Anna didn’t stay to listen and bolted out the door.
“Hey, hey! Come back here.”
She knew his next step would be to call front desk security and have her stopped. She needed to find another way out. Quickly spotting an exit sign, she dashed through the door and found a back stairway.
Dashing down the flight she quickly found the emergency exit at the bottom and pushed her way through. Instantly, the fire alarm began to sound—not a good sign.
This had been a terrible idea. What was she thinking? Of course, he wouldn’t believe her story and offer his help.
The police and fire department would be there in a matter of minutes and she would be up a creek. Needing to get to her car quickly, she sprinted around the building and then made a run for it at top speed. The front door of the museum burst open and three front desk security guards came running out.
“Oh no,” she muttered. Reaching her car, she fumbled desperately in her purse for her keys. “Come on, come on.”
“Stop right there,” the handsome bald-headed guard shouted.
Ripping the keys from the bottom of the purse, she jammed them into the car door and unlocked it, getting in. Turning the ignition, she started pulling out just as the guards got close.
She could hear the sirens in the distance as she rocketed out of the parking lot.
CHAPTER 13
* * *
Anna had never been in trouble like this before, and she didn’t care for it. Not knowing what might happen in this situation, now that she had fled the scene, she decided to snake around some of the back streets of the city.
Would the police go searching for her? Would they put patrol cars on the highways leading out of town? Would they hunt her down and arrest her?
She wished that Belle was around. She read all those crime thrillers. Maybe she’d have a better idea about what she should do.
Anna felt like a fugitive, despite the fact that she hadn’t done anything wrong. She’d wanted to help Freeman and the museum. Why had it all gone so poorly?
After driving around for about fifteen minutes, she found herself in a section of town made up of secluded warehouses. She figured she would wait for another fifteen to thirty minutes and then just try to quietly leave town and hope no one was looking for her at that point.
Turning down a quiet street that was all warehouses on one side and thick trees on the other, she slowed when she spotted something familiar. One of the warehouses had a name above the door. Prop Palace. A symbol of an ankh stood proudly next to the name.
This is where the mummy had come from, she realized, or at least where the sarcophagus had come from that the mummy was transported in. That got Anna thinking. Perhaps, Sammy knew more than she was letting on. Could it be that she knew about the mummy and its potential power? Did she somehow have the jade scarab?
On the other hand, Freeman had been calculated in inviting Anna into his office and then jumping down her throat. Maybe he was the one with the scarab and controlling the mummy. He could have recently figured out, after years of diligent study, how to use the scarab.
That meant one of them could be the killer. Or maybe neither one of them knew about the mummy’s curse.
Of course, perhaps the mummy itself had suddenly woken after its slumber of its own accord and committed the murder—which didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but nothing supernatural did.
Anna’s brain hurt just thinking about all these complicated possibilities, but perhaps she could get some answers to help put her on the right path.
Unable to help her curiosity, she pulled off to the side of the road, parked, and got out. Walking up toward the door of the warehouse office, she pulled on the handle. It didn’t budge.
Posted on the door was a notice.
Prop Palace is closed today for a family emergency. Please return tomorrow.
Now that was odd, Anna thought. If they were closed for a family emergency, why had Sammy answered the office phone when they had called? More than that, it hardly seemed like there was a family emergency since Sammy herself had come to pick up the mummy.
Something fishy was going on, and Anna didn’t like it one bit.
* * *
She managed to leave New Orleans without so much as seeing a police car. Letting out a sigh of relief, she exited the city limits. Maybe she had overreacted when she thought the police were going to hunt her down.
The drive back to Sunken Grove was mostly quiet and uneventful, a welcome change to everything that had happened that day.
When she was about a half-hour outside of town, dusk had fallen, leaving the landscape dark except for the occasional wash of dim orange through the trees or on the bayou water.
Noticing that she was getting low on gas, she pulled over at a station hidden away in the trees. Parking near a pump, she noticed a sign saying Patrons must pay inside before pumping. Pulling her wallet out of her purse, she went inside the building.
Dim neon lights advertised various foods and services and a quiet tune played over the intercom.
To her surprise, the place seemed completely empty.
“Hello?” she called out. The attendant might have been in the bathroom or stock room or something. Heading toward the back of the building she found a door and knocked. “Hello, you have a customer out front.”
She expected someone to say something like just a minute or I’ll be there in a sec, but instead, she was only greeted with silence. It was odd. She pushed the door open and peered down the short hallway.
“Hello?” she called again.
Still, only silence pervaded.
Walking through the door she noticed that there were two doors on either side of the hallway. On the left were a break room and an office. On the left were the bathrooms.
She tried the break room and the office first but quickly learned that they were as devoid of life as the rest of the building had been. The only thing that caught her eye was a little fan on the office desk which was on, turning its bare head back and forth.
