Chapter Six
Maryse looked over at Raissa, tapping away on her laptop, and bit her lip. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
Raissa opened the glove compartment of Maryse’s car and tucked a black box with a wire inside, hoping her hastily rigged equipment worked as planned. “Of course it’s not a good idea. Why do you think we’re here at midnight?”
Maryse stared out the driver’s window at the mansion across the street. Sonny Hebert’s mansion. “Trying to get ourselves killed?”
“God, you’re such a whiner,” Helena bitched from the backseat. “All that shit you went through in the last couple of months, and you’re getting all worried about sitting in a car on a public street.”
Maryse turned around and glared at Helena. “Do I need to remind you that all the ‘shit’ I went through the last couple of months was your fault, and I never did anything to put myself in the middle of it? And that I’m still taking antacids?”
“When you put it that way…” Helena grumbled. “Maybe you should double your dose, just for to night.”
“I’d love to, but the pharmacy was out…again.”
“The pharmacy is always out of medicine. Call Dr. Breaux and ask for samples. I don’t think I paid for medicine the last three years.” Helena looked over at Raissa. “You want to help me out here? I’m sorta getting killed on this one.”
Raissa smiled. “Don’t worry about your stomach, Maryse. We’re not getting any closer than this, and his security cameras don’t scan farther than the curb in front of his house. Besides, it’s not like we’re going to walk up to the door and ring the bell.”
Maryse turned in her seat to face Raissa. “Do you honestly believe sending Helena in there is a better option? The Harbinger of Death? The Master of Disaster?”
Raissa laughed and handed Helena a little round piece of plastic. “All she has to do is hide this somewhere in Sonny’s office, preferably not a plant, as they are prone to being watered, and take a peek in a storage closet. Piece of cake.”
Helena tucked the plastic piece in the front pocket of her black leather jacket, then took the second piece Raissa handed her and popped it in her ear. “Are we ready to go?”
“One second.” Raissa tapped more keys on her laptop. “Say something, Helena.”
“Something.”
“Smart-ass,” Maryse mumbled as Helena’s voice screeched from the laptop.
Raissa adjusted the volume and gave Helena a thumbs-up. “All set. When you get inside, turn right, then let me know when you’re in the big hallway. I’ll guide you from there. And everyone pray that Sonny hasn’t rearranged his house since last time I was there, or it’s going to be a long night.”
Raissa gave Helena the once-over. “So what’s with the outfit? You still doing the classic-movie thing?”
“Yep,” Helena said and climbed out of the car, tugging her spandex pants out of the crack of her butt as soon as she hit the sidewalk.
Raissa grimaced. “Should I even ask?”
Helena rolled her eyes. “Grease 2.” She crossed in front of the car, the neon blue of the pants creating a glare from the streetlight.
Raissa studied her for a minute. “She’s wearing a T-Birds jacket and motorcycle boots. Is she supposed to be a guy or a girl?”
Maryse shook her head. “I don’t even want to know. Just be glad that lately her outfits cover most of her body. The MTV years were far less kind on the rest of us.”
“Yuck.” Raissa fitted a microphone around her ear and positioned it to the side of her mouth as Helena walked through the front wall of the house. “Helena, can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear,” Helena replied. “I’m in the hallway. There’s five doors on the right and three on the left. Jesus, this guy’s house is bigger than mine.”
“Try the third door on the right. That should be the office.”
“Hold on…yeah, office furniture, computer. This is it.”
“Great. Now find somewhere you can slip the device. A central location is better.” There was a second of silence, then rustling.
“Let’s see…plant, no that’s real…might need the paper clips…crystal bowl of bullets—What the hell? Why can’t he keep mints like the rest of us?”
“Just find a place. And not the bullet bowl. It’s probably used a lot.”
Maryse paled and made the sign of the cross.
“Yeah, yeah…there’s a little flowerpot with a sad, fake flower in it. Looks like something a kid made. Will that work?”
“Perfect,” Raissa said. “I remember that vase. Sonny’s daughter made it.”
“Well, he really ought to pay for some lessons. Kid can’t even spell correctly.”
“I’m sure he’d be happy to, but she died when she was five. Leukemia.”
There was a pause on the other end. Then Helena said, “Oh shit, now I’m really going to hell, with that statement. Making fun of a dead kid’s spelling. You could warn me about these things before I go putting my eternal soul at risk, you know?”
“I’m pretty sure God will overlook your anal-retentive spelling issues. Just stick the device in there and check that closet. Sonny’s guys walk the grounds several times a night. I don’t want them to see us sitting here for very long.”
Maryse shot Raissa a dirty look. “That’s information that might have been good to know. I could have borrowed someone else’s car or something.”
“And put someone else at risk instead?” Raissa asked.
Maryse crossed her arms and slumped down in her seat, looking warily across the street at the house. “I would have picked someone I didn’t like.”
Raissa grinned. “Well, that would narrow down your selection to human beings as a species. We can always drive around the block and pick someone at random.”
“You know, you were a lot less scary when I thought you talked to spirits.”
“Helena,” Raissa directed, “check the closet.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve got my head stuck in there. There’s a bunch of file boxes and a trunk with a padlock on it. Has letters on the front…hold on…says ‘Monk.’ Hey, you ain’t got me breaking into some preacher’s shit, do you?”
Raissa felt her pulse quicken. “The trunk. Can you look inside? I mean, through the side or something?”
“I can try. It’s awfully small and dark, so no guarantees on what I can see. I can pull the whole thing out—”
“No! Sonny is beyond anal-retentive. If anything is out of place, he’ll sweep the office and find the bug.”
“Okay, okay…hold on…It’s dark in the closet and even darker in the trunk. I’m going to have to open the closet door and get some light in somewhere. I’m no vampire.”
