by Alexie Aaron
Beth scanned the map. “Looks like after the windmills we turn left.”
Burt gazed at the vista before him and saw over a dozen windmills. “Um, did Mike say which ones?”
Beth looked out and shook her head. “I’ll watch for any roads coming in on the left. I bet you a fiver the turn will be after the last of them.”
“There you go gambling again,” Burt said lightly. Inside he was trying to figure out how he ended up with Beth in his car.
Ted was singing and testing out his voice activated cameras while he was driving. During their last investigation, he noticed the lag between when someone said to take a picture and the finger actually pressing down on the button. In stressful investigations, Burt should be able to just say shoot and the picture should be taken instantly. But when you added the human element, there was a delay. In that interval they lost a lot of evidence. He had tried other command words, but so far shoot seemed to work the best. They had some success with trap cameras, but usually whatever triggered the camera had already passed by the time the camera took the shot. Mia said this was because ghosts moved faster than corporals did. She thought he should visit a skeet range and watch how the marksmen anticipated the movement before firing.
This was well and good if the entity moved in one direction only. He laughed remembering that most of their competition always mentioned the shadows moving “right to left.” In his experience it could come from anywhere.
“Ted to phone,” he said, watching as the smart phone’s screen went active. “Make note that even while singing, when the word shoot comes up, the cameras take the shot.”
He saw Burt signal, and he followed him on their last stretch of road before their turn into Mike’s mother’s hometown of Lund.
Glenda finished making up the beds and glanced at her watch. She didn’t expect Mia to call as the landline had not been hooked up and cell reception was sketchy in town. She did promise to call George Albert if Mike had more than a bump on the head to deal with. She heard footsteps on the stairs and rushed into the hall. She expected to see George or one of Mike’s friends, but the stairs were empty. Glenda dismissed the noise as a creaky board. Old houses made noises all the time. Didn’t her son tell her just the other day that in most of the investigations they found other causes for the bumps in the night? She heard the screen door slam on the back porch. She must have forgotten to latch it, and the wind probably was moving the G damn thing. She walked down the steps and turned to go into the kitchen.
A sudden pounding on the door behind her stopped her in her tracks. She turned around and walked into the foyer instead. Behind her the screen door opened and shut again.
Glenda opened the front door, pleased to see Burt standing there.
“Oh, you are a sight for sore eyes, Mr. Hicks,” Glenda greeted him. She heard the screen door again. “If you would just make yourself at home, I left the screen unhooked. I’ll be back to show you your rooms,” Glenda explained and hurried to the kitchen and opened the backdoor. The screen door was latched. She looked outside and there was no wind. She stood there a moment puzzled. The sounds of her guests coming up the porch took her from her thoughts. She would mention this to Mike, see if he had any ideas, but until he was here she would just file it away.
“Missus Dupree,” Ted called from the hall. “I noticed the trailer out front. Did Mia arrive yet? Where’s Mike?”
Glenda hurried into the foyer and told them to get settled and have a coffee. She wanted to tell them what had happened to Mike all in one breath.
Ted looked at Burt and Beth. A question marked furrow appeared between his eyes. He followed Mike’s mother up the stairs. On the second floor she had Burt and Beth staying in the rooms on either side of hers. He, Mike and Mia were on the third floor. She figured since she was paying him and Mia that they could take the stairs. He didn’t have any problem with her line of thinking.
He dropped his duffle on his bed and nosed about the other rooms on the third floor. Mike had his things on the floor of what looked to Ted to be an old nursery. Mia’s stuff was nowhere to be seen. The room next to his was made up but lacked any of the mess he associated with Mia. The thought of her sleeping next to him made him very happy indeed.
Burt waited for Beth on the landing. She was taking her time getting settled. When she appeared, she was wearing a fresh outfit. Ted bounded down the stairs from the third floor.
“You see Mia or Mike?” he asked Burt.
