Chapter 7

Carrie was seated in a large room with plants around her. She'd discovered, quite by accident, that when there were a lot of ghosts around, the air seemed stale and tainted. She didn't want to say it was because they were dead, but it stood to reason that was it. Lifting her head up when the first ghost came into the room, Carrie smiled and asked her if she'd had any trouble getting there.

"No. It was fine. I would, however, like to suggest a change in the way you have us come in. I think that there should be days for a certain kind of people. Then, another day for others. Also, you shouldn't have us all in one room like cattle. It's a bit difficult for folks like myself to want to see you if there is an unwashed air to the place." The woman looked at the chairs, knowing full well whether she could sit or not. It didn't matter what she had in the room. "I suppose this is all you have? Or is this just what you had lying around before you got the good stuff brought in."

She didn't want to start her day off like this but that was the job that she had. Asking for information about herself, the woman finally sat down on something that was on her end and looked to be floating in the air on hers. Carrie didn't care. It was her first day of having a scheduled time, and she was going to make the most of it. If she could.

"What complaint do you have that I'm willing to help you with. If you're here to have me change things to suit yourself on either side, you're out of luck. I won't, and I can't." Dana asked her which side she wouldn't. "Mine. Now, what is it you want? I have a very busy day, and if you don't have something to talk to me about, then let's move on."

"It's my daughter-in-law, Diana. I don't know why her parents gave her such a regal name when—" Carrie told her that she wasn't going to listen to her go on about things that wouldn't be changed just to suit her. "All right then. I want you to let me go back and take care of her and that child she brought to the marriage. Why my son married her is—" All she did was raise her hand. "I want her out of his life. She's a bad influence on him and gets him into trouble all the time. She needs for me to go there and take care of her. Christ, you do make this difficult, don't you?"

"Don't care. Now, this daughter-in-law? Is this the one that you accused of stealing your watch? The very one that you have on now?" She tried to hide the watch with her sleeve, but it wasn't happening. "I'm going to take that as a yes. Diana has been a good and loving wife to your son, Carter. The child in question…it says here that it's your son's child from when they were lovers in high—"

"What a disgusting word, lovers. She seduced him so that she could get at my money." Carrie was so happy for the hyped-up computer that Sunny had made for her. All she had to do was put in a name, and it gave her everything that they'd ever done. Even the dead, when necessary, she had information on them that more than likely they didn't know about themselves. "I don't believe for a moment that that thing is my son's child."

"Again, I don't care. She's his, and that's all there is to it. If it makes you feel any better, they had DNA tests…Ah, I see. You knew about that but still didn't believe it. That's really too bad on your part. But nothing to do with you being a ghost. You're not going to harm either the child, who is very intelligent, by the way, or your wonderful daughter-in-law. It says here that she gave up her job to take care of you after you had your stroke. I see also that you treated her terribly, spitting at her and pissing the bed when you were able to get up and use the potty. Shame on you. So now that we've established that you're not a nice person and that you're not going to be able to go back to doing whatever you have in your sick mind, is there anything else that I can help you with? Or better yet, tell you, no, you're not going to do it?"

"You're not at all what I want. Is there someone who is a better servant to us? Someone perhaps a little older?" Carrie just stared at her without answering. There wasn't anyone else, as a matter of fact, unless she wanted to go across the earth to find one. "Well?"

"Well, what?" She was so frustrated that she faded out and in for a few seconds. It took a great deal of energy to be pissed off, Carrie knew, and it didn't bother her in the least bit that the woman was mad at her. "If there is nothing else, I think your time is up."

"I didn't get my request settled up. You can't just toss me away like I'm nothing. I demand to be able to take care of her and that child." Carrie stood up, and the woman either didn't care or didn't know that she'd pissed her off now. "What now? Are you going to send me away? You can't do that either. I know my rights."