Shrugging, she tried the women’s restroom. “Hello?” she said upon entering. There was a single stall with the door standing open. That only left the men’s restroom. Walking back out into the hall, she knocked on that door as well.
“Is anyone in there? I would like to buy some gas please.”
When no one answered, she dared to open and the door and look inside. It too was empty.
“What the heck?” she groaned. She figured she could just wait and get gas in Sunken Grove, but something weird was going on, and Anna was beginning to get freaked out. Chills ran up and down her spine as she considered the possibilities.
The only other thing she could think of was that the attendant decided to take a cigarette break outside. That would explain why he hadn’t heard her calling all this time. “Yeah, that’s got to be it,” she told herself, heading for the back exit at the end of the hall.
Opening the door to the cool night air, she stepped outside. As she did, her foot brushed something on the ground. Glancing down, she screamed.
Slumped against the side of the building was a dead body. His face was purple and he had strange grayish marks all over his neck.
CHAPTER 14
* * *
Soon after, Dan and Rod were on the scene, working to cordon off the entire building. Since the station was closest to Sunken Grove, it was technically in their jurisdiction.
Anna sat in the front seat of her car, still a little shell-shocked, as a pair of headlights pulled into the front lot. She instantly recognized Belle’s car. Anna opened her door and walked over to see her sister.
“What are you doing here?”
“Dan told me that you found another body, so I couldn’t very well sit around.”
“But what about the drive-in?”
“Val is managing on her own for now, but what about you? Anna, are you okay?”
“Well, let’s see. I saw a mummy walking around, I told Mr. Freeman that
I saw it, I ran from security guards when he sent them after me, and now I just found another dead body. How do you think I’m doing?” she groaned sarcastically.
“That good, huh?” Belle took her sister into a hug. “I’m sorry I sent you out there in the first place. We should have just listened to Dan and Rod. They are the professionals after all.” She let go and looked Anna in the eye.
“No, I messed up by telling him I saw the mummy walk. I’m not sure why I thought he’d buy that.” She leaned against Belle’s car and glanced over toward the cordoned off area.
“So, who’s dead?”
“The gas station attendant. I found him leaning against the wall out back. He’d been strangled, just like Pax.”
Belle’s jaw fell open. “Do you think it’s the same murderer?”
Anna pursed her lips, trying to decide how she felt. “I’m leaning that direction. I mean, there wasn’t any gauze or anything like that around his neck, but he had this dusty gray residue that looked similar.”
“And it might have come from the mummy.”
Anna looked her sister in the eye. “Do you believe me?”
“What do you mean?” Belle asked.
“About the mummy. Do you believe that I saw it walk?”
“Of course, I do. I have no reason not to.”
“Because it isn’t normal? In fact, it sounds downright insane.”
“You’re talking to the girl who has a ghost living in her projector,” Belle reminded her with a smirk.
“I guess so, but I just had to check.”
“I understand,” Belle agreed, sliding up onto the hood and taking a seat near her sister. “So, what do we have so far?”
“Let me count,” Anna half-joked half-complained.
“We know that the mummy walked on its own and that, and if the legend holds true, someone is controlling it—or at least brought it back to life—with the jade scarab.”
“We also know that both Sammy and Mr. Freeman think we stole the mummy.” Anna paused, her brow scrunching up in thought.
“What?”
“You know? They both seemed like they had something to hide. They both went from being nice and pleasant to being angry and mean in a matter of seconds.”
Belle nodded. “That is odd.”
“I just think there is something more going on that we don’t know about. I know Sammy has a mummy prop in stock because I saw the paperwork.”
“You did? How did you manage that?” Belle asked, shocked at this news.
“I saw her car parked outside the motel and I peeked. The folder for the mummy prop was inside.”
“I see.”
“So, I’m still a little confused about when and how her mummy disappeared and the museum’s mummy showed up in the stone coffin.”
Belle pressed her lips together while she thought. “The only answer I can think of is that Pax, the delivery guy, knowingly switched them out.”
“That makes him the thief, right? Which is a good motive for someone to murder him.”
“Unless he was working under orders.”
“Under orders?” Anna asked.
“Well, there was speculation of mob involvement, remember?”
“I’d nearly forgotten.”
“This whole thing is just a mess.” Belle leaned back and laid on the car, looking up at the starry night sky. The storm had cleared out hours before, leaving a beautiful view overhead.
Anna followed suit, leaning back beside her sister.
“Well, I’m really sorry again that you had to deal with all of this alone. Your first month back living with me, and you’ve had to deal with dead bodies, ghosts, zombies, mummies, and murderers.” She shook her head. “You shouldn’t have had to go out on your own. I shouldn’t have sent you.”
“I think it was important that I went.”
“You do?”
Anna nodded. “I didn’t tell you yet, but I saw the Prop Palace office by accident.”
“You did?”
“It was all locked up tight. The sign said they were closed for a family emergency.”
“A family emergency?”
