by Alexie Aaron
“Why?”
“To see if he will survive the job. He’ll make arrangements for his wife otherwise. Until the palmist says his time is near, he has his fist wrapped tight around the money.”
“You’re putting me on.”
“Old-world thinking.”
“Okay, I’ll keep mum about the hanging man in the east sitting room and the demon in the attic.”
“They knew about the demon. They were fine with it. According to Mansueto, there are demons in every sizable house.”
Cid scratched his head. “Who’s supervising the plasterers?”
“Gary.”
“Gary as in Holy Shit, Gary,” Cid clarified.
“Yes. They like him because they can push him around.”
“What did Gary do to get assigned the plasterers?”
“Back west, he mistook Kiki for Mimi. He was dating Mimi.”
“Go no further,” Cid said, holding up his hand.
“When he found out his mistake, he said, ‘Holy shit, how am I supposed to know the difference?’ No one was more surprised than Gary when Kiki hired him after his old firm, Rustic Renovations, went belly up.”
“That shows she has a sense of humor.”
“Gary is also a perfectionist. He makes sure the jobs he oversees are perfect.”
“So is he still dating the sister?”
“No, she didn’t like it that he thought Kiki was her.”
“Have you met the sister?”
“No.”
“But you know this story pretty well.”
“Got it from Gary. Hey, if you work long enough with these guys, you’ll end up gathering gossip from all over this world.”
“My friend Ted would fit right in.”
“Is he a talker?”
“Mega. He eavesdrops too. He means no harm, but he wants to know everything that’s going on.”
“Ted, isn’t he married to Mia?”
“Yes.”
“How the hell did he land her?”
“He fell in love with her on first sight. He just put himself in the way of Mia every chance he could. He wore her down. She’s smitten, and she doesn’t mind the gossiping or the eavesdropping. Mia just figures that’s who he is and got used to it.”
“Damn, I want me one of those,” Jesse said.
Chapter Eleven
Faye moved around the house. She tried again to get to her broach, but the drawer was locked. She didn’t understand this afterlife stuff, so she didn’t know the limitations. Because she didn’t know about limits, she had none, with the exception of being presently tagged to that pin.
Her memory was fuzzy. Faye knew she was dead. She had an idea that it was a man who killed her, but what she was doing in the house and when in the timeline of this property she had died, was still a mystery.
The demon upstairs had left the house, so she didn’t have anyone to talk to. There were a few folks drifting about, but they were only concerned with themselves, especially the bombshell in the attic. All she did was moan about being trapped. Faye opened the door, but the ghost just rung her hands and cried. “Ghosts are such a selfish bunch,” she grumbled.
She found a photo that she was in, in the upper hall. People were in costume for a ball but had taken off their masks at midnight. This was when the photo was taken. Faye stood there smiling. Next to her stood… stood… She couldn’t remember. “My granny’s cane!” she swore. “Come on, what’s going on? Did I have a diary?” Where had she seen all those books? Actually, there were two places. She would try the east wing library. It seemed to hold a friendlier atmosphere. She would sink through the floor to avoid the spoilsport on the staircase. What was his problem? He looked like a dose of prune juice could do him some good.
Kiki barely managed to text a goodnight to Jake, followed by setting an alarm she knew was going to be received with words that would make her landscapers blush.
Jake watched as Kiki fell asleep. He scanned the room with the laptop camera and jumped over to the iPhone. When he saw the dark shadow in the room, he became alarmed.
Cid’s phone was ringing the emergency theme the PEEPs used. He lunged for the phone. “What… what?”
“Dark shadow in Kiki Pickles’s room,” Jake’s Marvin the Martian voice said. “Go now!”
Cid had pulled on his sweats, grabbed his go bag, and headed out the door when he realized the ghost in the PEEPs computer was peeping on his boss. He ran barefoot across the lot to her cabin. He went to knock on the door when he saw that it was ajar.