The woman simply disappeared. Carrie asked who was next and when the little man, she knew that he'd been in his late nineties when he'd passed away, she asked him what he needed. The man smiled and then laughed. She didn't know what was going on until he finally started to speak.

"I don't have any family left, my dear. Would it be all right if I were to sit in the corner, I won't make a sound, to watch you work? I tell you, I've been wanting someone to take care of that woman for months. She did nothing but berate that poor child and her mother to all of us. I think her daughter-in-law is lucky that she passed when she did. There is no telling what sort of things she would have done to her had she been around." She told him that would be up to the people that came into the room. "Fine, fine. I'm harmless. I'm thinking that I won't have any trouble from now on. I'll gladly leave if they wish. But I'm grateful if they do. I had a very boring life, you see."

Throughout the rest of the day, Mr. Abers was allowed to stay in the room while conducting business. She only ran into one other person that had it in his head that he was in charge but she quickly turned him around and sent him on his way. Not away, but back to the waiting room. She was happy that she was getting better at dealing with people this way, and having a schedule meant that she could leave at the end of the day and not return until the next day. She didn't know how anyone else did this but she was happy for the free time that she had.

On her way home, she noticed something that she'd not before. There were ghosts all over the town. Some of them were very old ghosts from a time so long ago that she wondered what the town had looked like back in the day. She also noticed that there were several high school kids, some younger ones, too, that hung around the Dari Twist. A favorite haunt of all ages it appeared. Carrie thought that it had to do with all the children that were there, laughing and having a wonderful time sharing ice cream with one another.

"Ms. Sheppard?" It startled her at times when someone called her that. This time was no different. Turning to speak to the man, she backed away from him when she realized that he was carrying a weapon and that she didn't know him. "Don't make any kind of sudden moves. I've been set to find you for some time now, and I would hate to have to kill you before I get you to my boss."

"What boss could you possibly have that would have you taking me at knifepoint in front of about three dozen people?" She looked around, and he did, too. Taking that time to slap the knife out of his hand, he stood there staring at her like she was some kind of oddity. "Well, where are we going? I don't mind going with you had you only asked. But having a knife sort of puts me off. Next time someone sends you after someone, see if they're all right with following you. All right?" He nodded. "Use your words. Nodding is rude unless you have an ailment that keeps you from speaking."

"Yes, ma'am. I'll do…he told me that I might have to knock you around a bit before you see things his way. I didn't much want to do this, but he forced my hand, leaving me no choice." She told him that everyone had a choice in everything they did. "Not with this guy. As you might have guessed, it's your brother. He said that you've been treating him poorly and that you owe him a great deal of money. I want my family back, you see. And I won't get them until I bring you to him."

"Have you checked with your family? Are they really missing?" He nodded again then told her that he'd been trying to reach them for several days now. "All right. I'll see what I can do to find them for you. I'm sorry to tell you, but if Douglas has something to do with your family missing, he might well have already had them murdered. He's not the most reliable person, and he's been killing people for a very long time. Let me check for you."

After getting the man's name and that of his wife, she called out to her, hoping that she'd not come to her, that would indicate that she was still alive. When she arrived where the two of them were standing, Carrie could have cried. She told Matthew that she was indeed gone then he asked about his children.

"They're with my mother, miss." She told Matthew where his girls were and that his wife said that she'd taken them to her home that morning so that she could get the house in order. "I don't think that the man who came for us knew about the children. But my mom, she will have the recordings of him coming into the house. Matt and I set up cameras all over the house so that we could keep a good eye on our little ones. I hope she was able to get them from the cloud."

Going to the police department with Matthew in tow, she spoke to Larry, the man who knew what sort of things she could do, and told him about the Sayer family. He sent a cruiser over to the house and one to her mother's house to check on the children—a welfare check, so to speak. Once they were gone, he took her into a room after asking to speak to her.

