Mind Fray

by Alexie Aaron

  An ad for condoms ran on the small monitor.

  “Shem’s place could be protected from the cellular network,” Ted interpreted.

  “If they can do it in concert halls, then anything is possible,” Audrey agreed. “I’m sure she’ll get in touch as soon as she can.”

  “I just wonder what she’s up to,” Ted said as he typed out the commands to start up all of Curly’s systems.

  ~

  “I don’t understand,” Mia said. “Why would they put another face on the handbill for Gabor the Great?”

  “It’s not like it’s a photo. This had to be drawn and printed. It’s not a simple mistake,” Cid stressed.

  Gerald thought a moment. “The bill is printed on cursed paper, which according to that lurid novella, lets in a shape-shifting mind reader.”

  “So it’s the competition,” Angelo stated. “Who else would want to discredit Gabor the Great? Find him, and you’ll find the reason behind all of this, yes?”

  Mia was distracted when her eye caught the swing of a large pendulum. She followed it upwards and saw a huge ornate clock taking up most of the far wall. “Is that accurate?”

  “What? Oh, the clock? No, it’s off by three minutes,” Gerald said, looking at his watch.

  “OMG, we were supposed to be onsite an hour ago,” Mia said getting up. “I’d love to stay longer, but we have these protection vests to deliver.”

  “My dear, I understand. Don’t worry, Angelo and I will continue to sort out the handbill’s origin. You go. We’ll be in touch. Mr. Sims will show you out.”

  “Follow me please,” the assistant said from beside them.

  Mia and Cid looked at each other as if to ask, where did he come from?

  As they got into Mia’s truck, Cid asked, “How did Gerald know about the novella?”

  “He got it from your mind. He’s been dipping in and out of your mind all afternoon.”

  Cid put his hands on his head.

  Mia didn’t laugh. She felt like doing the same thing the first time she was mind read. In her case she could feel it. Poor Cid only had Mia’s word for it. “I’ll make you a tinfoil hat when we get home.”

  Cid shot her a look of disbelief.

  “Damn, I though you nerds were used to foil hats and…”

  “No, that’s for conspiracy theorists.”

  “Oh, sorry.”

  “No problem.”

  “Thanks for sticking up for me in there,” Mia said.

  “It’s my job, my lady,” Cid said.

  The words my lady brought a flood of memories of Brian into Mia’s mind. She was determined to not let this trigger her emotions. “My gallant knight. I’ll have to think hard on what colors I should have.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “The queen would have her favorite knight wear her colors into battle.”

  Cid was still a bit thickheaded and looked at her dumbly.

  “Jockeys wear the colors of the horse’s owners…”

  “Oh, like a hanky or something?”

  “OMG, Cid, I think Gerald mushed up your intellect.”

  “No, it’s just that I’m trying to practice keeping people out of my head.”

  “Tell you what, if you can focus on the job at hand, I’ll take out time and teach you how to subvert a mind reader.”

  “Really, you can do that?”

  “I taught Mike. If I can teach Mike, I can teach anybody.”

  ~

  “You know, I think I’m getting younger,” Mike said, looking in the side mirror of Audrey’s car.

  She tapped the mirror and said, “It says things in the mirror are much older than they appear.”

  Mike turned red. “I never imagined you of all people would…”

  “Would what?” she challenged.

  “You’ve been spending too much time with Mia. Speaking of, I hear Burt’s on the warpath, and our little Mia is going to get a talking to.”

  “He’s PMSing as in Post Mia Syndrome. Don’t worry, Mia can handle herself.”

  “Nope, she’s in the second trimester. She’ll cry at the drop of a hat,” Mike reminded her.

  Audrey screwed up her face.

  “What’s that look about?”

  “I want to yell at you for being well… you. But I don’t think you’re wrong. We were weeding the flower bed by Murphy’s grave last week, and she started crying.”

  “Well, you were at his grave,” Mike commented.

  “No, it was different. She had happy tears running down her face. She said Murphy was practicing being solid, so he could hold the baby. She said, ‘gentle solid,’ he had soft hands instead of wooden ones.”

