The Siege (7 page)

“Are you here in this country illegally?” Ted asked.

“I was born in Roma, but my parents emigrated to Chicago when I was fifteen.  I passed the citizen test when I was eighteen.”

“Are you being paid a fair wage?” he asked.

“They give me room, board, and four thousand American dollars a month.  Douglas, Mr. Dawson, contributes to a 401K for me,” she said proudly.

“We didn’t know you were here. Why is that?” Ted asked.

“Rosemary asked me if I wanted to be included in this ghost hunt, and I say no.  They ask me if I want to stay at the hotel with them, I say no.  They asked me to stay out of your way while you are working.  You are working all the time.”

“We do our investigations twenty-four hours for the first few days.”

“I did not know that.  I was very upset when you didn’t leave,” CC confessed.

Mia walked over and held out her gloved hand to the maid.  “Come, sit down and talk to us.”  She waited until CC sat down beside her before she continued, “I sense that something is making you very upset.  You can trust me. I won’t tell anyone.”

“What about him?  The others call him blabbermouth.”

Ted winced.  He put his hand on his heart.  “I promise not to repeat anything you do not want me to say.”

“So help you God,” CC insisted.

“So help me God,” Ted repeated.

“Okay, then I tell you.  I am so upset, I could turn myself inside out.”

“Why?”

“I can’t talk.  They make me sign paper, and I can’t talk.  I have no freedom to speak.  They don’t appreciate each other, and I can’t tell them how lucky they are.  The mother, she works so hard, and the kids ignore her.  She needs attention, but I can’t tell the kids because I sign the piece of paper!  I could help them, but I have no freedom because I sign the piece of paper!  I am so upset!”  CC put her head in her hands.  “It is so frustrating to see them fall into misunderstandings that I could clear up if I didn’t sign that cursed paper!”

Mia looked up at Ted and said, “I don’t know about you, dear, but I want to read this piece of paper.”

“I have to admit, I’m all agog to see how a piece of paper could do so much harm and cause this nice lady to have such heartache.”

“I can show it to you.  Mr. Dawson, he keeps it in his file drawer.  Come!” CC jumped to her feet and walked swiftly to the open panel.

Ted rushed over to help Mia off the soft sofa in which she had sunk.

Once she was standing, she said, “You go with her. I’ll catch up.  CC is such a bright woman.  I can’t imagine speaking, let alone reading, in two languages. There must be some kind of misunderstanding.”

Ted turned and trotted after the maid.  Mia took her time, putting a hand on her belly to calm the rider inside.  By the time she reached the den, CC had the file drawer open and was searching inside.

“It is here under C for Charlemagne.”  She pulled out the file, extracted the paper and handed it to Ted.  He looked at it and smiled.

“What, what is it?” Mia asked.

“It’s a non-disclosure agreement,” he said, handing it to Mia.

She scanned it and looked over at CC.  “Is this the paper you signed?”

CC walked over and pointed to her signature on the second page.  “I sign before I have the job.”

“What do you think it says?” Mia asked her.

“It says that I no talk about family to no one.”

“Yes, you shouldn’t talk about the family to outsiders.  You can, however, talk
to
the family.”

CC grabbed the paper and jabbed her finger at the area in question.  “It says I no talk.  So I no talk.  I no talk to Tracy about what Tricia says about her.  No tell Mr. Dawson that Mrs. Dawson is taking cooking lessons while he is away on business.  I no tell the boys to be nice to their momma because she tells me she misses them.  It drives me crazy.  I stand there in the corner of the dining room watching them, knowing they are falling apart because I no talk about them.”

“CC, you can talk to them about each other,” Mia assured her.

“I no get fired?” she asked Mia and then looked at Ted and repeated her question.

“I have an idea.  In two hours, it will be a respectable time to call the Dawsons.  I’ll have them come over, and all of us will sit down together and discuss this.  I bet you a hundred American dollars that you will not get fired because you talk to the family about the family,” Ted said with confidence.

CC walked over and jabbed her finger in his chest.  “You better be right, Mister.  And you shouldn’t be betting your hard-earned money when you have baby coming,” she insisted.  “I no take your bet.”

