Mike sunk to his knees. “Mom, she’s telling the truth. What is she?”
“She’s a very brave woman,” Glenda said, kneeling. “I had no idea this was going on. I know you had trouble in Lund, but when we moved back here, things changed.”
“It takes a while for the spirit to find him. Mike has what PEEPs will call a personal haunting. We solve it in the future.”
“What’s PEEPs?” Mike asked.
“It’s Paranormal Entity Exposure Partners. You and Burt Hicks form this paranormal investigative group in the future. I meet you when you come to Illinois to investigate my friend Murphy’s farmhouse.”
Murphy manifested again and smiled wickedly down at Mike.
Mike looked back at the ghost more annoyed than frightened. “Can you get rid of this thing now?” Mike asked.
“Maybe. We would have to go to Lund, and we would have to have the original players, Beth Bouvier and Burt Hicks. We may be able to do this without Beth, but we need Burt.”
“Mia, we don’t have the time,” Murphy warned her.
“I know. But if we can’t fix this candle mess by the full moon, then we do have time, just as long as we find Burt,” she said, knowing that once the candle was broken, they would return to the correct time. She didn’t need for Mike to think, if he stopped the candle breaking, that his relief could happen sooner. She eyed Ted, and he nodded. He was on the same page.
Glenda helped her son up. She pulled out a kitchen chair and sat him down. “You sit there a moment. This Burt Hicks, is he famous?”
“No, I know he’s from Summerville, Kansas. Before I came here, we were researching all of you, but we couldn’t find Burt’s present location. I know he lives there, but he’s not there now.”
“Burt Hicks…” Glenda said again. “Where do I know that name from?” She stopped talking and walked into the mudroom where she kept the old newspapers. She picked up the last two papers and leafed through them. She nodded as she folded back the paper and tapped it.
Mia and the others grouped around Glenda as she read the headline, “Youth Disappears in Summerville. According to his parents, high school senior Burt Hicks did not arrive home after school as was his normal custom. Upon further investigation, the senior hadn’t arrived at school. He left the house at 6:30AM, according to his mother, driving his 1989 Dodge Shadow. The car was found abandoned alongside Route 283. If anyone has any information that would lead to the whereabouts of Burt Hicks, they are requested to call…” Glenda finished.
Mia looked at the picture of a young Burt standing beside his pride and joy, a red-painted refurbished Dodge Shadow sports car. “That’s him. When was this disappearance?” she asked, looking at the paper.
“Two days ago,” Glenda answered.
“When was it reported?”
“In yesterday’s paper,” Glenda confirmed.
“I didn’t think they took a missing person’s report before the person has been gone twenty-four hours?” Mia questioned.
“Not when it’s a child,” Glenda said. “Summerville is a small town. You probably could involve the police after a few hours.”
“So, Burt was last seen not long after I woke up as a child,” Mia said.
“It looks like he’s the guilty party,” Ted said.
“But why?” Mia asked.
Mike walked over and pulled out a dog-eared Kansas atlas. He looked in the back and found Summerville and turned to the page. He found route 283 and traced it up and down the map. He flipped to the big map of Kansas and frowned. “The road runs through most of the middle of the state. Did they say where they found the car?” he asked.
“No, but I would assume it would be close to Summerville,” Glenda said. “What’s around there of interest?”
“A lot of nothing, the Smoky Hill River Valley, the…”
“Wait,” Mia said, closing her eyes. “The name Smoky Hill River comes to mind. Damn, it’s just out of my reach,” she said.
The others watched as Mia’s hands searched for something in the air in front of her. “Is there an old hospital, maybe an asylum, or a private school there? I remember Burt and I were talking about odd names like Green Desert, Nevada and Royal Palm Beach because there was no beach in Royal Palm and the desert wasn’t green in Nevada. He muttered, Hill River, no, Smoky Hill River. I asked him if possibly the river ran up and down hills. He gave me the stink eye.”
“Did he say anything else?” Mike prodded.
“He mumbled something about a missed opportunity. Yes, it had to do with investigating a haunted building. I suggested PEEPs go and look into it, but he shook his head and mentioned something about a reservoir destroying the place.”
“There is no reservoir in that area of the river,” Mike said, flipping through the map.
Glenda got on the phone and shushed the room. “Hello, Marge, it’s Glenda, Glenda Dupree. Yes, I know it’s been ages.” Glenda listened for a while and responded, “I didn’t know she lost her husband. Poor soul, I’ll have to write her a letter. Oh yes, what I called about is rather silly, but it involves a game of Kansas Trivia I’m playing with Mike. Well, anyway, he’s in the bathroom, so I’ll make this quick. What tragedy happened in the Smoky Hill River area that was notable? I figured you’d know since it’s your neighborhood. Uh huh… uh huh. Really? But how could they let that happen? Oh, that long ago. No! And… Why that’s horrible. Oh dear, I hear Mike flushing. I don’t want him to know I’m cheating. Yes, thanks. Friday? Sure, we’ll have a