  Mike pushed his hand through his hair. “So you’re telling me Pinocchio is becoming a real boy?”

  “As real as a dead person can be,” Audrey said, her eyes filling up. “Just to hold a baby…”

  “No, not you too!” Mike said. He put an arm around her shoulders and let her cry. His nose was burning. Mike fought the tears. He didn’t know if he was touched by Murphy’s attempt at being human or that even the ghost was maturing and leaving him behind.

  A light toot of a horn brought Mike and Audrey out of their brooding. Mia drove up and parked the truck. Cid popped out holding six sparkling vests. He walked over, lifting an eyebrow at Mike, who still had an arm around Audrey.

  “I apologize, some of these have extra adornments,” he explained to Mike and Audrey. “Mavis and Betty Sue insisted.” He handed Mike a purple vest and Audrey a smaller black vest.

  Mike put his on. The vest was heavy due to the strategically placed iron and silver bits. This vest, however, also had rhinestones mixed in with the iron and silver. The purple thread was soft but sturdy.

  Audrey’s was more of a bolero jacket. It had two sets of frog button fasteners on the chest. Each knot of the fastener held an iron ring. She looked over at Mike and asked, “How do I look?”

  “Like a Chinese princess. How do I look?”

  “You’re a bit bedazzled. Like a fancy Ring Leader,” are the words Audrey used. What she didn’t want to say was that Mike looked like a blind transvestite.

  “Here.” Mia handed Burt back the original vest Cid had made him. She’d been warned by a video sent to her phone about Burt’s attitude.

  “We have a schedule for a reason,” Burt said. He opted not to continue as Curly rolled past him and stopped in front of Mia.

  “Well hello, Curly,” she said. “Tell Ted I’m on my way. Anybody seen Murphy?”

  The bot wheeled around and pointed towards the empty lot.

  “Thank you.” She walked off without a further word to Burt.

  Murphy examined the uneven ground. The demolition crew probably had done an adequate job, but a few years of cold winters had heaved some buried foundation stones upward.

  “I’m sorry to be late,” Mia said.

  Murphy turned around and smiled. He had heard the kerfuffle Burt caused firsthand. He was determined to not follow in the man’s footsteps. He simply said, “I’m glad you’re safe.”

  Mia’s face softened. She looked so different from the picture Murphy carried in his head. To him she would always be the tear-stained teen suffering rejection from her childhood crush and her classmates. He saved her. She in turn saved him. But this woman was different. Maybe it was the pregnancy or that she was married to someone who adored her. Either way, she walked with confidence. Her hair was always a bit messy, but now it had a healthy tone to it. Gone were the scared-white tresses. On first glance, a stranger wouldn’t notice anything different about her. But her eyes gave her away. The moss green orbs had a new light in them, a dangerous one.

  “Have you been playing silly buggers again?” he asked.

  “Yup.”

  “Be careful.”

  “I will.” Mia would have told him about it, but the mere mention of Angelo Michaels’s name in the past made her friend upset, so she chose the tacit path instead.

  Murphy p
ointed to the back edge of the lot. “Do you see them?”

  Mia looked and saw wisps of grey floating spirits. There were fourteen of them. They didn’t seem to move, and it looked as if they were tied there by strings. “I didn’t see them the first time I was here. Have you spoken to them?”

  “They are too weak to acknowledge me.”

  “We could feed them a little energy, but until we know if they are friend or foe, perhaps it’s best to leave them be. I know it’s cruel, but we need to be cautious here. I’ll explain more about what I’ve found out in the pre-investigation meeting.”

  Murphy nodded. “The ground here is angry.” He pointed out the stones and cement bricks that were cresting the soil.

  Mia knelt down and placed a gloved hand on one of the stones breaching the surface. “This is from the original house. The ranch home they destroyed would have had cinderblocks for the foundation walls.”

  “There are some of those over there.” Murphy pointed.

