Spookshow V: Half-Boys and Gypsy Girls Read online

  Contents

  title page

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  Afterword

  Newsletter

  friends & collaborators

  other works

  the S P O O K S H O W

  Half-Boys and Gypsy Girls

  Book Five

  Tim McGregor

  Chapter 1

  BILLIE CULPEPPER DREAMT that she was being split apart like a wishbone. Pulled in opposite directions by warring forces until a tiny crack was heard and she ripped down the middle.

  Another nightmare, the terrors now a constant part of her life that maligned her sleep each night, leaving her drained when the sun came up. The new normal. Duality exists in all things. Love and hate, life and death, and so on. Billie had begun to think of herself in the same way. There was life before the spookshow and there was life after. The dividing line was a muggy night in June when she had been knocked into the cold water of a Great Lake and nearly drowned.

  Drowning was what she dreamt of this night, crashing under the inky waves and rolling about in the dark water. Disoriented, she couldn’t tell which way was up and feared she was swimming in the wrong direction toward the muddy bottom. Gasping when she broke the surface, her hands clawed at the concrete embankment but its surface was slimy with algae and she could not latch on to anything.

  “Take my hand.”

  A voice from above. A powerful grip locked onto her wrist. Looking up she saw Mockler reaching down from the steep embankment, straining to pull her out.

  She lifted clean out of the cold water but something tugged on her ankle and down she went again. She didn’t want to see what it was but instinct won out and when Billie looked down, she saw the dead shimmering under the lapping waves, their pale hands reaching out for her. A watery horde of the departed pulling her back down.

  “Don’t let go!” she cried, clinging to the man above.

  Her fingers latched tighter to Mockler’s arm but she felt herself slipping through his grip. The dead things in the water were legion and Mockler was outmatched in this grisly tug of war. The faces of the dead lifted from the waves and some she recognized. Evelyn Bourdain was there, her mouth twisted into raw fury, and there was the Undertaker Man with his empty sockets for eyes. Frank Riddel, her own father, clawing her down into the cold waves of the harbour. Bobbing to the surface last was John Gantry, the flesh of his pale face pockmarked and ravaged as if eaten away by small fish. She felt the Englishman’s cold fingers latch onto her neck and pull her down below the surface. And then she heard nothing at all.

  Another voice.

  “Billie. Wake up, honey.”

  Her aunt, gently shaking her awake. She wasn’t at the harbour, she was back in her old room in Aunt Maggie’s house. Safe and sound.

  “You’re all right,” her aunt cooed. “Just a bad dream.”

  Billie croaked up odd sounds until her vocal cords functioned. “Did I wake you?”

  “You were making an awful racket,” Maggie said, smoothing the hair from her niece’s eyes.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. Was it about your mom again?”

  “No.” Billie sat up and rubbed her eyes. “It was just crazy stuff. You know what dreams are like. They never make any sense.”

  “You’ve had them every night since you’ve been here. That worries me.”

  “Dreams can’t hurt you.”

  “It’s the broken sleep that worries me. You can only go so far before that starts to affect you.” Maggie patted her hand. “Do you want anything? Some warm milk?”

  “Yuck. I’m fine. Go back to bed.”

  Maggie lingered a moment longer to ensure the young woman was fine before going back to her own room. Billie laid her head on the pillow feeling exhausted but alert. She had been at her aunt’s house for three days now. Three days since the funeral. The time had passed quietly and without incident, something for which Billie was grateful after the mayhem that had preceded it. Details mattered here, the small everyday things like making a meal or raking leaves or taking a walk on the soggy beach as the November winds sought to push one over. The only down side was Mockler. They had texted and spoken on the phone every day since she’d been in Long Point but the communication paled to the real thing. She missed him and wished he was here.

  Listening to the wind outside the window rattle the drybone branches of the tulip trees, Billie decided that it was time to go back. The grieving was still raw but it was settling into more of a constant strain rather than the acute pain of earlier. Life goes on whether one is ready for it or not. It was time to go home.

  She closed her eyes and something small and fragile fluttered in her belly at the thought of seeing the detective again.

  ~

  The ground shuddered as the bulldozer rumbled in like a tank, its blade plowing a load of earth and broken timbers before it. Detective Ray Mockler stepped out of the way of the grinding metal treads and watched the dozer push its load into an enormous furrow in the earth. Around him moved a small team of men in safety vests and hardhats, some with an arm propped on the spade they held and others warming their hands over a cup of coffee that he had provided. Earlier in the morning, he had phoned the foreman to tell him he would be on-site today to see the ground clearing and offered to pick up coffee on the way. He’d brought donuts too, which the crew were happy to see.

  Over the roar of the bulldozer came the crack and pop of timbers breaking and the chalky snap of bricks tumbling together as debris was plowed into the crater. It was a burial of sorts, one that Mockler had wanted to witness with his own eyes.

  “You ever work construction?” The foreman waved as he drew up alongside Mockler. A broad faced man with thick forearms, he smiled at the detective.

