Pablo rolled his eyes, and Jeanne put her hand out to Thor. “Thank you SSA Thor,” and she turned to leave. Thor went looking for Frank Mass. He had already left. So much for hospitality. Thor asked another agent what reports Frost needed to complete for them in regards to their shooting tonight. The agent explained Frost could just fill out the computer form for Incidents, and their office would do the rest. Thor thought it was good news for them, but probably not for the field office. More than likely there would be more incidents to follow.
Teresa, Mary, Linda, and I were sitting on Jeremiah’s boat watching alligators. Every now and then Mary would point her finger at one of the alligators and say, “Don’t even think about it.” Jeremiah had gone into his house and Jeanne had left for town.
Teresa looked at Linda and said, “Well, we found Jeanne, Jeremiah and Mambo. Do you think we should try to find Adele’s son, Jerome?”
Linda looked at Mary and me and shrugged, “I don’t know why not. Ellen took off to be with Roger and Paul and didn’t really tell us what to do.”
Mary asked, “If we each try to do that aura thing, we might end up in different places. Can we do this as a group?”
I said, “Adele’s voice is what I remember. You could hear the motherly love in it. Maybe if we all try to remember her voice and concentrate on Jerome’s name, it will work.”
Linda said it was worth a try. We all concentrated and held hands so we wouldn’t lose each other. Suddenly, we were standing on a corner looking into a Voodoo shop. Mary said, “This probably isn’t right.” Just then a lady exited the store with two poodles on leashes. One was bright pink and one was neon blue.
Linda said, “Can you believe what they do to their pets?” I looked out to the street. It was filled with people all dressed as clowns. It must be a parade! A guy went past us on a unicycle with monkeys hanging all over him. There were jugglers, people with flaming swords, and clowns holding big hoops that pink tigers were jumping through and….”
Teresa jumped in front of me. “STOP IT!”
She startled me so much I lost my train of thought and all of a sudden the people on the street looked normal. Sort of.
Mary said, “I kind of liked Vicki’s version better.”
Teresa said, “How are we supposed to accomplish anything if we can’t tell what’s real?”
I didn’t want to seem argumentative, but we weren’t real.
Linda looked at me and frowned.
Teresa said, “Let’s go in and look around a little. Maybe Jerome is close to here or something.” That sounded good to me. Besides I’ve always wanted to look in a Voodoo shop. We were no sooner through the door than Ellen popped in. “Good work! I am so proud, and I didn’t even have to ask you to do this! You gals will be ready to do this stuff on your own in no time!”
I wanted to stop that thinking in its tracks. “Oh NO you don’t! You can’t ever leave us on our own!”
Ellen started laughing, “Just messin’ with ya! Follow me. Jerome is in the back here.”
We all tiptoed to a small room that had a bright red blanket for a door. Ellen pulled back the blanket, and we saw Jerome sleeping. He was dreaming his mom had come home, and they were happy. Ellen dropped the blanket back down and pointed to Spicey who was sitting on a large chair, eating popcorn, and watching TV. Ellen said, “I am going to give you guys an extra five sticky notes just for this assignment. Spicey was at Patterson’s house today. She just doesn’t know it. She scanned a bunch of documents she is going to give to Tourey. Do you remember him from Mickey’s bar?” We all nodded. Ellen continued, “These are very important documents for Roger. Tourey isn’t going to think much of them for a while. He doesn’t know who Bernard Jacobs really is.”
Teresa said, “You want us to steal the scanner?”
Ellen shook her head, “We don’t steal.”
Mary said, “Vicki stole that guy’s mail that one time!” Oh get over it! That was last year! I can’t believe she brought that up. Mary was smiling at me. She is getting good at mind reading too. I’m doomed.
Ellen said, “We all make mistakes when we are new at something. She won’t ever steal again.” I was making little circles with my right toe on the carpet. Pretty rug.
Linda said, “New topic.” Whew.
Ellen said, “You guys try to convince her to scan those documents to this e-mail address. It’s Roger’s. She thinks she has powers, so you might be able to use that. I need to go check on something else that is happening so have fun!”