  Mia nodded. “I’ll have to ask Cid if this could be caused by frost, but my gut says The House of Doom is rising to the surface.”

  “Scary, Mia,” Murphy said and disappeared.

  Mia got up and carefully walked back to the sidewalk and over to the PEEPs command center. She looked up at her husband who was busy putting Curly through his maneuvers. She sighed.

  He glanced quickly over at her. “Stop staring, you make me feel so cheap.”

  “Well,” Mia said as she climbed in the trailer, “If you’re going to dress so provocatively, you’re going to have to get used to being stared at.”

  Ted leaned back in his chair. He moved to brush the sandwich crumbs off his old Chief’s tee. Mia caught his hand. “Don’t, let me,” she said.

  “Oh no, once you get your hands on me, then we’ll not get any work done. If we’re going to share the console, then you’re going to have to behave. Hey, you smell funny.”

  “Probably the potpourri at Ralph’s,” Mia said, sitting down.

  “No, it’s cologne.”

  “Gerald Shem hugged me.”

  “Was it a fatherly hug?”

  “Unfortunately.”

  “Better luck next time,” Ted said, handing Mia a headset.

  She looked at the new adornments to the high tech equipment and smiled. Ted had customized the headset with silver leaves. “This is so beautiful, Teddy Bear. It looks like something a fairy princess would wear.”

  “It’s so we can tell our stuff apart. You’re a fairy princess, and I’m…” he tapped his headset.

  Mia looked closely and saw the winged silhouette. “You’re Batman.”

  “Did you make one for Cid?” Mia asked, putting hers on.

  “Yes, indeed. His has the Superman symbol.”

  “Wherever do you find the time?” Mia asked.

  “My wife leaves me for hours unattended. I have to keep my hands busy or I’ll be the devil’s… the devil’s…”

  “Plaything?” Mia asked. “Idle hands are the devil’s playthings.”

  “Actually,” Cid said, stepping up into the trailer. “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop, according to Paul.”

  “And the PP has arrived,” Mia said.

  “I’m not being pedantic, just right,” he said and winked at her.

  “Don’t be making eyes at my woman,” Ted teased. “I suppose the two of you enjoyed your little adventure.”

  Mia looked at Cid and nodded, giving him permission to spill the beans.

  “Yes, it was a very interesting and fruitful trip. We have four additional vests of protection. That makes five. I left the girls with enough iron and silver beads to make a special smock for Mia.”

  “A smock because of how fat she’s getting,” Ted teased.

  “Hey now, I can still button my pants, almost. Speaking of, did you bring me some investigative clothing?”

  “I thought you liked being dressed like a mannequin,” he said, noting how Mia kept pulling the skirt down as she tried to get comfortable.

  “She’s afraid her batman underpants will show,” Cid said before thinking.

  Mia looked at him with narrow eyes. “So they did show. You would not believe the high polish Shem has on his floors.”

  “I’m speechless. I send you two to Chicago to crochet with Ralph. You come back, and Cid knows the color of your underpants, and you smell like cologne.”

  “No, she smells like Angelo,” Cid blurted out.

  Ted wheeled around. “Want to explain yourself?”

  Mia took off her headset. She set it on the console table and got up. She walked to the edge of the trailer and hopped down.

  “I guess she doesn’t,” Ted said worried. He turned around and ordered, “Spill it.”

  ~

  “There you are,” Burt said. “I looked for you in the trailer, but Cid said you had taken a walk.”

  Mia, who was sitting on the back lift gate of her truck giving herself a timeout looked at Burt and smiled. “What can I do for you?”

  Burt was a bit taken aback. He expected sass, but instead he got sugar. “I thought, since Ted’s already got Curly up and running, that we could take Mike over to the Druthers and interview them.

  “I’m sorry, the Druthers?” Mia asked.

  “The people I told you about on the phone. Remember the cat-sitter and her rescuers…”

  “Oh them.” Mia sighed. “Sure. Can you grab me some PEEPs sweatpants? I’m afraid this dress is rather short.”

