by Alexie Aaron
The sound of metal hitting wood filled the diner. Ted smiled and said on cue, “The Axe Man. Murphy’s in the house!”
Chapter Five
Mia arrived first at Lucky’s. The team stopped to pick up Burt who, after Mia’s doping, was in no condition to drive. She promised to wait in the lot, as Ted wanted to get a Bluetooth mic earpiece on her before she ventured in. Beth handed her a copy of the last blueprint available for the small tavern. She sat on the tailgate of her truck studying the layout, noting the discrepancies in square footage. Either this was drawn up by an imbecile or there was a passage within the inner walls of the bar.
The outside was made of stone. It was solid, and rumor had it that it had come through two tornados, one a class three, unscathed. She could see why the new owners would want to keep the outside structure. Buildings weren’t built this solid anymore. The potholed tarmac that was the parking lot held no active entities that Mia could tell. Well, except for Murphy who was sharpening his axe with the wet stone he carried on him. His axe had yet to impact anything in this world, but Mia didn’t put it past him to try. Watching him reminded her to put on the small backpack that contained his cast-iron axe head. She had gotten used to the weight.
The backpack straps pulled her shoulders back and gave her a posture that stopped traffic. It wasn’t that Mia’s breasts were uncommonly big, but on her little frame they were impressive. She didn’t usually show herself off, preferring tees covered in hoodies, worn over vintage cargo pants as her costume of choice. This drove Ralph nuts who said over and over, “If I had that body, nothing would stop me!” This always made Mia laugh. She loved her godfathers. They had been a stabilizing influence in her life. She had two academics for parents, who saw her more as an inconvenience than their child. Mia was raised in a home haunted by a young woman who became her surrogate mother. Born with the gift of sight that ran through the female line of her family, Mia bonded with the ghost, and it wasn’t until she was of school age that she discovered not everyone had a ghostly mother.
Ralph was there as much as the Coopers would allow it. He bought her school clothes and taught her to ride a bike, kissing the inevitable scraped knee from the first solo ride. It was he that made her get back on the bike and ride. Bernard only looked on indulgently at both of them, preferring to play uncle than parent. Ralph was fierce. He was the lion in Mia’s corner. He supported her legal separation from her parents at an early age and helped to get her on her feet after Mia had burned down the family home in order to set her ghostly mom free from the wood and nails that held her there.
Mia looked again at the old building and wondered what its stone and mortar held within. She closed her eyes, lay back in the truck bed and allowed herself to leave her body briefly. She moved fast to the building and tested the walls. She could not push through them. Murphy was at her side, and he too could not penetrate the stone. He raised his hands in question, and Mia shook her head in puzzlement. She had moved through stone before, could it be the mortar? Her thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the first of the three PEEPs vehicles. She rushed back to her body and sat up groggily. In real time she was only away a minute or two, in OOB time it seemed longer.
Beth was the first of the team to reach Mia. She looked at her and asked, “You okay?”
Not wanting to lie to Beth but still wanting to appear that she could take orders from the group, she said, “Just took a nap, long drive.” Mia removed the backpack and walked it over to the cab of the truck. She opened the glove box and secured it inside. “I think the truck is close enough to the bar,” she explained. She didn’t think it was wise to bring Murphy’s axe head inside a building he may not be able to exit. She yawned again. “You got any caffeine?”
“That would be Ted’s department. Come on, help us set up. The sooner the grunt work is done, the sooner we can get in there and start to figure this out.”
Mia hopped off the back of the truck and followed Beth over to the equipment SUV. Ted was pulling out a portable generator when they arrived.
“Ted, Mia’s got the yawns,” Beth told him.
“Well, you’ve come to the right place. Over there in the blue thermos is espresso, the red one is my special brew of coffee, caffeine tabs and something we don’t need to mention.”
Mia lifted an eyebrow and mumbled, “Blue thermos.” She walked over, and after finding a mug with stained contents that wouldn’t send her to ER, she poured herself a jolt of Columbia.
