Chapter Six: Part One

 

CHAPTER SIX

Seaside, OR

October 6, 2018, 8:00 AM

 

 

Morning came early.  My eyes were plastered shut.  “Great,” I thought.  “The perfect time to contract pink eye.  I probably caught it from the ghost.  I have a strain of haunted pink eye that won’t respond to medication and now I’ll go blind.”  I knew the thought was ridiculous, but didn’t think it was any more farfetched than the happenings of the previous night.

I pulled my eyelids apart from the lower lashes, certain that I was ripping out half of them.  Getting up, I made my way to the only bathroom in the suite, turned on the light and looked at the mirror to assess the damage.  “Damn,” I thought.  “What am I supposed to do now?  Pink eye for God’s sake.  Just when I’m supposed to go back to the haunted tavern to find Megan.  Shit.”  This was not what I needed this morning.

I padded out to the phone in the front room and called the front desk.

“Hello, this is Susan Edwards in Room 204.  I seem to have contracted pink eye, and need to find a doctor.  Do you know of any who are open on Saturdays?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, Mrs. Edwards,” came the dismissive voice of the young man at the front desk.  “It’s not pink eye.  It’s the air circulation or something in that room.  People’s eyes just get dry and sticky.  If you wash your face, it’ll go away.”

I immediately wanted to jump down the young man’s throat for his seeming indifference.  My old bitchy, drunken personality was doing its best to make its presence known, but I was determined to fight it.  Megan needed me to stay on task during the search to find her.

Just then, Riley rolled over and opened her eyes.  I noticed that she didn’t have the same pseudo-pinkeye that I had.

“What happened to you last night?” she demanded accusingly, as she stared at my red eyes.  “You went out and got drunk, didn’t you!  Megan is missing and you got drunk!!  I can’t believe you!  I thought you’d changed!”

“Wait a minute, Riley,” I snapped back.  “I didn’t drink anything last night.  My eyes look this way because the air is so dry in this room that I’ve developed some kind of pink eye.”

It was hard to let that accusation go.  My heart felt as if it had just been stomped on, but I knew there were more important things to deal with right now.  I’d always hoped that both of my daughters would forgive me once I stopped drinking.  Riley, though, didn’t seem willing or able to let the anger and resentment go.  She’s the one who lost her childhood taking care of her little sister while I was drunk.  Now I needed to be the adult and set aside the momentary slap that she had delivered.

“I’m sorry, Honey,” I said.  “You sat here by yourself last night, not knowing what was going on.  After all those years of you having to take care of everything, it’s not surprising that you jumped to the conclusion that you did.  Can you forgive me?  I was actually in an apartment above the Bridge Tender Tavern, meeting with a woman who runs a detective agency.  There was a retired detective from the Seaside Police Department with us.  They’re willing to take Megan’s case.  The woman who runs the agency said this doesn’t sound like a random crime.  The detective found Megan’s purse and everything was still in it.  When he checked out her phone, there was a call on it from Nick at about the same time she went missing.  The call was made from Seaside.”

“Oh, God,” moaned Riley.  “Doesn’t that just figure?  The asshole was giving her a bad time about coming to Seaside without telling him.  I’ll bet he picked her up and took off with her.  She’s probably at his place over in Oregon City.  If he doesn’t want her to leave, she’s not gonna get out of there without help.”

  “Let’s have the detective come over here to talk with you,” I replied.  “He needs to know everything you can tell him about this Nick person.  They seem pretty sure that he’s the one Megan’s with.  The detective, Charlie is his name, called Nick after we found the phone.”  I’d decided during my walk home last night that I like the name Charlie better than Charles or Chuck.   “Nick said he was in Florence deejaying at some club, and that he hadn’t been in Seaside.  When Charlie told him that he knew that Nick had called Megan from Seaside, Nick hung up.  We’ve got to find him.”

Riley agreed.  “Listen,” she said.  “I’ll stay here in case Megan shows up.  You get the detective.  Can you call him?”  I felt better hearing Riley’s old military style ‘I can handle this’ attitude replace her angry, blaming voice, but her question still stopped me cold.  

“That’s strange.  He never gave me his cell phone number,” I answered.  “All I know is where the agency’s office is.  Let me see if I can find the number in the phone book.”

I took out the phone book from the bedside table.  “S…. Se…Seaside . . . It’s not listed here!  The name of the agency is The Seaside Agency, but it’s not listed in the phone book.  They probably just use cell phones,” I said.  “Wait a minute,” I mumbled to myself.  “Madam can’t use a cell phone,” I thought.  “Charlie said she can’t pick things up like we do.  Shit!  Why didn’t I get his phone number?  Now I’m going to have to go down to that place and see if the ghost is home so I can find out where to find Charlie.”  Obviously, I wasn’t saying any of this out loud.  It was more of a thought pattern that sounded as ridiculous in my head as it would have if I’d spoken it.  Oh, brother!  Riley would never believe I hadn’t been drinking if she knew what was going through my mind.  I could hardly believe it myself.

“Mom, you didn’t give them any money, did you?” asked Riley slowly.  “If they’re not listed in the phone book, they might just be scammers trying to bilk you out of your money.”

“No,” I replied.  “I told you that Charlie is retired from the police department here.  I even watched him call the police.  They didn’t have any information, and weren’t willing to do anything for at least 24 hours.  He and Madam agreed to take our case pro bono.”

“He and who?” said Riley with a look of shock on her face.  “Did you say ‘Madam’?”

“Yeah, I know,” I said.  “I'm sure there’s a story behind the name, but I didn’t have time to get into it with her.  She’s already recruiting investigators to help with the case.  I think she and the detective just like helping people.  Neither one of them seems to need the money.”  I wondered if that sounded as strange to Riley as it did to me.  I’d have to ask Charlie how he got by without charging a fee for his work.  Maybe he’d come into an inheritance somewhere along the line.  That’s probably why he could afford to retire so early.