“Explanation is coming,” he told his tech.
Beth smiled up at Ted. Ted didn’t notice the change of clothes. Beth frowned. Burt watched helplessly as the girl’s dreams of a Happy Thanksgiving were being crushed by a clumsy socially awkward computer genius. “That’s a nice outfit,” Burt led, looking at Ted.
“Same thing I was wearing this morning, dude,” Ted responded, uncomfortable with the attention his three-day-old shirt was getting.
“I was talking to Beth,” he pointed out.
“Then why were you looking at me?” Ted asked exasperated.
“Nevermind.”
The smell of fresh brewed coffee assaulted their nostrils, and Ted moved as if in a trance down the steps and into the kitchen.
Burt offered Beth his arm, and she took it, trying not to notice that once again Ted had sent a signal that he was not interested. Burt puzzled earlier why Ted wasn’t interested in this attractive, tall young woman. Then he spent five hours alone in the car with her and figured it out. Beth could talk the salt out of a teardrop. He made sure that he didn’t hold her hand too snuggly or feared that she may just transfer her affections to him.
~
“Mrs. Dupree,” the volunteer manning the information desk called.
Mia walked over, ignoring Murphy’s glare. “Yes, you called me?”
“Yes, you can see your husband now.”
“Thank you,” Mia said. She turned to explain to Murphy, but he was once again lost in the drama of the couple who would forever haunt the visitors lounge of the hospital. She shook her head and followed the candy striper through the doors to the ER.
“Good news, darling,” Mike said smiling. “I can go home now.”
Mia turned to the nurse who handed her some papers to sign. Mia penned Mrs. Dupree on all of them. She briefly wondered about fraud but filed it under things not to tell Whit.
“You’re to wake him several times during the night. If you are unable to do so, call this number. The doctor has given him something for pain. I took the liberty of having them filled here. With the holiday upon us, I thought you may have some trouble with the local pharmacies. Do you have any questions?”
“The bill?” Mia asked.
“Oh that’s been taken care of. Your husband put it on his company’s account. What does PEEPs stand for anyway?”
“Professional Environmental Equity Purchasers,” Mia lied. “They buy up farm debt, clear the family deeds.”
The nurse nodded as if she had heard of the group and the left the room, shutting the drapes so that Mia could dress her loving husband.
Mike was toasted. Mia looked at the bottle of pills in her hand and smiled. Tramadol. He was going to be a very pleasant patient. “Mikey, bunny toes, let Mia help you on with your clothes.”
Mike grinned ear to ear and nodded. She dressed him quickly and pulled open the drapes where a volunteer waited with a wheelchair. Mia bent over and kissed Mike on the forehead. “Don’t give this nice man any trouble. I’m going to get the truck and pull it around to the door.” Mia winked at him and strode purposely out of the ER. She stopped at the visitors lounge and called, “Murphy, get your ass in gear.” The information lady was confused as she didn’t see anyone there.
Mia waited for Murphy at the truck. She explained everything and asked him to not abuse Mike as he was pretty stoned right now. He nodded and got in the truck.
Mia pulled the truck around and waited as the volunteer wheeled Mike over. Mike got in unassisted. Mia leaned over him and
put his seat belt on. Murphy made faces at her as she was intruding on his space. “Do you want to ride outside?” she asked with and edge to her voice.
He shook his head and sat with his hands clasped around the axe handle.
Mike looked over at Mia and asked, “Did you call me bunny toes?”
“Must have been your imagination. We better get moving, your mother will be frantic by now.”
Mike sat back and watched numbly while Mia once again broke all the speed laws racing to get him back to Lund.
Glenda had just finished her tale when they heard Mia’s truck pull up. Ted rushed out of the house to help Mia bring Mike in.
“Hello, Mommy,” Mike said and hugged his mother hard. “Did you miss me?”
Glenda looked over his shoulder and asked Mia, “What the fuck?”