“Care to share?” a groggy Burt asked as he lumbered up, holding out a mug that she recognized as one of the missing ones from her set at home. She held her tongue and poured him a shot.
They drank the hot brew in silence.
Mia didn’t want to be the first to talk, but she needed information. “Is it cold in there?”
“The stone keeps most of the heat out.”
“Hoodie cold, or parka cold?”
“Hoodie cold, until the brawlers start, and then it is bone chilling cold.”
“K.” Mia unfolded the blueprint and asked, “Anything different in there that is not on here?”
Burt took the map from her and a sharpie from his pocket and began to draw, explaining as he went. “There is what is left of the bar jammed in this doorway. You’ll have to enter the main room by the south window.”
Mia pointed to two side rooms. “Can I get to these by the front door or the main room?”
“The one to the right of the front door is an old cloak room. The one on the left is a private dining area accessible from the main room.”
“Dining? I didn’t see a kitchen on the blueprint.”
“It was added later. I believe it was a clapboard affair that was demolished before the crew took on the stone building.”
“Seems to me,” Mia reasoned, “that if this place had a dining room and cloakroom it may have had a kitchen. Is there a basement?”
“Not that I found. Shit.” Burt pushed his hand through his brown hair.
Mia smiled as Burt caught up to her. “I’m thinking that we’ll find a stairway either here,” she said pointing to the cloakroom. “But more likely here,” she said as she tapped the interior dining room wall. “They must have blocked it off when the new extension was put on to bring the building up to code. Out here where the electricity was tricky they would have had someplace dark and cold to keep the beer chilled, not to mention any food stores. Plus, this is in tornado alley. Anyone with half a brain would have had a storm cellar built.”
“Okay, I follow you. I see that we haven’t explored the whole building yet. Why are you interested in subfloors?”
“The kind of nastiness you and Mike ran into seems to be very powerful. Ghosts are stronger the closer they are to their bones. I’m thinking they have a graveyard under that building.”
“Like Poltergeist?” Burt smirked referring to the movie.
“No, like hidden. Or bodies buried if the ground was still frozen. I’m thinking with the level of violence you two reported that maybe a murder or two occurred?”
Burt took a deep breath and let it out his nose. Mia had been with him long enough to know that he wasn’t going to let her and Beth go in alone now. Not even with the ghostly backup of Murphy and his axe. His chivalry and the way his momma raised him would compel him to join the women, if only to ease his conscience. “I’m going with you.”
“Good,” Mia answered, “You should.” She looked at him and waited until she held his eyes in hers before adding, “Don’t replace Beth, this will demoralize her. Mike is scared, and Ted is needed at the command post. They can come running if and when we need them.”
Burt listened to her counsel. He wanted to negate her advice but found it sound. “Okay, but give me some dignity and let me call the shots inside?”
“Promise not to get me killed?”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Okay, you’re the boss.” Mia held out her hand, and Burt grasped it with his battered one.
; “Deal,” Burt said and took another drink of the black brew. “Lord, that is strong.”
“Hey, I’ve already got chest hair and I’ve only taken a sip,” Mia complained.
“Ted will never make Top Chef.”
“Out in the first round,” Mia said and helped Burt up.
The two of them walked over to Ted, who was setting up a relay wireless hub to be put inside the building. He was one ahead of them. His instincts told him that the team would be venturing well out of the range of the original set up.
“I’ve run a cable from the generator to a router just inside the building. We’ve been having trouble with the wireless, but this boost should allow us to pick up the cameras and your earpieces.”
“What if we go underground?” Mia asked as she took the mini headset Ted offered her.
Ted got flustered for a minute. “Um, drag the router with you,” he answered weakly, not believing in the plan as he spoke it. “I’ll have to find more cable and hope that the stripping crew doesn’t pick up on this cable.”
“I guess we only go as far as you can hear us,” Mia suggested. “I have another request, an odd one.”
“Odd is my specialty,” Ted said smiling.
