The Siege (13 page)

Burt looked at Mia and asked, “Why?”

Mia gazed at Burt then at Ted, taking in his glare, and back to Burt, and explained, “Ted’s allergic to grapefruit.”

~

“Tomorrow then,” Gerald said and hung up the phone.  He was ecstatic.  Mia and Ted had caught a flitch.  Mia admitted that they may have killed it.  Did he still want it?  He replied that he would take it dead or alive.  He added that he would send his driver over to pick it up.  Mia discouraged any travel tonight because of the roads.  Tomorrow would be soon enough.

“How was it?” he had asked her.

“The flitch?”

“No, how was it traipsing through Burt’s mind?” he clarified.

“Illuminating.  It’s not what you think.  I think of my mind as a house with windows and doors.  Burt’s is actually a rabbit warren full of tunnels, twisting passages and pits.  I heard swirling water somewhere.  It’s a world within a world,” she reported.

“Each of us may have similar structure to our physical brains,” Gerald told her.  “But our mind is our own doing.  If a child is told that they have no worth, no future and no thoughts to call their own, then their minds are small and inflexible.  But if you encourage imagination, then you have many worlds to fill with thoughts and memories.”

“Burt has a large open mind,” Mia said.

“Remember that when you think he won’t appreciate a suggestion,” Gerald suggested.

“Thank you, Gerald, I will.”

Mia didn’t ask how the extraction of a flitch would change Burt.  Gerald didn’t ask how Burt was doing either.  Between the two of them there was a tacit agreement to wait and see for themselves.

~

Dave had finished shoveling the snow off the walks. He decided to make sure that the vehicles’ doors and locks hadn’t iced up.  He opened and closed the truck’s doors and moved over to Burt’s car.  He opened the door and noticed that the overhead light didn’t go on.  He shut the door, making note to warn Burt that that his battery was probably dead.  They would handle charging it in the morning.  Right now, all Dave had on his mind was that large bowl of popcorn Mia was pouring melted butter over and the movie they had cued up, waiting for him to join them.

He stowed the shovel by the back door of the farmhouse.  He kicked the snow and salt off his boots before opening the door.  Dave stopped for a moment, irritated by a feeling of being watched.  It was probably Murphy, he reasoned.   He pushed the feeling away and entered the house.

Chapter Ten

Deputy Tom Braverman was surprised to see an envelope postmarked from Utah lying on his desk. He lifted it and smiled.  It had the weight of a Holiday card instead of another credit card opportunity.  He ran his finger under the flap and ripped open the top.  He gently extracted the card, and when he opened it, a business card fell into his lap.  He ignored the business card for a moment; his attention was taken by the cover of the holiday card.  In front of a Christmas tree, there stood the three spirits from Dickens’s
A
Christmas Carol
. One was pocketing an ornament, another had stepped on and had crushed a present, while the last one was smiling as it waved a turkey leg in the air.  The tree was decorated with Marley’s chains.  Tom opened the card and read:

Having a problem with Spirits this year?  Call Tonia Toh and Lorna Grainger.

Tom picked up the business card and looked at it.  “Cheeky,” he said aloud.

“I beg your pardon,” Sheriff John Ryan asked.  “Are you talking to me, son?”

“No sir,” Tom said blushing.  “I received this and thought how presumptuous it was, but at the same time, I feel compelled to keep the business card.  He handed the sheriff the holiday card.

John looked at the front and read the interior and laughed.  “I think cheeky was a good call.  Keep that card.  Who knows, we may need it.  Do you mind if I take this home to show the wife?”

“Sure, go ahead,” Tom said.  “I’d like it back to show the folks.  My mother is convinced I don’t meet the right kind of people on this job.”

“This will prove it,” Ryan said over his shoulder as he went into his office.

Tom logged on to his computer to file a report.  Chuck, one of the Stanley Brothers, had called in to notify them that his elder brother Kevin had seen someone lurking around the AT&T cell tower over off Route 109.  He didn’t get a good look at them as he was plowing the road at the time.  Route 109 was full of dips and curves.  If you took your attention away for a second, you’d find yourself axel deep in Big Bear Marsh.  It was a bad place for building homes, but the cell tower didn’t need prime real estate; it just needed a proper foundation under the base.

