The Devil's Dwelling (10 page)

“May I help you ladies?” A deep bass voice rang out echoing throughout the building.  My knees started to knock. I smiled moving to the other side of the room. Thinking he might be checking me for casket size. Mona was so close to me I could feel her breath on my neck.

“We need to speak to Mr. Thompson.” I said as I tried to clear the frog from my throat.

“Mr. Thompson is busy in the embalming room.” The deep hollow voice came back at me.

“Well, maybe you can help us. Can we get a list of the upcoming burial sites?”

Boris slowly sashayed across the room with arms straight down to his side.  He set down at his desk, his long manicured fingers thumbed through a stack of papers.

“Here it is, my my ladies we have a good number of clients this week. Two services this afternoon and three tomorrow.”

“Where are the burials?”

Boris ran his finger down the list creeping me out.

“Today we will be dropping one at Holy Cross and the other one out of town at Bells Chapel Cemetery. Tomorrow they are all at Bells Chapel Cemetery.” 

Mona quickly turned to find the door and knocked over an urn spilling ashes all over the dark wood floor.

“Oh my Gawd, I’ve dumped somebody on the floor.”

She went down on her knees and started scooping up the ashes. Handful after handful. After getting as much as possible in the urn . With her hand she swept the rest under a rug, stood up, wiped her hands on the backside of her camouflage hot pants, picked up the urn and gracefully handed it to Boris.

“Here you go, don‘t mention the missing ashes, probably just an arm or maybe a leg.”

We walked out leaving Boris holding the urn with his chin touching his bow tie.

At midnight I drove out to Bells Chapel Cemetery. I hid the car behind a large mausoleum near the back of the cemetery where we could watch for Lester Long to show up to steal the flowers from the new plantings. It was a full moon. We sat in the Explorer waiting for Lester. The clouds moved across the moon. The sky turned dark I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face.

Mona shivered from fright. “This is getting really creepy.”

“Lets take a walk around and find the fresh graves.”

Mona jumped over the front seat of the Explorer to the back searching for the flashlight. “Where’s the damn flashlight?” She was throwing clutter and bouncing all over the back of the Explorer.

“It’s under my seat, calm down calm down. These people can’t hurt you. Anyway we can’t use the flashlight, Lester would see us.  We have to sneak up on him.”

Headlights slowly came up the narrow cemetery road. Whoever it is turned off the headlights. I stepped from the Explorer and slowly walked to where the lights shut down. I could hear someone talking but couldn’t make out what they were saying. The van began rocking. A little at first and then  it started gyrating bumping, grinding and then the squealing came from the back of the van.

“This is a couple of kids getting it on.”

“In the cemetery, I never thought of doing it in the cemetery with all the dead people around.” Mona said shaking her head.

“If we get back to the Explorer and turn the headlights on they will scare them outta here.”

Mona wanted to make it a foot race. She headed for the Explorer at a fast pace. I followed in pursuit of reaching the rig first. We laughed leaning on the side of the rig.

“Quick, turn the lights on. He’s had plenty time. I remember my teenage boyfriends.”

I turned the lights on and immediately heard the vans engine rev up. Headlights came on as they headed out leaving a cloud of dust.

I reclined my seat and waited for Lester. Mona filed her fingernails and sang along with the radio.

“It’s almost one o’clock, you think he’ll be coming this…?”  Before Mona could doubt Lester showing up headlights were in the distance flickering with every bump.

“That’s Lester, I remember his headlights flicker.”

Lester parked behind a group of shrubs. Soon we saw his skinny body walk up the hill.

We waited until he was a distance from his old van before we got out of the Explorer. I opened the door and the buzzer made a loud noise.

“Dang, that buzzer.”

I closed the door to quiet the buzzer. Slowly we walked toward the tune Lester was whistling. The cloud covering the moon  moved past part of the moon giving us enough light to see Lester. We ran toward him. He heard our feet pounding on the ground and ran for his van. Mona cornered him and he ran back up the hill with me on his heels. Lester didn’t see the freshly dug grave and fell in head first.  I managed to jump over it. All I could hear was cussing and raving coming from the grave.

“Get me outta here. You crazy broad, Tiffany what are you doing in the graveyard at this hour?”

“Waiting for you.”

Mona ran up out of breath, bent over with her hands on her knees trying to pull in a little oxygen.

“What the hell is he doing in that grave?”

“Okay, Lester we are going to pull you out. You hold to my wrists and Mona will pull my feet and you should be outta there in a jiffy.”

“I’m gonna what?”

I lay on my belly,  crawled three feet into the grave on my belly, grabbed Lester’s hands and Mona pulled from my feet and fell back on her butt.  I slid another ten inches or so into the grave. Get me outta here I can’t spend the night in a grave with Lester.”

Mona pulled me out of the hole.  I got to my feet, brushed the mud and muck on my pants.

“I’ve done this before. You hold his wrists and I’ll pull you.”

“No no no, you’re lighter than me.  You lock his wrist and Lester you hold  tight to Tiffany’s wrist and we’ll get you out or you’ll spend the night in that hole.

We locked wrists. Mona  pulled and heaved and finally first me and then Lester came out of the hole on his belly. I scrambled to my feet and lay across him knowing he wouldn‘t be thankful and would high tail it outta here. Mona took the cuffs from the loop on the back of her hot pants and cuffed him. We pulled his muddy body to his feet. He was spitting mud and grass. Mona practically dragged him to the Explorer.

