The Siege Read online

  Murphy turned his attention to Dave’s battle and smiled as the small investigator spun around, reaching out at the same time with the bar of iron, and decapitated his combatant. The head of the ghost flew over and landed in the salt sprayer. High pitched screams filled the countryside as the ghost withered. The body of the ghost ran towards the spreader. Murphy put out a leg, and the sightless body’s leg connected with his. The body tripped and flew past the head, skidding to a halt at the edge of the parking lot before disappearing.

  “Woo hoo!” Dave said in triumph. He walked over and kicked over the spreader to allow the bubbling mass of ghost the opportunity to soak into the ground. “I’m sorry, but I could not handle that sound anymore,” he explained to Murphy.

  “Are they gone?” a winded Burt asked.

  “My man, Burt!” Dave said, walking up to Burt and giving him a high five. “You are one nasty piece.”

  Burt stood there baffled.

  “It means good fighter,” Murphy’s voice said beside him. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. I don’t know what I did, but you’re welcome just the same,” Burt said, setting the end of the iron bar down and letting it lean against his body. “Can someone explain what just happened here?”

  “Dude, we were attacked. Well, Murphy was - I played normal for a while. Anyway, we were attacked by three large entities. If they were hurricanes, I’d give them a class five, four and one.”

  “What did they want?”

  “Me,” Murphy said.

  “Why?”

  “Ah, Murphy’s shrugging. Burt, he’s fading a bit. We better let him recharge. Come on, I’ve got to clean up this mess or Mia’s going to have my balls for her Christmas tree. You better get your car out of the barn before Ted sees it.”

  A wisp of mist moved upwards from the crack in the floor. It found resistance above it. It worked its way forward until it found a small hole. It once again moved upward, briefly comfortable in the strange place. “Lost, so lost…”

  Burt opened the door, sat down and backed out the car. He parked it where Dave had swept all the salt. The blacktop was wet with melting snow. He closed the door and walked into the barn to help Dave.

  The mist tried to leave the confines of the car but sensed a barrier below him. He wasn’t strong enough to move upward, not yet.

  ~

  Dave put the plate of food before Burt, saying, “Eat, you earned it.”

  Burt, never one for denying a home cooked meal, picked up the fork and dug in. Dave found the source of the plate’s contents in the refrigerator and began to make himself a plate to microwave. They sat down in silence while they ingested the meal. When they were done, Dave took the plates and began washing up.

  “I’d like to explain about quitting on you like I did,” Dave said over his shoulder. “I was frustrated, and you were being disrespectful, and I’m too full of myself, so I walked off.”

  “You walked off and took Murphy with you,” he reminded the boy. “But I can see my part in this. I think I have a problem. I came over to see if Mia could suss out whether or not I’m possessed.”

  Dave threw the dishtowel over his shoulder and looked at Burt. “Now, why would you think that?”

  “I have missing time.”

  “How long has that been going on?”

  “Honestly, years.”

  “And you’re just now thinking it’s a problem? Whoa, you bathe in Egypt don’t you?”

  “What?”

  “You’re in da Nile.”

  “Denial, thanks a lot, Dave.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Maggie barked, got up and ran to the front door.

  “I think someone’s home,” Dave said.

  Burt heard the front door opening and heard Mia greet the dog. She used a baby voice, Burt wasn’t sure he’d ever heard her use before.

  “You’re my good girl, yes, my good girl. Do we have company? Has Uncle Burt come to play with Maggie?”

  Maggie barked and danced. Her too-long nails clicked on the wood floor as she followed Mia into the kitchen.

  “Hello! Nice to see you. Hey, Dave. Nice job on salting the parking lot. The roads coming in here are icy. The temperatures aren’t holding the snow, and I fear it’s going to ice the county roads overnight.”

  “Cid’s going to have a time of it,” Dave said worried.

  “Ted’s recommended he stay in the city. Ralph’s overjoyed.”

  Dave giggled. “Better him than me. Ralph is the overlord of all moms.”

  “Burt, you’re welcome to stay.”

