Buried Innocence - A Mary O'Reilly Paranormal Mystery - Book Thirteen (Mary O'Reilly Paranormal Mystery Series) (3 page)

Water spewed from
her mouth onto the steering wheel. “That was so not fair,” she laughed as she
coughed and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “But now I totally understand.”

“Understand what?”
he asked.

“Why you thought
the aura line was so great,” she said. “And you’re right. You really needed
it.”

“Harsh, Mary,” he
replied with a chuckle.
“Really harsh.”

Amelia’s Ghost
Tours was located on Main Street in downtown Galena, and as Mary turned right
from Highway 20 onto historic Main Street she immediately started scanning the
street for parking. The small town was a tourist mecca with cobblestoned
streets, quaint shops and historic buildings, so parking was often at a minimum
especially when the crowds from Chicago traveled up for a long weekend. But,
since this was a Monday evening, she was able to find a spot not too far from
the picturesque shop in the middle of the block.

Walking uphill
towards the shop, she inhaled deeply, enjoying the scents that where uniquely
Galena. The Galena River was only a block away, and the hot summer wind carried
its scent through the downtown street, enhanced by the smells emanating from
the various shops on the street: popcorn, chocolate, steaks and pizza. It was a
pregnant woman’s olfactory bouquet.

“Remind me to get
some popcorn before I leave,” she whispered to Mike.

“Yeah, like I
really will have to remind you,” he teased.

She grinned. “Okay,
remind me that the car is parked two blocks from the Popcorn Shop,” she said.
“And that I have to carry whatever I buy.”

He smiled at her.
“That I can do.”

They stopped
outside of Amelia’s, and Mary turned to Mike. “Would you mind waiting for me
outside?” she asked. “Amelia tends to get choked up when there are paranormal
entities nearby.”

“You mean she gets
emotional?” Mike asked.

Mary shook her
head. “No, ghosts make her cough,” she explained. “I’m not sure how she’d react
to a guardian angel, but just in case…”

“No problem,” he
said. “I’ll just keep an eye on you through the window.”

Entering the narrow
store, Mary immediately saw the woman and her young son sitting on a small
couch in the alcove, talking to Amelia who sat across from them on a small
chair. When the bell over the door rang, Amelia looked up and smiled. “Mary,
you made great time,” she said. “How was the drive?”

“Gorgeous, as
usual,” she replied, and then she turned to the woman. “Hi. I’m Mary O’Reilly.”

The woman took a
deep breath before responding but pasted a shaky smile on her face. “I’m Donna,
Donna McIntyre, and this is my son, Ryan.”

“Hi Ryan,” Mary
said, smiling at the little boy. “What can I do for you?”

“Have a seat,
Mary,” Amelia insisted, pulling another chair close to the couch. “Donna had an
interesting experience this evening that has her slightly freaked out, and I
can’t blame her.”

Mary sat down and
faced Donna. “So, what happened?”

After listening to
Donna’s recounting about hearing the voice, Mary turned to Ryan. “Was that your
friend Liza singing?” she asked.

Ryan nodded
casually. “Yeah, she likes to sing,” he said. “I think that’s a girl thing.”

Mary smiled. “Yes,
I agree,” she said. “Have you talked to Liza about why she visits you so much?”

“She can’t find her
other mom, so she’s just staying with us,” he replied.

“What do you mean,
other mom?” Mary asked.

“She was an
orphan,” he said. “And she got sent to one mom. Then she got sent to another
place ‘cause her new mom got sick. Then that place sent her to another place,
and that’s where she died.”

“How did she die?”
Mary asked.

“She doesn’t like
to talk about it,” Ryan replied. “It makes her scared.”

“Did she ever live
in your apartment?” Mary asked. “Before you lived there?”

The little boy
shook his head. “No, she was just taking a walk and saw us,” he said. “She
asked me if she could come home with us, and I told her yes. I knew Mom
wouldn’t mind. She’s always helping people.”

Mary smiled and
glanced at Donna who was staring at her son in astonishment. “Ryan, why didn’t
you tell me?” she asked.

“I did,” he said.
“Remember? I said I had a new friend and she wanted to come home with us. And
you said okay.”

Donna closed her
eyes and inhaled softly. “You’re right, I did,” she finally said. “I remember
now, we were visiting your grandparents. But I thought your friend was
imaginary.”

Ryan shook his
head. “Nope, she was just invisible,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Oh, that’s all,”
Amelia inserted and then turned to Mary. “So, can you help them?”

Mary turned back to
Ryan. “Has Liza ever told you to do anything bad or dangerous?” she asked.

“No, she’s pretty
quiet and likes to hide,” he said. “I was real surprised when she sang to Mom.
She must like her.”

“She must trust
her,” Mary added, turning to Donna. “Whoever is staying with you doesn’t seem
to be threatening or malicious. She just seems to be lost or looking for
someone.”

“Well, that’s a
relief,” Donna said. “She really scared me.”

