Hacienda Moon (The Path Seekers) (6 page)

* * *

“How many months has it been since you last had sex?” Frieda asked Tandie while taking a drink. She nearly spit out her Bahama Mama as she glanced around the club full of people, thankful they sat in a place where a rock band was playing.  “It’s okay to say: ‘Frieda I haven’t had sex in ages. Jack was a royal bastard who made me feel like the ice queen. So I never wanted any.’ “Frieda took another swallow of her drink.

Even Tandie had to laugh, even though she was glad to be the designated driver. “Must we talk about something like that in a club?”

“Like that? Do you mean to say sex? Let me hear you say it?” Frieda teased.

Tandie rolled her eyes upward. “You know what I meant.”

“If we weren’t in a club, you would still clam up. Mental note to me: Must take my bestie out more often before she forgets how to have any kind of fun at all. Deal?”

“All right, deal. Anything to keep you quiet.” Tandie glanced around, taking in the club scene. She hadn’t been anywhere near a dance floor like this one in almost six years. Getting involved with someone hadn’t even crossed her mind, especially while she still grieved for Breena. In the presence of a cute guy, she either stuttered or dropped her tampons at his feet. But her best friend had a point. At some point maybe she’d start to believe the little voice that wanted her to believe she deserved to be happy again.

“Frieda Tyson. You made it,” a dark-haired woman with a braid sweeping her waistline announced. A gangly man stood behind her, scoffing. Dressed in an apron, he was the thinnest male Tandie had ever seen. Spiky brown hair gave him a rock star look and the thick-rimmed glasses he wore reminded her of a movie she couldn’t quite finger.

Frieda stood, embraced the woman, and stepped back to admire the huge diamond on her left hand. “Whoa! You must’ve really whipped it on him, Shania.”

“It was those tips and pointers you gave me. Now I know why you’re such a good therapist.” The two women exchanged laughs, while the gangly man standing behind them shook his head and sighed.

“Excuse, me,” he said to Tandie and Frieda, “Shania, can you tell me where to sit this box of glasses. It feels like I’m holding an elephant.”

“Gus, my fearless multi-tasker. Meet my co-worker, Frieda, and her sidekick I haven’t met,” Shania said. Her voice was light and her carefree attitude made Tandie want to know more about her. Frieda turned to Tandie. “This is my good girlfriend, Tandie Harrison. She recently moved back here. Keep an eye on this chick, Shania. She intends to be a bestselling author.”

“Ah yes. I’ve read one of your non-fiction pieces. I especially enjoyed the one where you explain how you channel psychic energy. Excellent piece of literature,” Shania said and turned to Gus. “Put those over behind the wet bar. Those are for the Geisha celebration next week.”

“It’s about time,” he muttered and turned to Tandie and Frieda, “Nice meeting you ladies. Try not to be strangers.” His eyes were locked on Tandie, making her feel uneasy.

“Thanks,” Tandie said. Gus nodded and moved on toward the bar.

Tandie’s gaze drifted off to the right side of Shania. The man sitting at the bar, the same man she’d run into at the airport over a week ago, had his gaze locked on her. Tandie looked away, pretending not to notice him. But each time she glanced back in his direction he was still watching. Her breath hitched, and her pulse increased. It was the same feeling she experienced before when she last saw him.

Hugging her shoulders, she suddenly had the urge to leave the area. Frieda and Shania were engrossed in their own conversation, so Tandie had no problem slipping away.

She had wanted to investigate the rooftop dining area ever since they arrived. She headed up the steps leading to the balcony, taking in a quick breath when the cool nighttime wind bit into the top Frieda made her wear. A July night at the beach sometimes packed the same ice-cold punch as a September one. There were fewer people sitting at the tables.

Leaning on the rail facing the ocean, she took in the black view and listened to the waves sloshing against shores invisible in the nighttime hours. Something sailed across the waters. At first glance it resembled a cruise ship sailing along fully lit. Tandie moved over to the telescope attached to the rail and glanced at the figure. Inside the lens, the form changed. It was more like a blurry silhouette of a ship. Straining to focus on it, Tandie stretched her eyes until they felt dry. And then like magic, the strange vessel disappeared completely from view. No lights, blurry outlines, no nothing. “Whoa. Too much Bahama Mama tonight, I think.”

“Nope. It’s not your wine. Not that you’d be the type to get drunk,” a woman’s deeply accented voice said from behind her. The woman dressed in a red shirt and black jeans was pretty in a gothic kind of way. Her dark red lips blended in with her deep auburn tresses; but her eyes lined with mascara reminded Tandie of a burglar. “There’s really a ship out there, but only certain ones of us can see it. Creepy isn’t it?”