“Can you find a way to chip some mortar off that building? So I can get it analyzed.”
“Ah, sure. Mind telling me why?”
“Murphy can’t move through the stone. He may have to take the doorway or windows like we do. I worry he won’t be able to do this either. I’m thinking that there must be something in the makeup of that mortar that may be keeping anything that wants to leave, in. This could be why the anger and violence is increasing. It’s a working theory,” Mia ended faintly, hoping her voice didn’t betray that she was holding back her personal OOBing information. Ever since she found out that she could not only experience out of body mobilization, but could use it to communicate with the dead, she had kept this information away from most of the PEEPs team. Burt was aware of her ability but had no idea how far she had taken her OOBing.
“I’ll get the sample. Maybe Beth knows a geologist that can identify the elements. Or perhaps…”
“Gerald? You get the sample. I’ll give him the call. It will be my favor, not PEEPs’s.”
“Hey, he is an asset, but the costs are high,” Burt commented.
Gerald was part of Father Santos’s group. He was connected all over the world. He bartered favor for favor. He was the guy, who knew a guy, who knew a guy. Anything that existed could be bartered by Gerald Shem. Mia had erased PEEPs’s debt by participating in a prior dangerous mission. Burt was angry at her for putting herself in that position and for taking for granted that he would want her to do this for the team. It was one of the cracks in the foundation of their relationship that eventually broke them apart.
“I’d kind of like to know what it is. It may make my sanctuary easier to maintain. I’ll take the favor, as it will benefit me in the future. Come to think of it, maybe Bernard can connect me with a geologist at the Field Museum. This way I may avoid bartering my soul with Shem.”
Ted looked at Mia and assured her, “I’ll get the sample.”
Mia’s phone beeped. She looked down at it puzzled. “What the hell?” Her hand moved over the screen until she accessed the app giving her the warning.
“What is it? Is someone messing with Murph’s grave?” Ted asked. He had installed the system and suggested the phone app to monitor it.
“No, it’s the alarm on the sanctuary. I thought I might as well monitor it too. Ralph has disengaged the alarm with his personal code. I wonder what he is doing in my house.”
“You want to call him?” Burt asked. “I mean before we start?”
“Nah, I trust he’s not up to mischief, but…”
“You wonder why he’s there,” Burt completed and laughed. “I suspect he is bringing in more plants for you to water. Or removing the dead ones you have forgotten about.”
“Something like that,” Mia said shaking her head. “I’ll deal with Ralph when I get home.”
~
A rubber-gloved Ralph Mendelssohn moved through Mia’s house, opening up blinds, gasping in disgust at the spring cleanings that had never happened. Sure, the place was sanitary, but it was clear to Ralph that Mia believed in the theory that untouched dust would disappear in four years. Mounds of dirty laundry lay in piles in the laundry room. He opened the high long window over the machines to let in some fresh air. Ralph made a quick inventory of the piles. Her sheets had seen better days. These Ralph just tossed because he already had some soft bamboo ones purchased to match the drapes and duvet, he knew she was going to love. She had four towels, one washcloth and a Transformers beach towel. He placed these in the washer, added soap and turned it on. He made a note to get Bernard to pick up a set of towels on his way home from work.
Ralph worked his way through the small house, picking up and putting away items it would later take Mia weeks to find. With hands on hips, he walked into her master bedroom suite determined to sort out whatever he would find amiss there. He would rearrange the furniture once Bernard was here. First things first, he would strip the bedding and turn the mattress. He doubted his goddaughter had ever done this.
Under her bed he found ten dust-covered boxes, two opened, the rest still sealed with next day delivery tape. They were presents sent to Mia by her father. Ralph gathered them up and gazed at the packaging, shaking a few. They had been sent overnight express mail for the last ten years, most postmarked the day of her birthday. This was too much for the sensitive man. He sat down on the floor amidst the clutter and the trash and cried.
