The Case of the Abandoned Warehouse (Mystery House #2

by Eva Pohler

  “I thought that can of worms was closed a long time ago,” the officer commented.

  “Yes, sir,” Bob said. “But then these ladies here have gone and opened it again.”

  The police officer looked them over warily. Then he thanked them for their time and walked away.

  When he was no longer within earshot, Ellen said, “He didn’t seem too happy with us.”

  “Get used to it,” Bob said. “If you plan to keep looking, you’re bound to piss off a whole lot of people in this town.”

  Chapter Twenty: Stakeout

  That night, Ellen and her friends invited Bob to join them at the hotel bar, where Sue said she’d had her best margarita ever, and since she was the authority on the quality of all food and drink, the hotel bar it was. Although they wouldn’t know with any certainty if the oil seep would lead to a lucrative well, they’d decided to celebrate, just in case. Bob seemed convinced that the land was on top of a significant reservoir that would make them good money for years to come.

  “So maybe Miss Myrtle wasn’t blowing us off when she told us we were about to come into some money,” Ellen said, clinking her glass against those of her friends.

  “Were you serious when you said you wanted to restore the building to its original form?” Tanya asked. “Because I don’t think it’s a bad idea, actually.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that, too,” Sue said. “At first, I thought we’d get more if we broke it up into several apartments, but we’d also have to spend a whole lot more to do that.”

  “That’s what I was thinking,” Ellen said. “And I like the idea of restoring a historic building back to its original glory.”

  “Cheers to that,” Bob said, clinking his mug of beer against her margarita glass.

  She met his smile. There was something very attractive about those stunning blue eyes and openly friendly mouth. If she weren’t already married…Blood rushed to her cheeks, and she looked away, down at the wooden table, and wiped up some condensation from her glass with her cocktail napkin. She hadn’t had a thought like that in years.

  “Is it decided then?” Tanya asked.

  “As far as I’m concerned,” Sue said. “Ellen?”

  “Count me in!” she clinked her glass against theirs once more and laughed—maybe a bit too loudly.

  “You know what else I was thinking?” Tanya said. “Wouldn’t it be great if we made enough from the oil to, I don’t know, give to Greenwood to invest in the black community?”

  “That’s quite a generous thought,” Bob said.

  “I like it,” Ellen said. “I guess it depends on how much it earns. I still think we should check into the legality of suing for reparations.”

  “It’s too late,” Sue said. “But I’d be open to creating a charitable fund for Greenwood. It would help offset the new income taxes we’ll be responsible for.”

  Ellen shook her head. “If only we could find those bodies. Can you imagine what it would mean?”

  “I’ve imagined it a million times,” Bob said, once again meeting her eyes with his stunning blue ones. “We’d have indisputable evidence about what really happened. I’ve never believed it was anything but an organized holocaust.”

  “Not to mention the peace we’d bring to the ghosts and to any of their living descendants,” Ellen said.

  Bob squeezed her hand. “You three ladies are the most generous souls I’ve ever met. I’m glad I got to meet you. And I hope as much as you that we find those bodies.”

  That night, Ellen had a dream about Bob—a pleasant change from the nightmarish flames. When she woke up, she held onto the dream, recalling the passion that had surged though her. Then she admonished herself for entertaining the fantasy. She loved her husband, and her attraction to Bob and the feelings of passion he had awakened in her reminded her further that she needed to reconnect with Paul. He was the father of her children, and a kind, handsome, smart, witty man. At least he used to be. She needed to find the old Paul again. And maybe to do that, she needed to find the old Ellen.

  But who was she?

  She was brought from her reverie when she noticed a text on her cell phone. It was from Bob: You ladies might want to come to the property today when you have a chance. There’s something you need to see.

  “Well, could he have been any more mysterious?” Sue said when Ellen read her text aloud.

  “Why don’t we get dressed and head over there?” Tanya suggested. “It looks like a nice day for a walk.”

