by Alexie Aaron
Mia looked at the three wavy lines and was puzzled. Is he walking towards a river or falling into it? Mia walked over to the window and held it up to the light. She saw a gold glimmer on the chest of the drawn man. A tattoo was radiating outward. Tiny arrows surrounded the gold mass. “Could this be the sun? How odd,” she thought. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t return it to the confines of the appliance. Instead she drew out a bandana, she normally used as a hanky and carefully wrapped the stone in it, and put it in her pocket. The weight of it somehow reassured her that her father wasn’t just a memory, but a vital man alive somewhere, waiting to be found.
Bernard stepped into the kitchen and cleared his voice. “Your mother fought me, but I managed to get the copy of her paper and the research on this flash drive.” He handed it to her. “I think that the clues to where he went are all on here. I was going to loan you Mary to research them for you, but Audrey seems to be on par with, if not better than, my secretary, but please don’t ever mention to Mary I said that,” Bernard pleaded.
“It will be our little secret. From the artifacts I found in the dishwasher – yes, the dishwasher. I think the pair was trying to prove the link between the western Missouri site and Cahokia. All the clues lead to this ancient city. I think that’s where I have to start looking.”
“Mia, be careful. They may just be ghosts down there, old bones covered with mud and clay, but there are living people who would kill to be the ones to discover what happened to the twenty thousand people that used to live there. In my line of work, I’ve seen academic minds break under the pressure of discovery and dissolve when theories are discounted. Amanda wasn’t always as vague as she is now. She’s lost in thought. A machine perhaps caught up in a loop.”
“You are too kind. I see a single-minded narcissistic bitch who cares for no one but herself.”
“Harsh words for the woman that birthed you, Mia, very unkind,” Bernard scolded.
“I’m not proud of my words, but you didn’t have to live with that… that machine. You weren’t rejected every day of your life. If I didn’t scream in agony, I didn’t get fed. If it weren’t for you and Ralph, honestly, I would never have survived. My father tried, I can remember snatches of him trying, but he has always been consumed with her. And she knows it and uses him. If she loves him, I would be surprised.”
“Perhaps they are co-dependent. Either way, we need to find your father or find out what happened to him. Celeste Myers, the grad student I contacted, will be here shortly. Let’s give this place a good scrub so she doesn’t run away screaming. She’s used to aiding absent-minded peers and professors, but we can’t have her starting off in the hole can we?”
Mia agreed and rushed to clean the kitchen. She extracted the old bones from the refrigerator, placed them in airtight containers and replaced them in the appliance. Audrey and Ralph had the bedroom straightened while Bernard corralled Amanda in her office so she couldn’t interfere. By the time Celeste knocked on the door, the apartment resembled a cluttered but clean abode for academics.
Celeste Myers was a tall, big-boned fifty-something woman. She had raised a family young and now was free to pursue her dream of a doctorate in Archeology. The University of Chicago was a private college, and Celeste needed to augment her costs with part-time employment. She was up for the challenge and appreciated the money Bernard handed her.
“Keep track of your expenses and have me on speed dial. My secretary Mary… I forgot you know Mary. She has carte blanche and my credit cards. Call if you need anything.”
Mia, seeing that all was in hand, walked down the steps and knocked on the superintendent’s door. His whiskey-voiced wife answered and invited Mia in. Mia quickly explained the situation upstairs and gave the couple her contact information. “I know it’s asking a lot, but look out for Celeste. My mother can be…”
“A stone cold bitch and tyrant?” the super’s wife filled in.
Mia almost cried but held her tears back and said, “You and I are like minds.”
“And have killer bods,” she said and laughed as her comment brought an uncomfortable flush to her husband’s face.
Mia left the super’s appartment and met Audrey on the stairs. Audrey crinkled when she walked. She patted her stomach and lifted her shirt to expose papers she had secreted on her person.
“They’re copies of your father’s notes, and I think one of them is a map of sorts.”