Mia hid her shock at the language Glenda was using and mentioned, “He’s on painkillers.”
“How’s his head?”
“In one piece, although one of us will have to wake him during the night just to make sure he is alright.”
Glenda gave her a look that reminded Mia that she was getting paid for being there.
“I’ll do it,” she said. “Ted, could you help me get our little tiger upstairs?” Mia asked.
“Sure.” Ted gently pulled Mike away from his mother and maneuvered him safely up the stairs.
Mia followed them. By the time they reached the third floor, Mike was singing. Ted and Mia got Mike into bed. Mia covered him.
She and Ted looked down at him for a while before Ted asked, “How long has he had the hard on?”
Mia looked at the tented covers and shook her head. “Since the hospital.”
“Must be the meds,” Ted said.
“Must be,” Mia agreed and walked out the door.
Chapter Four
Mia walked into the kitchen. She sought out the coffee pot and rummaged in the cupboard until she found a substantial mug in which to hold the brew. Glenda was fussing in the front parlor of the house. Beth was in there entertaining the woman with the exploits of celebrities. Mia walked in and listened for a while before making herself at home sitting down in the rocking chair.
“How’s he doing?” Beth asked.
“Mike’s going to have a whopper of a headache, and I think he’s had a scare. Ted’s watching him for a bit. I’ll take over once I have my truck unpacked. I’d like to put the trailer in the drive too.”
Glenda grabbed a pile of papers she’d been collecting and brought them with her when she sat down. “Phew! I may be over my head here.”
“How so?” Mia asked.
“I thought that I would just come and pick out a few things, and the rest I would sell at an estate sale. But I forgot about the papers, the books, the history, and the attic.”
“There’s an attic?” Beth questioned. “I thought maybe some storage on the third floor, but an attic too?”
“The house is very deceptive, it’s bigger than it looks on the outside,” Mia observed.
“It held a family of twelve once,” Glenda pointed out, “and we didn’t even trip over each other. That was when I was a girl.”
“You have ten sisters and brothers?” Beth asked.
“No, just three of each.” Glenda opened her fingers as she counted. “Two parents, seven children, one set of grandparents, and one great grandmother. The women in my family are a hardy sort. In my day the children lived in the house until you went away to get married. But the eldest son always lived here. With the exception of Stuart who ran off to Alaska in seventy-seven.”
“It must have been nice to have grandparents at home,” Mia said wistfully.
“It was loud,” Glenda admitted. “No hearing aids worth a damn then. G ma, that’s what we called my father’s grandmother, would start off the day yelling for her teeth. ‘Where’s my teeth,’ she would bellow. My sainted mother would drop whatever she was doing and call up the stairs, ‘In the glass in the bathroom.’ This happened every morning,” Glenda reminisced. “The morning she didn’t call for her teeth, we knew she had passed on in the night.”
“So she died here?” Beth asked, rubbing the goose bumps on her arms.
“Honey, everyone who passed peacefully, died here. My grandparents and my parents, Stuart when he came home with pneumonia,” Glenda counted off the departed on her fingers. “People in Lund were born, lived and died at home. There’s not one house in this town that hasn’t had a death in it.”
Beth looked over at Mia.
“Now don’t you be worrying yourself about the departed. Most people move on to their reward.”
“Some don’t,” Mia pointed out.
“True. I wonder why they stay?” Beth asked no one in particular.
“I guess they have their reasons,” Glenda said and dismissed the subject.
“Mrs. Dupree, when you have a moment, I’d like to discuss Mike’s condition with you. Catch you up on what went on at the hospital.”
“Yes. How about you get settled first then we’ll have a talk. I also will have a plan of operation by then. Who does what. This way we’re not tripping over each other.” She got up and smoothed her apron. “First thing’s first, I’m going to put a roast in. We will dine like kings tonight.”
“Do you need some help?” Beth asked.
“Girl, if you know how to peel a potato then you’re welcome in my kitchen.”
