Darkness Exposed (2 page)
Sliding out of the covers, Mary grabbed her robe and headed down the stairs. Then she remembered her house guest, Professor Ian MacDougal from the University of Edinburgh. Ian was researching paranormal activity and law enforcement. Mary’s brother, Sean, had asked her to allow Ian to work with her for a few weeks. But because of bad weather and airport delays, Ian hadn’t arrived until two o’clock in the morning; Mary prayed the noise didn’t wake him.
“Can Mary come outside and play?”
Mary grinned when she heard the familiar voice of her ten year-old neighbor, Andy Brennan.
“Well, I dinna ken. She stayed up ‘til the wee hours of the morning and might need to be resting awhile yet.”
Mary recognized Ian’s voice too. She stopped and leaned back on the wall, blatantly eavesdropping on the conversation.
“You talk funny,” Andy replied. “Are you a foreigner or something?”
“Aye, I’m from the wilds of Scotland.”
“No! Honest? Scotland?” Andy asked. “Is that by where Harry Potter lives?”
“Oh, yes, it is,” Ian replied. “I live not more than two hours north of Hogwarts School.”
“But Hogwarts isn’t real, it’s just a book.”
“Yes, but Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, where they filmed the movie, is very real. And it’s near the border of Scotland.”
“You live near a castle?”
“There are over 250 castles in Scotland.”
“Wow! Do you live in a castle?”
“Well, now I’m living in a flat, but last year I lived in Edinburgh Castle doing research on some of their ghosts.”
“Mary, I mean, Miss O’Reilly, has ghosts,” Andy said. “She helps them. My mom says she’s a blessed lady with a special gift. But, Mrs. Hawes, down the street, she says Mary’s a nutcase.”
Ian chuckled. “And what do you think?” he asked.
“I think she’s great,” Andy said. “And she’s much more fun than a normal grown-up.”
“I bet she is,” he said. “And, if I’m not mistaken, our Mary is up and listening as we blether on here.”
Laughing as she descended the stairs, she got a good look at Ian in the daylight. He certainly did not look like any professor she had in college. If he had, she would have stayed to get her PhD, at the very least. He was built like he spent quite a bit of time in the gym, but he had the sun-bleached hair and tanned skin of a man who was very familiar with being in the outdoors. That morning he was dressed in loose sweatpants that hung low on his hips, a grey t-shirt with “Real Men Wear Kilts” plastered on the back and one of her white baker’s aprons over his front.
“Hey, Mary, I really like your Scot guy,” Andy said, “Even though he talks funny.”
Andy was dressed like an Eskimo, his bright blue eyes shining beneath his wool cap.
“We’ll just have to teach him how to speak properly,” Mary said, and then she sniffed the air. “Did you make breakfast?”
“Aye, I was thinking I’d have to serve it to you in your bed,” Ian replied.
“I only get to eat in bed when I’m sick,” Andy said. “Mary are you sick today?”
Mary came over, pulled the wool cap off his head and ruffled his red hair. “Do I look sick to you?” she asked.
He breathed an audible sigh of relief. “Good, ‘cause if you was sick, I’d be in real trouble.”
Ian looked back and forth between the two. “And you’d be in trouble because?”
Andy shrugged. “Well, a bad guy got Mary and she was in the hospital, then she came home and the Police Chief told her she had to rest. But, instead she went sledding with me and my brothers yesterday.”
Ian looked at Mary. “You went sledding?”
“Shhh, it’s a secret,” she said. “And nothing happened. I’m just fine. Right, Andy?”
Andy grinned. “Right.”
“So, did you make enough breakfast for Andy too,” she asked. “Although I must warn you, he has two hollow legs that can hold four dozen doughnuts.”
Andy laughed. “And eight brownies.”
Mary nodded. “And four milkshakes.”
“And two hundred French fries,” Andy giggled.
“Well, I might have made just enough, then,” Ian said. “Why don’t you come in and see.”
They walked together into the kitchen and Mary looked at the food he’d already prepared. There was plate of eggs, another of toast, a large bowl of oatmeal and about a pound of bacon was on the griddle. “Were you expecting company?” she asked. “A lot of company?”
Looking a little embarrassed, he glanced over at the food. “So, Yanks don’t start the day with a hearty breakfast as they mention on the television?” he asked.
“What have you been watching, The Waltons?” she asked.
He grinned. “Aye, I was a wee bit sad when you dinna yell good-night to me.”
Laughing, she picked up two of the platters and carried them to the table. “Well, I hope both of you men are hungry.”
Andy threw off his coat and scooted onto a chair at the table. “I sure am.”
Ian carried the bowl of oatmeal and the bacon to the table and sat next to Andy. “Would you have some porridge?” he asked, offering him the oatmeal.
“Really, this is porridge?” he asked, looking at the thick pasty brown substance, “It kind of looks like oatmeal.”
Grinning, he scooped a portion out and plopped it into a smaller bowl. “It is oatmeal,” he said, “Scottish oatmeal.”
Mary watched Andy glance around the table, looking for something. “What do you need?”
“Brown sugar and raisins,” he replied, “For the oatmeal.”
“You’re not going to be ruining a good pot of porridge with sugar, are you?”
“Ruining it?” Andy asked Ian.
“Aye,” he said. “All you need is a bit of salt and a spoon.”
“Salt?” Mary asked, wrinkling her nose. “Salt? That’s disgusting.”
“It’s traditional,” he argued, folding his arms across his chest.
“Scots people eat weird food,” Andy said solemnly.
“We do not,” Ian argued.
Mary got up and got the brown sugar and raisins from the cupboard. “Well, you do eat haggis,” she said.
“What’s haggis?” Andy asked.