"I have three missing teenagers. Their parents are going crazy thinking the worst. If you could…I don't know, do your thing and find them for me, I'd be much obliged. They've been missing for two days now and we've no sign of them at all around here. Please?" She asked the things that she needed to know to call out to them, and only one of them came to her. Larry asked if the others were hurt. "I can go and get them myself, even though I'm acting chief right now while Denny is on his vacation. I honestly don't think that the man is returning, but that could just be me. I don't know that I would with all the crap that he had going on."

She'd heard about the police chief and that he'd been gambling heavily before being asked to take some time off without pay. She didn't think he'd come back either, but then she never thought to be talking to ghosts either.

Carrie reached out to Archie, knowing that wherever he was, he'd be there for her. She told him everything that she had going on, and he said that he'd meet her at the jail. Telling him that she would be so happy about that, Carrie and Matthew waited until he came to see them. The poor man was grief-stricken, to say the least. Her heart broke for him.

The jail wasn't busy today, and they were able to see Douglas, with an armed guard, of course, while he was still in his cell. She'd never seen her brother so disheveled before and was surprised to hear him talking to the walls. When she made herself known to him, he turned and looked at her, then spit. It didn't reach her, of course, but she pretended that it didn't bother her at all, even though she was sickened by his apparent disregard for anything she had to say to him.

"What the fuck do you want? If you haven't come here to tell me that I'm getting out, then you might as well go fuck yourself. I have nothing to say to you otherwise." She said that the police were at the house of Maggie and Matt Sayer. "I don't know what you're talking about. I said for you to go away. As I said, unless—"

"We know that you had her killed, and we have it on a recording. After talking to the man you hired, he's spilled the beans on what you wanted and the fact that you were going to pay him ten grand when you were set free. I don't know how you planned on paying him even a dime, Douglas, you don't have shit to bargain with." He told her that he would when she got off her ass and gave him the money. "When are you going to get it through your thick head that you're getting nothing? You're headed to prison in the morning, and there you will die. I'm not going to support anything that you need. No money in your fund. You'll live as a pauper, and you'll die one too, being buried on the very land that you spend the rest of your life at."

"You slut." She forgot that Archie was with her until Douglas went flying back against the wall behind him with his face smashed up and bloodied. Smiling at Archie, she kissed him on the mouth quickly and waited for Douglas to either die or get up. Either way, she wasn't going to take his crap anymore.

Douglas stood up. She was pissed off that he'd not just died then and told her that he was going to get her. Carrie wasn't worried and told him so as she gathered up the men with her and left the long hall. She could hear Douglas bitching about her leaving without his permission even as she exited the doorway and made her way to the outdoors. Archie was helping Matthew with his grief as they took him to his home.

~*~

"He's going to be taken to prison at four in the morning. We're hoping that getting him up at an ungodly hour that he'll be less pissy. I don't think that is possible, but I don't know." Archie asked Larry if he needed any help. "I'm glad that you asked. If you could maybe spare a few of your jags to surround him while being taken out, that would be good. I'm going to go so far as to tell you that if he gets out of line, even a little, they have my permission to take him out. I don't think that he'll last long in prison anyway if he makes it there."

"I can do that." Larry cautioned him about using his family. "I never thought of that, but I can see where that might be an issue. No, I'll get some men and women that he's dealt with before. That'll put them on their toes, so to speak." Larry asked where Carrie was. "She's doing some search on your missing teenagers. Do you know the parents very well?"

"Why? Did something happen that is going to make me have to look harder at them?" Archie nodded, telling him that so far, she'd been able to find one of the boys. Then told him how his parents were involved in the fact that they were missing. "You say that they provided them with alcohol? They made it sound like they were the purest kids that ever walked the earth. How much did they give them? And where did he get it for them?"

