The Spirit Box (7)

Chapter 7: Governors Wife

I leaned back in my chair, sipping my coffee as I scanned the morning headlines on my phone. The phone on my desk rang, giving me a slight headache and mild ringing in my ear, and I picked it up.

"Byrne," I said gruffly.

"Fred, it's Chief. the Governors wife has gone missing," Chiefs voice was frantic.

“Why didn’t you just call me into your office, or walk over,” I asked.

There was a clicking sound. Chief walked over to my desk.

“Fred, come to my office. Now,” he said.

I walked into Chiefs office.

“Please, sit.”

I smiled and sat down.

“Happy now?” Chief asked.

“Um… sure. What’s this about the governors wife?” I asked.

The governor walked out from a shadowy corner of the room.

“My wife’s gone missing,” the governor said.

“Holy crap, it’s Governor Gladson,” I said.

“Byrne! Try and be professional! This is exactly why I called you over the phone,” Chief shouted.

“You do know I know this shmuck, right? He was one of Emily’s many, many boyfriends,” I said.

“Again, this is why I wanted…”

I interrupted Chief, “and I didn’t vote for him….”

“Byrne… just shut up and be professional. Emily’s… beyond redeemable. We all know this, let’s just move on and…”

“Save the governors wife. Gotcha, Chief,” I said.

“I’ll owe you a favor, Fred,” Governor Gladson said.

“What kind of favor,” I asked.

“Anything you want!”

“How about you buy me the Blue Mercury bar and grill! I always did love that place. And I want it in writing,” I said.

“Deal,” governor Gladson said and extended his hand.

I sat up straighter and shook. "I'm on it, Governor. We'll find her."

Yi and I worked tirelessly to track down the Governor's wife.

We interviewed half a dozen witnesses we found and managed to identify by watching camera footage of the kidnapping and followed a series of suspects that brought us to a cabin deep in the woods.

"This is it," I said as we drove up to the cabin, our guns drawn.

“Spirit time,” I said.

“That’s a horrible catch phrase,” Yi said.

“Just do it,” I said and made a tsking sound.

We inhaled our spirits.

A loud roar pierced the air.

“What the hell was that?” I asked.

Yi pointed to the bushes and shouted “shit,” and a massive bear charged towards us.

I acted quickly, and feeling the surge of John's strength within me, I held up my arms and shouted back at the charging bear.

“Fuck you!” I growled as loud as I could, hoping to scare the bear away!

Then, with a mighty roar of my own, I charged back at the bear, grappling it to the ground.

It’s bear paws went into my arms, puncturing the skin, but thanks to John’s muscles I barely felt it.

My arms wrapped around his legs and I squeezed as hard as I could.

The bear made a squealing sound, and after what felt like the scariest situation I’ve ever been in, John and I emerged victorious, despite my tattered and torn clothes and my face streaked with dirt and blood.

I took a breath, and as we approached the cabin, we were greeted by a pack of snarling Rottweilers.

Yi and I exchanged a look, and as the dogs charged, we took out our mace and started spraying.

They kept charging anyway, immune to the effects.

“They’re spirit box enhanced! I can smell the extra spirit in them,” John said.

"You've got to be kidding me," I muttered, and knew we had no choice but to fight.

With a deep breath, I punched and kicked as many of the super dogs as possible into the bushes, and Yi did the same thing.

It didn’t seem to matter, the dogs kept charging back out of the bushes, snarling and attacking more fiercely.

After half an hour of an evenly matched spirit box enhanced fight, we heard a whistling sound.

It was the governors wife.

The dogs stopped attacking.

“Boys, inside,” she said. The dogs ran inside the cabin but watched their owner from the window.

“Who are you and what do you want?” The governors wife asked while pulling out a shotgun and pointing it at us.

“Whoa, no need for violence, Agatha. I’m detective Fred Byrne, Jr, and this here is my partner Yi. We got a call from your husband telling us you’d been kidnapped,” I said.

“Is that so?” Agatha said. We nodded.

“Well, tell that lying piece of shit I ain’t coming home to his cheating ass. I know what he did,” she said.

“Alright, we’ll tell him. And trust me, I know he’s scum. He used to date my ex,” I said.

“Is your ex that whore, Emily?”

“Ah, you two know each other,” I said.

“She was the first of many he cheated with. And he’s using taxpayer money to buy their silence, too,” she said.

“By chance, do you have evidence of this?” I asked.

“I sure do,” Agatha said.

She motioned for us to come inside.

She gave us photos of all the women she caught Gladson sleeping with, and showed us printed records of the states taxpayer account and ‘mysterious withdrawals’ made by Governor Gladson.

Then, about six men busted into the cabin and blasted us with shotguns then tossed us out the window.

“Thank god we were wearing Kevlar vests,” I said.

“It still hurts like hell getting shot,” Yi said.

“Damn straight,” I said, still catching my breath.

Yi and I got up, then burst back into the cabin, our guns raised. Inside, we saw that Agatha had already been bound and gagged, but at least they left her alive.

They all pointed their guns at us, and we shot every last one of them in the face.

I holstered my gun and approached Agatha.

"You're safe now," I said, untying her. "We're going to get you out of here."

