NOLA (7 page)

“Don’t worry, as long as you respect the practitioner, you’ll do fine,” Candy said and winked at her.

Mia thought about asking her about Alexei but felt somehow this would be breaking a trust, so she kept quiet.  She did, however, ask, “Honor seems upset about the shift in spirit activity here. Are you worried too?”

“Mia, after we finish tomorrow, you and Ralph need to come with me, and I’ll show you why we are upset.  I think the old adage ‘seeing is believing’ will help you to understand our dilemma.”

“I’ll plan on it.  Ralph, however, will decide for himself.  He’s not really my assistant.  He’s my overprotective godfather.”

Candy nodded.  “Oh, I know.  He is an easy one to read, Mia.  But thank you for being honest with me.  You honor me.”

“Did you read his mind?”

“Yes.  I also must warn you there are others that read minds in this bunch.”

“Wanda?”

“She and Monique.  Monique is a Satanist.”

“Well there goes my Hollywood mind again.  That soft-spoken grandmother is a Satanist?  I would have never cast her as one.”

“She’s a great grandmother, little bird.”

Mia frowned.

“Is there a problem?  I assure you, Monique isn’t dangerous.”

“No.  It’s not Monique. It’s that you call me
little bird.
It’s kind of a sore spot with me.  Why did that endearment come to mind?” Mia asked.

“Mia Martin, you are a little bird or were or will be.  The mark of the birdmen is upon you.”

“Not by my choice,” Mia told her.

“No, but it’s still there.  You can and have used the power that was left there when the gray bird left you.”

“It’s not my intention to take anything from that order,” Mia insisted.

“Honey, is
honey
okay?”

Mia nodded.  She was used to tall people thinking she was a sweet little thing.  Honey was better than little bird.

“Honey, use the power.  It won’t bind you to them.  It is a gift.  As is Judge Roumain’s interest.  He, like your Ralph, protects you.  We strong women aren’t lessened because male entities want to protect us.  They need protecting too.  The judge may need you someday.  Don’t reject his help now,” she counseled.

Mia could see that the woman was adamant about Mia accepting the magical world around her.  She didn’t want to have an argument, so she simply nodded.

This seemed to satisfy the older woman.  She asked Mia to open her hand.  “I hear that you don’t like spiders, so I’ll give you this.”  Candy place a carved image of a snake in her hand and explained, “This snake is called Weebee, and Weebee eats spiders.  Just squeeze the charm, and Weebee will come and eat that nasty spider, or anything else that tries to eat you.”

“Thank you.  I wish I could give you something in return,” Mia said.

“Perhaps you will help me in the near future.  There could be a battle ahead.  I would like you to have my back.”

“I’ll be there,” Mia promised.

The door opened, and Ralph appeared with Yum-Yum and Monique on each arm.  “Mia, these wonderful women have made my night.  Becky has told me about a cream to battle these laugh lines of mine, and Monique has a recipe that will diminish my gout.”

“I didn’t know you had gout,” Mia admitted.

“Oh yes, one of the many burdens of growing old…”

“And drinking too much wine,” Mia added.  “Are you ready to leave?  I’d like to call Ted before it gets too late,” she said as she texted George that she was ready to depart.

“Ladies, if you will excuse me.  I hope to see you tomorrow,” Ralph said graciously.

Mia and Ralph moved down the long front walk, and by the time the gate was opened, George had pulled the sedan up.  Mia and Ralph got in, and as they drove away, their last view of Honor’s home was the three witches standing arm-in-arm.

Chapter Four

Ted had insisted that Mia video call so that he and Brian could see her when she talked.  Mia ran her hand through her hair before placing the call.  She put the phone on speaker and leaned it against the alarm clock so she could see them and they could see her.

“You’ve reached Ted and Brian’s video chat room,” Ted said before his image moved into focus.  He was wearing a Chiefs hat on backwards and held up a sleepy Brian who had a smaller, softer version of the hat on his head, backwards too.  “There’s your mommy!” Ted said and picked up the infant’s hand and waved it, voicing for Brian, “Hello, Mommy.”

“Hello, boys.  I miss you two so much!”

Ted looked at Mia’s image on the large monitor and felt his heart beat faster.  She was unused to using the smartphone for self-videos and unaware that her chest was the predominate feature on the screen.  He touched his nose and shook his head.  He bet that his nose was humongous.  Although, he suspected that Mia was looking past his schnozzola to Brian, who had opened his eyes really wide and was saying, “Ah am ah am.”