"Locally. He gave them several cases of beer as well as some wine. Carrie said that it looks like they started out at the barn, the one out there on forty, and that's where she found the Stable boy. The other three she's still looking for. Carrie said that they might not realize that they're dead yet, or they're not. But it's been hard to find them." Larry told him that any help would be more than he had now. "I heard that Mr. Carolle is complaining that you're not doing enough to find the kids. Also that they'd better not be dead, or he's going to be suing the department for their lack of help. Once it comes out that he and the others were supplying alcohol for them, they'll be run out of town on a rail."

"Wouldn't bother me one bit if they are. All they do is bitch and complain about how the police are worthless. I guess three weeks ago, he'd had his mailbox busted off. I don't know for sure, but I think one of the elders of the town did it in the middle of the night with his bulldozer." Archie asked why he'd do that. "First of all, it's too low to the ground. Makes it hard for the mail carrier to deliver the mail with it being lower than their window. Also, did you know that it's against the law to have your box so that it's not a breakaway support? Yeah. It can't be set in any kind of concrete that will have it standing if hit by a car or other obstacle. Thus, the reason for the bulldozer. I heard tell that he was making this one harder to hit as well as too high for the driver to get to. That'll be all right since I know that the Mail Service has informed him that he will not get his mail delivered to him if he doesn't comply with the rules. Kind of funny if you ask me. What the fuck is wrong with some people, I ask you, Archie? I think they get meaner daily, I do."

"I have to agree with you there." He told him about the woman that Carrie had to deal with. "I was sort of jealous of her having that power. But after a couple of stories about what she has to deal with, I'm glad that I don't. But she's really good at just sending them away now. No one messes with my wife."

The two of them talked about a couple of other things that Archie was going to look into for him. There was also the fund raiser that was coming up for the jail. Not only did they need an entirely new jail, but it wouldn't hurt if they were to have a few extras for the officers, too. Like bulletproof vests that were younger than he was. Guns and ammo as well. Most of the officers were supplying their own weapons and ammo, and they were having trouble with that as well. When Carrie showed up, he could tell that she was upset. At what? He had no idea, but he would bet anything that it had to do with the kids that she'd been looking for. When she spoke to Larry about the kids, he nearly laughed when she said that the kids were all gone and thinking that it was some lark that their dads had pulled on them.

"How would they think that their fathers could make them be dead only to bring them back when the joke was over? I tell you, if I ever have children, I'm going to lock them up away from other kids who might be as stupid as these three are. Christ." He did laugh then, and she glared at him. "What would you have said to them had they asked you—several hundred times, I might add, when they were going to be alive again. What does that even mean?"

"I don't know, love, but I'm sure they'll get it soon enough. Where were they hiding out?" She told him. "I wouldn't have thought of that place. The old hotel has been…you know, that explains a few things. A few days ago, a couple of the cubs from the leap told their parents that the hotel out there is haunted. That place has been empty for at least a few decades. We should maybe have it torn down. It's a sore sight anyway."

Carrie was speaking to what he assumed was the teenagers, telling them once again that they were dead and that dead was forever. She looked so frustrated that he wanted to help her but he didn't know what to say that she'd not. It was the kid's fault and that of their parents, the fact that they were dead. Who in their right mind would give a bunch of sixteen and seventeen-year-olds liquor when they could barely pump gasoline into their car. He's always heard the saying that people can get a hunting license by taking a test. Why didn't they have to take one to be a parent? The world was going crazy.

On their way home, both of them having been all over the town several times today working, he was able to meet up with a few of his jags to see if they would mind very much helping out the police department. He had ten volunteers and three more that offered to end his life before he made it. Archie was hard-pressed to tell them no, that he had to go to prison when he heard how much Douglas had upset his wife.

They were cooking out after the meeting. After telling Larry what he had for him, the man was grateful. He and Carrie sat in the living room, neither of them speaking just sitting back with their eyes closed to rest. He thought that he could stay like this forever, but there were things that he had to get finished up before he thought he'd have time to go to bed. It was sad when he had to schedule his bedtime nowadays. He wasn't at all happy with the way their personal life kept getting put on the back burner when they needed time off. When his brother, Weston, showed up at their home the next morning, neither he nor Carrie were in the best of moods. Weston seemed to understand and was willing to help them out.