“Let’s get you to the van. Mike said he would be back soon. He had an errand to run when he dropped us off,” Mia said.
The two women waited on the porch. While they sat there, Mia pointed out the stoop up the street. “That’s where I found the spectral fireman. He was the first ghost I crossed over. I did it all by myself.”
“Oooh, tell me.”
Mia explained about finding the missing wedding ring and several fingers that the firefighter lost when he fell to his death when the floor collapsed under him. She found the missing digits and ring and took them to the fire station. “The chief must have thought me a loony tune, but I did what I had to do.”
“How did you feel afterwards?”
“Marvelous. It was a turning point for me. I threw off the yoke of being a victim to my gift and started to use it to help.”
“That is truly inspiring. I’ve watched you these past few investigations, and although much about you is a mystery, one thing rings loud and clear: you care. You care for the lost souls, the good ones, the bad ones and their victims. It’s very special. I don’t see any of Amanda in you, Mia. I wonder what your father is like?”
“I really couldn’t tell you much. But I didn’t get my compassion genetically, Audrey. I got it from Ralph and Bernard, but mostly Ralph. I know to outsiders he may seem like a fussbudget, but to me he is marvelous. He cares so much and tries so hard. It doesn’t matter his gender, education or life choices. He is my mother, full stop.”
Ralph pulled his head in from the open front window. He had tears streaming down his face. Bernard, seeing the condition of his partner, asked him, “What’s wrong?”
Ralph waved his hand in front of his face until he could speak, “Nothing’s wrong.” He looked over at Amanda and said, “I’ll tell you later. The van is here. We better get going.”
Bernard nodded. “Celeste has everything in hand, Amanda. Here’s my contact information if you need anything. Mia and her team will find Charles.”
Amanda looked at the card. The beautiful embossing seemed indulgent to her. She liked the weight of it and was certain it would make a nice bookmark. “Thank you.”
Bernard was surprised by her reaction. He smiled and joined Ralph who was waiting at the door. Celeste followed them over and assured them she had dealt with worse.
The men left. She locked the door after them. She looked over at her charge and said, “You must be starving. Let’s go and see what’s for dinner.”
“Anything will do. I’ll be in my study. I have this wonderful idea for a paper,” Amanda said and left the grad student in charge of her physical being.
~
“I think I need to go down to Cahokia,” Mia said after bringing the PEEPs team up to date on the evidence they collected from Amanda’s. “I’d like to bring Murphy if you can spare him, Burt?”
“I think all we have left to do here is the paperwork,” he said, looking at Audrey.
She nodded. “I need to follow up with Doctor Nam, Father Santos and the Bassos. Drago would like to exhume his great uncle and bury him with Esta in the family plot. Also, I’d like to look into the rumors of the missing researchers. Perhaps it will aid Mia in finding her father.”
“I’d appreciate all the help you can give me,” Mia said. “Bernard has arranged for someone to look after Amanda. He also has sent word to my aunt through Gerald’s people. I don’t expect her to come running though. She and my father were never close. I think my father still thinks she’s dead.”
Audrey looked confused. Burt leaned over and pr
omised, “I’ll tell you all about it later.”
Mike and Cid arrived with the promised deep dish pizzas. Audrey took the bill with grace and dignity. She dug in her wallet to reimburse Mike.
He waved it away. “I’ve got this one. You got hoodwinked by con-artists. When it comes to food, you have to be on your toes with this bunch.”
Cid, Ted, and Mia tried to look innocent, but no one was buying that act.
Burt laughed, “Consider it a compliment. They only take advantage of the ones they love.”
Cid put his finger on the side of his nose.
Ted returned the salute, quoting Henry Gondorff in his best Paul Newman impression, “You not gonna to stick around for your share?”
“Nah, I’ll only blow it,” Cid responded in kind.
Mia rolled her eyes. It took Audrey a moment, and she pointed at the two and laughed.
Ted looked at Cid. “I think that was over the doll’s head.”