“I can’t leave my van out here. Honey won’t have a rig to take the kids to school.”

“You really think about your kids?”

I took the van keys from his pocket, Threw him in the back seat of the Explorer and put his legs in cuffs.

“I’ll drive your van to your house and leave it parked out front. If you give Mona any trouble she’ll flash her bright lights on me and I’ll wreck your van and leave it. You got it?”

“Yes, Tiffany, I’ll be good.”

I dropped the van off at Lester’s house. Knocked at the door and was greeted by eight crying kids, three barking dogs and Honey.  The house was decorated with wood boxes for chairs, an old TV setting on the floor and a chrome dinette table loaded down with cereal boxes and dirty bowls.. Old quilts were strewn on the patchy linoleum floor and the wallpaper curled up and partly torn from the walls. 

“I’ve got Lester in my rig. He’s going to jail for being a ‘no show’.  You can probably get him out tomorrow. Here’s the keys to the van.”

Honey, just stood there with her mouth open.  I put the van keys in her palm, closed her hand and got out of there.

I jumped in the Explorer and we headed for the court house. Dumped Lester at the counter, got the papers signed and headed for the apartment to get a bath and catch a few hours of sleep.

The parking lot and apartment building was dark when we arrived.  The landlord was suppose to replace the parking lot lights weeks ago but like most things he takes forever we were still in need of parking lights. The rent is cheap so I don’t like to complain.

I put the key in the keyhole and the door swung open. I grabbed my Glock and pushed the door all the way open.  Mona was behind me with her 38 drawn and ready to put down whoever was in the apartment. The TV light flickered lighting up the room in an array of color. Laying in the floor was Mooney. I put my gun down and rolled him over. Slapping his cheeks trying to wake him. He moaned a couple of times and tried to open his eyes. His eyes were swollen and black. Dried blood from his nose stained his face.

“Mooney, what happened, why are you in my apartment?”

“Mona, get me a wet washcloth.” I cradled him in my arms. “Who would hurt Mooney? He wouldn’t hurt anyone except in self defense or to protect me.”

Mona grabbed his legs and I got him under his arms and we dragged him to the sofa. With a big heave ho we plopped him on the sofa.

“Tell me Mooney, what happened, who did this to you?”

“I got your Blazer’s brakes fixed and brought it to you. You weren’t home so Mr. Sinclair let me in to wait for you.”

“Mr. Sinclair had a key to my apartment?”

“No, he had a file and fiddled with the lock and ‘wa-la’ it opened.”

“That Mr. Sinclair is quite the guy. I wonder what his former occupation might have been.”

Mona laughed. “My guess is…burglar.”

“I was laying right there where you found me when two guys kicked the door in. I started to get up and they knocked me down. I just wanted to tell them they had the wrong apartment. The last I remember they were kicking me in the head. Then I saw bright stars just like they talk about in the movies.”

“What did they look like?”

“Both had brown hair and long legs and big boots.  I remember the hair because when they looked down at me it was hanging in their face. Tiffany, I could of took um if I hadn’t been on the floor.”

“Sure you could, I’m glad you are okay. You sleep here for the rest of the night. I’ll take you home in the morning.”

Mooney smiled and closed his eyes and within moments his snoring rocked the apartment.  Mona and I straightened up the house while trying to figure out what they were looking for.  We heard something scratching at the door. I took my Glock from my purse, opened the door and it was Bailey. He was panting like he had been chasing around the neighborhood.

“Bailey, I forgot all about you. What are you doing outside?”

“He must have gone outside when Mooney came in.” 

He rushed over to his water bowl, slurped up a good amount of  H2O and headed for bed.

THIRTEEN

Mona took the Blazer and headed for the office. I stopped off at Burger in a Box and got Mooney three sausage and egg sandwiches and three hash browns and a big cuppa coffee. Mooney had devoured most of it before we reached his shop. I dropped Mooney off and headed for Hood’s Used Car Lot.

“Bye, Tiffany. Thanks for breakfast and coffee.”

“You’re welcome.”

I bounced off the curb when I reached Hood’s Used Car Lot.

Mr. Hood came across the car lot with his hat tipped to the side.

“Woman driver. You’ll knock her out of alignment. You bringin’ her back or you got the money for her?”

We walked into his trailer office. I set down and tapped the desk.

“I need to see the registration on the Explorer.”

“There’s a little problem with the registration. Well, it seems I can’t get it.”

“You sold me a car without having a registration?“ I stood up with hands on hips shaking my finger in Mr. Hoods face. “I’ve a mind to call the authorities.”

“The guy that traded it in to me told me he would get it to me and he can’t produce it.”

“Mr. Hood you got an Explorer back and I got to use it two weeks for free.”

I flipped my phone open and hit number two and called the office. Linda answered.

“Peterson Bail Bonds.”

“Linda, is Mona there?”

“No, she hasn’t been in today.”

“Dang, what’s taking her so long to drive to the office?”

“Wait a minute, she’s just walking in the door.”

Linda handed the phone to Mona. “This is Mona.”

“Mona, where have you been?”

“I went by my old job and they forked up my last check. Guess I looked official with my Bounty Hunter clothes. They didn‘t give me the hassle they gave me the last time I tried to get my check.” Mona said with the phone on her shoulder while she poured a cup of coffee and stuffed a donut in her face.

“I need a ride seems Mr. Hood has a problem coming up with the registration to the Explorer.”