by Alexie Aaron
“We could have Mia talk to him,” Audrey suggested. “She’s really good at explaining paranormal events. Maybe she could coax him back.”
“I will think on this and let you know. After all, part of his fright was a hoax. Smoke and Mirrors,” Juan said.
~
Audrey and Mike gave the rest of the PEEPs team an account of the meeting with Juan Carlos and DJ. Mia smiled and patted Audrey on the back. “I thought the guard looked nervous, but I thought he was afraid of ghosts, not making them.”
“Look at you, Nancy Drew,” Ted said, congratulating the fledgling investigator. “So when will we know their decision?”
“When they’ve decided. Until then, we should see if we can get some more footage of the audience members, maybe the clowns,” Mike suggested.
“Mia, about the dogs…” Burt started.
“Sorry about that. I was, well, cuddling them when Mandy’s head appeared, and I knew I only had so much time to reunite her with her body. I left the cage door open. I’ll find the dogs and return them. I don’t think they’re doing any harm though. It’s not like they’re crapping all over the place.” Mia wrinkled her nose.
“It’s the smell of smoke. It could cause a false alarm,” Burt observed. “Maybe even a panic in a theater with a history of a fire.”
“I see your point. Murphy and I will find the little devils. I wonder if Father Santos has ever crossed over a troop of talented dogs before?”
“I could answer that,” Bev said, approaching the table. She had her arms full of catering.
Cid jumped up and assisted her. They placed the steaming hot containers in the middle of the table.
“Sorry to be late, but I decided to stop on the way and pick up some Italian. Another bribe, but this one hot and oh, so delicious,” she said and laughed. She opened up a bag and began distributing plates and silverware. “Santos, Sabine and I crossed over a racehorse. He went with his jockey, I believe, a little guy named Sam Sparks. I forget the horse’s name. Animals go where they want to I expect. Now those pups will be a challenge. I think if you take them away from the energy of this place, they may just cease to be.”
Audrey and Mia didn’t look too pleased about that. Bev shook her head. “You two are too soft. You’d be singing a different tune if it was a bunch of ghost snakes.”
Audrey instinctually raised her feet off the ground.
Mia started laughing at her.
Bev shook her head again and said, “Infants.”
Cid pulled out a chair for Bev and she sat down. The team caught her up on what happened the night before and the meeting they had with Juan Carlos. She was impressed with the leap Audrey made in regards to the magician.
“It does make sense, but you never know. I remember once…” Bev went on to tell them of a ghost hunting adventure she had in Ireland. The group listened spellbound.
Mia dished up another helping of mostaccioli for herself and Ted. Their adventures in the motel room had them depleted of energy that she was determined to reinstate before they went on duty.
~
“Are you sure this is where you want the focus?” Mia asked, listening to Ted direct her as she adjusted the cameras in the mezzanine.
“Yes.”
“But it’s pointed at the speakers… Oh.” Mia understood and proceeded to align the camera and lock it in.
Cid was performing the same task in the balcony.
“We just got the okay from DJ to put about the rumor that we are going to excavate the old well tomorrow. We are also going on silent tonight. We’ll be here but not obvious,” Ted reported.
Mia sniffed the air; she smelled smoke. She slowly looked around her and spotted one of the white poodles with a pink bow around her neck. Mia pretended to be picking lint off the carpet. She squatted down and moved slowly, duck-walking towards the dog. She stopped when the dog began to notice her. Mia turned her back to the dog and waited. Mia scratched at something in the carpet. The poodle, curious, moved closer. Mia lunged for the dog and caught the surprised pooch. “Gotcha!” she crowed while she held on to the pup and ran towards the cage.
Mike watched Mia from the stage as she ran up the steps holding on to something he couldn’t see.
“Mia, one, Murphy nothing!” her voice echoed down the hall and out into the theater.
Murphy, who had been helping Cid on the balcony, sighed.