Cid placed the earpiece to his phone in and tapped it to alert Jake that he was listening. “I could use a little help here,” he whispered.
Cid pushed the door open and slid inside the cabin. He could see Kiki sleeping on a bed littered with wrappers and the laptop.
“Kitchen, between the table and the window,” Jake instructed.
Cid turned, and there was a deep dark outline of a person. The neon signage in the parking lot filtered through the blinds in the kitchen, and Cid could see through the shadow slightly.
“What do you want?” Cid asked.
The shadow wavered.
Kiki opened her eyes. She thought someone had called her name. She was alarmed to see the back of Cid.
“Leave this room. You don’t belong here!” Cid threatened.
The shadow grew larger.
Cid backed up and started to pour a salt circle.
“What the hell are you doing in my room!” Kiki demanded.
“You have an intruder. Jake alerted me,” Cid said. He motioned with his free hand for her to come to him. “I’m not sure if it’s friend or foe, but it opened your door and walked in while you were otherwise engaged.”
Kiki crawled out of bed and moved quickly to Cid. He picked her up and put her in the circle. “Stay put, and don’t break the salt line,” he ordered.
Cid slid his hand in the bag and pulled out an EVP booster. He turned it on and slid it across the table.
“If you’re talking, I can’t hear you. This will help me to understand you. You don’t belong in here. You must leave.”
“Can’t,” the digitized voice said.
“How can I help you?” Cid asked calmly.
“Ring, wedding ring, lost.”
“You’re looking for a lost wedding ring?”
“Yes.”
“Man or woman’s?” Kiki asked.
“My ring. Wife cries. Thinks I was unfaithful. Washed hands. Ring gone.”
“We’ll find your ring if it is still here,” Cid promised.
The black shadow faded. The door opened and closed.
Cid turned on the light.
Kiki stood shaking in her Hello Kitty nightshirt. “Can I move?”
“Yes, the ghost is gone.”
Kiki launched herself at Cid who gently guided her to a chair. He grabbed the coverlet from the bed and wrapped it around her. “The room should warm up soon.”
He reached over, locked the door, and began turning on all the lights.
Kiki blinked trying to adjust to the lights. “How did Jake know there was something in here?”
“Don’t tell her I’m a ghost. Not yet,” Jake pleaded in Cid’s ear.
“Your laptop was still on, and he checked out the room to make sure you hadn’t left anything else on that would be a hazard while you slept.”
“You mean he can see me?” Kiki asked, looking at the laptop on the bed. “The webcam! I forgot about that.”
“That and your phone. My associate is a bit overprotective,” Cid said, setting Kiki’s phone on its face.
“I don’t know if I should be thankful or creeped out.”
“Jake wouldn’t hurt you. It’s not his way.”
“Thank you, I’ll try to explain me to her later,” Jake promised.
“Was that ghost going to hurt me?”
“In my opinion, no. But leaving your door open wasn’t cool. Anyone could have gotten in.”
“Like
you,” Kiki said, her eyes hardening.
“Before you go there, I was woke up by your boy… er… friend,” Cid said sternly.
“Alright, what do I do now?”
“We either find the ring and get it to the entity’s wife, or you can expect nightly visits.”
“You mean that thing has been in here before?”
“I would imagine it has. It could have been drawing power from somewhere and used it to manifest tonight. Ghosts need a lot of power to touch things in our world, Boss. I think that it planned on dismantling the cabin until it found the lost ring.” Cid tapped his ear before speaking to Jake, “Access the motel’s computer. Find out who’s been staying in this room, and cross-reference it with deaths… highway deaths. The guy was big; try deaths of long-distance truck drivers.”
“On it.”
“It would have ripped this place apart with me in it,” Kiki started to realize. “I was in danger.”
“I’d say so,” Cid said, looking under the sink in the kitchen. “The gas line for the stove has been rerouted through here. If it managed to get enough power to tear apart these pipes…”
“Boom,” Kiki said. She got up and pulled on some sweatpants and stuck her bare feet into her sneakers. “I’m going to get my plumbing tools out of the back of my truck. Let’s find that ring.”