The woman studied the ocean, lost in her thoughts. Tandie always attracted strangers who would suddenly start spilling all their secrets. It had been that way for her ever since she was a little girl. But this woman along with the disappearing ship she had just seen succeeded in making her jittery. The chill in the air increased and the thin cottony blouse she wore did a lousy job of blocking any wind.

“Wow. It’s really cold up here. I’m heading back inside.”

“Don’t you wanna know why you can see it?” the woman asked.

An invisible force stopped Tandie in her tracks. There was no way this woman could be talking about the ship she just saw. “Not really, I’m good,” Tandie answered truthfully, turning to study her face.

“We can see it because I’m touched by death. And you…” she turned and narrowed her eyes at Tandie. “You got the witches mark. I can smell dark magic on somebody all the way from my house.”

Feeling a bit anxious, Tandie turned to go back inside the club. The woman moved in her path and stepped closer to her face. “You stay away from what’s mine, witch. Do you hear me?”

“I don’t even know you. It would be hard to take something from a person I don’t even know,” Tandie said, inching back toward the telescope. She really wished her psychic intuition still worked.

“Abby! What’s going on?” a male’s deep voice said behind the woman. She flashed a bright smile just before she turned around and said, “Not a thing. We girls were just having a little chat.”

It was him, the man from the airport and the bar. He strolled toward them. His dark shirt and blue jeans gave him a strikingly mysterious appearance under the balcony’s lights. With his gaze locked on Tandie, she suddenly understood the woman’s warning. Sure, he was drop-dead sexy; but it was more like the turn-me-into-a-zombie kind of death. That way I can come back and kidnap you when I’m ready.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. Abby doesn’t mean to be this way. We still have to keep child locks on the cupboards because of her.”

Abby clucked her tongue. “Don’t you dare talk down to me.”

“Look, people. I don’t have a clue about who you two are; but y’all need to work out your problems. I’m heading back inside to get my friend. Try to have a good night,” Tandie said and headed back into the club before the man could say anything else, and before that woman accused her of being a witch again.

* * *

Eric started after the woman when she turned to go back in the club. The perfect opportunity to speak with her in an environment free of the Chelby influence escaped him.

Abby grabbed his elbow. “Stay with me, Sweet Cheeks. It’s so cold.”

Eric closed his eyes a moment, grounding his temper. “Why are you always so jealous and petty?” he asked Abby. “You don’t have to be that way. All insecure and just—unattractive.”

Her bottom lip trembled and her eyes filled with tears. “You hate me too, don’t you?”

“No, Abby. I don’t hate you,” Eric said, his tone softening. If he hurried and finished this conversation maybe he could still have a chance to catch the psychic. A crying woman had always been his weakness, though. And he wasn’t one of those hard asses that made a female cry and then left her standing there holding on to his emotional bag.

“Everybody hates me: my ex, my brother, you. It’s because I’m cursed. And so is that little pretty witch you keep on ogling like a dog in heat.” She lowered her head against his chest. The people sitting at the patio tables started heading back inside the club.

“Stop acting this way. Virgil doesn’t hate you. He’d be hurt if he heard you talking about him like that,” Eric said, feeling both disgusted and sympathetic.

Abby gave him a hard look before she said, “Are you kidding me? He wants me dead. You don’t know my brother. Only person you remember is the boy who helped you cheat on Trig tests. Times have changed, Mr. Stuck-up Fontalvo. You left me with the demons lurking by my door.”

“What are you talking about?” Eric asked sharply.

She scoffed, straightened up tall, and rolled her eyes. “You figure it out. Best do it quick, too;  before they put your little witch up on the stake.” On that note, Abby straightened up tall and walked through the doorway.

Purposely waiting for Abby to make distance, Eric rushed back through the doors. Scanning the tables where the woman had sat earlier, he instead, found an older couple. He was too late, the story of his life.

5

The next evening, Tandie drove to Brunswick Town, Bolivia’s historic county seat. She was still shaken by the previous night’s events. The setting sun created shadows that stretched across the road like creatures from a horror movie. She still needed to find some
Stop Leak
to fix her plumbing issues, and there was no Frieda around tonight to thwart her plans.