  “I call dibs on Cid’s place!” Dave shouted.

  “No, you’re already moved in. Burt, you don’t mind staying in Cid’s apartment?”

  Burt looked at Mia a moment, trying to figure out why she was so nice to him, considering. “Actually, I was planning on spending an all-nighter working on the tapes from the last haunt. Having a bed to crawl into upstairs would be wonderful.”

  Ted walked into the kitchen from the mud room. He looked at the people congregated there and took in the atmosphere. When Burt and Mia were together, it could get hostile quickly. Add Dave into the mix, and chaos could break out at any moment. But in front of him was peace and happiness. He hated to throw a spanner in the mix, but he needed a few answers. “Was I dreaming or are there tire marks in my workshop?” he asked, looking at Dave.

  “Those are mine,” Burt admitted. “And before you send us to our corners, Dad, let us explain what happened here.”

  Ted sat down and accepted the cup of coffee Dave poured for him. While he was adding in all of the extras, Mia pulled out the fixings for sandwiches. She knew that Cid left them food, but she quickly realized that Dave and Burt had consumed most of it.

  “Okay, regale us with your tale, young knights,” Ted said in his best Sean Connery.

  “Yes, do,” Mia agreed.

  Dave cleared his voice and spoke, “It all started with a flash of white…”

  Chapter Seven

  “How did you know that they were after Murphy?” Ted asked.

  “They had their heads in and out of the barn where he was at the time,” Dave answered. “Besides, they attacked him.”

  Mia looked at her husband a moment, not understanding where he was going with this. She spoke up, “Cid and I separately had an incident involving a very weak entity that rose out of a crack in the floor. Perhaps they were after it?”

  “It’s a possibility,” Burt said. “Dave and I are out of the loop. Would you mind enlightening us on your particular experience?”

  Mia acquiesced.

  “In your experience, was the entity addressing you or lamenting like they do?” Burt asked.

  “Cid has a recording of it, if you care to listen?” Mia offered. “He was smart enough to grab the parabolic dish and record his encounter. Me, I just got swept away.”

  “This entity, although it, as you say, was weak, it still managed to manifest twice in twenty-four hours,” Ted pointed out. “It seems desperate to communicate.”

  “I had hoped that we could get more information before we went looking for it,” Mia admitted. “But with the amount of snow falling out there, we may as well table it for now.”

  “Why?” David asked.

  “We need to look for disturbed ground. The snow puts this beautiful white blanket over everything. And when this first snow melts, it will probably make the ground muddy. I don’t know about you, but I’m in no condition to tramp through the mud.”

  “So what do we do in the meanwhile?” Dave asked, trying not to be a pest.

  “Gather information. Listen to it when it communicates. Maybe it would be kind enough to draw us a map,” Mia teased.

  “Let’s theorize for a moment,” Burt interjected. “If the three large and powerful ghosts are looking for the weak one, then he has to be pretty important if they were going to battle Murphy for him.”

  “Or we are barking up the wrong tree,” Ted said. “Mayb
e they are after Murphy, or Mia? Remember, the paranormal world is split up between light and darkness. Mia straddles the line. Imagine the boon to the ones that have her on their side.”

  “Thanks for the goose bumps, Teddy Scare,” Mia complained.

  “I think he gets the Bella Lugosi award for this discussion,” Burt joked.

  “But enough about ghosts, let’s talk about you,” Mia said. “We’re glad to have you here, but the question is why?”

  Burt looked at the faces before him and worried about being so vulnerable in front of the young sensitive. But if Dave was ever to mature as an investigator, he also had to know that there were consequences when you messed around with the paranormal world. “Mike and I were talking. He and probably all of you have seen changes in me. No doubt I’ve been the subject of a few discussions.”

  Mia and Ted looked guilty.

  “No, don’t feel bad. I’ve done a fair amount of tongue wagging myself. But, Mia, you’ve got to know, this isn’t me. Ted, you’ve been around me for a few more years than Mia.”

  “Yes, the man we’ve dealt with recently isn’t the guy that started PEEPs.”

