NOLA (37 page)
“I was the best shortstop Kansas City had ever seen in my day. Snagging line drives was my specialty,” he said, setting Mike on his feet.
“Whoa,” was all Mike could say.
Murphy, fully energized, decided to move through the committee rooms to get around Vogel and come up from behind.
Mia had to ignore the fight in front of her and concentrate on the memorized Latin words she learned from Father Peter. The memorized invocation was for demons, but Vogel was so evil that Mia prayed that he fit into that category. All Mia needed was a little more time…
Cid knew he couldn’t withstand too many hits with the shovel, tin shield or no tin shield. He ripped off the top of the salt, and as Vogel charged him, he tossed the remaining salt into the ghost’s eyes.
Again, Vogel screamed and took a moment to scratch away the burning bits. He rubbed away the last of the salt and opened his eyes to see, not the tall human, but the farmer pushing at him with his axe.
Mia felt the ground shake before she saw the tile disappear. It was replaced with a deep, foul-smelling portal to what she assumed was hell. She used her telekinesis to pull Vogel towards the portal.
Murphy reached forward and pulled the shovel out of Vogel’s grasp. He saw the bully was sliding backwards. Murphy looked around the ghost to see a rectangular hole had opened up in the floor of the hall. Mia’s yellow eyes glowed as she pulled Vogel towards her and it with her mind. Murphy knew she couldn’t manage this ghost alone. He chose to push Vogel with the business end of his axe until he was feeling the pull of the portal himself.
Strong arms wrapped around Murphy to stabilize him and give him earthly bulk. With Cid’s added weight, Murphy felt confident enough to continue to push Vogel towards the portal.
Burt ran down the hall, quickly assessing the situation. He saw that Mia was sliding towards the hole in the floor. He reached out and grabbed the back of her clothing, shouting, “I’ve got you, Mia.”
Vogel smelled the sulfur and turned around, horrified at what he was seeing.
The green, glowing portal had been open long enough for the green, snaking arms of the guardians to move out of it looking for a demon. They caressed Mia’s leg, assessing whether or not she was the demon. Burt pulled her upwards, and the tentacles wound around his legs instead, then rejected him, and moved back around.
“No no! I will not go!” Vogel bellowed as the tentacles snaked towards him.
“Will you leave this place?” Mia asked.
“Hell no!”
Mia chanted one last command. The arms shot out and grasped the ghost and pulled him into the void.
“Put me down,” Mia ordered. She reached the floor and rubbed with her gloved hand until she broke the green chalk line. As the portal closed and the floor reappeared, Mia prayed to God that she had made the right decision.
“What the hell did you do?” Burt asked, helping her to her feet.
“Oh, something I learned down south,” she said. “Thank you. We must add to the PEEPs rule book not to open a portal to hell on a slippery floor in an enclosed hallway.”
“Done and done,” Burt said good-naturedly.
“Location check,” Ted said, trying to not sound worried.
“Audrey in the reading room with the Jones children, over.”
“Mike in the stairwell, over.”
“Cid, Murphy and Katherine, at the end of the hall by the furnace room, over,” Cid said distracted, as he was focusing on trying to figure out how he actually got ahold of Murphy’s body.
“Mia, Ronald and Burt heading for the stairway, over,” Burt said.
“Ted and Jake in the command center, changing our wet pants, over and out.”
~
Katherine drew out a bottle of whisky from her desk drawer. She poured a large shot into a glass and downed it. She offered some to the resting PEEPs, and all but Mike declined. Mike wasn’t visibly injured, but he had taken in a lot of electricity. He was a bit shaky.
“So, no more Chester Vogel,” Katherine said.
“That’s right, unless hell rejects him,” Mia said. “If he comes back, we’ll send Father Santos over to deal with him properly.”
“You seemed to have a fairly good knowledge of old Latin, young woman,” Katherine observed.
“Not really,” Mia admitted. “I don’t know what I said. It was something I saw Father Peter do down in New Orleans.”
“But it worked,” Cid pointed out. “How did you remember it all so perfectly?”
“It rhymed,” Mia explained. “Just like a Dr. Seuss book.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
“Welcome to the first ever preseason PEEPs barbecue!” Mia said to Sabine who arrived with the girls and Tauni Cerise in tow.
Fifty degrees and sunny, the weather was too cold to spend too much time outdoors, so Ted and Mia had opened the big doors of the converted barn and decorated the insides. Burt walked over and scooped up two of the little girls. Leta Ann and Nura Louise squealed with delight. Tauni Cerise followed them into the barn.
Sabine smiled. “Thank you for including me, Mia.”
“You’re an honorary PEEP. You belong here,” Mia said, hugging her cousin.
“I like that. That computer dog says I have to wear a red shirt. I don’t understand?”
Mia put her arm around her cousin and promised, “I’ll explain everything later. Today is for kicking up our heels a little.”
“Where’s Brian?”
“Susan is dressing him, again. Ted dressed himself and Brian in father and son Kansas City Chiefs outfits. She took one look at them and took Brian into the house.”
“I sense she is an avid Bears fan,” Sabine observed.
“Avid or rabid?” Ted asked behind them.
Sabine turned around and accepted the brotherly kiss on her cheek.
“There’s a few folks you haven’t met. Mia will take care of Maisha Violet. Why don’t you let me introduce you,” he said gallantly.