The Abby woman’s accusations cut her to the core. People around here feared the strange and odd. She had already sensed that. But Abby had accused her of having a witch’s mark. What could it mean that both women saw the ship in the water? Even more strange, how did Abby even know she’d seen it? The woman obviously had issues. But if Tandie had a boyfriend that looked like the guy from the airport, then she would probably act all psycho in the head about him too.

The darkening streets started to look the same. There weren’t too many streetlights to light the way, either. “It’s definitely going to take some time to get used to the no-streetlights thing.”

Tandie turned onto Brunswick Town’s Danford Road and passed several deserted stores. After a few more miles, she began to feel the weariness associated with being in a strange town. She’d driven out too far without a map or even a MapQuest printout; and her cell phone’s signal had faded. The lakes became larger and the scenery merged together as she drove around the small town in what felt like a complete circle. After passing the sign reading Boiling Springs Lake for a second time, Tandie realized she’d gotten herself totally turned around.

“Okay, city girl. Just how do you get lost in trees when you’re used to skyscrapers?” Tandie eased her metallic blue Camaro to a stop at the beginning of her fourth lap around Danford Road.

This time an old store with the lights still on came into view. She eased the car to a stop and parked across the street from the weathered building. The sign on top of the building had the name Catsburg on it. The structure was two stories high with chipped brown paint covering the outside. A faded Coca Cola mural beside the entrance was highlighted by the streetlights. The windows on the second level were completely dark, giving Tandie a strong sense of someone watching her.

She inhaled, held her breath, and stayed in her car. The store appeared old like it was built about the same time as Chelby Rose, but with a few modern updates. The brown wood siding and tattered metal roof along with the gaping front door secured only by an insect type screen sent shivers up and down Tandie’s spine. The entire storefront reminded her of a jack o lantern’s face with two dark windows as eyes and a raggedy door for its mouth.

In the distance, howls sounded through the air.  Goose bumps rose on Tandie’s arms, trickling over her body. She swallowed and glanced around the deserted street, and once again found herself wishing her sighted abilities would spring back to life. She’d always counted on them to put her two steps ahead of the strange and odd. If she discovered a killer’s murder ground before the actual crime occurred she always had her boss stage reinforcements. Investigating the inherently dangerous was her job. Strange phenomena like a store that just happened to have a skeletal face, or a house with a moon cradling the roof at night were barely comparable to some of her findings with the NYPD.

She checked her watch. 7:30 p.m. on Saturday evening. There should’ve been at least one or two people strolling out and about.

Whack! Whack! She jerked her head back toward her window, her heart skipping beats. A little boy with a pale face and dark circles around his eyes stood with his head plastered against the window. Tandie reared back with a gasp, inhaling sharply.

The boy smiled, his wide grin showing two missing top teeth. She rolled the window down a quarter of the way. Goosebumps crept all along her neck, Grandma Zee’s creepy chills. She always said they were the first sign of developing the sight. Tandie made a small laugh, celebrating a short moment before she turned back to her current situation. Maybe her psychic visions were starting to come back.

‘What’s wrong with you? It’s just a little boy.’

“Are you looking for your parents?” Tandie asked.

The boy’s eyes were shadowed by the moonlight. It was almost as if a zombie stood before her, this boy with hidden eyes. He shook his head in a slow motion without saying a word. More howls rode across the wind. They’d gotten more frequent since Tandie ventured into the town.

‘Damn you, Tandie Harrison, for being overambitious and trying to buy a house in need of serious repairs. Oh, and you can add driving along the back roads of a small town where any homicidal maniac could be on the loose to that list too.’

“Well, you’d better get home. It’s not safe to be out here all by yourself.” The boy stood there and stared. “Do you need to call your parents?” He shook his head again as the wind whipped his glossy black hair around his face.

“I have to get out. I need to get some
Stop Leak
out of that store; or something close to it, anyway. They might have a phone that you could use. Mine doesn’t have a signal.” The boy tilted his head to the side before he took two slow steps backward. She didn’t want to leave him in the street all by himself; but she couldn’t get him to say anything. Maybe the people inside the store knew who he was.

She stepped out of the car, the wind whipping her shoulder length hair around her head. She had forgotten how the coastal gusts reached inland. Sweeping her hair away from her eyes, she locked her car door and glanced over the boy’s clothing for the first time. He wore a long sleeve plaid shirt paired with brown coveralls that rode his ankles. He pointed a pale finger at something further down the deserted street. Tandie glanced in the direction he indicated. A dark, empty street with no cars or people on it met her gaze. Instead, a fog swirled in the darkness, moving toward her as if it were alive, sending a shiver through her body.