  “One summer,” Mockler said. “Back in college. Why?”

  The foreman shrugged. “Just wondered what it was you wanted to see. We usually don’t get much of an audience for moving earth around.”

  “It’s a loose end in an investigation. I want to see it tied up.” Mockler nodded at the vast trench before them. “When did the fire investigators finish up?”

  “Late yesterday. He said they’d done all they could, given the unsafe conditions. Did they figure out how it started?”

  “Not yet,” Mockler replied. “Probably just kids messing about.”

  The foreman nodded his head in agreement. “I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner. Hell, I used to sneak up here as a kid.”

  “You did?”

  “Back in high school. There were so many stories about this place. We came up on a dare, broke some windows. It was spooky even then.”

  Mockler’s eyebrow went up. “What do you mean spooky?”

  “It felt weird. I’m sure we had just psyched ourselves out with all the ghost stories the way kids do but, man, we didn’t spend too long inside it. We smashed some windows, to say we did it, then took off.”

  “Everyone seems to have a story about this place.”

  “Well there won’t be anymore new stories,” the foreman said as they watched t
he dozer push more earth into the pit. “It’s just rubble now.”

  “I hope so.”

  “I ought to get back.” The foreman touched his hat and stepped away. “Thanks for the coffee, detective.”

  Mockler waved goodbye and leaned back against the fender of his car. He watched the crew work although there was little deviation to the routine, the bulldozer plowing the debris into the pit and covering it all with the sandy earth of the escarpment. He had needed to see this, to witness the burial of the awful Murder House and its terrible secrets. Although it was still a crime scene, the fire had gutted the house to the ground and the resulting ruins were unsafe to work in. Once the crew were done here, the former grand manor would be buried for good and, with time, the terrible legacy of Evelyn Bourdain would be forgotten.

  ~

  Kaitlin startled when the plate hit the floor. It was perched on the edge of the counter when Kyle, clumsy and near-sighted in the morning, had knocked it over reaching for a cup. The piercing crack of china shattering against the floor almost stopped her heart.

  Her reaction, while not typical, was gut-level. Shrieking, she had instantly dropped to the floor and covered her hands over her head.

  “Whoops,” grumbled Kyle.

  Kaitlin peeked out from under the breakfast table. “What was that?”

  “Dinner plate. One of the good ones too. Sorry.” Kyle picked up the shards from the floor. “Jesus, you jumped a mile there.”

  “You gave me a heart attack!”

  “Easy,” he said. “It was just an accident.”

  “Why are you so clumsy?” Kaitlin fumed, crawling out. “God!”

  “It was just a plate. No big deal.”

  Kaitlin straightened up but her nerves were fried and tingling. She held her hands out before her. “I’m shaking.”

  Kyle dumped the pieces in the trash and came around to her. “What is up with you? You’ve been so jumpy lately.”

  “How can I not be with you trashing the house every five minutes?”

  He backed away. “Forget I asked.”

  She was still fuming when he went to fetch the broom. She knew she had overreacted and should probably say something to mitigate the temper she’d unleashed on him but her anger was blowing too hot for that. He was right, she had been on edge for days now. Snapping and surly. She blamed it on the lack of sleep. Each night was a tortured churn of anxieties that kept her awake for hours. Was the stove turned off? The front door locked? If a fire broke out, did she know what to do? If an intruder broke in, could she call the police in time?

  The crisis scenarios were endless, one fear tumbling into the next and each one upping her pulse until she saw the window brighten with dawn. She never used to be such a worry-wart. Now it was all she did, speculating over potential life-and-death disasters that lurked everywhere. Strange rituals had crept into her daily routine too, like triple-testing the lock before going to bed or checking the stove again and again to make sure the burner wasn’t left on and leaking natural gas into the house. Asking Kyle to do it didn’t help. He dismissed her fears as paranoia, which infuriated her.

  Slowing her breathing to soothe her frayed nerves, Kaitlin resolved to apologize to Kyle for her outburst but the crack of another dish breaking against the floor fried her nerves all over again.

  “Whoops.”

  Chapter 2

  THE PHOTO ALBUM was old, its spine cracked and the corners frayed. It smelled faintly of mildew from being stored in her aunt’s small garage for so long. She tried to remember the last time she had perused through its pages of old Polaroids. Not since her teens when she and Maggie and Uncle Larry had lived in Poole. The past had been weighing heavily on her since the funeral and when she rose early this morning, she remembered the photo album. Shivering in the cold garage, she had searched through the shelves of old ice-skates and chipped Christmas ornaments until she found it.

  Nostalgia tugged hard revisiting these old photographs, grief rising to the surface again. Most were typical shots of holidays and birthdays but there were some she barely remembered. A picture of her first day of kindergarten, standing knee-high between her mom and aunt, both women beaming at the camera. The little girl with a gap between her bottom teeth. She studied the faces of both women. In picture after picture, there remained a telling contrast between the smiles of the sisters. Where Aunt Maggie’s was big and full, her eyes squinted into arcs, her mother’s was less by half. Never a full beam like her younger sister, her eyes open, as if she wouldn’t commit to a full smile. There was a sense of wariness or reserve in every photograph of Mary Agnes Culpepper, no matter what the occasion. None of that surprised Billie. It was just startling to see the contrast laid so bare in this history told in pictures.