Ian looked stunned. “You don’t like Haggis?”
Mary handed the items to Andy and sat down. Then she leaned forward towards him and said, “Haggis is sheep stomach.”
“Gross,” he said, as he liberally sprinkled brown sugar on his porridge. “Do you really eat that?”
Ian leaned over towards Andy. “Aye, but only to gross out my brothers,” he said.
“Cool,” Andy replied. “Can we make some?”
Laughing, Ian patted Andy on the shoulder. “Aye, I think we need to make a big batch so we can share.”
Twenty minutes later, after Andy had eaten more food than both Mary and Ian, he looked at the clock and sighed. “I s’pose I need to go home now, mom said I wasn’t to make a nuisance of myself,” he said.
“Well, you can tell your mom that you weren’t at all a nuisance, you were a great help,” Mary said. “How could we have eaten all that oatmeal if not for you?”
“Mary, it wasn’t oatmeal, it was porridge,” he corrected her.
“Aye, Mary it was porridge,” Ian added.
“Well then, you tell your mother that you ate genuine Scottish porridge for breakfast,” Mary added, helping Andy button up his coat.
“Can you come out later or do you have to take care of Ian?”
Mary chuckled. “Perhaps we could invite Ian to come out too.”
Andy turned to him. “Ian, do you want to come out and play?”
“Well, I wouldna mind a walk in the fresh air,” he confessed. “I was cooped up in an airplane all day and my lungs are crying for fresh air.”
“Do you ice skate?” he asked.
“Aye, but I dinna think to bring mine along.”
“Oh, no problem,” Mary said. “I keep extra pairs of skates here for when my brothers visit. I’m sure we’ll find a pair that will fit you.”
“Then I’ll be joining you, Andy my lad,” he said.
“Okay, great,” Andy said rushing to the door. “I’ll tell my brothers. We’ll be back in a little bit, okay? I’ll tell them you lived in a castle. This will be so cool.”
Andy hurried out the door and pulled it closed behind him.
“He’s quite a lad,” Ian said, “Wears you out just watching him.”
“I know,” Mary laughed. “If I had half his energy, I’d be happy.”
Mary stood, stacked the dishes on top of each other and started to move to the sink, when Ian stood up and blocked the way. He took the dishes from her hands, placed them back on the table and put his hands on her shoulders.
“Tell me about the hospital,” he said. “And the bad guy Andy spoke of. Are you in danger?”
“I was working on a case last week,” she said. “And I got in a tussle with the bad guy. Really, it was no big deal.”
“Yeah, no big deal if you’re into electric shock treatment,” Mike said, appearing next to Mary.
Ian, who was also able to see ghosts, jumped. But Mary was far too used to this behavior to react.
Mike Richards, a former fireman, was now a ghost. He and Mary met while she was investigating a serial killer who poisoned men who didn’t return her affections. Mike had been one of her victims. But now Mike was a bit of an enigma. Generally, when a case was solved, the ghosts were able to move on to the next life. But, for some reason, Mike didn’t move on. Instead, he became Mary’s friend and confidant.
“Mike,” Ian choked, hoping his heart would settle back to a regular beat. “Do you always just appear like that?”
Mike shrugged. “Yeah, it’s pretty much how I do it,” he said. “I figured if only my head showed up it might freak Mary out.”
“I can understand that,” Ian said. “Now, tell me about the electric shock treatment.”
“I got some bruises, a couple of scrapes and some burns,” she said. “The doctors released me from the hospital. I’m fine. Really.”
“Should you be going skating?” he asked.
She put her hands on her hips and stared defiantly at him. “Try and stop me,” she said.
Ian looked her over, stood up and picked up the dishes. “I’m a far wiser man than that, Mary O’Reilly.”
Chapter Two
Thirty minutes later, Andy, his two older brothers, Colin and Derik, and his eight year-old sister, Maggie, were at the front door, ready to escort them to the park. Mary almost didn’t notice the freezing temperatures as they walked down the street. Ian kept them all entertained with his stories about ghostly encounters in Scotland. She was pretty sure she didn’t want to visit the underground city of Edinburgh. His stories about the apparitions and spirits that inhabited those dark caverns made her blood run cold.
“So, I dinna understand,” Ian said, as the children ran ahead to put on their skates. “You deal with ghosts every day, and yet, you dinna want to come tour the underground city with me.”
“I help ghosts who need to have a problem solved or something finished up before they can move on,” she explained. “They are just regular people who died in a way that has left them waiting for someone to tie up their loose ends. They aren’t malevolent spirits who want to hurt people; they are usually just confused, frightened, sad or lonely. Sometimes they don’t even realize they’re dead.”
“Ah, so you’re not working with scary specters and ghoulies that go bump in the night,” he said, nodding his head in understanding, “But lost souls looking for peace.”
She nodded, “Yes, that’s it exactly. I don’t want to deal with demons or evil spirits; I don’t have those kinds of skills. I just want to help those sent to me.”
“But you believe there are those kind… the evil ones… about us?”
Considering her answer for a moment, she waited before she finally spoke. “I’ve seen too many people, living people, who do such terrible things that I can’t deny it. Evil is out there and it’s strong. But I know that good is stronger. So that’s where I put my efforts.”
“You’re an amazing lass, Mary O’Reilly,” he said.
She smiled. “Wait until you see me on ice skates.”
Less than ten minutes later, Mary was extending her hand to Ian and being pulled out of her third snow drift of the morning.
“Well, I wouldna believed it, had you warned me,” Ian said with a smirk. “You are truly amazing on the ice. The likes of which I’ve truly never seen before in me life.”
Mary dusted herself off. “This time it wasn’t my fault,” she protested. “There was a bump in the ice.”