Spicey was on her couch watching a movie and eating popcorn. We decided to take a popcorn break too and sniffed our wrists where our aroma sensors were. We watched the movie until it was over, and then tried to figure out how we were going to get her to scan to Roger’s e-mail.
Spicey shut the television off, stretched, and walked over to peek in on Jerome. Mary said, “Why don’t we tell her to go to her crystal ball?”
Linda was clapping, “OOOh this is fun!” Mary wrote a sticky note and put it on Spicey’s nose. Spicey looked at it cross-eyed and started making a quiet chanting sound. She started backing away from Jerome’s room, turned to go into her kitchen, still cross eyed, and the note disappeared. She swiped her nose, looked all around the floor, and sat at her dinette. Her eyes were darting around the room, and she was still chanting very softly.
Teresa said, “Well, there went one note. She didn’t even read it!”
Linda told Mary, “Do it again. She is sitting down now!” Mary scratched off another note and stuck it on her nose again. Spicey yelped and started slapping her face. The note dropped to the floor. Teresa flew in to grab it and stick it on her again and it disappeared in her hand on the way back to Spicey’s nose. Spicey had watched it flutter to the floor, spring back up towards her face, and poof into thin air.
Well, that started quite a memorable moment. Spicey’s muu muu had these huge sleeves. She started running in circles flapping her arms and chanting. She was being quiet. We heard her thinking she didn’t want Jerome to wake up. All of a sudden she ran into another little room and sat down at a small table with a crystal ball in the center. Perfect. It wasn’t exactly how we planned to get her there, but she was there.
She had her face up real close to the ball, and Mary wrote a note that said ‘scan info to [email protected].’ Mary stuck the note on the ball, and we all watched her read it. Then it disappeared. She just sat there. And sat. And stared. Hello? That was our third note. Teresa said, “I’m just going to find her scanner and bring it to her.” Good idea.
Spicey sat at the table and watched the drawers open and shut all over her shop. Then the items on the shelves moved and finally her purse floated from the kitchen to the little table where she was. The purse flap opened, her scanner came out and rested in front of her. Teresa said, “Let’s try this again.”
Mary said, “Get a pen and paper out of the purse for her to write down this e-mail.” Linda went digging in the purse, but she couldn’t find a pen. Finally, she just dumped the whole purse upside down on the table. No pen. She went out into the store front, came back with a tablet and pen, and laid them next to the scanner. Spicey’s expression had not changed through any of this. I was beginning to think she might have had a heart attack and was just sitting there with her eyes open, dead. Mary heard me and said, “Don’t even think that!” Okay.
Mary said, “This is our fourth note. What if I say, “The Spirits want you to e-mail the scanner info to [email protected]?”
Teresa said, “I better write that, a lot of words for a sticky note. I write tiny.” We all agreed this was a job for Teresa. She wrote fast and stuck the note on the ball. Spicey leaned in real close to read the tiny print. Linda stuck the pen in her hand, and Mary waved the notebook in front of her.
Spicey moaned and fainted. Her face fell straight down on the notebook and her head hit the crystal ball sending it rolling into the storefront. “Oh for pity’s sake!” I screamed as I ran to chase down the ball. “W
e only have one note left! How hard is it?” Linda was sitting at the table with Spicey.
Linda’s head was in her hands. “This isn’t working.” I had an idea. I picked up Spicey’s pen, put it in her hand, and clenched her fingers around it. Then I yelled to Teresa, “Help me make her write!” Teresa grabbed her wrist and tried to force her to write. You couldn’t read anything, it just looked like scribbles.
Mary said, “That is just scribbles. SCRIBBLES? SCRABBLES…Look for a Scrabble game! They have letters!” We started tearing the place apart, neatly, looking for a Scrabble game. Who doesn’t have a scrabble game? Right. Spicey doesn’t have a scrabble game. Geesh.
Linda shouted from the store front. “I found a Ouija Board!” Eeeks.
I said, “I can’t do it because that stuff creeps me out.”