  “Morning.” Aunt Maggie chimed, stepping into the kitchen. She cinched her housecoat tight and yawned. “How long have you been up?”

  “A while now,” Billie replied. “Couldn’t sleep. The coffee’s made.”

  Maggie took a stool at the counter as Billie slid her a cup, its steam curling into the air. “That was quite the nightmare you had. Did you fall back to sleep?”

  “Not really.”

  Maggie saw the photo album and pulled it closer. “Where did you find this?”

  “In the garage. I wanted to see it again.”

  “Oh my God,” Maggie sighed, pointing to a picture of Billie before a Christmas tree. “Look at that little face. Gosh, you were a cute kid.”

  “Stop.” Billie turned the pages. “There’s a picture I wanted to ask you about. Here. Who’s this woman?”

  Maggie reached for her glasses. The photograph Billie pointed to showed herself and Mary Agnes seated next to an old woman in a lawn chair. The two sisters, who looked to be in their twenties, were a stark contrast to the frail and wrinkled woman seated between them.

  “That was Aunt Elsie. God, I haven’t thought about her for ages.”

  “She looks like you and mom. Your dad’s side of the family?”

  “Yes, another Culpepper,” Maggie said. “Our dad’s older sister. She was a character, she was. Your mom was fond of Aunt Elsie, although we didn’t see much of her. She died just before you were born.”

  “Did she live far away?”

  “No. She and our dad quarrelled. Aunt Elsie was different. I guess that’s why she and your mother got along so well.”

  “Why didn’t they get along?”

  Maggie adjusted her glasses for a closer look at the photograph. “Dad said it was because she was a bad Catholic but there was more to it. Aunt Elsie had a bit of the spookiness in her. She used to do Tarot cards, hold seances and the like. That was the real reason we didn’t see her. It annoyed our father to no end that Mary Agnes and his sister got along like thieves.”

  “She was a medium?” Billie uttered in surprise. “Just like mom.”

  “Mmm,” Maggie confirmed. “A number of them were, on the Culpepper side. It caused a lot of riffs between families. Needlessly, really. But those were different times.”

  “Why? Because it scared them?”

  “Partly. But there was more to it. The Culpeppers were staunch Catholics. At least one of every generation were in the clergy. It was a much more significant thing in those days, the faith. The ones who dabbled in seances were considered a disgrace to the family.”

  Billie traced a finger over the image of her great aunt. “So it runs in the family. Like a hereditary disease? Beyond just me and mom. How come I never knew?”

  “Because it was hushed up and hidden, I’m afraid. It tore families apart. That’s just how it was dealt with back then.”

  “And that makes it okay?” Billie asked. She hadn’t meant to frost her tone. It just came out that way.

  “I’m not condoning it, honey. I’m just saying that that was how they dealt with it.”

  “But you never told me about it.”

  “I hoped you didn’t have it. Especially with your mom gone.” Maggie sighed and slipped th
e glasses from her nose. “You’re still angry with me about that?”

  “No,” Billie said. “I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

  Maggie slid from the stool and turned to the counter. “I’ll start breakfast.”

  “I’ll just have toast. I’m going to get on the road soon.”

  “You’re leaving already?” A note of sadness in the older woman’s voice. “So soon?”

  “It’s time. You sit. I’ll make breakfast this morning.”

  Her aunt protested but Billie made her sit and took down the pan from its hook. “Do you want the usual?”

  “Please.” Maggie watched her niece work, then she tilted her head as if a thought had just occurred to her. “Do you wonder if you’ll pass it on?”

  “Pass what on?”

  “Your talent. To your own children.”

  The egg in Billie’s hand slipped out and cracked against the counter. “Never thought about it. I haven’t even thought about having kids. Let alone that.”

  “Of course. You’re too young to think about kids but that might change.”

  The genie had slipped out of the bottle. Billie couldn’t stop thinking about it now. “How weird is that idea? That I might pass it on to my own kid?”

  “They’ll be all right,” Maggie said. “They’ll have you to teach them.”

  Billie dismissed the notion as ludicrous as she wiped up the mess but, once flushed out in the open, the idea wouldn’t stop flitting through her thoughts.

  ~

  The apartment looked like a bomb had gone off.

  Arriving home after the two hour drive from the northern shore of Lake Erie, Billie walked through the door to find a disaster waiting for her. During the hectic aftermath of the horrors at the Murder House and the hastily arranged funeral of her mother’s remains, she hadn’t paid much attention to the state of the tiny abode she called home. The sofa bore a nasty slash mark through it and the antique table that she never used tilted under one broken leg, both casualties of a brawl between Mockler and John Gantry.