###
“So, how do you want to handle this?” Tabby asked me after I finished getting dressed the next morning.
“To be honest, I don’t know. With Lucy, I knew where I was going because Will took me. This… this is something new.” Somehow, I had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be as easy as typing the address into the GPS. There was a lot more to it. I just didn’t know what it was.
“Well, we came here because of the package,” she said.
“Yeah. Let’s try that.” Might as well. I mean, it wasn’t like I had any other plan.
First off, we had to get to our new hotel. I was glad I had the foresight to have us crash for a night in Tucson. I don’t think I could have driven all the way to Tombstone last night. Luckily, I’d been able to find a hotel that was pet-friendly in Tombstone. That meant we wouldn’t have to travel back and forth for the days we were here. I was thankful we had the credit card. There was no way my meager existence would have allowed us to stay in Arizona for any length of time. And, well, who knew how long all of this was going to take?
So, Tabby plugged the address of the hotel into her phone’s GPS, and after checking out, we were on our way.
Isaac seemed a bit more nervous. He kept suddenly looking at things in and around the car. I don’t know if it was the recovery from the plane trip or if he was sensing something, but he couldn’t settle down. Every time I looked back at Lucy, she was doing nothing. If she’d been hurting Isaac, he would have made some sort of noise. All I heard were sort of snorts from him. Not exactly worry-worthy.
“I’m getting hungry, Jimmy. Let’s stop somewhere for breakfast,” Tabby said finally.
“We should have done the continental breakfast thing.” I was getting hungry too, but it was better to let her make the first move.
She smacked me on the arm playfully. “I want bacon, dammit.”
I laughed. Tabby knew how to put things into perspective.
###
The closer we got to Tombstone, the more my heart raced. The animal side of me was sensing something that the logical side of me wasn’t. Logic told me I had nothing to worry about because we were just going to look up an address. But logic wasn’t exactly my best friend, and nothing about my job was logical.
“Jesus Christ!” Tabby grabbed onto my arm.
I slammed on the breaks. There, in front of the car, was the biggest badger I had ever seen. He was staring at the car like he wanted to eat it. The dumb thing looked like he weighed forty pounds, but that was probably because his fur was puffed up.
I revved the engine at the thing. It growled and started walking toward the car like a lion stalking its prey.
“Jesus, Jimmy. Did you have to do that?” Tabby asked.
I looked at Tabby. “How was I supposed to know?”
“It’s getting closer,” Lucy said from the backseat.
I rolled down the window. I had to do something. Yeah, the animal probably wasn’t going to get into the car, but I’m pretty sure the car rental place would have an issue with their car being totaled by ‘Badger Attack.’ “Hey,” I said.
It stopped and growled.
“I’m sorry I disturbed you. Go ahead.” I motioned with my hand for the thing to continue its way across the highway.
Mr. Badger glared at me for another minute, then it started crossing the road.
Just as I was about to relax, he turned his head around to look at me. Almost like he was saying, “You sure you don’t want a piece of this?”
I did not move. Finally, after it disappeared into the sagebrush, I drove off.
“Well, that was interesting,” Tabby said.
“Is that what you want to call it? ‘Badger Attack’ wasn’t part of the itinerary.”
“Just get us to the hotel. I don’t want to fight,” Tabby said.
Who was fighting? But I said nothing. It was better to keep the peace than to wreck us because Tabby and I had a knock-down-drag-out in the car.
###
After we deposited Isaac and our stuff into our hotel room, I punched in the address of the package into the GPS on Tabby’s phone. Whatever it was, it was on a street called Toughnut. That alone should have been enough to make me laugh my ass off, but the general feeling of it all wasn’t funny. I was starting to feel a little dread. Not to mention I still wasn’t exactly happy with the way Tabby acted in the car.
It wasn’t like when I finally entered Sorrow’s Point or anything, but the dread was there. Nineteen-seventy-three Toughnut Street turned out to be a vacant lot. Now I knew someone was fucking with me. When we pulled up to the destination, I thought the GPS had puked.
“This can’t be right,” Tabby said.
I looked around. There were a few houses on either side of us, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I knew it wasn’t going to be this easy. I just knew it.
Lucy was strangely silent.
“I guess we’ll check it out.”
We got out of the car. Tabby was looking all around with her hand shielding her eyes from the bright sunlight. I walked over to the house nearest to the car. The number on the outside was nineteen-seventy.
I walked back to Tabby. “I think someone is playing us.”
Tabby raised her eyebrow at me. “Maybe we should ask Lucy?”
I nodded and walked back to the car and stuck my head in the window. Lucy looked up at me.
“Any ideas, Lucy?” I asked.
She looked at me and sighed. “Someone needs your help here.”
I leaned my head up against the roof of the car. My patience was wearing thin. The heat felt good on my forehead from the roof baking in the sun. “Any idea who?”
She shrugged. “Guess he’ll find you when he wants you.”
Not an answer I wanted. I’d rather know what I was up against so I could take care of it, leave, and go back home. “So, what do we do until then?” I asked her.
She shrugged again. “Whatever.”
