“Mia, you’re talking about Mia.”
“Yes, thank you for her name. I’m going to include her in my nightly prayers. Nice to have a name.”
“You pray?”
“Peace and love come from Jesus, man.” Harley nodded a moment, recording Mia’s name with the others he would speak to Christ about. He looked back at Stephen. “You, how did you respond when she asked you to come home?”
Stephen frowned.
“You called her a whore. Is she your woman?”
“No, she is married and should not have been with the captain below decks.”
“What gives you the right to pronounce sentence on her? Do you know the whole story? Because Captain Waite does, and he told it to me. Mia committed no crime, aside from leading Crocker around by his libido that is. She came here to buy your freedom with a long gold chain. She heard about the plight of the three birdmen and decided to buy their freedom too. She worried that the captain wouldn’t honor her contract, so she distracted him long enough to get the keys to the prisoners. I’m not saying she did right, but she had no weapons but her wit and her body. If she were my woman, I would have kissed the horrible incident out of her mind.”
Stephen released his fists.
“She used the distraction of the Peacock - whose arrival was a surprise to all of us – to liberate you from this ship. We don’t have to go over what you did to her. She left here devastated. Kai says his granddaughter saw her husband at the hospital where she works. Evidently, you broke her heart, man. Not cool. Not cool at all.”
“You don’t know our history,” Stephen said.
“You don’t know mine,” Harley said. “When I was in college, I did a semester on an icebreaker. I died falling into the icy water. I was enslaved by the Peacock. Captain Waite, who was the first officer then, saw my worth and bought me. I will always be loyal to him. When I died, I was holding drugs. One night aboard, I took some. They were replenished magically the next day. In my altered state of mind, I found I could communicate with Kai. Only Waite knows this. Crocker would be too paranoid to appreciate my new mission in death.”
“Which is?”
“To spread love and peace into the GSD.”
“So then, why do you have a problem with me?” Stephen asked. “I bear no one here a grudge. I work hard and enjoy the company of all the sailors.”
“You’re a dangerous man. The captain was killed because of you. Abigor will hunt us down if he figures out you’re on board. You’re endangering us all. Waite’s a good man. He supports his crew. He will defend you, but you’re not worth it.”
Stephen frowned.
“Kai said you’re a hero, but I don’t see any hero. I just see a hypercritical dirt farmer who spreads negativity instead of love. Did she break your heart first?” Harley asked.
“She married.”
“Why didn’t she marry you?”
“I was dead at the time.”
Harley leaned back in his chair. “How do you feel about her now?”
“I don’t.”
“It’s the GSD. Can you imagine my battle to bring love and peace here when it sucks all the love out of the people? Are you aware of this?”
“No. I just don’t love Mia, and I don’t hate Mia. I just see her as…”
“A whore,” Harley finished. “When I was alive, we were all making love to everyone. Sex is just sex. But sex with the dead… a big no no. Kai says the blackness will take the ghost, and the living will go crazy. Did you ever consider her going crazy?”
Stephen looked down.
“What else did she do to you?”
“She left me. We fight evil together. She left me aboard that boat and took the demon-with-no-name to Hell with her. I had to fight the kraken without her.”
“She left you behind. Must have stung your ego. Next thing that happens is boom and you’re here. A place where you don’t have to feel. So, you decide to stay. But instead of just saying, ‘Mia, I would like to stay here.’ You call her a whore for trying to rescue you. You live with that, man.”
“How is she now?”
Harley tried not to show his pleasure at Stephen’s interest. He sipped his coffee a while before speaking. “I know she’s gone from St. Kitts. I know that Abigor was surprised to see her laid so low. He’s no friend to you, Stephen, so I wouldn’t look to him for help.”
“Did he kill Crocker?”
“We thought you did.”
“I did not.”
“Why would you kill Crocker over a whore?” Harley baited. “Now Abigor would - he loves whores - but he’s not been on the Devil’s Pride.”
“Who’s the captain of the Peacock?”
“George Wall.”
Stephen’s mouth dropped open. “George Wall, the husband of Rachel Schmidt?”
“I couldn’t tell you. He’s a businessman but a nasty piece of work. He carries his anger with him. A rarity here.”
“I know of a pirate named George Wall. His wife, also a pirate, was named Rachel. She was hung, not knowing that George was still alive. She sent her daughter Rebecca to live with relatives. Rebecca traveled with part of the treasure. I worked alongside the living in a group named the Paranormal Exposure Entity Partners or PEEPs. PEEPs investigated the kidnapping of a ghost, who is a distant relative of George, with hopes of finding his larger treasure, which was reportedly given to Olympe de Gouges for safekeeping. She sent it to her cousin. A few of the outer ring of PEEPs decided to look for this treasure and got into trouble on Lucifer’s Lip. Mia, her
