The Case of the Angry Auctioneer (Auction House Mystery Series Book 1) (17 page)

“You’re not doing this from the Godness of your heart, missy.”

“What?”

“Bear in mind that I’ve still got my balls and my bearings. Ball bearings. Get it?”

Jasper rose from her uncomfortable perch. “Well, I’ll see you this afternoon. I guess we can sign the paperwork at your old house.”

“Old house. Old man.” Ray Clippert chuckled and shook his head. “Where do you think you’re going? Ain’t got much of a sense of humor, do you?”

“I’ll laugh later,” Jasper said.

“Hah. You got a funny bone after all. Hand over that contract, why don’t you, and we’ll get ‘er signed. Got a pencil?”

“How ‘bout this pen?”

***

As she pulled out of the nursing home’s parking lot, Jasper’s mind pondered the strangeness of her new life. Ever since she had left Rev. Tim back in the church basement, her determination to change into a stronger woman who no longer bowed to goofball authority figures had been challenged. Jimmy. Dead now. Ready Teddy, always willing to win over women whenever they were foolish enough to agree. Mary Clippert.
Her
father Ray.

A red car pulling into the parking lot nearly clipped her left fender. The dark-haired woman behind the wheel gave her the finger. Speak of the devil! Mary Clippert herself. The woman had her gaze focused straight ahead so Jasper tucked her chin and drove away. Safely out of view, Jasper headed south on Riverside Road and pulled into the empty parking lot that faced the walking path. She tossed her purse into the back seat and covered it with an empty trash bag, left the auction contract on the front seat, then got out and admired the river and a flock of grazing geese. Maybe a nice long walk would clear her head. She headed down the path. A little voice in her head nagged her about leaving the car unlocked.
Come on. It’s safe. I’m safe
, she told it. The voice ordered her back to the car.

Jasper stomped her foot like a little girl. Some strong woman, she chided herself. She couldn’t even stand up to herself. She returned to the car and had just opened the door to push the lock button, the electronic locks having quit working long ago, when a cherry-colored car pulled into the lot, then raced on by. Jasper stared after it. It was going too fast for her to make out the driver. A shiver went up her spine. She climbed inside her car and when her shaking subsided, drove with concentration back to the auction house.

When Cookie saw the red car parked in front of the alley garage behind the Clippert house, she scowled. “Is someone else going to be here?” she asked Jasper.

“Shouldn’t you have sensed that?”

“I knew you’d say that.”

Jasper drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. She drove slowly by, the twins together in Jasper’s serviceable clunker which for once was cooperating and did nothing more than squeal mildly whenever they made a right turn.

“So?”

“It’s like this,” Jasper said. “The Clipperts are our clients and I had a responsibility to tell them when we’d be doing this clearing. They have a vested interest, after all.”

“You’re too responsible. You’re like, responsible to a fault.”

Jasper said, “Am not.” She headed the car down the gravel alley. She made a right squeal turn, then another, so that they pulled up in front of the Clippert place and stopped the car with a jerk.

“I don’t need whiplash today, thank you very much,” Cookie said. She rubbed the back of her neck. “And you are too too responsible for your own good. It’s like you’re trying to make up for Jimmy’s irresponsibilities.”

“Yeah, well, sorry I’m such a compensator or whatever. But it’s tough enough finding my way through all the auctioneering stuff and putting up with Ready Teddy and everybody without my own sister turning against me.” She glanced sideways at Cookie. Sure enough, she could see a smile break out on her sister’s face. Overstating things generally broke through any temporary frostiness between them.

Cookie snorted. “Oh, p-l-e-a-s-e.” She reached over and took Jasper’s right hand. “You look just right today, by the way. I like that rosy colored top on you. It brings out the pink in your cheeks.” She squeezed Jasper’s hand, then let go and guided her through a deep breathing routine. “Let’s do some chakra clearing too – especially since it might get a little complicated inside with them in there.”

Jasper glanced toward the house. She saw the front curtains twitch. Let them wait. We’re early anyway.

Cookie went into professional pre-clearing mode. “Surround yourself with the white and gold light of universal love and divine protection. Know that you and the universe are one.” Cookie opened her eyes and glanced toward Jasper.

Jasper nodded and took a deep breath.

“I think we should go in after all,” Cookie said. “I’d better save the rest for the Clipperts.”

Lord knows they need it, thought Jasper.

The twins got out of the car and eased their doors shut. Jasper’s door squealed, Cookie’s merely squeaked.

They paused on the front porch. Jasper had been back since Jimmy’s death, helping clear out the physical clutter. Cookie hadn’t. Jasper vowed to be extra sensitive to her sister’s sensitivities about their stepfather’s death now while it was Cookie’s turn to clear away any psychic remnants – Jimmy’s or any of the generations of working class families who had lived here in the house’s hundred year old history. A haunted house? Disembodied entities? Ghosts? That kind of thing. Or, rather, those kind of people and that kind of place.