“Speaking of dolls’ heads,” Mia said, digging in her pocket. “Look what Ted’s sisters gave me.” She handed the photo of the young Ted and the doll head necklace to Audrey.
“Oh my god! That is so evil. Just look at his face.”
Mike grabbed the photo. “Hey, I don’t know if it’s the freckles or the ears but, dude…”
Burt leaned over, took one look and laughed. “God, I wish I’d thought of that. My sister’s dolls were all over the damn house.”
Ted looked at Mia and smirked. “You have to be a guy to understand.”
“I remember that necklace. You made it after seeing that rerun of Hawaii Five-0,” Cid recalled.
“That blew my mind, cops in Hawaii,” Mike said. “What do you think of the new one?”
The talk around the table turned to whether they should redo classic television and movies. Mia let her mind drift to thoughts of her father. She made mental plans on how to proceed to find him. She searched her feelings and found she didn’t ache like she did when her grandmother passed. Beverly said that Coopers instinctively know when a loved one has passed, and that she should have felt that Bev wasn’t dead when she pretended to be to avoid IRS prosecution. “Father, if you can hear me, I’ll find you, I promise,” Mia sent her thoughts into the ether.
Chapter Twenty-four
Ted and Mia walked into the Interpretive Center. They were greeted by a bouncy young woman who handed them a pamphlet.
“We’re here to see Doctor Morrison,” Mia said. “We have an appointment.”
“I think he’s just returned from a VIP tour. Let me page him.”
“Thank you.” Mia squeezed Ted’s hand three times.
This was code for “I’m in trouble here.”
He guided her away from the milling crowd of tourists and asked, “How can I help?”
“This place is full of spirits and tourists; I can’t focus. I see a topless woman carrying a basket, wearing three Nikon cameras, and I know that can’t be right.”
Ted looked. “It’s a Japanese gentleman with the cameras. He is kind of chesty…”
Mia giggled. “Thanks, that helped a lot. This must have been built over a housing area. There are so many ghosts, mostly female.”
“You did say that two important ley lines connected here. Maybe that’s what’s fueling your visions.”
Mia nodded. “I hope we find this guy soon. I worry about Murph with all this spirit traffic.”
“Cid is with him. He’ll be fine. He’s taking him to examine some of those beautiful trees we passed on the way in.”
Mia was about to respond when they spotted a man rushing towards them with his hand out. “You must be Doctor Cooper’s daughter, Mia. You may not remember me, but we met over by Monks Mound when you were this high.” He held his hand at waist height.
Mia blushed. “I was pretty young, but I remember you letting me hold a chunky stone.”
“Yes! You’re amazing to have remembered that. I think you had a great arm and rolled it nearly to Collinsville Road before I caught up to it.”
The memory flooded back to Mia. Doctor Morrison wasn’t put out at all by her actions. She remembered liking the man. “I remember the chunky stone. When you asked if I wanted a chunky, I thought you meant the candy bar.”
He nodded. “Everyone thinks that,” he confessed. “I understand you’re looking for your father.”
“Yes, he hasn’t checked in with my mother for a week. I decided to start at the beginning of his itinerary to track him down.”
“Smart girl. You know how distracted we dirt diggers get when we are on the scent. Follow me to my office. He filed for a few permits. Let’s see if we can track him from those.”
Mia and Ted followed him through the building. Along the way, they noticed displays that described what the archeologists had discovered in that very spot, before they erected the building. Mia smiled. For the most part the archeologists got it right. Sometimes they were wrong, but she kept that knowledge to herself.
“Your father was interested more in the community across the river. The mounds we lost when St. Louis became industrial. I have an overlay that may help guide you.” He pulled out an existing map of St. Louis and set a plastic sheet over it with an approximation of what they thought was there in 1050AD.
“Forgive me, Doctor, this is my fiancé Theodore Martin.”
The men shook hands and exchanged pleasantries while Mia studied the map.