“That’s right,” Anna leaned back next to her sister and looked up at the black starry sky.
“Then how the heck did Sammy answer the office phone, earlier?”
“That was my thought exactly. She had to have been there, but what was she up to? If she really had a family emergency, why wasn’t she off taking care of it?”
“And what exactly was this family emergency? Was it all a lie to cover up something else?”
“I just don’t know. For all we know, the mummy just decided to pop up awake and start killing people.” Anna sighed as she took in the stars above her. When she’d been a little girl, she’d been interested in learning the constellations, had checked out book after book on the subject.
It had been years since she’d thought of it. Now, as she looked up at the sky, she tried to remember any of the symbols in the stars and what they meant. Suddenly, a lightbulb turned on in her mind. “Wait a minute. Symbols,” she gasped, sitting up.
“What? Did you remember something?” Belle pressed.
“Yeah, it’s a far shot, but I think I might know something.”
“What is it?”
“You know that Egyptian symbol, the one that kind of looks like a cross?”
“The ankh?”
“That’s it.”
Belle shrugged, still in the dark. “What about it?”
“I’m not sure yet, but I have a hunch. Come on, get in your car. We’re driving back to Sunken Grove.”
“What about Dan and Rod?”
“I’ll tell them I’m taking off and that they can get my statement later.”
“Got it.” Belle jumped off the hood and got into the driver’s seat.
CHAPTER 15
* * *
For a dead guy, Harlem was a wiz on the computer. He knew how to look up anything, research any topic, or find any fact online. When he’d been alive, he was a shopkeeper for a voodoo themed store in New Orleans. Because of this, he was always researching new ritual kits, herb mixtures, voodoo practices, and a lot more to know how to best sell his product. In fact, he had owned an online portal to his shop where people could buy things.
He hadn’t lost that tech savvy knowledge when he died.
Heck, he lived inside a piece of modern technology.
It was already nine-thirty in the evening and the drive-in movie for the night had come to an end. Patrons were filtering out and heading home.
Meanwhile, Harlem, Anna, and Belle were all crowded around the computer in the projector room. “Remember when I came back earlier?” he asked.
“Yeah. You said you needed to look something up,” Anna said.
“Well, the papers in that woman’s car got me thinking. Maybe there was some more information about her mummy replica on the website. I figured, if I could learn more about the prop, maybe I could help to figure out where it disappeared to and how it got replaced with the real mummy.”
“Good thinking,” Belle congratulated him.
“Learn anything useful?” Anna asked.
“Just that the website has no mummy prop listed at all for rentals,” he proclaimed proudly.
“You mean, there technically is no mummy listing on the website?” Belle asked, trying to remember what she’d seen when she placed her order a week back. She could also swear that there were no mummy replicas listed. She had just assumed, since the prop was new, that it was in the process of being made available.
“Nothing at all.”
“But the paperwork in the car proves otherwise,” Anna reminded him.
“That’s what I don’t get. Was it just not listed yet?” Harlem speculated.
“No, she claimed a customer was waiting for it for a party tonight,” Belle said. “How else would they have ordered the mummy?”
“I even tried to remember the item number on the folder. I typed it in.
Nothing.”
“That’s suspicious.”
“What about what I wanted to look up?” Anna asked.
“Now what was it? Family history? What is your interest there?” Harlem asked as he opened the internet browser. “And what the heck does that have to do with the murder or the mummy?”
“Not our family history, someone else’s. Is it possible to look that sort of thing up?” Anna pressed, leaning in close.
“Well, there is this website called The Branch which allows you to look up almost anyone and see what their history is, but it isn’t always reliable. Anyone can go in and make edits to the information. Some of it might not be accurate.”
“It’s a place to start. Pull it up.”
Harlem made a few clicks, typed in the web address, and pulled up the website. “Actually, when I was alive, I had an account on this site that would send new information about my family tree through to my phone. Family heritage is an important part of voodoo rituals.”
“Was it an app or something?” Belle asked.
“Naw, it just sent text messages about updates. Linking your account to your phone was just one of the options.”
He clicked on the search bar. “So, who is it exactly we’re looking up?”
“Samantha Bartleby,” Anna informed him.
“Spell it?”
Anna spelled it while he typed it in. Clicking “GO” it brought up a list of possible options. “There are a few different entries under that name.”
“Just try clicking the first one.”
He obeyed, opening the family tree. “This says she died in nineteen-ninety-three.”
“Wrong Samantha, then,” Anna noted. “She’s a little older, but not dead. Probably in her mid-fifties.”
Going back a page, Harlem clicked another entry. “This one is still alive and she was born in New Orleans.”
“That might be it,” Anna said.
“What exactly are we looking for?”
“Scroll up. I just want to see where her heritage comes from.”
Doing as he said, the family tree went back away.
Moans, Mummies, and Murder (The Dead-End Drive-In Series Book 2) Page 6