The Moonlight Monsters Detective Agency Volume One (6 page)

The spirit nodded frantically. “
Yes,
” she said, “
I was only playing, but then I fell down. I want to play!
”

‘Well that’s understandable,’ Tina smiled, ‘but I’m afraid you can’t play with Anna anymore – don’t you see that her mommy and daddy are scared?’

The ghost looked for a moment in the direction of Mr. and Mrs. Hernandez but didn’t seem to fully comprehend their presence. “
But I want to play! How can I play?
”

‘I’ll tell you how,’ Tina said, ‘but first, let me ask you a question. I want you to look around you very closely. Now tell me, do you see a very bright light?’

The little ghost looked up towards the corner of the ceiling. “
Um, yes
,” she said.

‘Well there are lots of friends to play with where that light is coming from,’ Tina told her, ‘all you have to do is go to them. Why I bet if you listen very closely you can even hear them calling to you.’

The spirit’s face lit up. “
Hey yeah!
” she said, “
They sound like fun.
”

She stepped forward a little, as though to listen closer to the sound of something that only she could hear. As she did so, she started to fade.

“
Don’t worry, I’m coming.
” The little girl called. She paused for a moment and turned to face Anna Hernandez.

“
Bye Anna,
” she said, “
I have to go now
.”

Anna raised her hand and gave a little wave. To the astonishment of her parents, she said: ‘Bye-bye.’

The ghost walked further away from Tina, fading more and more as she did so, until she was finally gone completely.

In an instant, the breeze disappeared and the teddy bear dropped to the ground. All sense of the spirit had now left the house. Tina looked to Boris and the giant werebear winked back.

Juan and Karen Hernandez had swept up their daughter and were cradling her, with shining wonder in their eyes.

‘She’s never spoken before,’ Juan explained, ‘not one word. It’s a miracle.’

‘Well I guess it is that time of year,’ Tina grinned. She turned to her partner. ‘Come on Boris, we better get moving. I’ll buy you a coffee on the way home.’

‘Wait,’ Karen Hernandez called, ‘there must be something we can do for you, in return for your help…’

‘Hey,’ Tina shrugged, ‘we were only doing our job.’

‘That’s right,’ Juan said, ‘and what department did you say you were from again?’

‘It’s a special department,’ Tina replied, ‘you’ve probably never heard of us. I hope you never have to again either.’

As they stepped out of the room, Anna reached out and patted Boris’s shoulder. ‘Santa,’ she said.

So was that the gift of the ghost to her playmate, or had the experience awakened something in the little girl that had been lying dormant inside her all along? Who knew? All Tina could say for certain was that in this strange universe anything was possible. As they walked through the snow down
Godot
Road, her cellphone started to ring. It was Ernie.

‘Ernie the Egghead,’ Tina answered, ‘what’s the word?’

‘Get this,’ Ernie replied, ‘I’ve just pulled up a newspaper article from the summer before last. When they were building those houses out there a little girl – Angela Murray – happened to stray into the construction site and fall off a set of scaffolds. She died instantly. The accident halted construction for months…’

Tina said nothing. That was close enough to how she’d figured it.

‘So does that help the case then?’ Ernie asked, ‘did I solve it for you, yet again?’

‘
Pfft
,’ Tina snorted, ‘we’re already on our way back. Sheesh Ernie, try to keep up.’

‘Yeah well in that case, I’ve got something else for you,’ Ernie said, ‘a phone message – I’ll forward it onto you now.’

He hung up the phone.

‘What was that about?’ Boris asked.

‘Turns out our ghost
was
one Angela Murray,’ Tina replied, ‘a little girl who died on the construction site out here. Dollars to doughnuts it was on the same spot as the Hernandez household.’

They arrived at the car and Boris opened the doors. They climbed in.

‘Ernie said he had something else for us too,’ Tina said, ‘a phone message, whatever that could be…’

Her cell beeped.

