

  Murphy nodded, let his axe slide to the ground, and took off his hat in respect for Alessandro’s vocation.

  “I understand from Mia that you’re not much of a talker, and I won’t take much of your time.” He turned to Mia and said, “Would you give us men some privacy for a moment?”

  Mia looked at Murphy, and he nodded. She hesitated a moment but ended up leaving them, walking quickly to the command truck where Ted was leaning and watching.

  “She’s a nice girl,” Alessandro said. “I understand you’ve been friends for some time now.”

  “Yes,” Murphy said gruffly.

  “Good. She has been given quite a burden to carry. I expect you will help her manage her trials and tribulations in a gentlemanly manner.”

  “Yes,” Murphy said, looking a little strained.

  “This Angelo…”

  Murphy spat.

  The priest got more from that action than a thousand words could say. “Yes, he will need watching. He’s not what he seems, is he?”

  “No. Hurt Mia. Snake oil salesman.”

  The priest laughed. “It’s one way of putting it. Watch over her. And when you’ve had enough of this world, give Santos a call; he’s dying to get you on the next train to Heaven.”

  “Yes, sir.” Murphy reached out his hand and willed the priest to be able to touch him.

  Father Alessandro shook his hand and felt the tingle of good meeting good. He smiled, reassured that Stephen Murphy, dirt farmer, keeper of the forest, was a good soul.

  He turned around to give a reassuring wave to Mia, and when he turned back Murphy was gone.