“Oh, Mia my,” he sobbed, “What a pair of losers you were given to raise you. No wonder you’re so screwed up.” He tossed the last package and got to his feet. He was more determined than ever to straighten this girl out, if only by making her sanctuary into a home. He gathered the boxes and placed all of them in a clear plastic bag. He had quite a few of these colossal sized bags from his theater days. Made of heavy-gaged plastic, they would secure even the pointiest prop against the harmful effects of air and dust. He would find a time to encourage her to at least open them. Maybe after a pitcher of Margaritas, he thought.
He was in the process of lugging the bag out of the bedroom and into the living room when a shadow crossed his path. Ralph froze. Did he close the gate? He was sure he had. But he didn’t salt where his tires crossed the old salt. Nor did he seal the house after he disengaged the alarm. He broke every rule Mia lived by, and god knew what he let into her sanctuary.
He quietly put down the bag and pulled his silver cross out of his shirt. He knew Mia kept holy water somewhere in the house, but where? He caught another shadow in his peripheral vision and heard a low growl. Ralph flew into the kitchen and began pulling out drawers, looking for anything that would protect him and this house from whatever hell he let in. He grabbed a saltshaker with that cute little girl on it and opened it to pour. Ralph moved into the guestroom by kicking open the door. The cool stillness of the room startled him. He fumbled and found the light switch. Flipping it on, the room was ablaze with light. He looked at the book-filled shelves that lined the walls. He found small groups of books there that were tied with prayer beads. He felt a chill looking at those. He would ask Mia for an explanation at another time. Beside them were several bottles of what Ralph assumed were holy water. He grabbed one with his empty hand.
He surveyed the rest of the room. The neatly made queen size poster bed seemed incongruous with the rest of the décor, but Mia never confessed to having any taste. Ralph dropped to the floor to check under the bed. Nothing, just harmless dust bunnies. He felt a bit silly and got to his feet. His heart skipped a beat when he found the closet door ajar. He didn’t remember it being open when he entered the room. He approached the walk-in quietly, leading again with the saltshaker. His arm shook from shoulder to shaker but he held on.
Ralph flung open the door and jumped in. Nothing. He backed over to th
e wall and hit the light switch. Nothing still. Just some winter coats, labeled plastic boxes and several paintings with dust jackets on them.
He heard a noise in the main room. Ralph abandoned the closet and crept back into the guestroom. From there he slid through the connecting door to the guest bath. He fumbled for his phone and cursed as he remembered he had set it down on Mia’s dresser. There was more noise and a muffled curse.
Ralph reasoned to himself that ghosts didn’t curse. This must be a human intruder. He exchanged his saltshaker for a toilet brush and quietly turned the knob of the door to exit into the hall. More noise and more curses. Ralph spotted Mia’s landline phone hanging on the wall of the kitchen, just ten feet away from his hiding position. If he could get there unnoticed and dial 911…”
A shadow passed over the wall the phone was on. Too late, Ralph thought. The shadow moved towards the hall. Ralph retreated back into the guest bath, keeping an eye on the door he left open. His arm was raised and ready to strike anything that came in the door.
From behind him, something cold and dark rushed between his legs. He turned too quickly and lost his balance. The darkness crawled up his body as he fell. Ralph pulled the bottle out of his pocket, opened it and flung it at the darkness, crying “The power of Christ… Oh Hell… The power of Ch… Fuck!” He fainted.
Chapter Six
Gloved and wired, Mia followed Burt through the entrance of Lucky’s. Before them was the doorway to the main room. It was blocked with what Mia assumed was what was left of the bar she had seen in the video. She noted the heavy wood and shuddered at the energy it would take to shift it, let along fling it in the air. Burt pointed out the small room that was labeled as the cloakroom on the blueprint. She looked in and saw nothing that would harm anyone and stepped aside so Beth could take a reading with her gadgets. She too confirmed there wasn’t anything of note in the room.
Mia walked over to the opposite wall and began tapping. She was looking for a doorway she assumed would be there. Nothing. Burt tried to shift the bar out of the doorway but he gave up after a few moments.