“He’s really talking up a storm now,” Mia observed.  “I’ve only been gone a day, and he’s already talking.”

“Minnie Mouse, I hate to burst your bubble, but he makes the same sound when he’s filling his diaper.”

Mia watched as Ted lifted the boy up and smelled his behind.  He put him back down, leaning him against his chest.  “False alarm, he must have been just talking about pooping.”

Mia laughed.

“Where are you?” she asked, not being able to pinpoint the background behind Ted and Brian.

“At the computer,” Ted said.

“Which computer?”

“The one in the command truck.”

Mia looked at the time and then back at Ted who seemed to be sweating.

“You took our son into the command truck, why?”

“Because leaving him in the van would have been irresponsible.”

Ted winced as Mia’s brows furrowed.  She leaned into the phone and wiggled her fingers in a come here motion.

Ted leaned in and smiled weakly.

“Theodore Martin, you have five seconds to tell me why you took our three-month-old, premature child on a ghost hunt.”

“I made sure he’s in a climate-controlled, ghost-proof environment.”

“That’s not an answer,” Mia said, her voice dropping into you-better-tell-me-the-truth-or-else mode.

“I couldn’t leave him with anyone.  Yes, they were all available, but I wouldn’t be able to concentrate because I would be thinking, what’s Brian doing and stuff.”

Mia looked at her contrite husband, and hard as she tried, she couldn’t get angry at him.  Hell, if she could have gotten it by Gerald, she would have had Brian in a front pack while she crossed over the lost.

“Is Burt okay with this?” she asked.

“He wasn’t pleased but said we could try it out.  So far, Brian has behaved himself.  I’ll take him home if you insist, but I’d really like for us to get through the investigation together.  Please let him stay.”

“Okay, but don’t keep him up too late.”

Ted was flabbergasted.  “Mighty Mouse, I didn’t think you’d be so, so, reasonable.”

He saw her roll her eyes and shake her head.

“I’m always reasonable, except when I’m not, but then I’m still reasonable,” she said with a wry look on her face.

“Thank you, so much,” Ted gushed.

“Where’s the hunt at?” Mia asked.

Ted proceeded to tell her the particulars.  “I was certain that we could debunk all the librarian’s claims, but then she and Cid found a head in a stack of books.”

“A head?”

Ted told her the tale, embellishing where needed.

Mia watched him talk along with Brian who had become interested in the underside of Ted’s chin.  He finished his tale and asked about her day.  She gave him a concise picture of the trip there until Ralph arrived.

“Ralph’s there?” he asked to make sure he heard her correctly.

“Oh yes, he came in with a rolling rack full of clothes.  I’m wearing one of the dresses,” she said, moving back so he could see more of her.

“Something else arrived with Ralph,” Mia said.

Ted could see the concern on her face, so he settled in and let Mia tell her story in her own time.

“I think I’m going to try to seek out this so-called host tomorrow morning.  Since Ralph is insisting on going, it will be late morning.  He really enjoyed himself at dinner this evening.”

“The ghost hunter part of me is really jelly at your opportunity to meet the Grand Duke.  However, the husband part of me wishes you wouldn’t.”

“I’m not thrilled about doing this either, but I can’t get over the feeling that Alexei is real and needs my help.”

Mia saw Ted hit the keys and look over to the right for a moment.  He read something off the small monitor and turned back to her.  “Mia, Alexei Alexandrovich was quite a womanizer in his day.  Make sure Ralph is glued to you at all times.  And that’s not a suggestion but an order.”

Mia saw Brian look up at Ted and then straight at her and wobble his head.

“He can’t possibly understand this,” she said to herself.  To Ted, she said, “Ralph will be a wart on my elbow, Teddy Bear.”

“How did the meeting with the sensitives go?”

“Sensitive isn’t a word that I’d use in describing their actions.”  Mia related the activities and the political posturing to Ted, who was very much amused by all of this.  She concluded with the conversation with the Voodoo priestess, omitting the mention of the birdmen.

“Her name is Candy Kane, and she’s a Voodoo priestess?” Ted asked to be sure he heard her correctly, his fingers flying as he searched out this Candy Kane on the internet.