“Ready?” Jasper asked.

“Always.”

Suddenly the door flung open. Jasper jumped. Cookie didn’t move. Mary Clippert stood there. Today she wore a red suit with black cowl-neck silky blouse and a big costume jewelry daisy pinned to her lapel. Jasper thought it was an odd outfit for communing with the dead, imagining that people on the Other Side might be hyper sensitive to bright colors and overstated fashion but maybe Mary Clippert wasn’t really a believer and just wanted to be there in an official capacity. “Come in, ladies.”

Jasper and Cookie entered the living room. An old musty smell permeated the now bare space. Biggs Auction had paid their regular cleaning crew to come through after the pick-up and scrub the place down, but Jasper could tell they had just lazed through a hasty wash, dust and vacuum. She’d have to talk to Ted about that. Yeah, right, he wouldn’t care. They were probably old drinking buddies he’d promised the work to.

Someone cleared her throat. “Miss Biggs?”

“Is your father here?” Jasper asked.

“He couldn’t make it,” Mary said. “The home said he had an incident earlier today.”

I thought it best if we did this on our own.”

“An incident? Gosh, I hope I didn’t push him too hard. What kind of incident – did they say? “

“You pushed him?” Mary’s voice had a slightly hysterical edge to it.

Cookie stepped between Mary and Jasper. “We’re ready to get started now.”

Jasper gave her sister a small, grateful smile. Cookie looked quite the professional psychic medium, Jasper thought proudly, in flowing purple slacks and a turquoise sweater that made her blonde hair glow like a halo. Or was that an actual halo? Her sister wore a silk scarf of lilac and teal and dangling silver and amethyst earrings. “Just stay relaxed and receptive,” Cookie said. “Let me do the talking. If you have a question for anyone who shows up, tell me and I’ll ask them.”

Cookie continued on in the soothing tones of her profession, “First we’ll focus on the lower chakra. Just breathe in a beautiful white gold light to the area between your sit bones.”

Jasper knew what that meant. She had done yoga back in the basement hall of the Truman Free Church. The first chakra. Basic survival.

“Let the golden white light cleanse your root chakra. Breathe in. Breathe out. Now let a lovely rose-colored light, a red light, fill the area. “Then to the reproductive area.”

Under Cookie’s guidance, Jasper worked her way up the chakras, cleansing with the white and gold light, then filling each of the energy centers with its own particular color. Orange for the second chakra, yellow for the solar plexus, green and pink for the heart, turquoise for the throat chakra, bright blue for the third eye in the middle of the forehead, and finally violet for the crown chakra. Jasper was pretty much able to concentrate in spite of Mary Clippert’s presence. That was the problem in tuning your own psyche: you started tuning in to other people’s hidden energies. Jasper sensed a lot of heat coming from Mary’s direction and she didn’t want to get burned. She took a step closer to Cookie.

“Now let’s picture a radiant fountain of white light cascading down from above your head all around you and pooling beneath your feet.

“We thank you for protection and clarity,” Cookie intoned.

“Especially protection,” Jasper whispered. “Amen.”

“Can we get on with it?” Mary asked in a strained voice.

“Yes of course.” Cookie stood in silence for a moment, then led the way carefully down the hall to the main bedroom. Jasper and Mary followed.

Devoid of much of the clutter of junk that had been in every room of the house, it was nothing but a sad little space. Jasper pitied both men connected to the place – Ray Clippert who had lived lonely here and Jimmy who dropped off into the Big Sleep while trying to mine the poor old house for any hidden gems.

“We are here in strength and peace,” Cookie said.

Her voice was unnecessarily loud, Jasper thought, but maybe the passed-overs had a hard timing hearing the voices of the living. Mary Clippert hovered over Jasper’s shoulder. Jasper could feel that additional heat that the overbearing woman continued to radiate. She could hear Mary’s quick breathing. Jasper stepped closer to Cookie. Mary followed.

Cookie laughed. “They are a little nervous,” she said. “There’s a man here who wants to talk to all of us.”

Jasper’s palms went sweaty. Mary panted like a St. Bernard in the summer.

“Okay, okay. There are two men here actually. One at a time, gentleman. Let me talk to the first father figure. Jasper, it's Jimmy.”

Jasper suppressed a sudden coughing fit. “Tell him everything’s fine at work,” she said.

“He hears you. He already knows that. He’s not here to talk about work,” Cookie said.

Jasper could now smell Mary whose bright red outfit would be sweat-soaked soon if she kept this up. Ugh, sour. At least the woman wasn’t trying to boss them around. Fear of the dead was keeping her usual overbearingness in check.