“Your father left some gear behind.” Morrison walked over to his closet and pulled out a backpack that looked like it had gone through a buffalo stampede. Mia took it into her gloved hands and asked, “Would you mind if I took this with me? I’ll sign a release.”
“Not necessary. A Cooper’s word is all I need.”
“I understand that you’ve recently had a few researchers leave the local projects,” Ted fished.
“Yes, two grad students and Doctor Enrich.”
Mia looked at him blankly.
“You wouldn’t know him. He’s not much older than you. His specialty is the people of the plains. He seemed like a reliable chap. He’d been sampling part of Mound 72 when he went missing.”
“Did you call the police in?”
“We contacted his family and asked them to file a missing person report. It’s been over a month. When I found out your father was also missing, I became concerned and called the university. That’s when I found out that an anthropology student that was working with Enrich at the time had vanished too.”
“So that’s four people?” Mia asked.
“Five including your father,” he specified.
“I don’t like the sound of this,” Ted said. “Give us a day, and then I recommend you call in the police.”
“You and I are of one mind, young man. Tell me, are you the Theodore Martin that invented the Button GPS?”
“Yes, why?”
“We use it to keep track of our working staff. It has an amazing range. On a property this large, it’s important to be able to be in immediate contact. Just the other day, a tourist allergic to bees was stung over at Woodhenge. We were able to get her help right away.”
Mia looked at Ted with pride.
“I’m glad the BGPS was useful to you, sir.”
“Small and affordable, fit’s our needs. What have you been working on lately?”
Ted explained his difficulties with his EMF lenses. “I thought it would be useful for electricians in the field. But it gives the wearer a migraine.”
“Too bad. I have a friend who would be interested in the lenses if you ever work out the kinks. He maps ley lines.”
Mia perked up at the mention of the OOB travel lines.
“The lines, in theory, are produced by magnetic areas deep under the Earth’s crust. If you can see EMF with the glasses then…”
Ted nodded and took out a notebook. He jotted down the associate of Doctor Morrison’s contact info and promised to get in touch with the man to discuss the glasses.
Mia and Ted left t
he center and walked over to where Cid and Murphy sat. Cid had a chessboard out, and by the looks of it, Murphy had improved his game. Now if they were playing checkers, Murphy had the advantage but chess was new to him.
“How’d it go?” Cid asked after taking Murphy’s rook with his queen.
While Ted enlightened them, Mia kneaded the backpack with her hands. She thought about sliding her gloves off and seeing if she could get a reading off the pack, but at the same time was afraid of what she would see. Murphy sensing something was wrong looked over at her. The silent communication between them gave her the courage. She cleared her voice.
Ted stopped talking and looked down at her. “Yes?”
“I’d like to see if I can get a reading off this pack. Would you pull it away if I get too…”
“Nuts, sure,” Ted said. “Let me get you a lawn chair to relax in.” Ted opened the back of the PEEPs truck, found her OOBing chair and brought it outside. He put it between the big truck and Mia’s vehicle.
Mia sat down and took off her gloves. Ted handed her the pack. Mia took hold and closed her eyes. The pack was well used and held a plethora of information. Mia had to concentrate hard to get to the last time her father used it.
He was following a group of Native Americans. They were on a pilgrimage of some kind. The men and women were following a large, tall handsome man with an unusual tattoo. Charles followed them until they got into canoes and moved across the water. He picked up his binoculars and watched where the pilgrims landed.
The vision faded. Mia dug into her pocket and drew out the tablet. She unwrapped it and gasped. “He was following this man.” Mia handed the stone to Ted who showed it to Cid and then to Murphy.
“He was here and followed a group of ancients to the Mississippi. I saw where they landed,” Mia told the men. “I’d like to see if I can pick up his trail on the other side of the river.”
“Let’s go,” Ted said and helped Cid pack up the chairs and game board. “Did you get that from your mother?”
“I found it in the dishwasher with her other prizes,” Mia said.