A wave of relief rushed over Mia.  She felt it as if CC’s problems were her own.  Mia saw something from the corner of her eye.  The red convertible was cruising up and down the hall.  Mia walked out and saw that the chalk was replaced with the third Barbie doll.  She eased herself down and sat with her back to the wall.  She extended her legs to meet the other side of the wall and waited for the car to return.

The trio of happy dolls stopped an inch from her leg.

“So you heard.  It was a simple misunderstanding.  CC should have the answers she needs in a few hours.  Are you going to stick around?” she asked.

The dolls moved their heads as if they were consulting the other, and after a few moments, they all shook their head in unison.

“Ted, help me up, time to say goodbye to the girls.”

Ted walked out, followed by CC.  Her eyes grew large when she saw the dolls moving their heads and arms.

“Why they do that?”

“They picked up on your emotional state.”

“I do this?”

Mia nodded.  She put up her hands, and Ted pulled her upwards to a standing position.  The car moved past her and headed in the direction of the foyer.  They followed and found the Barbies waiting patiently by the front door.

“I’m sure the Dawsons wouldn’t mind if you took the car.  The twins are too old for dolls,” CC said.  “I tell them, I say it’s okay.”

The dolls floated back over to the car and slid inside.  The car backed up as Ted opened the door.  He put on the outside light.  The last they saw was the red convertible driving off.

“They’re going south,” Ted said.

“Wouldn’t you? A convertible is a crap ride in the winter,” CC told him.

Chapter Five

Burt arrived at the Dawsons to find not only Mia there, but the PEEPs lawyer, Alan Jefferies, decked out in a flashy suit of clothes, drinking a Starbucks brew.  Mike was dressed casually, sporting one of the new PEEPs shirts.  His hair was tousled, giving him a more youthful look.  Burt walked, passing Mia without saying anything, straight to Mike, pulling him aside from the conversation he was having with Alan.

“Sorry,” Mike said to Alan who didn’t seemed surprised at all by Burt’s rudeness.  Mike turned to Burt and commented, “You’re not being very polite here.”

“What’s going on?  Mia is not supposed to be here, and why is Jefferies here?”

“First of all, you left Ted alone with an active investigation involving dangerous poltergeists.  He asked Mia to back him up.  She came.”

“Where were Cid, Dave or Audrey?”

Mike looked at him strangely.  “Are you alright?  Did you have a fall?  Audrey’s in the hospital, and Cid and Dave quit.”

Realization washed over Burt that he didn’t remember any of this.  “My God, when did this happen?”

Mike put a hand on Burt’s sleeve and looked at his friend.  “Yesterday, you don’t remember any of this, do you?”

“Is Audrey alright?”

“No.  Dislocated arm and a broken clavicle.” Mike stopped a moment.  He got Mia’s attention.  He waited until she joined them before speaking. “Mia, Burt’s not himself.  He doesn’t remember all of yesterday.”

“What do you remember?”

Burt’s story was corroborated by what Ted had shown her on the tape yesterday, until the dining room incident.  “I was investigating the garage with Dave and…  He and I were looking at…  I think Ted…” his voice trailed off.  He moved his hand over his face as if it was a crystal ball and he could conjure up the lost memories.

“Do you remember having an argument with me?” Mike asked.

“No.”

Mia took off a glove and asked him, “Remember yesterday as much as you can.”  She placed her bare hand on Burt’s arm.  After a few minutes, tears sprang to her eyes, but still she hung on.

Mike watched the visible emotional pain Mia was experiencing and moved to stop her.  “Mia, stop.”

She looked at Mike briefly with such deep sadness that his heart broke.  She let go of Burt’s arm and asked him, “Do you remember calling Beth?”

“Why would I call her?”

“To replace me.  The two of you had a lot of fun on the phone discussing personal things you and I shared, Burt.”

“Mia, I would never…” Burt looked from Mia to Mike and repeated, “Mike, you know me, I have never talked about Mia and my private times to you or anyone.  I’m a gentleman.”

“Do you remember calling her?”  Mike asked.

“No.  Beth and I haven’t talked since I fired her.  Why would I be replacing Mia?  She’s pregnant not dead.”

Mia put her glove on.  “Burt, I don’t know what’s going on.  But we’ve got to sew up this investigation first.  Can you trust me and Mike with the Dawsons?”

“I guess I have to.  I’m in no shape at the moment.”