“That’s totally
understandable,” Mary agreed. “It sounds like she needs some more information
until she can move on. Would you mind if I spoke with her?”

Donna shook her
head. “No, please, I would feel better to have someone else hear what I heard,”
she agreed. “And Amelia told me about what you do. So, I think it would really ease
my mind.”

“Would you like me
to come now?” Mary asked.

Nodding eagerly,
Donna breathed a sigh of relief. “That would be wonderful,” she replied. “I
wasn’t sure how I was going to face going back into my apartment.”

“Great,” Mary said.
“Let’s go.”

“So, where are we
going?” Mike asked as Mary stepped out of Amelia’s store.

Mary glanced over
her shoulder to see that Donna and Ryan were still talking to Amelia and then
whispered to Mike. “They have a ghost in their apartment, a little girl who is
looking for her adoptive mother,” she explained. “The ghost has been
communicating with the little boy, but tonight she whispered to the mother.”

“That probably
freaked her out,” Mike said.

“Exactly,” Mary
replied.

“Exactly
what?”
Donna asked as she stepped up beside Mary on the sidewalk.

Sighing, Mary
glanced over to Mike who shrugged his shoulders and then back to Donna. “I was
just telling my associate about your encounter this evening. He said that it
probably freaked you out, and I said ‘exactly,’” she replied.

“Oh, you have one
of those Bluetooth things, don’t you?” Donna asked.

“Why, yes I do,”
Mary said brightly. “Don’t they come in handy at the most opportune times?”

“Yes, except people
often think you’re talking to yourself,” Donna replied.

“Or your invisible
friends,” Mary added with a secret wink at Mike. “So, are we
walking
to your place?”

“Yes, it’s just
down at the end of Main Street,” she replied. “Do you mind walking?”

Mary shook her
head. “No, it’s a lovely evening for a walk.”

They walked
together, Ryan chatting non-stop about the stores and his favorite places to
window shop. As they crossed Hill Street, while looking out for traffic, Mary
caught a movement out of the corner of her eye. She stopped and looked up the
narrow, steep street again but didn’t see anything. Maybe she’d take a little
more time to check things out when she walked back to her car.

They arrived at the
apartment, and Donna sighed. “Now we have three floors to climb,” she murmured
apologetically. “I’m so sorry.”

Mary shook her
head. “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “After the walk and the climb, I can
justify a stop in one of the chocolate shops on my way back to my car.”

The walk up the
steps was easier without the grocery bags Donna and Ryan had carried earlier,
but it was still no walk in the park. By the time they reached the door, they
were all slightly out of breath. “I can see you don’t need a gym membership,”
Mary said, panting softly. “This is quite a workout.”

Donna smiled.
“Well, that’s one advantage to living up here.”

She unlocked the
door, and they all stepped inside. Mary slowly looked around the apartment. It
was neat and tidy, but she could tell that most of the furniture was either
second-hand or purchased from the local big-box store. Then she saw the little
girl kneeling by the play table in front of the television. She looked to be
about five years old. She had long, blonde hair, a petite bone structure and
was wearing a nightgown that reached her knees. Mary thought she was a pretty little
girl, but when she turned and looked up, Mary’s stomach clenched. Taking a deep
breath, Mary recalled the years of police training and pushed
herself
 
to
stay
mentally detached.

The subject has
blue eyes, Mary noted silently, with two periorbital hematomas or, in layman’s
terms, black eyes. She has further ecchymosis or bruising on the face, neck and
arms. There is also a sign of blunt force trauma to the side of her head, which
could be the cause of death.

She didn’t die fast
enough from the choking, so she was battered against the wall. Mary felt the
bile rising in her throat when Mike stepped up next to her. “Breathe Mary,” he
said. “Breathe deeply.”

She turned away
from the little girl and took a slow deep breath.

“Can you see her?”
Donna asked.

Mary nodded wanly.
“Yes. Yes, I can,” she whispered.

“She looks pretty
bad, don’t she?” Ryan asked.

Mary nodded again.
“Yes, she does,” she replied, squatting down to face the little boy. “Did she
ever frighten you?”

He shrugged easily.
“
Naw
, my dad made my mom look
kinda
like that sometimes,” he said with the openness and honesty that only a child
can have, “until we ran away from him.”

“Ryan, please,”
Donna said, mortified. “He didn’t mean that. Please…”

Mary stood and
turned to Donna. “Are you safe now?” she asked simply.

The air went out of
Donna and she nodded slowly. “Yes, thank you,” she said softly. “We’re safe.
It’s been a long time since… I didn’t know he still remembered.”

“The little girl,
his friend,” Mary explained. “She was abused, badly. But Ryan still accepted
her as a friend. That’s why she trusted you.”

A tear slid down
Donna’s cheek, and she quickly brushed it away. “Well, I suppose some good can
come from all kinds of bad situations.”

Nodding, Mary
placed her hand on Donna’s arm. “Yes, it can,” she said, and then she looked
over her shoulder. “I need to talk to her if that’s alright with you?”