Beth smiled and followed Glenda out of the room.
Mia took her mug of coffee outside and set it on the porch rail before running to the truck to find her jacket. The wind had kicked up and the temperature was dropping. She pulled on her jacket and looked around at the empty houses on either side of the street. They were a mixed lot of one, two and three story houses. Their lawns were neglected, and Mia saw many ornamental bushes that had grown into trees when the pruners ceased to assault their branches. Paint peeled off of clapboards, and the grime of years added a dull patina over the expensive brickwork.
It was early yet, but she imagined as the gloom of evening was upon them, she would see some lost ones moving about. She would suggest to Burt and Ted that they may want to take a walk around town this evening with the full array of cameras. They may just catch a ghost or two.
Mia heard the engine of a vehicle and stood back as a truck pulled into the drive beside her. It was driven by a man in his fifties. He shut the truck off and opened the door. He stood about six feet tall. His head adorned by a Seed Company hat. He flashed a well-cared-for smile from his weathered, tan face when he saw Mia. “I’m George Albert,” he said, walking over with an outstretched hand.
“Mia Cooper,” she said, grasping his firm, but not crushing, hand in hers.
“Aunt Glenda said you’d be helping her. I have to say I’m surprised by the PEEPs trucks though.”
“Friends of Mike’s,” Mia explained.
“I better go in and catch hell,” he said excusing himself. “I’m sure I forgot something or another.”
“If you need back up all you have to do is ask,” Mia offered.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Mia watched him go around back. She remembered that family used the backdoor, company came in the front. Next time, Mia would use the backdoor.
Burt watched as Mia pulled her truck out of the drive. She backed it close to the trailer. She was walking over to hook it up when Burt’s conscience and his mother’s training got the best of him.
“Hold on, Mia, let me help you with that,” he offered.
Mia looked over at Burt and smiled. “Thank you kindly. It’s a bit heavy, and my hitch is a bit temperamental.”
The two of them worked together, and soon the trailer was secured. Mia stood back and surveyed the drive. “I’m not sure I should put it in the drive?”
“It would make it easier on loading the big stuff though.”
“Maybe I’ll wait and let Mrs. Dupree have her say on that.”
“It’s good to see you here,” Burt c
ommented. “It feels odd since we aren’t on an investigation though.”
“Ted and I are getting paid to sort through junk, you?”
“I’m not exactly sure, but it started off with Beth wanting to come. She offered my services as well, for free.”
Mia laughed. “Now you know how I feel when I’m at one of your investigations.”
Burt grinned and patted her on the back. “I guess so.”
Mia reached in the back of the truck and extracted a large duffle bag.
“That’s more than you normally carry. Is Whit with you?”
“No, he’s in New Jersey spending the holidays with his folks. I had a feeling that washers and dryers weren’t going to be available so I packed accordingly,” Mia explained. “Speaking of family, I’m surprised you’re not at your folks…”
“Florida, they left early for the Sunshine State. Thought my sister could set an extra plate at her table if I had a mind to wanting to eat with family.”
“Ah, and I guess you’d rather be with us.”
“My shrink says…”
“Whoa, shrink?”
“Yes, don’t be so surprised,” Burt snapped and grabbed the heavy duffle out of Mia’s hands. He started walking towards the house.
“Go on, your shrink says…”
“That I need to nurture the good things around me, not think of everything as a money-making endeavor.”
“Your shrink is a woman, huh?”
Burt was surprised and admitted, “Yes. But how did you know that?”
“She makes sense,” Mia said and patted him on the back. “Sounds like you are in good hands, but promise me something.”
“What?”
“Don’t change too much,” Mia pleaded. “I like you grumpy. This nice guy gives me the willies.”
Burt laughed but refrained from adding that Mia used to like his willy too. He followed her up the stairs, and he tried not to huff and puff too much by the time they reached Mia’s third floor abode.