Mid-Century Monster, page 13
part #3 of Solstice Properties Mystery Series
“Yes, sir, Cin Kilkari.” She held out her hand to him.
His arms were long, almost enough that she wanted to ask him if he was either an alien of some sort, or had an orangutan for a close relative. “Cin, that’s an unusual name.”
“Short for Cinnamon. Like the spice.”
“Ah, everyone’s shortening things these days.” He leaned on his desk. “You said something about having photos of a nest or something similar?”
“Yes.” Cin liked that he was cutting right to the chase. She pulled out her phone and pulled up the shots she’d taken the previous night. “Here.” She turned the phone to him.
Professor Avi took the phone and frowned. “Not a very good shot, but if I had to say, I think it’s some kind of monkey nest. Nothing as sophisticated as a chimp or gorilla, something like a gibbon or baboon.”
Cin nodded. “We found it in a vacant lot here in Cottonwood.”
A huff escaped the professor as he handed the phone back to her. “Not possible. Our climate isn’t hospitable for primates, well, maybe snow macaques, or something related to them. But if we had a colony of them living here, I think I’d know. Most likely it’s some children playing a prank.”
“You’re sure about that?” Cin pulled up a couple of pictures from the root cellar. “Are these similar?” She held the phone out to him.
Frowning, the professor took the phone back. “Yes, yes, although this rolling in the dirt, that’s more of a canine thing. Not a lot of monkeys like to do that. Again, I would say children playing. Humans tend to do things like this, things no other species would dream about doing.” He thrust the phone back toward here. “Mrs. Kilkari, you don’t have anything here, but some pranksters who need to be properly schooled so they don’t have the extra time for such antics.”
Cin sighed and accepted the phone back. She’d hoped for something more, but if they were dealing with a chimera of one sort or another, then asking a zoologist might not have been her smartest move. “Thank you for your time, Professor Avi.”
“You’re welcome, Mrs. Kilkari. Please try and find these children and make sure they’re being properly supervised. This is how rumors of impossible things like Bigfoot start up. We don’t need monster hunters prowling the streets of Cottonwood for something that doesn’t exist.” The smile he flashed her bordered on condescension.
“I’ll do that.” Cin closed his door and hurried down the hallway. Why did so many college professors have to be such pricks? Would it have hurt him to relax a little and just say she might’ve found something he could not identify?
22
Cin pulled up to the house. There was no sign of Chad’s truck or Marzie’s car, but RJ was working on putting his tools away for the day. He paused and sat on his tailgate as she parked and got out.
“So, how’s it going?” Cin pulled her light jacket around her a little tighter as the chilly wind picked up.
RJ spread his hands. “It’s going. Thanks for finding my hammer last night. Chad said it was in some kind of nest in that empty lot a few houses down.”
“Yeah. Whatever our monster really is, it’s strong enough to carry your hammer.” Cin took a seat next to him. “Also the zoology professor at the college says that nest looks like some kind of monkey nest, but the one in the root cellar is more canine. Chad said it had multiple scents.”
“That’s what he said this morning before Marzie got here. Said you’ve got the girls looking up info on chimeras.”
A bit of hope sparked in Cin. “Any chance you’ve dealt with them before?” RJ often surprised her by what he and his husband AJ had either run into, or at least studied for one of AJ’s award-winning books.
RJ shook his head. “Nope. At least not that we were aware of at the time. You know that the paranormal world can be a bit confusing, particularly for those of us who aren’t exactly paranormal ourselves.” They were all still figuring out what other members of the supernatural community meant when they referred to RJ as a guardian. He could see Cin’s mother when she showed up around him, and was sensitive to other magics, but other than advising Cin on a few things over the past year, he hadn’t shown any real aptitude in magic himself.
“Yeah, I know how that goes. So, anything exciting here at the house today?”
“Is getting the walls we tore out put back up exciting?” RJ shrugged, then reached for a bottle of water. “That would be going a lot faster if we could get a crew back.”