‘This must be it now,’ she said and brought the phone to her ear.

‘Alright Tina love?’ a voice spoke, ‘Sam Parker here – I guess by now you’ve realized that there wasn’t any Robert Stoker then. I suppose you’re pretty pissed off, huh? Well I don’t blame you love, but give me a moment to explain myself here…’

‘It’s that bloodsucker, Sam Parker,’ Tina hissed to Boris, ‘he’s finally called back looking for his money.’

‘Yeah well it’s not like you’d need Lieutenant Colombo to figure out the cash was mine all along, eh love?’ Parker continued, ‘that’s right, the dough was mine, but you have to understand; that demon wanker nabbed it off me and I knew if you and Smoky the Brute took me in that day then I’d never get it back. So you can see the predicament I was in, right? Because listen love, let me tell you; it cut me right open to have to lie to you like that – goes against my whole nature, it does – but I didn’t have any other choice. Anyway I’m sure that clears it all up, so I’ll give you a call in another few days and hopefully catch you when you’re in, eh? You can arrange the transfer of the money back to me then, yeah? Alright then love.
Toodle-oo
.
Tarrah
… Nice one.’

‘Hah,’ Tina snorted as she closed the phone over. If parker thought she’d just hand all that money over to him without at least seeing proof of ownership then he had another thing coming. But then again, it wouldn’t hurt to let him go on thinking that for another few days – at least until she’d coaxed him back to the station. They had him on evading arrest now, as well as practicing without a license. It looked she was about to finally get her man.

‘Come on, Boris,’ she said, ‘I told you I’d get you a coffee. I think there’s a nice place by the airport.’

‘Sounds good to me,’ Boris agreed and pulled the car out of the frosty, snow-painted cul-de-sac.

# # #

Hells Bells

It was a few days before Christmas and Moonlight City was alive with frantic shoppers and happy families. Under the bright green, red and yellow lights over
Dawkin
street, a long line of traffic slowly rumbled forward, car horns bleating and exhaust fumes rising up in the cold air, their headlights joining together to form the blanket of light that hung over the city beneath the dark winter sky. In her SDA company Mercedes (that’s Supernatural Detective
Agency,
or Monsters Detective Agency to those in the know) sat detective Tina Peterson. And she was not feeling the festive spirit.

 
Nearly two hours ago she’d received a call from Sam Parker, a British vampire who’d tried to set himself up (illegally) in the city as a paranormal private detective. Parker had helped lead her to a large drugs bust a few weeks ago – problem was he’d lied about just who owned the money in question (it was his) and then disappeared before she had time to get an answer out of him. Then last week he’d called the office offering to explain
himself
and, since Tina still had a warrant out for his arrest, she’d told him to call into the station – neglecting to inform him that he’d be doing any explaining from between the walls of a prison cell.

But Parker never showed up for their appointment, Tina guessed the crooked vampire must have gotten wise to her plan and backed off. So naturally Sam Parker wasn’t Tina’s favorite person in the world. And, when he’d called that afternoon begging her to meet him downtown, Tina was more than happy to finally get a chance to bring him in.

She drummed her hands on the wheel, willing the traffic forward with her every being, stopping short of actually psychically forcing the cars to move. (Tina was an eighth demon, a heritage which had afforded her certain extrasensory abilities, though she only used her gifts in the service of the SDA.) As she listened to Chris Rea sing “Driving Home for Christmas” on the radio (an ironic choice since very few cars in Moonlight City were driving
anywhere
that evening – reports had it that the whole city was in gridlock), she reflected on the phone call she’d had with Parker earlier. The vampire had sounded panicked and upset, he’d practically begged her to come down and meet him – in the multistory car park of the Waterside Shopping Mall, for some reason – swearing that something awful was about to happen. But Tina wasn’t buying it. Sam Parker was a crook, a smooth-talking con-artist who could think fast on his feet and tell a lie as straight-faced as the truth – if he ever actually told it at all, that was. Plus, he had pretty strong mental defenses built up, so Tina couldn’t even read him without the vampire catching on and blocking her out within a minute or two.