“Don’t worry, old man, I’ll help you after we finish here. We can’t let a girl win; we guys have to stick together.”
Murphy answered with a tap of his axe.
Ted, who had been listening, smiled. The team was happy and getting along. There was no sign of the previous tensions. Burt and Bev were going through the footage together, stopping to compare notes. Bev had a quick eye and sharp hearing. She was worth her weight in gold when it came to paranormal spotting.
Audrey was hard at work pulling together some loose ends. She had asked to see Marc’s album. Now that they had a partial name for the former headless Harriett, she wanted to see if there was more to her decapitation other than an accident.
She had separated her research into piles that were anchored down from the errant breezes by Dr. Pepper cans.
Onstage, Mike watched while Amber worked out some steps. She ignored him, and he was well aware that her fiancé was up in the control booth watching them both.
“A kiss on the hand may be quite continental…” she murmured as she mimed holding out her hand and snapping it back. “No, that’s not right,” she said in frustration.
Mia wandered onstage looking for more dogs and stopped and watched. She saw that Amber was frustrated and worried that Mike was making her nervous.
“How about we do it together,” Mia offered. “I saw Marilyn perform it in a movie.”
“I don’t want to do Marilyn or anyone else. I want it to be me,” Amber snapped.
“K. Why do this song then?” Mia asked. “Anyone doing it can’t help but be compared to that iconic performance.”
“Keep talking.”
“What is your favorite song?” Mia asked and added, “That has a steady beat to it, that is.”
“Girls just want to have fun,” Amber said, “but I doubt we can get the rights to use it,” she said glumly.
“Girls… there are a lot of songs with that kind of theme, and quite a few poems… Maybe we could bastardize…”
Ted, who was listening to Mia, recited Longfellow in her ear.”
“There was a little girl, who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead…” Mia repeated.
“Boom ching!” Mike blurted as he swung his hip out.
“When she was good,” Mia continued, “she was very good indeed, but when she was bad…”
Amber jumped in, “She was fabulous!” and began to strut across the stage singing the poem’s lyrics to the Diamond’s music, eventually morphing into the original tune.
Mia stepped back and winked at Mike. The two of them left the stage to Amber.
“Mia,” Mike said as they walked down the hall towards the outside door.
“Yes?”
“You’d make an excellent entertainer.”
“Can’t sing in tune, clumsy as hell,” Mia said. “And I’m a shy girl who…”
A faint voice completed her sentence, “Who cannot leave her mother.”
Mike and Mia stared down the hall. Cherry O’Kelly stood there, bold as brass, dressed in a farmer’s daughter’s Sunday school getup.
“Do you see her?” Mia whispered.
“Yes.”
“Can you bake a cherry pie…” Cherry sang and moved forward.
“Ted, see if you can clear the stage and ask Juan to cut the music to the auditorium,” Mia instructed as she and Mike walked backwards, encouraging Cherry to continue singing.
Amber moved into the audience on the urging of Cid. Burt, Bev and Audrey ran in and quickly pointed the cameras towards the stage.
Mia and Mike backed onto the
stage. Mike stopped and cleared his voice. “Ladies and gentlemen, The Jewel presents Cherry O’Kelly!”
“There are girls who blush…” Cherry said, affecting the practiced chaste pose in her Sunday school, flowered frock. “At the mere thought of a touch.” She shivered and rubbed her shoulders with her gloved hands. “And there’s girls who tease, showing you their knees.” Cherry raised her dress seductively over her knees. “But I’m not one of these,” she said and dropped her skirt. “I prefer to sing.”
The PEEPs team, Juan Carlos, Amber and DJ, who had encouraged his full security team to come into the theater to watch, stood mesmerized as Cherry O’Kelly stripped and sang her heart out to entertain them.
When she had finished “Billy Boy,” there were hoots and hollers from the men and applause from the women. Amber had tears of joy flowing down her face.
“Bravo!” Mike shouted, meaning it.