Cin nodded. “Yeah, but the word on this house is out, and none of our regular contractors are willing to work it. Everyone I called has told me they’re busy, but let them know when we’re working a new project, and they’ll see what they can squeeze in.”
Char’s car pulled into the driveway. The girls got out and hurried over as Cin’s mother materialized behind them. Char and EEEK both carried their ‘working’ backpacks, not their school packs.
“Mom, we did the research and we’re here to help you set the monster traps.” EEEK announced. “Where do we start?”
“In the backyard, I think.” Cin pointed around the house. “That’s where the most activity has been. What have you found out about chimeras? Did you use any of that info in coming up with traps?”
Char pursed her lips and put her hands on her hips. “Mom, there’s not much info on chimeras. They’re kinda ancient.”
“So they had me ask around,” Cin’s mother added. “That’s when things got interesting, I do hope this thing doesn’t breathe fire.”
Cin stared at her mother. “Breathe fire?”
“Yes.” Charity nodded. “Turns out classic chimeras breathed fire, but those tended to be Greek in origin. Other kinds have other aspects. So let’s just hope whoever created this thing didn’t go mythological in their spell casting.”
“So you were able to find a spell for this?” Cin hoped if they had a spell, they might be able to undo it, breaking the thing into its component parts, making it easier to deal with.
“No.” Her mother shook her head. “But I’ve found some rumors of them being out there. They are black spells, and only really dark magic users cast them.”
Cin looked over at the house. She still wasn’t sure if Sheriff Jackson was a magic user, but his wife, Lucille had been one of the darkest Cin had ever encountered.
Before she could say anything more, the next-door neighbor, whom the tax rolls had identified as Tim Radford, came around the fence and stomped toward them. His two large dogs came on either side of him. “You’re all working late today.”
“Just wrapping up, Mr. Radford,” RJ said, turning slightly to make a show of putting a hammer into one of his tool racks in the back of the truck.
“Good.” Radford frowned heavily. “Don’t need any extra noise around here tonight.” He looked at Cin. “I noticed after that guy ended up in the dumpster, you haven’t had any more wetbacks showing up. The other neighbors said that made them feel safer.”
Doing her best to not let the man fluster her, Cin kept her face neutral. “It’s a shame, he was a good worker. Have the police talked to you in the past couple of days?”
“No.” Radford’s bushy gray eyebrows drew together. “Why would they?”
She was fairly sure she shouldn’t say anything about the gunshot that had killed Juan. “Just a little further investigation. Something about matching teeth marks.”
Radford glanced down at his dogs and his frown deepened. “My boys didn’t do it. Well, if he’d broken into the yard and tried to steal something, they sure would’ve, and they’d have been right to do it. We’ve got the right to protect our own property, it’s in the constitution.”
“I’ll remind them about that if they talk to me first.” Cin slid off the tailgate as RJ looked at the house.
“Cinnamon, could you and the girls give me a hand, I need to be getting on home.” RJ took a couple of steps toward the house and turned back to Radford. “Been nice talking to you.”
“You too. Thanks for keeping the noise down.” Radford turned back toward his own house and gestured for his dogs to follow.
Cin waited until they were back in their own yard before moving toward RJ.
“RJ, why did you call Mom Cinnamon instead of Cin?” EEEK asked as they started up the steps.
“Because I don’t know if Mr. Radford would’ve gotten snotty about her being called Cin.” RJ opened the door and held it open for them.
“With everything else going on around here, we don’t need that problem,” Cin replied. “Yeah, I get the feeling he’d have a bit of a fit over that. Thanks for thinking of that, RJ. Sometimes we have to outthink the people around us.”
“I’m actually done picking up my tools.” RJ glanced around the living room as if making sure everything was gone. “Do you want a hand with the critter traps?”
Although Cin wouldn’t have been opposed to a lookout while they worked, she shook her head. “Get home to AJ. Relax and have a good dinner. We’ll take care of these and go meet Chad at the house. That is where he went?”