I don’t know what I’d been expecting, but it seemed so pointless to travel all the way out here for nothing. I could have found Southwestern food somewhere back home. And Lucy wasn’t a lot of help. It wasn’t her fault, but it would be helpful to know what her feelings meant versus all the other stuff.
I waved Tabby over. She stopped looking at the house she’d been staring at and walked in my direction.
“What now?” she asked.
“We find something to amuse ourselves with.” Or I could find who brought me here for a fool’s errand and beat the shit out of him. Either one worked for me.
“What about the address?”
“A red herring, I guess. Lucy says the guy who wants our help will find us, but I can’t help but think we’re going to be psychically mugged.”
Tabby laughed. “I don’t think Lucy would let that happen.”
“I sure as hell hope not.”
###
So, we left Toughnut Street and found a decent place to park. Then we headed down Allen Street on foot.
Allen Street was the main street in Tombstone. Part of Allen Street was where the shootout with Wyatt Earp happened. I was glad I wasn’t around back then. My temper combined with my general smartassiness would have left me dead before I was twenty. I just couldn’t see me bowing down to some random outlaw just because he thought he was a big shot. Yeah…I probably shouldn’t hang out in Vegas either.
The old-timey look of the place was quaint. All the signs were printed with the type of font you saw on old Western movies. There were a few people milling about in period clothes. The rest looked like tourists. The scenery was nice, but the heat left something to be desired. I was so accustomed to East Coast weather, the intense day heat here felt like I was walking around in an oven. Not fun at all. If this was what Hell felt like, all the more reason for me to never go there.
“Let’s go in here,” Tabby said.
I looked up. It was a saloon. The place even had those old style swinging doors. She was probably r
ight, a cold drink would help. Plus, the place looked kind of dark inside. Maybe being out of the sunlight would help.
Tabby grabbed a pamphlet from a rack beside the door and looked at it for a minute.
“Jimmy?”
“Yeah?”
“Who told you that you were related to Doc Holliday?”
I blinked. This was not something I expected to be asked today. “My mom, why?”
“His name has two L’s.”
I shrugged. “I don’t think that really makes too much of a difference. Families spell names different all the time.”
Tabby raised her eyebrow at me.
“No, really. This guy I knew in seminary had at least four different family members that changed the spelling of their last name.”
“Do you believe you’re related?” she asked.
“Not really. It was just one of those things Mom always said.” I think my mother wanted to be famous in some way. Too bad her life was daytime movie material all right—the Lifetime movie about what happens when you’re an alcoholic and your kids have to learn to cope. Not that I was bitter or anything.
She nodded. “That flask is weird.”
I couldn’t argue with her there. It probably would be something highly prized by a collector somewhere. Hell, I would have been fascinated had I noticed it at an antiques show, but having received it at random through the mail? Well, that was creepy. “Yeah. A lot of things are weird.”
“Don’t you think it’s strange that the flask has Holliday’s initials on it?”
I started to laugh. First, how would I have known Holliday’s initials? And second, what did that have to do with anything? “Do I even need to mention how many name configurations could have those same initials?”
“Fuddy duddy.”
I pulled her into a hug. This trip had been hard enough for both of us. “Hey, we have enough mysteries without you creating more for us.”
She pulled away and glared at me. I’d screwed up now. Yeah, I should have handled this better, but I was already annoyed enough with the false lead.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
Tabby grunted and headed toward the bar. I followed behind.
I guess I deserved the silent treatment, but damn she was being harsh. I’d done a lot worse than this.
“You know, you could have just checked Google Earth,” she snapped. She stopped in the middle of the aisle and stared at me.
“Google Earth wouldn’t have told me who sent the flask, now would it?” Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have snapped at her, but I was tired of being treated like her own personal punching bag.
“All right. Jesus, Jimmy. You are driving me crazy. I concede. Yes, there is a reason we’re here. What is it?”
Just as I was about to answer her, a deep voice answered for me.
“That’s a question we’ve all been asking, little lady.”
I looked at the guy. He was dressed in this old timey way with a vest and an old suit coat. He had a black hat, but he was holding it in his hand. His hair, unlike his hat, was ash blond. He also sported a matching mustache.
Tabby looked like she’d just swallowed a bug. Her hands were shaking. She was on the verge of losing the pamphlet. What was her problem?
On a whim, I asked, “Sir, do you know anything about Toughnut Street?”
The man laughed weirdly, almost as if it was being barked out of his chest. I guess my question was the funniest thing he’d had heard in awhile. He stopped abruptly. “Weird things on Toughnut. But nowhere near as weird as me.”
I didn’t doubt that. He wasn’t exactly a normal guy, not with the way he was acting. But I didn’t really have room to talk. I wasn’t normal either.
“What is your name?” Tabby asked.
He smiled. “You can call me Doc.” Then, he disappeared.
“Fuck.” I looked at Tabby, and she looked back at me. That was the first time I’d spoken to what was probably a real ghost. Lucy didn’t count. She was a soul separated from her body.
“Maybe it isn’t a man that needs an exorcism but the town,” she said.
“Then we’re going to need a lot more exorcists.” I had this vision in my head of a circle of exorcists chanting in the town square. It was like a scene in a movie.