  “Only if we can stop at the bakery on the way,” Sue said. “I can’t stop thinking about the croissant I had there the day before yesterday.”

  When they reached the property, Bob was pushing his lawn-mower-like contraption across the front field, stopping every few feet to observe the small computer screen. He waved when he noticed them.

  “How’s it going?” Tanya asked.

  “Nothing promising yet,” he said.

  “Oh, really?” Sue frowned. “You got our hopes up with your enigmatic text.”

  He rubbed his chin. “Sorry about that. No, I’m afraid the vermin are coming out of the woodwork, just as I suspected they would.”

  “Oh, great,” Sue said. “Termites?”

  “I suppose we should be prepared for these kinds of expenses,” Tanya said. “It is an old building.”

  “Not literal vermin,” Bob said. “There was a note taped to the gate when I got here this morning.” He pulled a piece of paper from his jacket pocket. “Take a look at this.”

  Scribbled in blue ink were these words:

  Go back to where you came from, or the mass grave will be your own.

  Tanya covered her mouth. “Who would say such a thing?”

  “And why?” Sue asked. “Who stands to lose if we find the bodies?”

  “Well, the city of Tulsa,” Bob said, “if you can make a case for reparations. Possibly even the state of Oklahoma or the federal government, since the National Guard was involved.”

  “Are you saying this note might have been written by a city, state, or federal official?” Ellen asked.

  “Wouldn’t be surprised.” Bob pulled a newspaper clipping from his other jacket pocket. “But I suppose it could have been anyone who didn’t like what this had to say.”

  “What is it?” Tanya asked.

  “It was in this morning’s Tulsa World,” he said. “I thought you ladies might like to see it.”

  Ellen took the article and read the headline: Brooks Resumes Search

  She skimmed the article. “It mentions our names! How did they get our names?”

  “Do you think Officer Ryan had anything to do with it?” Sue asked.

  “Anyone could have gotten your names from the city’s real estate agency,” Bob said. “But unless someone else recognized me, he’s the only person besides you three that knows I’m here.”

  “You didn’t tell anyone in Oklahoma City?” Ellen asked.

  “Just my wife.”

  “This is scary, guys,” Tanya said. “Shouldn’t we report this to the police? To someone other than Officer Ryan?”

  “Wouldn’t do any good,” Bob said. “Scott Ellsworth and I, and others doing the work for the Tulsa Riot Commission, got far worse. No one did anything about it. Hell, like I said, the people who should help are probably the ones behind the threats.”

  “That’s a serious accusation,” Sue said.

  “If the shoe fits…” Bob mumbled.

  Ellen tucked the note away in her pocket. “Maybe we should invest in better security.”

  Sue snapped her fingers. “It might be that old woman we saw the night we came with Eduardo.”

  “Yeah,” Tanya agreed. “Maybe she has nowhere else to go and thinks she can scare us off.”

  “Maybe,” Ellen said.

  “Have you heard from the online lab yet?” Bob asked.

  Ellen shook her head.

  “I wish I’d known you then,” he said. “I’d have analyzed the bones for you
for free.”

  “Maybe it was the old woman’s child,” Sue said. “She couldn’t let go of it, so she keeps its skeleton wrapped up in a blanket.”

  “Creepy,” Tanya said. “Especially now that it’s missing an arm.”

  “Maybe she sleeps with it at night,” Sue said.

  This gave Ellen an idea. “We should look for the old woman and offer to help her find a homeless shelter.”

  “And how do you plan to do that?” Bob asked.

  “We could hide out here tonight and wait for her,” Ellen said.

  Tanya laughed. “You want to stay here? With all the ghosts?”

  “Van and Vivian will protect us,” Ellen said.

  “How can you be so sure?” Sue asked. “Another feeling?”

  “As a matter of fact, yes.”

  “I don’t know why we’re paying for a hotel if we aren’t going to use it,” Sue complained later that evening as they walked from their hotel room at dusk back toward the property.