"I found a place for the two of you to go for a week. It's actually one of your places that Dad had purchased. As it's a rental, all I had to do was not renew their lease agreement and have someone go in and have the place cleaned up so that the two of you can use it. As a matter of fact, when you guys return, Nash and Sunny are going to go there too. It's a very nice home. Staff will be there all the time and there is no phone service nor internet." Carrie said that it sounded too perfect. "It is, actually. While you're there, I only need one thing from you. There are a couple of buildings there that, as a family, we should buy. It's a port that we can use to bring in produce and take out what they're going to be selling. There are nine people, a family that are all willing to work in the warehouse if we help them sell their wool. They raise goats there."

"How have they been selling it before?" Weston told them. "So they had ships going out, but they're undependable. I can see that. Getting their products to the market would be a timed item. How much do you think the buildings will go for?"

As he and his brother worked out the arrangements on the buildings, Carrie was taking notes. She'd always been good at keeping him on track by doing that, and this time was no different. Once Weston had all the details worked out, he gave them tickets on the next flight out and gave them the information on the house. Archie was almost too excited because he was waiting for the other shoe to be dropped, and it did not happen. That was how things were going now for days and neither one of them was able to rest. Even when they went to bed, one or both of them were sound asleep before the other was. It was terrible.

It took them most of the next day and into the evening to work out the things that needed to be done to leave. A passport was needed for him as Carrie already had one. Since he'd never been out of the state much less the country, he was lacking a great many things that were needed to travel out of the country. That alone should have made him happy, but he was continually waiting for something to pull the rug out from under his feet and tell him that he wasn't going. Right up until they were boarded on the plane did Archie feel like they might be taking a much-needed vacation.

The plane landed in what he could only think of was paradise. There were palm trees all around the airport. Colorful homes and buildings all around the little place they'd landed. Even as far as he could see, which was far by his guesstimates, there were clear blue skies and sand. Even in the little building next to the airport where people picked up their luggage, there were tropical plants and beautiful paintings, as well as sand all over the floor, where it was swept in by the wonderful breeze that seemed to keep everyone and everything cool. They decided to stop off at one of the little cantinas to have a few appetizers as well as a glass of wine before heading to the house. He couldn't believe that the two of them were finally here, even though it had only been a few days since he'd learned about it. Archie decided that he was going to show his beautiful wife the best time that he could, without thought to ghosts, leaps or things going on at home.

There was a limo to pick them up when they were finished. Weston had arranged for them to have the same driver for the rest of their stay. Also, in the limo with them, there were maps of the island they were on as well as places that he'd made them reservations at so that they could enjoy the local cuisine. They were going to do just that, too. Enjoy the fuck out of the place.

By the time they were about to pull up in front of the house, he was having doubts again. Things were going just too well for him to believe everything he'd been told about the house. Almost as soon as they were in the drive, he knew that his brother had been wrong about the house. It was much nicer and larger than he'd said. It looked like it could hold a large family, with children too, and not have to overwork the household. Christ, the thing looked like it had been the island built around it. It was that perfect.

"Let's tour the grounds before we go in." Archie would do anything for Carrie, and even though he wanted to make sure that the bedroom they were staying in at least had a bed—he really needed to get out of the Danny-downer mood, they were shown the back deck and the sea that came right up to the steps to the boat dock. "Oh, Archie, this is perfect. Look how far you can see across the water."

They ate their dinner of seafood and fresh fruits in the little screened patio that was near the water. The breeze kept them cooled off, and the smells coming from the flowers that surrounded their yard were enough to make them both heady. Archie, new to having things go right for a change, didn't let the rest of the evening get tangled up in his thoughts. He was here to have a good time with his mate and damn the things going on around him.