“Yes…please,” Donna
urged. “Find out what happened.”

Mary moved across
the room and sat down on the floor next to the toy table. “Hi. I’m Mary. I’m Ryan’s
friend,” she said. “Can I be your friend, too?”

The little girl
shyly looked at Mary with downcast eyes through the curtain of her hair and
nodded.

“That’s great,”
Mary said softly. “Ryan told me you were looking for someone, and I want to
help.”

Still holding her
head down, the girl nodded again.

“Can you tell me
who you want me to find for you?” Mary asked.

“My new mommy,” the
little girl said, her voice a mere whisper.
“The new mommy
that loved me.”

She lifted her head
slightly and met Mary’s eyes with her large, sad ones. Her lips were trembling,
and a large tear splashed from her eye onto her bruised cheek. “She gave me
away,” she continued softly. “She gave me away to the man who hurt me.”

Then the little
girl faded away.

They waited for
another twenty minutes, but Liza did not come back.

“She does that
sometimes,” Ryan said. “She gets sad and goes away for a while.”

Mary had explained
to Donna what the little girl had said, and now, instead of fearing the ghost,
Donna was eager to help solve her mystery. “What should we do?” she asked Mary.

“Well, it would be
very helpful if she could give us any more information,” Mary said. “If she
comes again, ask for her last name, her birthday, the town she used to live in
or any other information that would help us identify her and her family.”

Donna turned to her
son. “Next time Liza comes, can you help me ask her some questions?”

Ryan nodded. “Sure,
I can do that,” he said, and then he turned to Mary. “Then Liza won’t be sad
anymore?”

“I’m going to try
to make her happy again,” Mary said. “I promise.”

“Okay, then I’ll
ask her,” he promised.

A few minutes
later, Mary and Mike were standing on the sidewalk in front of their apartment
building. The sun was setting, and the sky was the lavender color it gets just
before it slides into the indigo of night. The street was quieter, more
deserted, and Mary and Mike began their walk towards her car. “That was rough,”
Mike said, moving in step with Mary. “How are you doing?”

“I really thought I
was going to lose it when I saw what some monster did to that poor little
girl,” she admitted, glancing up to him. “Thank you for coming to the rescue.”

He smiled at her.
“No problem,” he said. “What’s a guardian angel for if he can’t come to the
rescue every now and then. So, what’s our next step?”

“Well, I really
don’t have a whole lot to go on yet,” she said. “All I know is that we have a
little girl, probably five or six, whose name is Liza. Her clothing appears to
be somewhat modern, so I think she was probably murdered sometime in the past
five years. And, because of the way she referred to a “new mom” she was either
adopted or in the foster system.”

“For the few
minutes you had with her, I think you did a great job,” Mike said. “And you not
only connected with her, you helped that family.”

“Well, I hope I
did,” she said. “And I hope Liza comes back so we can learn more about her and
help her move on.”

She started to
cross Hill Street when she paused and looked up the narrow lane towards the top
of the hill.

“What?” Mike asked.

“I thought I saw
something up this way earlier,” she replied. “I just want to be sure.”

They walked up the
steep incline of Hill Street and stopped when they reached Bench Street,
halfway up the hill.

“Do you see
anything?” Mike asked.

Mary, still
straining her eyes in the dusky light, shook her head. “No, I don’t,” she
replied. “And what I saw earlier was kind of weird anyway.”

“In
what way?”

“It was like I saw
a half a person coming out of the hill,” she said. “All I could see was his
body from the waist up, and then he was gone.”

“Okay, that was
weird,” Mike agreed. “I bet it was the peanut butter and olives. That would
make anyone see weird things.”

Laughing, Mary
shook her head and then stopped suddenly. “That reminds me,” she exclaimed.

“What?” Mike asked,
slightly concerned.

“I’m starving!
Let’s get back to Main Street so I can get something good to eat.”

She started to turn
back, but out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of someone standing in
the middle of Bench Street farther down the road. “There he is,” she called,
hurrying down the street. “That’s the man I saw.”

He was nearly a
block down the street, so Mary could only make out his height and general
build. But as she got closer, her steps slowed, and her stomach turned once
again that night. “I know him,” she whispered. “He appeared on the end of my
bed a couple of months ago.”

“Gross. What do you
think happened to him?” Mike asked.

The skin on his
face had been mostly peeled away, exposing bone and muscle. His clothing was
eaten away too, leaving exposed patches of reddened skin in some places but
deeper wounds and openings in other places.

Mary continued to
move towards him. “Can I help you?”

He seemed surprised
that she could see him. “You can see me?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yes, I
can,” she replied. “And I want to help you.”

Suddenly she was
nearly overcome by a powerful smell of sewage. She clapped her hand over her
mouth and nose, trying not to gag. The man watched her and shook his head
sadly. “Please, tell them to find me,” he pleaded as he began to fade away. “I
don’t want to be buried here.”