Teresa looked at me, “You’re kidding right?” I don’t think you kid about stuff like that!
“No, I am not kidding. Those things are creepy. Besides, I can’t spell very well.”
Linda was laughing, “We aren’t exactly going to use big words, but how do we make the @ sign?”
Mary said, “Just spell ‘at’. A.t.” Teresa grabbed the board and placed it in front of Spicey who had by now raised her head, but her eyes were still shut.
I said, “Should I put a sheet over Mary and just let her do it?”
Mary looked at me, “You are not right.” What? I thought it was a good idea, and faster than waiting for Spicey to get this on her own.
Teresa agreed with me, “I think she might be right. We need her to think the Spirits want this, so if one of us puts a sheet on, we can still let her work the board.”
Linda yelled, “I’ll do it! I always wanted to play ghost when I was a kid.”
Teresa said, “Just sit at the table with your sheet on. We don’t want to scare her.” Yeah, she won’t think anything of that.
Linda got a sheet from the closet, held it up over her head and walked into the room. I thought we lost Spicey for good. Her eyes practically bugged out of her head, and she was waving at Linda like she was shooing her away. Linda started making all kinds of spooky sounds, and we started cracking up. Teresa snickered, “She can’t hear you, and that is very distracting.”
Linda stopped. Her sheet moved a little when she said “You guys aren’t any fun.” It took a very long time of Spicey barely touching the Ouija and Teresa pushing it, but she finally had the whole message written out. Now she was staring at the message and staring at her scanner. She picked up the scanner, walked over to her lap top computer in the corner, plugged the scanner into the computer, and sent the email.
I looked at Teresa, “You know what? I think we could have done that ourselves.” She just stared at me. Then she picked up the scanner and sent the e-mail again. What do you know?
Mary said, “I bet Ellen will be proud to hear we figured out how to do that ourselves.”
I said, “I bet she knew all along and was just waiting to see how much we would do before we figured it out!” Suddenly we all felt a little foolish.
Linda said, “We still have one note left. What kind of message can we give her?”
Teresa said, “How about, Jerome will have his mom soon.” We all agreed that was the best way to use the last note. Mary wrote it and stuck it on the crystal ball. Spicey read it and fainted again. I chased down the ball again, and we hung around long enough to make sure she was okay. She went to bed with a fistful of amulets and a Bible.
Back outside the store a guy dressed in bright blue feathers and a leotard rode a unicycle around the corner. Teresa frowned at me. “He’s real! I didn’t do that!”
Roger and Paul decided to meet in the hotel lobby at nine and walk over to the building, which by now even they were calling Star Ship. Roger had to tell everyone about Mark Mills escaping, and he wanted to see how Ray was feeling. He found Paul in the lobby talking to John Barry. John shook Roger’s hand and repeated what he had told Paul. John explained who Tourey was, and that he was as up to date on everything as John was. Tourey could be trusted and would be useful. John said, “Tourey won’t risk being seen around you guys. He has been under for a long time and won’t risk that. He did agree to introduce himself to you both, so you know who he is.”
John told Roger he planned to start tomorrow at the police station going over missing person reports. His initial focus was to find Devon and go from there. He felt he owed that to Ashley, and unfortunately, the rest of the case was probably going to take a long time. Roger made a decision. “John, I am pretty sure the Bureau will question my judgment on this, but we have a whole basement floor at the Star Ship. If you need a secure place to work out of. The hotel here is going to create privacy issues for all of us.”
John looked at Paul, “Are you okay with that too?” Paul nodded. John said to Paul, “I am assuming Roger told you, I am OSI. I don’t think OSI would approve of this arrangement either, but I am willing to bet we will get this done quicker together. Roger has been given some leeway with the Bureau, and I have some with OSI. I say let them scream when it’s done.” Paul appreciated John telling him about OSI. It displayed a level of trust in Paul that Paul deserved.