Tom had driven out there but was prevented from getting too close as the icy water of the marsh filled his boots before he’d gotten yards in.  He almost lost a boot as the still unfrozen muck pulled at his feet with every step.  Instead, he stood on top of his cruiser and looked at the area with his binoculars.  The snow from last evening lay undisturbed around the tower.  If there had been someone at the tower, they hadn’t stayed very long.  He typed his observations in and hit enter.

He walked over to dispatch and asked that whoever was assigned to patrol that section of 109 today keep an eye on the tower.  With that completed, Tom was off duty.  He had the rest of the day and half day tomorrow to himself.

~

Cid returned back to a cleared drive.  He waved at Dave who was lugging a car battery across the lot.  Burt’s car hood was open.  Perhaps the investigator left his lights on last night?  He made sure that his weren’t in a similar state before he pulled his key and exited his vehicle.

He followed Dave into the barn.  He was tempted to run upstairs and change out of the clothes Ralph lent him, but he remembered Mia had sublet his room to Burt.  He walked into the office instead.  Burt sat with his feet up on the conference table, having a laugh about something Ted had just said.

“Sounds like a jolly morning.  Mind if I use my room?” Cid asked Burt.

“Please, and thank you for the loan.  I was in no shape to drive last night.  I took the liberty to change your sheets.  Mine are in the washer along with the towels I used.”

Cid nodded.  He heard what a good guest Burt was from Mia and Mike, but somehow he didn’t expect the man to do his laundry too.  “Having battery problems?”

“Darnedest thing, I couldn’t start the beast this morning.  My lights weren’t on.  It could be the cold.  The car is used to Mia’s dry warm garage.”

Cid was glad Mike wasn’t around.  He could turn anything into an inappropriate innuendo and Burt’s phrase, “Mia’s dry warm garage,” was tailor made for innuendo.  The fact that he thought of that himself made him blush.  Hanging around Mike Dupree with his sexist comments had a bad habit of rubbing off on Cid.

“The boy has the most interesting war going on in his head,” Ted commented.  “Cid, what are you thinking about?  Was staying with Ralph and Bernard too stressful or is it the factory job?”

Cid shook himself.  “Ralph is a challenge, especially when he wants to play dress up.  No wonder Mia hates to shop with him.  But he and Bernard were more than accommodating.  I had a hot meal and a warm place to sleep.  Who could complain about that?  Audrey’s factory has a few structural problems.  I’m going to type up a report and email it over to her.  I still have a few out buildings to check.  I was going to see if Dave was interested in making some spare change and going with me.”

“Change that into dollars and I’m in,” Dave said from the doorway.  “Burt, I’ve got bad news for you.  The walls of the battery have collapsed.  You’re not going to get any more mileage out of that one.”

Ted reached in his pocket and tossed Burt the keys to the PEEPs van.  “Take it, and go and get yourself a new one.”

“Sounds like I have no other choice.  I was just trying to get the beast through this winter, and then I was going to buy a new car.”

Cid and Dave stopped what they were doing and turned around and stared at Burt.

“What?”

“Sorry, but, dude, I thought your pockets were sewn shut,” Dave admitted.

Burt set his jaw.

“For your information, brat, Burt puts all his money into PEEPs,” Mia said from the open door of the workshop.  “He fed you while you were staying with him and did not ask for a cent back.  If I were you, Mr. Charity case, I’d keep my mouth shut.”

Dave turned red and narrowed his eyes.  Mia returned the look and added a layer of permafrost to hers.  Dave backed down.

“Burt, if you’re going out, would you mind if I hitched a ride?  I’ve got some things I need to pick up,” Mia said vaguely.

Burt stood up, walked over and grabbed his coat.  “Give me a minute to warm up the van,” he said and opened the office door to the outside and left quickly.

Dave started to open his mouth, and Mia moved quickly and took ahold of his chin.  “Whatever smart mouth comment you’ve got on your tongue, swallow it.”  She turned and said sweetly, “Teddy Bear, is there anything I could pick up for you?”

“We’re out of Dr. Peppers.”

“Got it on my list.  Cid?”

Cid was almost afraid to speak but managed to squeak out, “Eggs.”

Mia grabbed a pen off the long workstation top and added it to a crumpled piece of paper.  “You guys can feed yourselves lunch, can’t you?”

The three nodded silently.