The boy lowered his hand as Tandie inched toward the store. “I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve got leaky faucets to fix,” Tandie said and gave him a nervous smile. He tilted his head to the side, his gaze following her path toward the entrance.

At once two tiny hands as cold as ice grabbed hers. The boy tried to pull her away from the store. She glanced down into his shadowed eyes, her mouth drying out, and her skin feeling cold against his touch.

“Stop that! Let go of me.” Tandie pulled her hand free. She caught a glimpse of the boy’s eyes under the splash of moonlight that hit them. Silver specks flashed inside the pupils. She didn’t need her psychic intuition to know that he wasn’t a normal boy. Gasping, she turned around and scurried toward the entrance.

She stumbled up two broken concrete steps by the front door, straightened up, and then turned around just before going inside. The boy vanished as if he’d been a ghost drifting in the night. “You are seriously seeing things.” She swallowed and headed through the door. The tinkle of chimes echoed when she opened it.

The smell of a musty façade and mildewed wood enhanced by a baseboard heater’s metallic odor surrounded Tandie.
 
The store had an old-fashioned design complete with wooden shelves lining the walls. The few items scattered across the slabs of wood were covered in dust. The only modern thing about the whole setup was the country song drifting through the speakers.

“You must be our new psychic celebrity?” A tall woman with dark blonde hair and large gray eyes said in greeting to Tandie. She spoke in a hard southern drawl and wore a flannel shirt over a long pleated dress. Like everyone else she’d met so far, her outfit screamed outdated.

“Not quite a celebrity,” Tandie said, anxious to get back on the road before it got too late. Still feeling jittery, she returned her focus to the task at hand. “I need a can of
Stop Leak
.”

At once, a loud thunderclap rumbled through the sky, shaking the store. Soon rain pattered loudly across the rooftop. Tandie peeked out the door’s window and swore under her breath.

“You might wanna wait this one out, sugar. These country roads isn’t a place for pretty city girls like yourself to be getting lost on.” The woman walked past a mini Coke fridge on her way to a shelf behind the checkout counter. She removed a dusty can of
Stop Leak
and turned around. Tandie was surprised the store had water bottles, let alone
Stop Leak
.

Mental note: drive all the way into town next time and stop taking the paranoid recluse person’s type of short cut. Tandie glanced at her watch and peeked out the door at the rain. She thought about the phantom boy and wondered if he made it inside before the rain started. “Looks like it’s just a shower. It’ll probably stop soon.”

“Don’t count on it,” the woman stated. “Name’s Minerva.”

“Minerva? Okay. I’m Tandie Harrison.” She couldn’t bring herself to say the “nice to meet you” part. The store smelled dank, and the creepy chills had ignited her claustrophobia.

“Minerva’s a kick-ass name isn’t it? So I hear you’re the newest Chelby Rose experiment.” Minerva studied Tandie with an intense gaze.

“That’s right. I’m the newest tenant.” Tandie paid for her merchandise.

“The place is kind of run down over the years since old Pontus Tomlinson died. Been a long time since that old house had some TLC. Kind of funny when you think about it, I remember that Pontus had problems with the plumbing just like you.”

“Really?” Tandie said, wondering how she knew about the faucets.

“Yep. Old hooter was convinced the Chelby kids were running around there at night.” Minerva wiped the countertop around the ancient cash register. It was hard to believe such a thing still existed.

“Are you telling me that my house is haunted?” Tandie asked.

“Well I should be asking you that.” The woman’s cat colored eyes seemed to stare right through Tandie.

“Why would you be asking me?” Tandie asked, feeling anxious to leave.

“Fancy pants psychic, books published on that and all. You should of connected with whatever scared old Pontus to death by now. You look shocked. Guess Saul Chelby didn’t tell you about all that when he showed you the place.”

No. No, he didn’t tell me someone died in the house,” Tandie said.

“All of that stuff is probably second nature to you though. Big police psychic and everything,” Minerva said, easing around the counter and moving closer to Tandie.

“Right. I think I can weather that storm now. Thanks for the history lesson.” Tandie folded the brown paper bag with the
Stop Leak
inside and turned to leave.

Another thunderclap rumbled the store, startling Tandie. She peeked through the small window of the dirty wooden door and checked the rain’s intensity. A figure stood beside the driver side door to her car. Lightning flashed and bathed the street in light, making it easy to see the shadowed figure belonged to a man. And then the street darkened, covering his shadow. A few seconds later, lightning flashed again, showing how empty the street was now.