“Yes, but we can’t help what our mothers name us, can we?” Mia said.  “Oh, I see Brian is falling asleep.  I’ll let you lay him down.  Be careful, and say hello to the PEEPs for me.  And yes, you can tell them all about it.  Bye Bye, Martin men.”

Ted watched Mia blow a kiss to him and then in the direction of Brian before ending the video call.  He picked up Brian, turned him around, and sure enough, the little chap could hardly keep his eyes open.  Ted moved him to the makeshift crib and covered him up.  He walked back just in time to catch Marvin the Martian’s dance with a python around his neck.  In Jake’s version, the little spaceman was choked to death.

“Thanks a lot for calming my fears, dude,” Ted snarled.

“Ted, we’re going to investigate the basement stacks again, over,” Burt reported, his voice coming over the small speakers.  Ted quickly transferred the audio to his headset.  He looked over at Brian and was happy to see that Burt hadn’t woken the baby.

“I’ll watch the other feeds, over,” Ted said and brought up the feeds on the monitor Mia had just vacated.  He settled into techie mode, pushing deep the concern he’d had the moment Mia mentioned Alexei.

~

Ted’s eyes moved back and forth, taking in the six cameras while watching the team move down the aisle of the basement stack, concentrating on where the center aisle would have been.  Mike and Audrey pulled out books to make sure the Melville-seeking ghost hadn’t gotten stuck again.

The library had no activity in the public areas.  A loud thump sounded now and again, but Ted couldn’t see where the sound was coming from.  He turned on his mic and said, “Burt, there’s a loud thumping coming from the upper floor. Do you hear it down there? over.”

“I did hear a soft thump when we were in the north end of the building.  I’ll send Cid to check it out, over.”

“Have him turn one of the cameras to face the checkout desk, over.”

“Will do, over and out.”

Ted wasn’t used to the old Burt yet.  The flitch did leave some corruption which caused Burt to be a bit erratic at times, but for the most part, Burt Hicks pre- Cold Creek Hollow was back on the job.  Ted tried hard to push away the fact that Mia and Burt may not have broken up if the flitch hadn’t infected and affected Burt.  Ted’s insecurities were hard to control sometimes.  They didn’t come to the surface and interfere with his working relationship, but they did fester from time to time when he was alone.

Mia didn’t act any different, but Burt sure did.  He was kind to Ted’s wife, and the two of them laughed a lot together.  Mike, who had grown used to being protective of Mia when she and Burt were together on a hunt, had eased his watch.  The only one that seemed bothered by the new/old Burt was Audrey.  Ted caught her looking at him oddly time and time again.

The movement of a camera pulled Ted out of his thoughts.  He switched over to Cid and whispered, “More to your right. Yes, that’s perfect, over.”

The camera picked up a faint distortion at the main counter of the checkout desk.  A
thump swish thump
was caught on the camera’s digital sound recorder.

“Cid, do you hear anything with your super hearing?” Ted hissed.

“Sounds like either a peg-legged pirate, or… Dude, I’m going to shift the focus to infrared.”

Cid did so, and both of them let a
whoa
escape as the thermal picture showed an entity of some kind picking up something invisible and bringing a hand holding something else Ted couldn’t make out down on…  “It’s a book,” Ted said.  “It’s an echo of a librarian stamping dates into books. Return dates maybe?”

“Are you sure it’s an echo?” Cid said, inching nearer the desk.

“Try talking loudly,” Ted instructed.

“Let’s have a party!” Cid yelled.

Ted winced.  “I said loud not yell.  My ears, dude, my ears.”

“Sorry.  Did the librarian move?”

“No, still stamping books.  One thump for the stamp in the ink pad.  The book is opened, and then another stamp in the book.  Thump swish thump and repeat, over.”

“Cool beans,” Cid said.  He stopped his progression and turned around.  “Ted, there’s another sound coming from reference. I’m going to investigate.”

Ted watched as the ghost hunter moved out of frame.

Brian burbled and let out a little cry.  Ted moved swiftly to his side, extracted him from the crib and brought him back to the console in one fluid moment.  Brian sniffed and yawned.  He started to go through his vowel sounds, happy to be on his daddy’s lap once again.  Ted scanned the feeds.  He had the computer set so each one of the six feeds, in turn, would enlarge for a moment on the large monitor.