“You can watch in the command center.  I’ll have Ted put Jake in charge there, and he’ll take the camera in.  Excuse me while I set this up.”

Burt watched her walk away.  He turned to Mike and found he had no words to communicate with.

“I don’t think you have been yourself for quite some time,” Mike said.

“Possessed?” Burt asked.

“No. Are you still going to the shrink?”

“Can’t afford it.”

“We have insurance.”

“Can’t afford the co-pay.”

“We make enough. What have you been doing with your money?”

Burt shrugged.  “Just eating out, fast food mostly.  I bought a few art supplies.  I’ve been working on a new comic book.”

“I’ll have a look at your finances after this.  You need help.  Perhaps Ma can subsidize you for a while.  You can pay her back.”

“I don’t want to…  Shit, it’s coming back to me.”

“Our argument?”

“No, the phone call with Beth.  Oh my god, what have I done?”  Burt paled.

“Tell me.”

“I rehired her; she’s on the way with some sensitive called Heinz.”

“I’ll handle this.  Give me your phone.”

Burt handed it over.  Mike ran through the recent calls and dialed Beth’s number.  She picked up right away.

“Burt, I’ve just woken up.  I haven’t had a chance to talk to Heinz yet.”

“Beth, this is Mike.  Burt’s had a breakdown of some kind.  He’s no longer able to make decisions for PEEPs or himself.”

“He sounded fine on the phone last night,” she argued.

“Burt can’t hire without full board approval.”

“Since when?”

“Since I bought him out.  I’m sorry this has happened. I’ll make it up to you, Beth.”

“You better. You fucking people have ruined my life,” she spat.  “That whore Mia is on my list.  Are you fucking her now too?”

Mike steadied himself.  “I’ll have our lawyer call you, Beth.” He discontinued the call and pocketed Burt’s phone.

Mia came back.  She looked at Mike and asked, “What?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

“Okay, Burt, Ted’s got it all set up.  Come with me.”

Burt nodded and followed her.

Mike watched them leave a moment before walking back over to Alan.  “Sorry about that.  We have some internal problems to sort out.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“I think so. Let’s sit down after, and I’ll explain the whole thing.  Right now, we have a maid to comfort, a family to heal, and an investigation to finish.”

“Just your ordinary PEEPs day,” Alan said.

“I wish.  I could use a dose of ordinary right now,” Mike confided.

~

Alan finished explaining to Carlotta Charlemagne the non-disclosure agreement she signed.  He put his explanation in plain English, and when she had a little trouble, he spoke to her in Italian.  She fired back questions, and he answered her slowly and completely.

She looked at the Dawsons who were sitting across from her and asked, “This man, this lawyer, says that I can talk to you about your family.”

“Yes,” Rosemary said.  “You always could.  I’m sorry if there was a misunderstanding.  Douglas and I were only thinking of outside-the-house gossip.  You see, before you came to us, we had a maid that told some very personal things to a newspaper reporter, and it hurt us deeply,” she explained.

“I never would do that,” CC assured her.  “I just want to help.”

“We consider you one of the family, CC,” Rosemary assured her.

Douglas Dawson looked at Mike and asked, “I’m glad we have this straightened up, but what does this have to do with our paranormal problem?”

“I’m going to have my associate Mia Martin explain this to you. Mia?”

Ted focused the camera in on his wife.  He enjoyed the new roundness of her face.  When she smiled, her dimples deepened, and if possible, she was more beautiful than the first day they met.

“The paranormal entities that inhabited your home fall under the category of poltergeists.  These poltergeists are attracted by extreme emotions.  This is why paranormal investigators look at adolescent children first when searching out a source for these entities.  In this case, it was coming from your loyal, loving maid. Carlotta loves your family so deeply that it was hurting her when she couldn’t enlighten you when you were not communicating with each other.  She is of the old school where she not only takes care of your things but of you too.  Carlotta didn’t want to break the agreement she signed by discussing the problems with each of you, so she suffered in silence.  Her emotions attracted poltergeists, and they, in their odd destructive way, were trying to tell you what was going on.  We won’t get into the personal aspect on film, and I suggest you all sit down and let Carlotta set you straight on a few things.  What I can assure you is that the poltergeists are gone.  Your home is free of these entities.”