  They’d spent the day interviewing contractors, oil well services, and attorneys—though they hadn’t made any decisions yet. They’d also checked into having the fence mended and secured with electrical wire and a few surveillance cameras, but the fees were pricey, so they’d decided to hold off until they had a better idea what kind of money the oil would bring in. Now they were going to hide out in the building and keep an eye out for the old Native American woman who had confronted them and had nearly set the place on fire. Bob had already gone ahead of them—also by foot so no vehicles would give away their stakeout. He was planning to stay in the room with the dreamcatchers in case the old woman managed to get past Ellen and her friends. If the woman didn’t show up, maybe whoever left the threatening note would. Plus, Ellen wanted to try out the equipment in her ghost hunting kit.

  Never one to go to a party emptyhanded, Sue had made her famous dip using ingredients she’d bought from a corner supermarket in the Brady Arts District. Tanya carried a bag with a box of crackers, bottle of wine, and plastic cups from the hotel. Ellen carried a bag with flashlights, bottled water, and, of course, her ghost hunting kit.

  The sun hadn’t gone down, but it was still a bit dark inside the building as they made their way through the hobo camp and down the long hallway past the bathrooms. Once they reached the ballroom with its big windows and skylights, they no longer needed their flashlights—at least for now.

  “So where should we hide out?” Tanya asked.

  They all three scanned the room, thinking.

  “It’ll be dark soon,” Ellen said. “We could just have a seat on those risers and wait.”

  “That doesn’t sound very comfortable,” Sue said. “I need back support, and we have no idea how long we’re going to be here.”

  “She may not come at all,” Ellen pointed out.

  “How about the dumbwaiters?” Tanya said from the back wall beneath the cat walk.

  Ellen was shocked when Tanya climbed inside, pulled up her knees, and closed the door.

  “This is perfect,” Tanya said from the inside.

  “But can you breathe in there?” Sue asked. “Or see? How would you know when the old woman showed up? Besides, there’s no way Ellen or I could fit in one of those.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Ellen said. “I could, too, fit.”

  When Tanya slid the door open, Ellen helped her out and took her place. “See? No problem.”

  “I want to see you pull your legs to your chest, like Tanya did, and close the door,” Sue challenged.

  “No way,” Ellen said. “Not because I couldn’t, but because I’d be too claustrophobic.”

  “It was pretty gross in there,” Tanya said. “But I’m trying to push myself out of my comfort zone.”

  “Well, good for you,” Sue said. “But I like my comfort zone just fine, thank you.”

  “Let’s go upstairs and check on Bob,” Ellen suggested.

  They crossed the ballroom and headed for the skating rink, to the stairs on the west wing.

  Sue struggled to keep up. “Maybe he’d like to have some of this dip.”

  Before they’d reached the room with the dreamcatchers, Bob opened the door and said, “I could hear you ladies coming a mile away. You might need to work on your stakeout skills.”

  Ellen laughed. “I think you’re right.”

  “We thought you might like some dip before you hunker down for the night,” Sue said, indicating the big plastic bowl she was carrying. “Tanya has the crackers.”

  Bob shook his head. “That old woman could be coming any minute. You really want to risk giving yourselves away over some dip?”

  “You obviously have never tasted this dip,” Sue said.

  “Why don’t you three go back to your hotel and leave this to me?” he suggested.

  “Not on your life,” Ellen said. “He’s right, though. We need to take this stakeout more seriously. Why don’t we sit over there, at the end of this catwalk? She won’t see us in the dark. Then, when she comes…”

  “If she comes,” Sue said. “And I really don’t think she will…”

  “If she comes up to her room, then we can block the door and trap her, forcing her to talk to us,” Ellen said, feeling good about the plan.

  “Sounds good to me,” Tanya said. “Should we try it?”

  “You want us to sit on the floor?” Sue asked. “Once I go down, I may not come back up.”

  “You can wait in here with me,” Bob said. “The bed’s pretty comfortable.”

  Sue laughed. “Are you hitting on me, Bob?”

