NOLA (16 page)

“Daddy’s not coming,” the boy informed him.

“Did something happen to your mother and father?” Murphy asked.

“No, sir,” the girl spoke up.  “Something happened to us.”

“Oh dear, I’m sorry to hear that.”

The little girl scooted closer to Murphy, lowered her voice and asked, “You do know you’re dead like us, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Well, Greggy and I died when Mommy’s car was hit by a big truck.  Mommy lay in the hospital bed for a long time.  We visited her every day.  Daddy did too.  He was so sad.  One day, our Grandma Jean came and told us that Mommy wasn’t going to be joining Greggy and me, but she was going to wake up and be with Daddy.  She said we could come to heaven with her to wait for Mommy and Daddy.  I told her that Mommy said, if ever we were to get separated, that we would go to the library and wait for her in the reading room.  So we’re going to wait for her here, if that’s alright?”

“I expect that’s fine.  What is your name, young lady?”

“Alice Marie Jones.”

Murphy extended his hand and said, “It’s nice to meet you, Alice, and you too, Greggy.”

Greggy giggled and reached out his hand to be shook.

“I think that if we’re really good, the man will read us another story,” Murphy said smiling.

“We’d like that.  Tell him to read
Green Eggs and Ham
again.  It’s Greggy’s favorite.”

“Excuse me, Cid.” Murphy managed to vocalize.  “We’d like to hear
Green Eggs and Ham
again, please.”

Cid picked up the book turned the page and started.  “I am Sam…”

Mike turned to Ted and asked, “Did you hear anything he said?”

“Just the last part.  He’ll tell us later.  But from what I saw, he made the acquaintance of the children.  I’m sure he’ll have something to report later.”

“HAM!”

Mike and Ted jumped.  With Murphy joining in, the chorus of “Ham!” was almost deafening as it bounced off the walls of the trailer.  Ted quickly adjusted the sound.

“I’m surprised that the old coot knows the story,” Mike commented.

“Oh, Mia and I read to Brian every night.  She can recite most of the books.”

“That’s interesting. I didn’t think that Amanda and Charles were much into reading anything, let alone Dr. Seuss, to their daughter at night.”

“Ah, but Ralph did and acted out the stories.  Bernard regrets
Hop on Pop,
especially when Ralph changed it to
Hop on Bernard
.

~

Ralph was surprised by the knock on his door.  He rushed over and peeped through the viewer, smiling as a ragged blonde looked up at him.

“Come on, Ralph, open the door. I’m tired,” Mia whined.

He opened the door, and she all but fell into his arms.  He escorted her to a chair and stood looking down at her.

Mia looked up at her godfather and started to laugh.  “What is that purple goo on your face?”

Ralph had forgotten about his moisturizing mask until then.  “Just something to keep up my youthful looks.”

“Is that why people keep confusing you as my brother?” Mia said sweetly.

“You’re a charmer.  What, may I ask, are you doing here?  I thought you were supposed to be hanging out with the Voodoo priestess?”

“She said we could reschedule for tomorrow night.  I’m pretty tired and wounded.” Mia pointed to her leg.

Ralph noticed that there was a large hand-shaped burn mark on her tan cargos.  “What the hell happened here?”

“A bit of misadventure,” she said, wincing as Ralph pushed up her pant leg, exposing a bandage with something malodorous emanating from it.  “Monique whipped up a burn salve from some herbs Honor had in her cupboard.”

“Well, I can’t do anything with you like this.  Off with your pants, missy, and no sass,” he ordered.

Mia did as she was told, and when Ralph saw the purple mass of bruises around her lower leg, he had a fit.

“Oh my god, Mia!  This is why I wanted to come along.  You need someone watching out for you.  Murphy’s not here.”

“Father Peter…”

“Obviously didn’t prevent this,” Ralph snapped.  “Now you get in the shower, and I’ll go to your room to get your pajamas.  Tonight you are spending with me.  Bernard is going to hit the roof when I tell him about…”  Ralph stopped, thought a moment and turned around and stared at Mia.  “What did happen?”

“Lots.  Good and bad stuff.  I want to call home and see if Brian is awake.  Mrs. Braverman is supposed to be watching him.  Ted’s on a paranormal investigation.”

“After the shower and pajamas,” Ralph ordered.  “Plus, take off that smelly thing.  I’ve got some stuff that costs a mint but should fix you right up.”