“Good because I owe Burt a meal out.  Later,” she said, leaving the office to where Burt had pulled up the van.  He got out and helped her inside.

Ted wasn’t sure what just happened, but he would see how this all resolved later.  Right now, he had a list of things to see to.

“Why is she so hard on me?” Dave complained.

“It’s because she sees promise in you.  She wants more for you than she got,” Cid answered.

“She’s not my mom,” Dave said stubbornly.

“No, but she’s your friend.  I wouldn’t want to be her enemy,” Cid said wisely.  “Now hit the head, grab a pair of work boots and meet me at my car.  I’m leaving in fifteen minutes.”

Dave left the room, moving a bit quicker than he normally would have.

“So did I enter Bizarro World or did I imagine Mia defend Burt and him take it graciously?”

“You can trust your eyes and ears, Superman,” Ted said.  “Mia spent some time in Burt’s head last night and has a whole new viewpoint on our illustrious leader.”

“I have a feeling this is a long story, and I’ve really got to run.  Save it, and we’ll discuss this when I get back.”

“You’re still taking Dave even though he’s an asshole?”

“I’ve worked with worse.  It will do him good.  I have a feeling the whole drive there will be full of whining.”

“Oh, I bet on the way back too,” Ted said, taking a five dollar bill out of his wallet and laying it on the table.

“Save your money, that’s a bet I’m bound to lose,” Cid said.  He left the office by way of the barn.

Ted heard the pounding of his footsteps as he rushed upstairs to change.

“Well, Jake, my wife’s going to lunch with her former lover who happens to also be my boss.  If you were to jump the line and sit in her phone and listen, I wouldn’t be offended.”

Jake didn’t answer.

Ted typed furiously, looking for the machine ghost and, after a while, figured out that Jake had already done so.

~

“You didn’t have to do that,” Burt said as they pulled out onto the highway.

“Do what?”

“The kid didn’t mean anything.”

“He did, and I’ve had enough of his lip.”

“You’re too hard on him.”

“Cid’s tried to be nice, you’ve been tolerant, Ted’s been great, and still Dave treats everyone like shit.”

“If I remember, you were a pretty tough nut when we first met.”

“But I didn’t treat people badly.  It’s not the world’s fault that we’ve been given this gift.  I’m trying to get him to accept it and learn to work around it and, if possible, use it to his advantage.”

“You’re going to make a good mom,” Burt said.

“No, I’m not. I have no idea what I’m doing.  Hopefully, Ted will be able to parent for the both of us,” Mia said worried.

“Mia, Amanda isn’t you, nor are you Charles for that matter.  You have been mothering me since we met.  No matter the crap I threw at you, you found a way to work with me.  Give Dave a little Burt treatment.”

“I’m not sleeping with him.”

Burt almost drove off the road.  “Oh my god, you are horrible.”

Mia laughed.

“You’ve become as bad as Mike.”

“He’s a hell of a role model,” Mia admitted.  “He’s changed a lot since we began.  I think I’ve witnessed quite an evolution.  At first I thought you were getting bad to balance him becoming more understanding.  I certainly called that one wrong.”

“Well, who knew I had worms?”

Mia giggled.  “You had
a
- that’s one, mister - parasite and not worms.”

“Ted said it looked like a black worm.”

“It looked like Morris Steele to me in the beginning and like you at the end.”

“Handsome devil.”

“Oh yes.  I really hated to kill it.  I think it’s dead.  If not, it’s in Gerald’s hands by now.  The driver showed up at the crack of dawn this morning.  How do you feel today?”

“Not bad, a bit like I had a tooth extracted and the pain reliever isn’t quite doing its job.”

“I’ve been there.  When I hid Murphy in my mind, I swear he left wood shavings all over the place.”

“You know this is so odd, you and I talking about things walking around in our minds.  Think about it.  Not the physical brain but the abstract mind.”

“Your mind is full of ideas, good ideas,” Mia commented.  “I want to talk to you about one of them later, after we buy you a battery.”

“I can afford my own battery, Mia.”

“Yes, but do you know which one to buy for the beast?”

“No.”

“Aren’t you glad I hitched a ride?”

“I dunno.  Are you going to hold this over me?”

“Oh yes.  Nothing short of public declaration about your lack of automotive knowledge is going to satisfy me,” Mia teased.