  Burt, who had been admiring Mia’s legs, disagreed, but he understood her need to be comfortable. “I thought Ted brought you clothes?”

  “Ted’s busy.”

  “Okay, I’ll get you a pair of sweats, a camera and Mike.”

  Mia watched him walk away. She went back to rehearsing her explanation as to why she didn’t tell Ted, or Murphy for that matter, her encounter with Angelo. She was sure Cid had filled them in. Surely, they couldn’t blame her for what happened at Shem’s. “Damn, I hope Cid knows not to tell them about me telling Angelo and Shem that I loved them. Shit!”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Mia studied the couple while Mike interviewed them. Wilford looked frightened, but his wife Barbara, Barb to her friends, looked triumphant. They took turns telling their side of the story, including their mutual distrust of Irma Mullins. Mia looked around at their home and pondered the age of it. She slid off her glove and dangled her fingertips, touching the hard maple floor. If Mia was to put into words what she felt when she connected with the house, she would say, “The house hugged me.”

  “I love your home, Barb,” Mia said when there was a lag in conversation. “How long have you lived here?”

  Burt moved the camera, focusing in on Mia for a moment. She was acting funny. Not her usual self. For her to ask questions on camera was rare. He moved backwards to take in both women as Barb answered her.

  “We’ve lived here since we were married. That would be, let me see…”

  “Forty-nine years this November,” Wilford answered.

  “Has it been that long? It seems like yesterday you carried me over the threshold. Yes, he did that. Wilford was and is quite romantic,” Barb gushed.

  “Were the ranch homes there when you moved in here?” Mia asked.

  “They were brand new. We looked at them and contemplated buying one. We were standing on the sidewalk discussing the pros and cons of the twin homes when a little old woman tapped me on the shoulder. She nearly scared me to death,” Barb said, putting her hand on her chest. “She introduced herself as Mary… Oh help me, Wilford.”

  “Albertson, like the market,” he said proudly. “She was a feisty little person.”

  “Mary said that she was watching us, and wondered if we would be interested in looking at her home. She explained that she had promised her sister in Atlanta, I think, that she would move in with her when her husband died.” Barb stopped a moment, gathering her memories. “No, it was Tampa. Well, it’s neither here or there. She w
as so cute, and even though I wanted a new home, I smiled at Wilford and he nodded. She led us to this house. From the outside we could see it needed work. Her husband must have been failing for quite a few years. I worried if the outside looked like that, I didn’t want to see the inside, but the moment I walked into this house I fell in love.”

  Mia smiled. She looked around at the warm wood trim and high ceilings and said, “I felt the same way when we came in here. It’s a warm, happy house.”

  “Oh do you think so? I’m so pleased. Anyway, I’ll get back to the story; I’m thinking you may find this useful. Wilford offered to purchase the home on the spot. She argued that we didn’t even see the second floor yet, and the bathroom needed remodeling and so on. He said for her to think it over, and they would work out a fair price.”

  “We got a good deal,” Wilford interjected.

  “Mary said since we had decided on her house, she now felt she could tell us why we shouldn’t have bought one of the ranches. She didn’t want to say anything before, because she didn’t want to sour us on the ranch houses if we really wanted one.”

  “This sounds intriguing,” Mike said, moving his chair closer to Mia.

  Burt adjusted the focus again, knowing Mike was probably going through center of attention withdrawal.

  “Mary said there used to be a house there that straddled the two lots. It was a two story affair; and by her description, it must have been quite grand in its time. She heard that the owners got up and left it one day. How anyone could abandon a house was beyond her understanding. That was until she and her husband decided to check it out. The police had been by to roust out some, as she put it, hobos the night before. Evidently, they left the front door wide open. So they decided it was as good a time as any to have a nose around. Mary said the moment they stepped inside, she wanted to leave. Her husband felt it too. But neither one wanted to admit to the other that they were scared.”

  “Hubris,” Wilford said.

  Mia colored, remembering she had said the same of Mike recently. She looked over at her fellow investigator for a moment, trying to see if she was justified. He opened his mouth and confirmed it.