###
Seeing Doc didn’t stop us. I left Tabby standing in the aisle and walked up to the bar. I knocked on it to get the bartender’s attention. He was dressed in a white shirt with a ribbon tie around his neck. His hair was black and parted down the middle. Guess he was told to look the part. He stopped washing glasses and looked at me.
“Whatcha need?” he asked.
“Did you see that?” I pointed toward the area Doc had been sitting.
He shrugged. “Doc is known to show himself here from time to time. He won’t hurt ya.”
I blinked. I wasn’t used to a place where ghosts were that commonplace. “Oh, I’m not worried about that.” I paused. I had more to worry about than talking to ghosts. Distraction wasn’t something I needed. I took a deep breath and stilled myself. It was time to get back to my real problem—figuring out who had sent that flask and why I’d been called here. “Have you heard of anyone looking for a Jimmy Holiday?”
Tabby walked up behind me and put her hand on my elbow. The bartender raised his head and looked over at Tabby. “So, they got ya, did they?”
“Who? What?”
He leaned in close. “There’s a lot of weird shit in this town. And we get people coming here looking for something all the time. Most, we never see again.”
It was starting to sound like a bad horror movie. What was next? Being warned about the black dog that appears only at the full moon? “Look. Someone sent me a silver flask from an address on Toughnut. No name. Empty parking lot.”
“No, there wouldn’t be,” he said. “House there burned down a few years ago. The family wasn’t real careful with their gas. Lady left a pot on the stove, the flame went out, and when the furnace kicked on downstairs…Boom!”
“Was everyone okay?” Tabby asked.
He nodded. “She’d gone to the store when she left the pot on the stove. Lost the whole house though, and there was damage to the other houses around it. Took about a year to get everything set to rights.”
“So, if the house was gone, then who sent me the flask?”
He shrugged. “Wasn’t the lady that lived in that house. She left and moved to Philadelphia. No, stick around awhile, and he’ll find ya, but don’t say I didn’t warn ya.”
I didn’t like the idea that this bartender knew who he was talking about, but he didn’t bother to tell me. It was my life that was being fucked with, not his. Just as I was about to say something about it, the bartender put down the last glass and walked into the back of the saloon.
Tabby grabbed me by the arm. “We are so screwed.”
“Tell me about it.”
CHAPTER FIVE
YOU SPIN ME
So, I guess we did the stupid thing. I stopped getting myself worked up, and Tabby calmed down. When the bartender came back, I ordered up a couple of beers and some chicken strips and fries. I knew I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t at least wait for awhile. The dude was supposed to show. I started wondering if this had happened before. Tabby hadn’t said much at all.
I almost wished I hadn’t left Lucy in the car. Who knows what could have happened if she and old Doc had gotten together. But there was no sense in worrying about it now. Still, it might have been something cool to see.
“Jimmy?” Tabby asked.
I looked up from my food. “Yeah?”
“I’m sorry I was so hard on you earlier.”
Holy shit. Tabby was apologizing to me. This was one of those things that almost never happened. Ever. Maybe spotting a ghost changed her perspective on a few things.
“It’s okay. I know I can be a pain in the ass sometimes. Besides, we’re in this together, right?” It was the least I could do. I’d been
just as much of a prick as she’d been. Might as well own up to it.
She wiped her mouth with a napkin. “Right.”
“So, I wonder when Mr. Creepy is going to show up.”
“Which Mr. Creepy?”
I laughed. It was kind of sad she had to ask. We’d been through so much weird shit that it was an honest question. “Whatever it is we’re supposed to be waiting for? Part of me hopes he looks like he’s from The Hills Have Eyes or something. The other part of me hopes he’s a normal guy who is an antique collector or something.”
“In your case, either one would be bad.” She took a drink of her soda.
“How so?”
“Because you’re an exorcist. Any of the weird people you encounter will likely be possessed.”
Shit. She was right. Though, not everyone I encountered was possessed. I mean, her mother wasn’t demon-fied, she was just a bitch. “Or a pissotsky.”
“What the hell is a pissotsky?”
I started laughing. “It’s a guy possessed by a certain type of demon. When he gets horny, he gets horny.”
She rolled her eyes. “And what movie did you get that from?”
I grinned. “The fruitburger classic, My Demon Lover.”
She held her head in her hands. “I sure as hell hope that the higher power knows what he’s doing making you this thing.”
“Maybe it’s my charm.” I knew she liked me. Otherwise, she wouldn’t put up with my goofy ass. But, evidently, she wasn’t as comfortable with me being a marker as I thought she was. Interesting.
She swatted me on the arm. “You done?”
“Yeah. I give up. Let’s get back to Lucy.” I pushed my food away. We’d waited here long enough. I hadn’t seen anyone come into the place. It was time to cut my losses, do a little sightseeing, and then go home.
I went up to the bar to pay the bill while Tabby waited for me by the door. The bartender didn’t say a word to me as he settled my tab and ran my credit card. In fact, he seemed a little old. Stiff almost. I shrugged it off as an old guy being tired, but I felt that strange feeling again.