“He said something about needing to pick up something.” RJ shrugged and headed toward the door. “Then, I guess, he was heading home. Thanks. Don’t stay out too late. If you catch something, and need a hand with it, call me. I can be here in a few minutes.”
“We’ll keep that in mind.” Cin followed him to the door, then closed it behind him.
She looked at the girls, and her mother. “I take it you brought everything we’re going to need?”
They all three nodded in unison.
“The only thing I wasn’t sure about using was the salt.” Char pulled her pack off. “Since it’s outside, we might end up killing some of the grass.”
“Then we’ll tear up the grass and get a landscaper to fix our mess.” Cin headed for the backyard. “This yard’s going to need a bit of work before we can sell, which the new owners are going to have to redo since it’s getting cold fast, and the sod’s not going to have time to get well rooted before it freezes.” She hated wasting money like that, but to get top dollar, they were going to have to present a finished product in the back.
“And if we did this at home, you’d make us fix the mess,” EEEK said as they walked out onto the back porch.
“Well, yes,” Cin agreed. “But there’s a big difference between our forever home and one of our flipping houses.”
“Right,” Char sounded like she agreed. “One we’ve got time to fix, and the other we have money to fix. Got it.” It wasn’t exactly the response Cin had been expecting, but it was correct.
“Okay, since you two did all the heavy looking, do you want to take the lead on the trap setting?” Cin headed across the yard to the far corner, away from Radford’s property. She wanted to hold off on that as long as she could.
EEEK grinned. “Sure. Let’s do this.”
“You know, sometimes she’s a little too eager,” Cin’s mother said as they walked across the yard.
“But it’s a good eagerness,” Cin replied. She liked that her girls seemed eager to do magic, even if they sometimes hemmed and hawed over doing the research that went along with it. Her mother hadn’t always been ready for her to do either the research or the practical spellcasting when she’d been younger.
“Okay” EEEK put her backpack down and held out her hand for the container of rock salt Char carried “We start with the salt and crystals.”
“I’ll set the crystals.” Char handed the round cardboard container to her sister, then set her pack next to EEEK’s. She bent over the pack and pulled out a Ziploc bag with several quartz crystals.
The ingredients reminded Cin of the magical trap Lucile Jackson, or one of her coven, had set up at the Stone house, that nearly killed Chad. “We don’t want to kill it, except as a last resort.”
“Oh this is totally a harmless spell.” EEEK finished walking around in a medium-sized circle. “It’s designed to trap and hold, not imprison and destroy. Did you know there’s several spells like that in our books? A couple of them looked like variants of the one Dad triggered that time.”
“I’m not surprised.” Cin glanced around the yard, feeling like someone might be watching them, but couldn’t see anything. She shook off the feeling.
“You girls are doing great at researching things,” Cin’s mother praised.
“Thanks, Grandma,” they said at the same time.
Char straightened after putting the last crystal around the circle. “Okay, now we’re ready for the actual casting.” She looked at Cin. “Mom, we talked about this and would really like it if we could do the actual casting too. You and Grandma just watch. We need the practice.”
Cin nodded. “Sure.” Her girls were growing up too fast, but it only made sense to let them do it. They had, after all, done the hard work of researching the spell they were about to use. By standing on the outside looking in, she’d be able to spot any flaws they might inadvertently put in the work, and suggest changes.
With both girls wearing wide grins, Char took the lead drawing the power, then both of them doing an impromptu chant that would finish empowering the circle and settle the magic into the ground until something stumbled into it and the trap sprung around it.
As the girls finished up the trap, the backdoor slammed shut.
“What’s going on here?” Marzie’s voice rang out from the porch.
Reflexively, Cin spun around. “Marzie?”
Her friend stomped across the lawn toward them. “Charity? I thought you were dead.”