  Bob’s face turned red. “No, I mean, no. I’m a married man. I’ll take the chair.”

  “Oh there’s a chair in there?” Tanya asked. “Maybe she could use it out here, with us.”

  “I don’t like to sit in old chairs,” Sue said. “They tend to break easily.”

  Bob backed away from the door to allow them into the room. From the window, Ellen could see that dusk was fading fast, but a bit of light came in from the highway. In addition to that light, Bob had a lantern on the floor at the foot of the bed, and he’d lit the candle with the Virgin Mary painted on it on the bedside table. He also had laid a sleeping bag on top of the bed, where he’d presumably been lying before they’d come upstairs. She shuddered at the prospect of lice and bedbugs infesting his bedding. Next to the bedside table was an old wooden chair.

  Bob sat in it. “It’s sturdy. And not too uncomfortable.”

  He got up and let Sue try.

  “I guess this will work,” she said.

  Sue put the bowl on the table next to the candle and took the box of crackers from Tanya’s bag. “But we’re not leaving this room until you try this.”

  She held open the box of crackers and stared him down until he took one and scooped it into the dip.

  “Well, hell, that is good,” he said. “Let me have one more.”

  He took another and ate it up with a smile. “Now let me carry this chair out there for you, and let’s try to keep as quiet as we can from here on out. Okay ladies?”

  “You want some wine, or some bottled water?” Ellen asked.

  “No thanks, I’m good,” he said.

  He followed them back out onto the catwalk past the other bedroom door.

  “We could hide in there,” Tanya said.

  “But then we wouldn’t see her coming,” Sue said. “You’d be better off in the dumbwaiter.”

  “Ladies, you need to whisper if you want this to work,” he said. “Or better yet, try not to talk at all.”

  Ellen covered her mouth to stifle the laugh gurgling from her throat. He might as well be asking them to fly.

  What were they thinking in coming here tonight?

  She’d been hoping to use her ghost hunting equipment, but now she realized its blinking lights might give them away.

  “Maybe we should go back to the hotel,” Ellen suggested. “Maybe this was a mistake.”

  “We just got here,” Sue said.
“I’m not ready to walk back again. Let’s sit in the dark for a while.”

  Bob gave them a wave before returning to the room with the dreamcatchers. Ellen and Tanya sat on the dirty wooden floor of the catwalk. Sue sat in the chair with the bowl of dip in her lap.

  Sue whispered, “We can at least drink a little wine while we’re sitting. Crack open that bottle, Tanya.”

  Ellen was surprised by how many creaks and moans she could hear in the building once they settled down and were silent. Except for the soft munching of crackers and the occasional slurp of wine, they managed to be relatively quiet in the ever-darkening building. Once the sun had completely vanished, they stopped their snacking and sat very still.

  The wine was making Ellen sleepy. She closed her eyes for a while, leaning her chin on her bent knees, which she hugged—mainly to show Sue she could. It wasn’t the most comfortable position, but her back needed a break.

  After at least an hour of sitting there, feeling as though she could easily doze off, a flash of light illuminated the building. It was coming from the north, on the side where the highway was.

  Tanya jumped to her feet. “What is that?”

  Ellen reached out her hand. “Can you help me up?”

  Tanya pulled, and Ellen fumbled to her feet. The three of them met Bob across the catwalk in front of the bedroom with the dreamcatcher.

  “Do you ladies see that?” he asked them.

  “Yes, but what is it?” Sue replied.

  “That’s another gas seep,” he said. “I’m not sure what caused it to produce a flame, or how long the flame will last, but come here and check it out.”

  They went to the bedroom window behind the bedside table. A single flame shot from the ground about three or four feet into the air.

  “It’s like a fountain of fire,” Ellen whispered.

  “It’s beautiful,” Tanya said.

  “That’s more evidence of an oil reservoir beneath your property. We need to get down there and put it out before it spreads. Didn’t you say you had water bottles?” Bob asked, rushing toward the stairs.