The woman seemed puzzled as she gathered her castoff clothing. She looked around her. “I don’t understand.”
Mia approached her, talking softly, “There was a fire a long time ago, and you fell asleep in the smoke.”
“Mandy? Where’s Mandy?” Cherry said turning around, expecting to see her best friend there.
“I’m here,” a voice drifted down from the balcony.
Cherry looked upwards and stared into the spotlight and squinted. “What are you doing up there, silly?”
“Waiting for you. Come on, there’s a show here that you’re not going to believe. Gypsy’s here.”
“That old tramp?” Cherry said, not meaning it. She looked at Mia.
“It’s up to you. You can stay here and entertain us or go on and achieve your life’s desire.”
“Well, since you put it that way,” Cherry said and walked towards the edge of the stage. She turned around, ripped something off her costume and tossed it to Mike.
Mike caught the bunch of cherries and brought them to his lips.
Cherry giggled and walked into the light.
Mia noticed the two clowns follow her, but the ghost audience members stayed.
“What’s going on, Minnie Mouse?” Ted asked in her ear.
“Cherry O’Kelly has just left the building, followed by Lou and Larry.”
“The dogs?”
Mia spied three of them running in and out of Murphy’s legs as he walked down the center aisle. “They’re still here,” she said, trying to get Murphy’s attention.
He looked down and laughed. He whistled and continued to walk up the stage steps and into the hall, leading them to their cage.
“Murphy three, Mia one,” she acknowledged.
Chapter Twenty
“Can you imagine St. Peter’s face as Mandy and Cherry bump and grind their way to the gates?” Mike said. They had exited the building and were walking down the stairs.
Mia rolled her eyes.
Bev patted him on the back. “Tell me, do you believe in fairies too?”
“Bev,” Mia warned.
She ignored her and continued, “St. Peter’s gates are hogwash.”
“How do you know, have you ever died?” Mike challenged.
“No, but for cripessake how long have you been at this? And you still…”
Mia left the two of them to argue pointlessly. She was feeling extremely happy and wanted to hang on to the high from it as long as possible. She climbed in the PEEPs command vehicle and walked over to her hardworking fiancé and hugged him as he typed furiously on the keys. She watched as he edited and joined clips together and saved them. He pointed out when the extra spotlight occurred. It looked like a lens flare to Mia, but she kept quiet.
“So who’s left?”
“I still have to find two dogs, and since we haven’t heard from the well monster, we may be finished here.”
“But vat aboot da evfil brothers?”
“Oh, do they fall under paranormal?” Mia questioned.
“If they have woken up the man in the well they do,” Ted said simply. “I guess Mike will make that call. I expect Burt’s going to want you to revisit the basement soon.”
Mia stood up and walked over to Ted’s files and looked first under S and then Na for the chemical equivalent. Inside were a few boxes of table salt but not what she was looking for. Mia stamped her foot in frustration.
“Can I help you, Mighty Mouse?”
“Give me a minute,” she said. “I’ll crack your code or my name isn’t Alan Turing!” She stood back and stared at the shelves until she spotted a large bin decorated with the Star of David. She pounced on the bin and pulled out a few boxes of kosher salt. “I think we’re going to need the heavy-duty stuff.” She pulled out her backpack and started placing the boxes inside. “Now where’s my shotgun?”
“Burt’s not going to be happy you brought that with us,” Ted said.
“I didn’t see anyone complaining last time I saved their asses with that thing,” Mia said.
“I put it and the rock salt shells in the back by the OOBer lounger,” he said.
Mia walked back and collected the gun and shells. She fitted the gun in the small of her back, handle within reach.
Burt was standing next to Ted, viewing the footage of Cherry’s performance. To the television viewer, it was a lot of shadow movement, but the cherries that Mike held in his hand were very real imitation fruit.
“I’m ready when you and Cid are,” Mia said.
“Cid’s insisting I wear my iron vest. Have you seen it?” Burt asked.