Cin glanced at her mother, then at Marzie. “Okay, you can see Mom. Marzie, let’s talk.” If someone could see ghost, they had latent magical powers.
Marzie stopped about halfway across the lawn and looked confused. “Is she dead or not?” She pointed at Cin’s mother.
“That’s a great question.” Cin took Marzie’s arm and turned her back toward the house. “Let’s talk about that. Mom, look after the girls please.”
“Of course, Dear.”
“And she talks. I’ve been hearing that voice on the job sight and kept thinking I was seeing her, or something that looked like a ghost of her.” Marzie stumbled slightly as they entered the back door.
“A ghost of her is exactly what you’re seeing and hearing.” Cin reminded herself that if Marzie was aware of what she was seeing, then they weren’t breaking any laws by telling her about the magic she and the girls were capable of. It was one of the things that had let her talk to RJ when he first started for them. He’d been able to see and hear her mom so they knew it was okay to talk to him.
“She’s a ghost; showed up a few months after her death.” Cin gestured to a pair of folding chairs in the living room.
“And you’ve been keeping this quiet the whole time?” Marzie took a seat and frowned.
Cin settled into the chair next to her. “Yes. But that’s complicated. I have to start asking you a couple of things.”
Marzie shook her head. “This isn’t about me.”
“But it is, at least a little. You can see Mother. That means you’re not totally normal.”
A laugh erupted out of Marzie. “Not totally normal? Girl, you have no idea. My grandmother was one of the most powerful brujas in the valley. Everyone said she was crazy, but the family knew better.”
“A bruja—” Cin let out a sigh. “—that explains things. Is Mom the first ghost you’ve ever seen?”
Marzie shook her head. “No. I guess that’s why those skeletons in the backyard at the Stone house weirded me out so much. I didn’t want to see their ghost, or worse have them trying to talk to me.”
It was all Cin could do to not laugh. “Then I guess I should warn you that Mom likes talking to people who can see her.”
“But is she going to be asking me to help her find her way to heaven?”
“If you have any ideas on that, let me know.” Cin smiled. “Sometimes Chad thinks it would be better if she wasn’t around all the time.”
“So Chad can see her too?”
“No.” Cin shook her head. “He’s got his own issues, but magic isn’t one of them. But he still has issues when she’s around. The girls think it’s cool that Grandma is still where they can talk to her. I don’t think Mom would go on to her next life if she had the opportunity. She likes it here, and can be really useful at times, like helping the girls find the magical trap spells to catch the chimera.”
Marzie frowned. “Chimera, some kind of ancient fire-breathing creature?”
“We’re really hoping it doesn’t breathe fire. Actually, we’ve got some ideas as to what it might be.” She laid out what she knew, careful to leave out details like Chad’s being a werewolf. There would be time to explain that later.
They chatted until the girls and their grandmother came in.
“You two got this worked out?” Cin’s mother asked.
Cin glanced at Marzie. “We still good?”
Marzie nodded and then smiled. “Yeah. It would’ve been nice to know some of this before. It’s been a long time since I ran into a ghost, and I wasn’t totally sure what I was seeing. Charity, you’re not like the ones I’ve seen before.”
Charity beamed. “Of course not, Dear. I bet most of those other ghosts were simple mundanes and not witches. We have a little stronger grasp of our afterlife than they do. But you don’t have control over your gifts, do you?”
“No.” Marzie shook her head. “The gift skipped my mother, and I only had rumors to go on, well, that and rum. Rum keeps the ghosts at bay sometimes.”
Cin’s chest tightened. “Marzie. Oh, goddess, tell me that’s not why you drink so heavily.”
“Well, Jerry didn’t help.” Marzie looked at the floor. “You also have to understand, with everyone other than my mother thinking my grandmother was just crazy, I had to hide it. I didn’t have a supportive network like you had.”
“Then we’re going to help you learn to control it.” Cin couldn’t help herself but put the offer out there to assist her friend in mastering the gift she had to drown to endure.