  “You’ve had some traumas,” Mia offered. “It changes people.”

  “If that’s the case, then I’ll work it out with a professional. But what if something got inside me in the hollow or at Lucky’s? You didn’t know it when Judy took up residence in you, Mia, not until…”

  “I sprouted feathers,” she filled in.

  Burt took a deep breath. He let it out slowly to calm himself and then spoke, “I need you to walk the halls of my brain…”

  “Me? Surely Angelo or Gerald Shem would be better at it. I may damage you.”

  “I don’t trust anyone but you to do this,” Burt confessed. “We’ve had our problems, but I’ve never lost my trust in you, Mia. You can do anything.”

  “It’s too dangerous,” Ted stated. “She’s pregnant.”

  “I’ll wait until she isn’t. But it has to be Mia,” he pleaded.

  “No, I’m not sure any of us can deal with this new Burt. Let me make a few phone calls, and I’ll let you know, soon,” Mia promised.

  Burt blushed. It wasn’t the begging but the acceptance that unnerved him. He was, from all accounts, a beast to this woman, yet she, time after time, forgave him.

  “Okay, I better get on with my research. Dave, would you help me get the tapes out of the trunk?”

  “That’s code for letting the grownups talk,” Dave said, grabbing his coat off the hook at the back door. “Smell you later.”

  Ted drew Mia out of the kitchen and into the living room where a fire had been lit. He added a few logs to the fire before settling down next to her. “Mia, you don’t have to do this.”

  “It’s not dangerous, Ted. It’s difficult, but I’ll be fine.”

  “It’s dangerous because you’re going to be walking the memory halls of your former lover. You still love him. It hurt both of you when you broke up. I guess I’m afraid more for me than for you,” Ted admitted.

  Mia reached out and stroked Ted’s face with her hand. “If I loved him, it wasn’t the love, Ted. The Cooper curse didn’t attach me to him or to Whit either. It attached me to you. Come on, where’s the confident guy who was brave enough to speak his mind over and over? You told me that I was in love with you, that I couldn’t do any better than you. Where’s that guy?”

  Ted tried not to smile. He sucked in his lips but to no avail. “You really love me don’t you? It’s no trick of Angelo’s or Judge Roumain’s, is it?”

  “It’s what I’ve told you over and over again. I can’t get anyone better than you. So stop trying to pass me off on every evil genius that comes along. I’m yours, and you’re stuck with me.”

  “Evil geniuses make a lot of money,” Ted reminded her, lifting an eyebrow.

  Mia played along and pretended to think about it for a moment. “Well… Can I have you and the evil genius?”

  “No, you have to choose. Remember, I’m very handsome, smart and can sleep through your snoring.”

  “I snore? How would you know if you say you sleep through it?” Mia asked suspiciously.

  “You snore. Choose.”

  “I choose you!” Mia pulled Ted into her arms. They hugged until junior kicked Mia.

  “Ouch, I felt that!” Ted said, rubbing his ribs.

  “That’s just your kid kicking some sense into his moronic father.”

  “You mean Byronic,” Ted said, pulling an auburn curl out from under his baseball cap.

  This gave Mia a case of the giggles.

  “You’re not taking me seriously, Minnie Mouse,” Ted complained. “Now go and make your phone calls. I’ll be listening in on the extension.”

  “So, I only have the illusion of privacy?”

  “Yes. Do you want me to stand over you while you call?”

  “Oh no. You can listen in. Where’s the trust?” she lamented as she walked into the kitchen and picked up a pad of paper and a pencil. “I’ll start with Gerald, Angelo’s long distance,” she called out, and instead of picking up the landline, she pulled out her cellphone, mumbling, “That’ll fix him.”

  Chapter Eight

  “Yes, but have Ted put you on the heart monitor just in case. Call me if there’s a problem. I will,” Gerald said and put down the phone. He walked out of his office down the secret hall and into his treasure chamber. Beverly Cooper was stretched out on the sofa thumbing through brochures.