As we made our way back to the car, Agatha turned to me. "Thank you for saving me," she said, her voice trembling.

I nodded, my face stony and resolute. "Of course. Let’s bring this sleazebag son of a bitch asshole governor down!"

As we were driving back to the station, I said to Agatha, “it would be helpful if we could get a confession from Gladson, and get it on tape, despite the evidence we have so far.”

“But why would he ever confess. He’s to smart for that,” Agatha said.

“Maybe, but I have an idea,” I said.

I called Emily and told her of our plan.

We got back to the station, and Emily was all dressed up like a genuine, magic practicing, tarot card reading psychic, head scarf and all.

She put on so much makeup, she was unrecognizable!

This was perfect.

I went into Chiefs office.

“Is Governor Idiot-son still here?” I asked, pretending not to see him.

“Can you just do your job. Do you have any news of my wife?” Gladson asked.

“No. But we found someone we think can help find your wife. She’s a… sort of… witness to the kidnapping,” I said.

“A sort of witness,” the governor repeated and pushed a curious eyebrow upwards.

“Just come with me,” I said and motioned him to follow.

We went and sat at Emily’s table.

“What the hell is this?” He asked, peeved.

“Hi, I’m Ann O'Delia Diss Debar. But you can call me Miss Diss. I’m a psychic, and I’m here to help with your wife, Agatha,” Emily said.

I winked.

“Oh, hell no. I’m leaving,” Gladson said and stood up.

I quickly stood up, got behind him, and pushed him down back into his seat.

“Trust me, Governor, you’re going to want to hear what Miss Diss has to say,” I said and smiled mockingly.

“Give me your hands,” Emily said.

“No!”

“Now,” I shouted, grabbing the governors shoulders and squeezing as hard as I could without breaking them.

Gladson handed over his hands to Emily who grabbed them.

Then she pretended to read them, scrolled her fingers between the creases between the governors hand, then said “very interesting.”

“What is?” The governor asked.

“You had an affair…” Emily said

“What!” The governor shouted.

“That’s right. Her name was Emily…”

The governors eyes widened, then seemed to glare and shoot flames as he was about to shout and scream at Emily, when she said, “No, wait, you had several. Your first was Emily, am I right?”

“How do you know about Emily? I didn’t do anything with her, but how did you know about her?” Gladson asked.

“I’m psychic! Hello,” she said.

Governor Gladson glared.

“Also, I see many days of having sex with you and Emily,” she said. I almost threw up in my mouth, and was trying not to visualize them.

“Fine, I had an affair. So what. Most men do it at some point in their miserable lives,” the governor shouted.

“We got you on tape,” Agatha shouted after she came bursting into the room.

“Good for you. Having an affair isn’t a crime,” the governor said.

“No, but paying your affairs with tax payer funded hush money is. And with this recording, we can certainly embarrass you on tv. I’ll see you in court, Gary,” Agatha said.

“You’ll pay for this. And you have no proof I paid hush money to anyone,” Gary shouted, but Agatha was already out the door!

“Actually, I have proof,” I said, and handed Gladson a copy of the accounting paperwork showing he had spent taxpayer money to keep his affairs a secret.

“Damn it. I want my lawyer. You’ll all pay for this,” Gladson said through gritted teeth.

“Gary Gladson, you’re under arrest for embezzlement of taxpayer money. You have the right to remain silent, and anything…”

“Yah, yah, I know my rights. I want my phone call,” Gladson said.

I let him use Chiefs phone, to his detriment, then smiled as I handcuffed Gladson and put him in a cell.

“Later, Gary,” I said, smiled and pretended not to see him giving me the finger.

******

An hour later his lawyer, Fabian Fransisco, from Fabian, Fabian, and Joe, Esquire, showed up.

I wasn’t supposed to, but I watched Gary and Fabian talk through the double sided glass.

That’s when things got interesting.

Gary’s lawyer took out a spirit box.

“Oh, what the hell, mysterious Joe? Are you just giving these things to everybody?” I asked to myself.

Governor Gladson inhaled.

“Who'd you inhale, buddy? Somebody you think can help you escape?” I mumbled.

“Sorry, I can’t help you. I was an honest governor,” Gladsons spirit said in a thick, old fashioned southern accent.

“But you’re Peter Hardeman Burnett. You were a former slave owner from Missouri!” Fabian shouted.

“Former being the key word. It’s time I made amends for that and I start doing morally correct things, for a change,” Peter said.

“You asshole,” Fabian shouted and Gladson sneezed Peter back into his box.

“Bless you,” Fabian said, and they both frowned.

I smiled and walked away.

*****

“Governor Gladsons lawyer brought him a spirit box,” I said to Emily and Yi.

“Seriously? Who’s spirit?” Yi asked.

“Former Governor Peter Hardeman Burnett. But he refused to help, says he’s an honest man… or spirit, now, or whatever,” I said.

“Does that mean that creep is going to jail?” Emily asked.

“For a very long time!” I said and smiled.

“Good!” Yi said and high fived us.

“The only downside is I won’t get The Blue Mercury,” I said and frowned.

“What if I at least bought you a beer from there?” Yi said.

“Deal,” I said and smiled.