“It’s creeping past midnight. Are you sure you want to start looking now?” Cid asked.
“Oh, I’m not sleeping. You can either help me or get out of my way, Clark.”
Cid started laughing. He put his hand through his hair. “I’ll help you. While you’re at it, we need a bucket and gloves, and maybe a face mask, because I have a feeling the contents of these pipes are going to be vile.”
Kiki picked up her phone, tapped the flashlight app, and left the cabin.
Jesse was on his way back from the laundry where he had spotted some antacids in the vending machine earlier. The two hamburgers were rioting in his stomach. He saw Kiki leave her cabin. He caught up to her by the time she had the truck cap open.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
Kiki jumped in the air. “By all that’s holy, what are you doing here!”
“I think I should be asking you that question,” Jesse said. “You are aware what time it is?”
“I know what time it is.”
The door of her cabin opened, and Jesse saw Cid standing in the doorway. “What’s he… Oh shit. Sorry, Boss, I didn’t mean to interrupt you and…”
Kiki slammed her hand over Jesse’s mouth hard. “Listen up, Cid is doing me a favor… I dropped my ring down the kitchen sink.” She took her hand off his mouth and turned back to search for a bucket.
“It could have waited until morning. Walrus has a pipe scope.”
“I couldn’t sleep. I need that ring,” Kiki said.
Jesse never remembered Kiki with a ring on her finger, but maybe he’d just assumed since she was single, she wouldn’t have a ring on. “What can I do to help?”
“Grab that green toolbox on the left. I’ve got a bucket, tools and… Shit, what else did he want? Gloves!” Kiki crawled into the back, rummaged around and found her supply of gloves, and pulled out a few large-sized pairs. She grabbed a handful of masks on the way out. “There.”
Jesse watched her lock up the truck and followed her to the cabin. He gave Cid a leering look as he brushed past the shirtless Adonis.
“Where are your shoes, son?” he finally asked.
Cid ignored him and started to work on the old pipe under the sink. He doubted this pipe had ever been unscrewed. He applied more pressure and was rewarded with a screech of metal as it started to turn.
Jesse watched as Kiki took another wrench and went into the bathroom. She started clearing out rolls of toilet paper from under the sink. He questioned why they were taking apart two sinks but kept it to himself. He quickly emptied the small plastic trash can and handed it to Kiki.
“Thanks, Scrub,” she said.
Kiki loosened up the trap under the sink and gagged as the odor seeped out, along with a righteous amount of human hair. “Gross.”
“You should see my stepmother’s sink after a week. I keep telling her not to wash her hair in the sink,” Jesse said.
Kiki dumped the gross clog, but not before probing it with her gloved fingers. “Crap, nothing here.” She put the plumbing back together, took the plastic bag out of the wastebasket, and headed outside.
Jesse walked with her silently. He was there more for her safety than for company. He lifted the lid of the outdoor garbage can and set it down gently to not wake the sleeping Highway Ranches guests.
They walked back in silence. Kiki was contemplating their next move if Cid didn’t find anything in the kitchen trap, and Jesse was trying to figure out what was really going on in Kiki’s cabin.
They walked in to see Cid returning from rinsing his gloved hand off in the bathroom sink. He smiled.
“You found it?”
He opened his hand, and lying in the hand was not one but three rings. Fortunately for them, only one was a man’s wedding ring. Kiki picked it up and held it to the light.
“To my Roger, May 16th, 1994,” Kiki read.
Cid touched his ear. “Jake, the guy’s first name is Roger.”
“Okay, you guys have to come clean. What’s really going on?” Jesse asked.
“You tell him. I’m going to complete the job,” Cid said and went back to the kitchen sink.
“Alright, it all started with me waking up to find Cid in my room…” Kiki said and proceeded to tell Jesse about the ghost and Jake, and why you shouldn’t leave your webcam on or your phone’s camera facing the room when you’re not using it.