Mia nodded and limped to the shower.  She didn’t need to put on a brave face anymore.  She was in the hysterical but capable hands of Ralph.

~

The PEEPs team huddled together in the command truck while Ted related Murphy’s information to them.

“Alice Marie and Greggy Jones,” Audrey said aloud as she took notes.  “What kind of clothes were they wearing?  That would go a long way in identifying what era they died in.”

Murphy held up his hands.

“Do your best,” Ted encouraged.

“Pink stretchy pants and a shirt with a pony on it.  Greggy had on overalls and shoes that lit up when he walked.”

Ted nodded and repeated the information to Audrey.

“Pony or unicorn?” she asked, miming a horn on her forehead.

Murphy laughed.  “No horn.”

“He said no horn.”

“Damn, if it were a unicorn then I had an idea.  But the shoes?  When did they start putting lights on them?” she asked herself as she left the trailer in search of her laptop.

Marvin the Martian ran across the screen, and the men heard a loud slam of a door as the cartoon figure disappeared.

“I guess she forgot about Jake,” Ted said, scratching his head.  “Is anyone hungry? I’m starving.”

All but Murphy nodded.

“Did anyone think to pack any food?” Ted asked.

All, including Murphy, shook their heads.

“Well, let’s draw straws to see who goes out on a food run,” Burt said.

“I’ll go,” Cid volunteered.  “I saw a deli over at the movie complex.  I bet they’re open late.”

After the orders had been taken, Burt, Mike and Ted looked at each other.  No one had to be reminded that if Mia was there, the food would not have been forgotten.

A small ding came from the console.  Ted turned around and scanned the feeds.  I have a black mass moving down the basement level hallway,” he identified, tapping on the screen.

Mike and Burt leaned in, and sure enough, there was a slow moving dark mass just the other side of the door to the storage room.

“I’ll head down there with Murphy,” Mike said.  “You follow us with the camera as soon as you can get set up.”

Burt nodded.

Ted ran a side program and reported, “The mass is tipping the scales on power, approach with care, over.”

Murphy held himself back and moved in concert with Mike.  He let Mike know he was with him by an occasional tap of his axe.

“Ted says this entity is quite powerful.  Let’s not anger the sucker if we can help it,” he said to Murphy.

To Mike’s eyes, the entity was a black shadow.  To Murphy, however, it was a burly man in his middle years.  The man wore an old brown coat tattered at the edges.  The man turned as they approached.  His face had seen some weather.  The broken capillaries were common amongst farm folk.  The wind in northern Illinois could be brutal.  But the man didn’t have the stature of a farmer.  Murphy suspected that the state of the man’s skin had more to do with sleeping rough and drinking bad alcohol.

“Hello, I’m Mike Dupree. I’m here at the invitation of the head librarian. Can I be of service to you?”

“He’s got to be kidding,” the man said to Murphy.  “I’m dead.  Where was he forty-five years ago?”

Murphy didn’t speak.  He had sized up the opposition and thought it prudent to save power.  Instead, he hunched his shoulders.

“I have a box that you can speak into.  This will help us to understand what you need.”

The man watched as Mike laid the box with the blinking red light on it on the floor between them.

The ghost waited a beat and then stomped on it, smashing it to bits.

Mike backed up, touching his ear. “Ted, we have a hostile ghost here.  I’m retreating, over.”

A winded Burt arrived as Mike was leaving.  The two missed smacking into each other by inches.

“Get them,” the ghost said.  “Laurel and Hardy.”

Murphy moved between the investigators and the ghost.  “They are trying to help you.  Do you wish to move on into the light?” Murphy asked him.

“Hell no!  I never catered to any church. No time to be singing hymns now.  You tell them to get the hell out of my building.”

“I believe this building is owned by the village of Little Goodwin.”

“Is that what they’re calling this one-silo burb these days?  Hell, I knew old Mister Goodwin, and he weren’t the sort you should be naming towns after.  He ran numbers in the back of the barbershop.”

“Numbers?”

“Dumb farmer, he ran a gambling establishment.  Girls too.  He had two, sometimes three, whores housed upstairs.”

Murphy tried not to bristle at the
dumb farmer
comment.

Burt zoomed in with the infrared and identified Murphy and another entity.  This entity was as cold as something could get, just before it becomes ice.  “Murphy, do you need assistance?” Burt called out.