“Try T for Tony Stark,” Mia said, squeezing by him.
“Ironman, clever,” Burt said. “I see the nerd is rubbing off on you, Mia.”
Mia had several inappropriate comments pop into her mind but kept them to herself. She jumped off the back and waited for the rest of the team to assemble.
“Okay, Burt, Cid and Mia will go down and see if they can provoke the ghost…”
“Whoa, no one said anything about provoking,” Mia interrupted.
“That ghost needs no riling, I assure you,” Cid said, backing Mia up.
Mike looked at Burt.
Burt looked down at the ground, pretending to find something interesting there. If Mike wanted to lead, he would have to put up with Mia’s stubbornness without his help.
“We need to see if it’s still there,” Mike clarified. “If you don’t see anything then you’ll have to encourage communication.”
Mia was silent.
Cid spoke up. “As long as it’s respectful. We don’t need to be pouring oil on the flames. This thing is big and angry.”
“And in pain,” Mia added. “When’s the last time you poked a bear, Dupree?”
He looked at her sharply but held his tongue.
Bev looked at the group. She was pleased to see that Mia was strong and wouldn’t be pushed over by the males of the group. They had no idea how talented her niece was or how valuable. “If I may throw my two cents in?” Bev said walking over. “Take it one step at a time. No one wants to get thrown around by an angry entity. It hurts. Trust your instincts, and I think all will be well, pardon the pun.”
Mia looked at her aunt and tried not to show how pleased she was that she took her side. “I’m ready when you are,” she said to Cid.
“Let’s go.”
Bev watched the three enter the building.
Audrey looked up from her research and said, “She’s right to be cautious. They could be dealing with the evil twin down there.”
“That’s a comment that needs an explanation,” Bev said, walking over and sitting next to the researcher.
Mike sighed, walked over and looked over the ladies’ shoulders as Audrey explained, “There was a team of twin magicians five years prior to Marvin the Magnificent. They worked the vaudeville circuit. They were called the Temple Twins, although quickly they earned the tantrum twins moniker. One of them had a penchant for destroying props when the tricks didn’t go according to plan. He was arrested for battery when a heckler from the
audience got a bit too mouthy.”
“Does this evil twin have a name?” Bev asked.
“Jeffrey, and his brother’s name was John,” Audrey said.
“Just like our set of brothers. Tell me this, who names their children after maniacs?” Mike complained.
“Maybe the family was unaware of the history,” Audrey said in their defense.
“Or maybe history is destined to repeat itself,” Bev suggested.
~
Murphy followed the team down the stairs and stood back and watched. He wasn’t invited, but he could tell that Mia was nervous. He was determined to keep her out of harm’s way. He spied the handle of the shotgun sticking out from under her overshirt. If she brought the gun then she was frightened.
Burt kept the two investigators in frame as they moved to where they had encountered the ghost the first time. The air felt heavy here. He looked around and noticed that the under structure of the stage and the orchestra pit created a cubby hole in this area of the basement. Air flow would be minimal. He saw the remnants of the previous salt ring and moved towards it.
The lights of the basement began to flicker.
“We’re losing lights and electric,” Cid announced to Ted.
“Just like before,” Mia added as they were plunged into darkness. She saw a faint green glow and realized it was coming from Murphy. She nodded her head towards her friend.
“My name is Mia, and this is my friend Cid. We come in peace…”
“Audrey thinks his name is Jeffery,” Ted fed into her com.
“Jeffery, we’ve come to see how we can help you,” she finished.
“Pain! So much pain!” the deep bellow started from below them.
Mia reached out and pulled Cid back by the belt of his jeans, just as a black mass exploded upwards from beneath the theater.
John Marvin heard from DJ that they were going to open up the old well the next day. He contacted Jeff but could only get his voicemail. He left a message. John saw the lights flicker and decided he could be of some use. This way he could work on the electricity and keep an eye on what the PEEPs team was doing under the stage. He moved down the steps and over to the fuse box.