“You mean this Jake could see into your room? Kiki, you have to cut this creep out of your life,” Jesse counseled. “I don’t care if he works with Cid.”
“He was just looking after me,” Kiki protested. She looked over at Cid who was busy working. “I don’t think Cid would work with a pervert.”
Cid stopped and turned around. He touched his earpiece. “Jake buddy, it’s time to come clean.”
Kiki’s laptop lit up on her bed. Marvin the Martian walked out and tapped from what looked like the inside of the monitor. “Excuse me, may I have your attention?”
Kiki picked up the laptop and put it on the kitchen table so she and Jesse could view it.
“Once upon a time, there was a valiant young man who stopped to help a woman and her family who were broken down on the side of the road. He was changing the tire on their vehicle when a texting teen hit him and the car. He died instantly, his phone smashed against an active phone line. His spirit entered the line and roamed until he found a home with PEEPs.”
“You’re telling me that you’re a ghost. A ghost in a computer,” Kiki specified.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“So you were catfishing Miss Pickles,” Jesse accused.
“No.”
Kiki put her hand on Jesse’s arm. “No, he wasn’t. We were just watching movies together.”
“Sounds like a date,” Jesse said.
“It was two friends enjoying a movie,” Kiki insisted, her eyes sparkling with unshed tears. “Excuse me,” she said and ran into the bathroom.
Marvin became a giant eyeball and stared at Jesse.
“Cid, call off your computer,” Jesse said, getting up.
“In a moment,” Cid said distractedly. I’m having trouble with this… okay.” Cid got up and turned around. “Jake, I think you better back off. Call me when you get the information we need. Thank you.”
“Thank you, Cid,” Marvin the Martian said, and the laptop clicked off.
Jesse looked at his friend. “Who are you?”
“The James Bond of carpenters,” Cid said. “It’s late. Why don’t you scram? I’ll make sure everything is working properly here before I leave.”
“Hands off the boss,” Jesse warned.
“I’m hardly a Bond girl,” Kik
i said from the bathroom doorway. “How many Bond girls wear Hello Kitty jammies?”
“Good point,” Jesse said, embarrassed. “I take it, you’ll be in late?”
“Cid’s got the day off. I’ve got to be here on a conference call in, oh, damn, six hours.”
Jesse left the cabin. He grinned at the thought that the mighty Kiki Pickles had fallen for a computer, but he would keep it to himself. No one would believe him anyway.
“Are you alright?”
“Surprisingly, yes,” Kiki said, her face brightening. “Who else do I know who had a ghost save her from a ghost?”
“I’ve been in your shoes. Having a ghost save me from a ghost,” he said quickly.
“I’ve really never thought much about ghosts. Aside from their messing up construction sites. Do they have feelings?”
“I’m not an expert, but the one I watch too much television with does. He’s been stuck on a human for quite some time. He does have a ghost girlfriend, but they don’t connect like living people connect. Chemistry is chemistry, and physics is physics. It takes a powerful ghost to connect physically with this world… and I’m not sure where I was going with this?” Cid admitted.
“You’re saying that if I want a relationship where there is little to no touching, and sex is but a memory, then Jake is the man for me.”
“I guess. But, Kiki, speaking from experience, you can break their hearts.”
“What about our hearts?” Kiki asked.
“That too. My advice - and you don’t have to take it – is to think about it for a while. You have the opportunity to sever this relationship, on the grounds that Jake didn’t tell you he was dead, and still be the good guy. Or set up boundaries that the two of you can live… Die? No, live, with.”
“I see I have some thinking to do.”
“For what it’s worth, Jake rarely communicates with us in a direct manner. He sends videos and makes us guess what they’re about. His answers have quizzes in them and other irritating things. He’s been open to you. You’re probably the first to see what he was like as a human. I know a few people who would love to be in your shoes.”