“Murphy?  Is that your name?  Figures.  Seems to me, it
would
be a god-damned Irishman that would be the pet monkey of a group of interfering bastards.  Now that red-haired woman, I wouldn’t mind being her pet monkey.”

“You keep your hands off of her and these people,” Murphy warned.

“And what?  Are you going to swing your little axe and frighten me way?  Get the hell out of my building.  You’ve been warned.  I won’t ask again,” he said and moved back into the boiler room.

Burt started to follow the black mass.  Murphy put his axe out across the hallway.  Burt found he couldn’t move any further.

“Murphy, is that you?”

“Bad ghost.  Don’t follow,” he said, well aware of the energy drain.  He would have to get upstairs to Ted soon and recharge, but he couldn’t leave the two investigators down here without supervision.  No telling what that entity had in store for the two if they blundered into his lair.

“Ted, we’re going to pull back to the old stacks room, over.”

“Noted, over and out.”

Murphy followed the men into the basement storage.  It didn’t take him long to spot the well-dressed man standing in a stack of books.

“Sir, that can’t be too comfortable,” Murphy mentioned as he helped the gentleman out of the stack and into the aisle.

“There used to be an aisle here.  You see, they move things around, and I can’t get used to the new layout.”

“How is it that you keep getting stuck?” Murphy asked.

“I use all my energy reading.  I love to read.  This is my heaven. Although, I’ve read most everything here.  Miss Hodges hasn’t brought down any new ones in a while.”

“Why don’t you go upstairs? It’s full of books.”

“I don’t dare leave here or that man out there will throttle me.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’m protected here.  He hates books.  In the hall, I’m fair game.”

“I could escort you upstairs,” Murphy said, raising his axe.

“But then how would I return?  You can’t stay here and babysit me. You’ve got your farm to see to,” the man reasoned.

“True.  Perhaps the solution is to get rid of the nasty man,” Murphy said.

“Could you?”

“No, but I may know a guy…”

Chapter Eleven

“Oh, Mia, little Brian is such a good-natured baby.  He seems happy to jabber away.  He hasn’t cried once since I’ve been here,” Mrs. Braverman said.  “Ted’s called me every hour. I had to put my foot down.  The ringing phone was waking up the baby, so we compromised.  I put one of those little cameras of his on the mobile over Brian’s crib.  He said he can remotely access it and see Brian anytime, without waking him up.”

“Ted’s a little over-the-top sometimes,” Mia commiserated.  “I’m going to call him at work.  I’ll leave some gentle hints that enough is enough,” she promised.

“Don’t be too harsh on the boy,” Mrs. Braverman cautioned.

“Oh, I’ll be gentle.  Thank you again for being there for Brian.”

“That’s okay, dear. Now you get some rest and come home soon.”

Mia hung up and smiled.

“What’s that smile for?” Ralph asked, handing Mia a slice of cheese.

“Mrs. Braverman said, ‘Come home soon.’”

“Like you were one of her kids?”

“She only has Tom, but I think that was a Freudian slip.”

“You would make any woman proud to have you as a daughter, Mia.”

“I think that only someone strong would be able to put up with my lifestyle, someone with integrity, imagination and ingenuity.”

“Someone like me,” Ralph claimed.

“Yes, Ralph, someone like you.”  Mia adjusted her leg.  “What did you put on that burn?”

“Aloe, but it was mixed with some royal jelly.  You’ll be healed up in no time.  Tell me again how you burned yourself.”

“When Sticks had me hanging upside down, I decided to try and force his hand open. I couldn’t reach it with my hands, so I tried to pry it away telepathically.  And in doing so, I gave him quite a hot hand.  But he, being a demon, didn’t feel it until my pants caught fire.  Then he let me go.”

“And you fell, catching hold of the tail of a kite and swung to safety,” Ralph finished.

“Ah, that’s the Indiana Jones version, but basically that’s it.”

“What an adventure!”

“Looking back, I can call it that, but when you’re in it, all you can think is, how do I get out of this?” Mia confided.

“Do you ever wish that you weren’t gifted?”

“Every day and twice on Sunday,” Mia said glibly.

“No, dear, that’s a matinee schedule. Speaking of, do you want to see my sketches for
Burnt Toast and Leftover Pizza
?”