No, she wasn’t taking any chances with Sam Parker this time, that’s why as soon as she had him in her sights she was taking him down.

Forty minutes later she reached the entrance to the Waterside car park. She rolled down her window to purchase a ticket from the bored teenage attendant in the booth and then drove on through. The lot was packed; Tina barely passed one or two empty spaces as she worked her way towards the roof. Not like it mattered – she wasn’t planning on sticking around for too long.

She came out onto the roof, the sky a soft blend of orange and magenta above the city and the concrete parking lot sluiced with snow-slush and mud. Up ahead she spotted her man. Sam Parker was leaning against the wall with his hands in the pockets of a long grey trench-coat and his shoulders slouched forward anxiously. Guy probably thinks he looks like Bogart in that jacket, Tina observed, when it only makes him look more like what he is – a two-bit hack con-man. That said, with his scruffy blonde hair and stubble he
was
kind of cute. The last time Tina had seen him he’d been buried under a hood and shades – the standard attire for a vampire out in daylight. She stepped out of the car and started crunching across the snow towards him.

As soon as he spotted her Parker stepped forward from the wall and waved.

‘Hey Tina!’ he called, ‘you made it, I wasn’t sure you’d come.’

Tina came closer, her face breaking out in a cold smile. ‘Oh I wouldn’t miss it for the world Parker.’ In an instant, she pulled out her gun. ‘You’re under arrest under section eight of the Alighieri Act – practicing detection without a license.’

‘Aw Jesus Tina,’ Parker frowned, ‘you must be joking love – this is no time to be playing the bravado act. Some serious shit is about to go down here, for God’s sake…’

‘Save it for the interrogation,’ Tina commanded, ‘now turn around slowly and place your hands on your head.’

Parker sighed and did as she said. ‘Ah Christ love,’ he muttered, ‘if that’s how you want to play it then.’

With her weapon still cocked, Tina inched forward. She cuffed him.

‘Who’s playing?’ she asked, as she roughly squeezed the cold metal around his wrists. ‘You know, maybe that’s what your problem is – nothing’s ever serious to you.’

Parker snorted. ‘Oh trust me,’ he said, ‘I’m being bloody well serious right now. Some “seriously” heavy shit is about to go down and you’re up here wasting your time playing cops and robbers with me.’

Tina reached forward and quickly frisked her prisoner. Her hand rested on a bulge in his inside pocket.

‘And what do we have here then?’ she asked, pulling out a small pistol ‘you planning to pull this on me, you two-bit blood-sucker?’

Parker sighed. ‘Jesus Tina. No, I swear. Just hear me out for a second and then you’ll understand exactly why I’m packing heat.’

‘Yeah right,’ Tina muttered, ‘start walking.’

‘I’m trying to do you a solid here,’ Parker protested as she nudged him forward towards the car.

She opened the back door and forced him inside.

‘I don’t think you’ve ever done a “solid” for anybody but yourself,’ she said.

Parker leaned forward against the metal grille as Tina climbed into the driver’s seat.

‘So where’s
Logi
Bear then?’ he asked.

Tina turned the ignition. ‘Agent Rachmaninoff had some business across town,’ she said and pulled the car back around towards the exit.

In fact Detective Boris Rachmaninoff – Tina’s partner and Russian werebear at large – had requested the afternoon off to go Christmas shopping for his huge clan of children. His wife had died a few years back and the day had been quiet so Tina was happy to oblige.

‘Yeah well I just hope he’s somewhere nearby when it all kicks off tonight,’ Parker continued, ‘at least that way, one of you will be fit to do something.’

Tina sighed. ‘Goddamn it, ok then,’ she said, ‘if it’ll shut you up, you have five minutes – but just bear in mind that the last time I gave you that much what you told me turned out to be a pack of lies…’