“Be careful.”
“Yeah…okay, I got some light in here and I’m peeking through the top of the trunk. What the hell…I don’t know…Are you sure I can’t pull this stuff out for a better look?”
Raissa bit her lip, wondering if it was worth the risk, when Maryse grabbed her sleeve and pointed. “Lights! Someone is awake and coming down the stairs.”
“Shit! Helena, close the closet door and make sure everything is perfect. Someone’s coming downstairs.”
Raissa heard the squeak of the closet door and held her breath, hoping the lights in the house continued in the direction of the kitchen and not the office. Seconds later, a light beamed on at the opposite end of the house, and Raissa let her breath out in a whoosh. “They’re in the kitchen. It’s probably Sonny. He has problems sleeping.”
“You think?” Maryse grumbled.
“Helena, I think you should get out of there. Unless things have changed enormously, Sonny will grab something to eat and go to his office. I know he can’t see you, but I’d really feel better if you were out of there before he gets in.”
“No problem. I’m leaving now. Okay, I’m in the hall. Holy shit, Sonny Hebert is walking down the hall toward me. Crap, crap, crap.”
“Don’t panic. He can’t see you.”
“But it’s Sonny Hebert. How the hell can I not panic?”
“Breathe in and out and ease by him.”
“This is not good,” Maryse said. “When Helena panics, things tend to go very wrong. Maybe I should start the car. Hey, maybe we should just leave now. She can find her way home.”
“Sit tight,” Raissa said, trying not to let Maryse and Helena’s nerves affect her own. “Everything will be fine.”
And that’s when a crash echoed through the laptop.
“What the fuck!” Sonny Hebert’s voice boomed.
“Damn it to hell,” Helena said. “I hit that table and the vase and oh, shit, here he comes. Think fast, something to do, think fast, the cat—” There was a piercing wail, and more cussing from Sonny, but no clear indication of what was happening in the house.
Maryse sat frozen in her seat, and the thought flashed through Raissa’s mind that her friend might have had a heart attack right where she sat. “Get the hell out of there,” Raissa said to Helena, and grabbed Maryse’s shoulder with her hand and shook her friend.
Maryse seemed to leap into consciousness and started the car just as Helena burst through the front wall of the house and ran across the lawn as fast as hot pants, motorcycle boots, and sixty pounds of excess, ghostly flesh allowed. Lights flashed on all over the mansion, and Raissa knew it was only a matter of minutes before the house, grounds, and street were covered with Sonny’s men.
Helena jumped through the car door and crashed into the backseat as Maryse pulled away from the curb. “Don’t speed,” Raissa cautioned. “Make it look like we were just passing by. Don’t draw attention.”
Maryse’s knuckles were white on the steering wheel as she eased the car down the block and around the corner. When she’d made it another block away, she took a hard left and floored the accelerator, pushing the car onto the freeway as fast as she could possibly go.
“What happened?” Raissa asked.
Helena huffed and wheezed in the backseat, far more than someone who was already dead should. “When I get nervous, sometimes I touch things when I don’t mean to. It’s a pain in the ass, I tell you. Normally I have to concentrate to touch stuff, but when I need to be transparent, it just happens.”
“I tried to tell you,” Maryse said. “When it comes to being a ghost, Helena is an amateur.”
Raissa shook her head, trying to absorb the concept of a ghost having to learn how to be a ghost. “Okay. That’s weird and something I’ll definitely remember going forward, but it will have to wait. What happened, Helena?”
“I hit a table in the hallway and it had a vase on it. The whole thing crashed to the ground, and Sonny was getting closer. Then I saw a cat in the bedroom next to the table, so I grabbed the cat and threw it at Sonny.”
A clear mental picture of what had happened flashed through Raissa’s mind and she began to laugh. “Oh, my God. You threw a cat at him? The biggest mob boss in the state, and you attacked him with his own cat. Priceless.”
“Well, I figured he’d think the cat did it all,” Helena defended as Maryse began to chuckle along with Raissa.
“Oh, it was a brilliant move,” Raissa agreed, “but just not the normal plan of attack for someone like Sonny.”
Helena pouted for a couple seconds more, then started to grin. “Okay, so it might have been a little funny. Well, a lot funny. If you could have seen the look on his face.”
Raissa tapped on her laptop. “We can at least hear it.”
She hit a key and Sonny’s voice resounded through the speakers, “That fucking cat! I swear to God, if my wife didn’t love that animal, I’d kill it now.”
“You’re sure it was the cat?” one of Sonny’s men asked.
“Yeah, the alarm is on, and nothing’s out of place, except the vase, which I never liked anyway.”
“So maybe the cat did you a favor.”
“Yeah, maybe. But still. Damn cat usually spends all its time sleeping. I can’t imagine what got into it.”
“Maybe something spooked it. We’ll take a look around, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. That’s a good idea.”
Raissa clicked on the laptop and the voices stopped. “Cool. It’s coming through great.”
Maryse glanced over at her. “How are you getting a signal this far away?”
“I put a receiver in the abandoned building across the street this afternoon. It’s recording everything and I can stream the audio anywhere I can get a decent satellite connection.”
Maryse shook her head. “I’m not sure if I was more impressed with your alleged psychic ability or your computer genius.”
“Ultimately, it’s all the same thing.” Raissa turned in her seat to look at Helena. “Were you able to see anything in the trunk?”
Helena shrugged. “Yeah, sorta. I mean, I guess. Hell, I saw something, but I don’t think I saw it right. It doesn’t make sense.”
Raissa’s skin began to tingle. “Tell me.”
Helena frowned. “That fancy trunk and high-tech lock, and all that was inside was a broken crucifix necklace and a Halloween costume. A gray alien suit.”