  “You were gone a long time. Business?”

  “Yes and personal. Of course, everything is business to me.”

  “I’m not buying that,” Bev told him. “Okay, if it’s personal, then I want to know what has put that twinkle in your eye,” she demanded.

  “Mia called me.”

  “That minx. Are you her new man of the investigation?”

  Gerald stared at Beverly. “That was unkind. And you have no business talking. Mia is loyal to Ted.”

  “I know, poor kid.”

  “I wish I knew which is the poor kid you’re referring to?”

  “I’ll never tell.”

  “You’re a piece of work, Beverly. I’m of a mind not to tell you…”

  “Okay, okay, I’m sorry. It’s just that she has so much promise. She should have played the field before the curse got her.”

  “She did.”

  “Two men, a ghost and a birdman is not playing the field,” Bev said stubbornly.

  “Mia didn’t have relations with Stephen Murphy or Angelo Michaels.”

  “That we know of. Still, she could have done better, don’t you think?”

  “Honestly, no.”

  “Really?”

  “Ted’s worth a hundred Angelos,” he stated.

  “Angelo is your best friend.”

  “No. You are.”

  Beverly was visibly stunned. “Then I’m sorry for you, poor kid.”

  Gerald decided to ignore her and started talking, “Mia asked me for information on walking the halls of the mind.”

  “She can already do that.”

  “But she hasn’t ever been in the hidden corridors of suppressed memories.”

  “Neither have I, for good reason. Gerald, I hope you dissuaded her.”

  “I tried, but she has a very good reason for doing so. You see, a friend of hers has been through a few paranormal traumas and is suffering from personality changes and blackouts.”

  “Sounds like a shrink should be dealing with the friend.”

  “This will happen if she doesn’t find another reason.”

  “Do you think another Gray Lady has escaped?” Bev asked with interest.

  “No, but it could be a flitch.”

  “A side of bacon?”

  “No.”

  “Wait, flitch has something to do with wood…”

  “Yes, but that’s not the flitch I’m talking about. He walked over to his bookcase and pulled out a small green book.

  The Celtic symb
ols on the outside gave Bev an idea of the origin, but still flitch escaped her.

  Gerald found the page and started to hand the book to Bev but stopped and asked, “Do you read Pictish?”

  “No.”

  He took the book back and paraphrased what he found. “There is a parasite that attaches to those that dwell in the dark. It hides in the mind and changes behavior. Eventually, this flitch will take over the host.”

  “Mia is going to walk the suppressed memories of a dark world entity? You have to stop her!” Bev got to her feet and pulled on Gerald’s arm. “She’s pregnant. She shouldn’t be near a dark world denizen!”

  “Calm down, Beverly, Mia’s not going to be dealing with a dark world denizen. She’s going to be walking Burt Hicks’s mind.”

  “How the hell did he get a flitch?” She stopped talking and tapped the side of her head thinking. “The hollow. That Steele, he could have had a flitch or a dozen attached to his rotten soul.”

  “You and I are of one mind.”

  “How does Mia know about flitches?”

  “She doesn’t. I think she thinks she’ll find a demon.”

  “She could, a small one. Maybe, what’s-his-name or you-know-who. If she does, Father Santos will have to be involved, and he’ll insist on Angelo.”

  “As it should be, and I told her that. But I also gave her information on how to deal with a flitch or a demon. She now owes me three favors.”

  “You son-of-a-bitch, this is the business you talked about.”

  “I’m going to trade all three favors in for…”

  “Yes?” Bev asked.

  “I’ll save them. I haven’t decided.”

  “You can’t take her firstborn.”

  “I’m not fucking Rumpelstiltskin! Beverly, how could you… Oh, you’re teasing me.”

  Bev laughed. She was pleased that she finally got the best of Gerald Shem. “I hope she doesn’t get bogged down. I don’t want her to miss my holiday party.”

  “You asked a seven months pregnant woman to fly to a mountain resort in December for a party?”

  “Yes, and she said no.”

  “But you just said you didn’t want her to miss your party.”