They reached the door of the Star Ship and showed John how to use the code for entry. Roger told him that once Ray was feeling better he was going to have him change the code daily. They went upstairs to find Ray, with a cup of tea, sitting on a chair, looking out the window facing the street. Roger made the introductions and asked Ray how he was doing. Ray answered, “I’m still feeling kind of drugged, but I really don’t hurt like I thought I would. I’ll probably sleep well tonight.” He smiled.
John asked Paul to give him a tour. When they had left, Roger asked Ray if he had the computer equipment he needed. Ray answered, “Not really. They sent some stuff I didn’t ask for and left off a lot that I really need if we are going to go full blast.” Roger said to expect full blast. Ray laughed, “I probably should pick a different way of saying that, I’ve been blasted once too often today as it is.” They were still laughing when Thor, Pablo and Jeanne came in. Paul and John had returned from the downstairs rooms, and Paul introduced Ray and Jeanne to John as retired CIA. Trusted, and free.
Jeanne looked at Ray and asked, “Are you THE Ray Davis?” Ray answered a long slow yes. Jeanne said, “I’m Magic Jeannie!”
Ray lit up like a Christmas tree! “You are kidding me, right? My God we have been talking for years! Oh cool! Look what they did to me!” They both went over to the computers and started exchanging complaints about the equipment. Roger looked at Paul and just shrugged.
Thor said, “Must be some geek thing.” He kept staring at Jeanne, and then noticed Roger had caught him.
Pablo didn’t miss any of it and said, “If you look at her official jacket, she is also sniper trained, martial arts, and holds the Bureau title in blades.”
Thor straightened up, “Knives? Huh.” He was thinking, I knew you didn’t want to piss her off.
Pablo said, “She never did play with dolls.”
This was the first time Roger and Paul had seen Jeanne in person and her agency photo didn’t begin to reflect how stunning she was. They looked at each other. They had worked together long enough they could almost read each other’s minds. They both started shaking their heads. Another troublesome twist.
Ray asked the room, “Does anyone have a bug scanner? I want to test the links on two of these security programs now that I have Jeanne to run the protocol on the other computer. I know Core wouldn’t bug himself, but you said he had warning. I want to be sure our software is working right now.”
Nobody knew what he was talking about, but John produced a cell phone size devise. “This is the latest model being used by the Company.” He turned it on, and it started beeping and flashing. John held up his hands and motioned for a search. They were not alone.
Everyone started searching. Roger thought he caught a glimpse of Ellen going into the room Ray had chosen as his. Jus
t to be sure, he got up and walked into that room. Ellen was standing in front of the closet. Roger was afraid the rest of the guys would see her, but she walked through the closet door. He opened the door, and she was standing inside the closet. He couldn’t figure out what she wanted. He did have a question for her. He whispered, “Can I trust John?” she winked. Good. Then she walked through the back wall of the closet. How was he supposed to follow her there? Then she reappeared and walked back through it again. She came back, tilted her head at him, and walked through again.
Roger heard Thor’s voice boom behind him, “You find anything here?” Roger decided to follow Ellen’s lead, and he pushed on the back wall. It slowly started to turn on a pivot.
Thor yelled, “Holy SHIT! How the hell did you know that would happen?”
Roger answered, “Lucky guess.”
They were now in the bookstore storage closet. The bookstore was closed when they entered the main structure. They closed the closet door behind them, and looked at it from the bookstore side. It was all deep grooved paneling. The outline of the door was absolutely invisible. Roger noticed a small pine knothole and pushed on it. That was the pressure point. This had been a very thoughtful design. There was fine wiring all around the door casing, and lock mechanisms through the framing studs. They knew there was an alarm hooked to it somewhere that had been disabled. Core probably disabled it after he was warned they were coming, so he could come back.
They met the other guys back in the main room to see what else had been found. Frost and Nelson had just arrived. Thor went around every wall, pushing, prodding and shaking his head. He eventually came back to the main room, looked at Roger, and said, “That was the only one. I watched you just walk in that closet and push the back wall open. That was a damn lucky guess!”
Roger looked at him, “What do you think Thor? That I’ve been here before? Or maybe Core called me and told me where to look?”
Extreme Heat Warning: A Shallow End Gals Trilogy, Book Two Page 14