Sabine squatted down and asked Maisha, “Would you like to go with Aunt Mia?”
The little girl nodded shyly and took Mia’s hand.
“The best thing about being short is, I can hold hands with my favorite niece,” Mia said, walking Maisha towards the barn. “Uncle Cid has rented a bouncy house. I’m dying to try it,” Mia exclaimed. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
The little girl clapped her hands together in joy.
Sabine watched them leave and confided, “I’m worried about Maisha Violet. You see, Ted, she hasn’t any power. She can’t see ghosts, read minds or OOB.”
Ted cleared his voice and asked nervously, “You mean your other two girls can do all of that already?”
“Why yes. Brian’s going to be right behind them. You’ll have quite a time with him. You need to set up boundaries right away. I had a dickens of a time when Leta went to the zoo by herself.”
Ted paled.
Sabine laughed. “Gotcha.”
It took him a moment to figure out he’d been taken in. “You are a horrible person, Sabine.”
“Thank you, Ted, you’re horrible too.”
Tom watched as Ted introduced Sabine to Mike’s and Cid’s girlfriends. Sabine was a bit awkward in the exchange of small talk, but she was hanging in there.
“You should rescue her from Ted. He’ll have her talked out,” Mia said from behind him.
He turned around to see Mia and one of Sabine’s daughters. Both had red licorice hanging out of their mouths.
“Maisha Violet, this is Deputy Tom Braverman. He’s an officer of the law and my good friend. We went to school together.”
Tom watched as the child took all of this in calmly. She put her hand out, and Tom shook it. “Nice to meet you, Maisha,” Tom said.
The child smiled.
“Mia, she has old eyes,” Tom observed.
“I know. I don’t think Sabine or Tauni can see them. They are too close. Maisha,” Mia said, squatting down, “You are hiding your light under a bushel, aren’t you?”
The little girl nodded and put her finger to her lips and said, “Shhhhh.”
Ralph was pleased to see the willow painting hanging up over the fireplace. Bernard and he had been showing Tom’s dad around the farmhouse. He seemed particularly impressed with the two-story addition.
“I think Cid’s got a lot of talent,” Ralph said.
“Someone call my name?” Cid asked, carrying a few bags of ice.
“Ralph was just telling me that you designed and built the addition to the farmhouse,” Tom’s father explained.
“I had help,” Cid said. “If you’ll excuse me, I want to get this to the coolers before the beer gets cold.”
“We wouldn’t want that!” Bernard said, taking one of the bags and walking with the young man.
“I hear you had quite a time of it on your last investigation,” Bernard commented.
“Mia tell you?”
“Oh no, Ted.”
“He does like to talk,” Cid said. “Yes, I took quite a whack on the back of the head with a coal shovel.”
“Did you get it checked out?” Bernard asked.
“I had a CAT scan.”
“What did they find?”
Cid thought of Mia’s story about Father Peter when he replied, “It’s what they didn’t find that puzzles me.”
“Really? What wasn’t there?”
“No cats.”
~
Audrey scooted in between the running tots to get her potato salad safely to the banquet table. She placed the bowl on the table and turned around to see her fiancé make the same trip. But Matt managed to collect the little girls as he walked.
“We need a few dozen of these,” Matt said, putting Leta and Nura on the ground again to continue their game.
“Be careful what you wish for,” Tauni Cerise warned from the other side of the table. “Those two will run you ragged. Girls, off the robot,” she said, excusing herself to rescue the machine.
Mike, who was manning the grill, accepted the beer Mia and Maisha brought him. Mia put Maisha on the picnic table next to her, making sure she had one hand securely on the child.
“Your girlfriend is very nice,” Mia said to Mike. “I grilled her…”
Maisha put her hands to her mouth in alarm.
“No, honey, not on the barbecue. It’s an idiom, and Aunt Mia is an idiot.”
“I’ll drink to that. Hey, Mia, wasn’t this table over by the woodpile when we first came here?”
“Yes it was,” Mia confirmed.
“You see, Maisha, Mia and I have been friends for a long time. We didn’t start off so well, but we get along fine now.”
Maisha nodded as if she understood everything. Mia suspected that the child was a reincarnated sage, but time would tell.
Ted rescued Brian from the adoring hands of Susan Braverman, and even though the team colors had changed, he thought Brian looked quite manly in the Bears hoodie. He waved at his wife who was keeping Mike distracted while Murphy snuck up on the investigator.
Murphy took all of the meat off the grill and exchanged it with tiny firecrackers.
Mia made her excuses, and she and Maisha took off running.
POP POP CRACK POP CRACK CRACK POP!
Mike jumped three feet in the air. “Murphy!” Mike wanted to swear, but there were too many children around. He settled for “Pblssp!”
***
Alexie Aaron
After traveling the world, Alexie Aaron, a Midwestern native, returned to her roots where she’s been haunting for years. She now lives in a village outside of Chicago with her husband and family.
Her popular Haunted Series was born from her memories of fleeting shapes rushing around doorways, an heirloom chair that rocked itself, cold feelings of mysterious dread, and warm feelings from the traces of loved ones long gone.
Alexie also writes the Cin Fin-Lathen Mysteries. These cozies set in England and south Florida combine action and intrigue with a liberal dose of humor.
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