“What’s he saying already?” Mary demanded, but her voice lacked its usual domineering tone.

Cookie opened her eyes and looked directly at the taller woman. “He says you already know what he wants to say to you.”

“He can damn well tell us all then!” Mary said. Her belligerence had returned.

“Enough!” Cookie said. “He’s allowing the other man to step forward.”

“Oh, please,” Mary said. “I’ve had enough of this mumbo-jumbo. Let’s shut down this magic show.”

“You’re the one who hired us,” Jasper said.

“So I get to set the rules. This is my house – I mean, my father’s house,” Mary said as she backed toward the door.

A wind suddenly blew through the room. Jasper felt both cold and hot. Like a cold wind on a hot day or a hot wind in the winter. Jasper watched as Mary’s neatly coiffed hair rose and fell, one dark lock bolting across her forehead. “Damn you all!” Mary shrieked. She began to cry. Jasper instinctively went to her and put an arm around her waist. Mary pushed her away. “You had a father who loved you!”

“Okay. We’re almost through here,” Cookie said. “All spirits of low energy must now leave. I call on Archangel Michael to complete the clearing. Bless this space and protect it now and always.”

Jasper stood side by side with Cookie for a moment. Mary was nowhere to be seen. “She really freaked out,” Jasper whispered in her sister’s ear.

“I’ve seen it before,” Cookie said. “People who aren’t in touch with their own essence can get really disturbed when the outer realms are present. How ‘bout you, Sis? How are you doing?”

“Surprisingly well.” As she said it, Jasper realized how true it was. “Did you feel that wind too?

“Oh, yeah.”

“It didn’t scare me somehow. I felt surprised but not totally creeped out.”

“You did really well,” Cookie said.

“Yeah, I guess I did. The only thing I wish is that we would have more time to talk to Jimmy.”

“Well, it just wasn’t the right time for that. He’s not stuck here by the way. He’s moved on. He just came back for a visit,” Cookie said.

“That’s a relief. I was kind of afraid that he’d end up – you know.”

“In hell?”

“Well, kind of yeah. No offense, Jimmy, if you’re still listening in, but you were sort of a bastard in some ways,” Jasper said.

Cookie took Jasper’s hand in hers. “He’s back. He says he’s sorry for however he hurt us.” Cookie spoke through her tears. “He just sends his love.”

“Thanks, Jimmy.” She gave her sister’s hand a squeeze. “Thanks, Cookie.”

“See you later, Jimmy. We’ll talk another time,” Cookie said. “And so it is.” She spoke in Jasper’s ear, “Now let’s look for the nut case client and see if we can help her.”

They found Mary in the kitchen, leaning against the sink, staring out the bare window toward the barren backyard.

“How’re you doing?” Cookie asked in a calm, conversational tone.

Mary turned toward them. Her eyes were ringed with red to match her power outfit. “How do you think I’m doing?”

Cookie shrugged. “About as well as can be expected. Do you want to call it quits for the day? Jasper and I can finish the house on our own.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Jasper echoed, unable to look at Mary’s disturbed eyes.

“I must go on. I must,” Mary said, pounding her fist on the metal sink for emphasis.

That must hurt, Jasper thought, but Mary seemed impervious to the pain.

“All right,” Cookie said gently. “We could do the kitchen right now while we’re here.”

Mary squared her shoulders. “Let’s go to the basement. That place was so full of his squirrely mess that who knows what kind of demons are lurking there.”

Cookie said, “I don’t sense any demons in the house. Maybe just some unhappy souls.”

“Well you didn’t know my father,” Mary said. “He was quite the devil.”

Jasper thought over her visit to the man earlier in the day. Sure, he was gruff and messy, and probably housed a multitude of ugly thoughts, but Jasper hadn’t sensed real evil in him. Maybe he had tried to make up for earlier sins as he grew older. Jasper felt beyond her depth when it came to recognizing wickedness. She hoped that someday she would mature beyond her Innocent Orphan persona.

Cookie led the women in another prayer of protection, then they all trooped over to the basement door. Jasper had not noticed before now how scarred the door was. Its right hand edge looked chewed on as if large mice or small rats had been gnawing their way into the cellar for years- or maybe a dog once upon a time. Jasper turned the knob and felt around the corner for the light switch.

Mary shrieked. Cookie inhaled deeply. Jasper, her mouth opened in a silent
oh no
, stared downward.

Ray Clippert was lying at the foot of the stairs on the basement floor, his blank eyes looking like antique wooden buttons. Jasper forced herself to hurry down to the old man. Ray Clippert sure looked dead. She made herself check for a pulse, first the side of the neck, then the wrist. Nothing. She ran as fast as a cat back up to where Cookie and Mary Clippert waited. “Call 911. Don’t go down there,” she said.