Read Online NOLA by Alexie Aaron - Free Book Online Page A

something off the small monitor and turned back to her.  “Mia, Alexei Alexandrovich was quite a womanizer in his day.  Make sure Ralph is glued to you at all times.  And that’s not a suggestion but an order.”
    Mia saw Brian look up at Ted and then straight at her and wobble his head.
    “He can’t possibly understand this,” she said to herself.  To Ted, she said, “Ralph will be a wart on my elbow, Teddy Bear.”
    “How did the meeting with the sensitives go?”
    “Sensitive isn’t a word that I’d use in describing their actions.”  Mia related the activities and the political posturing to Ted, who was very much amused by all of this.  She concluded with the conversation with the Voodoo priestess, omitting the mention of the birdmen.
     
    “Her name is Candy Kane, and she’s a Voodoo priestess?” Ted asked to be sure he heard her correctly, his fingers flying as he searched out this Candy Kane on the internet.
    “Yes, but we can’t help what our mothers name us, can we?” Mia said.  “Oh, I see Brian is falling asleep.  I’ll let you lay him down.  Be careful, and say hello to the PEEPs for me.  And yes, you can tell them all about it.  Bye Bye, Martin men.”
    Ted watched Mia blow a kiss to him and then in the direction of Brian before ending the video call.  He picked up Brian, turned him around, and sure enough, the little chap could hardly keep his eyes open.  Ted moved him to the makeshift crib and covered him up.  He walked back just in time to catch Marvin the Martian’s dance with a python around his neck.  In Jake’s version, the little spaceman was choked to death.
    “Thanks a lot for calming my fears, dude,” Ted snarled.
    “Ted, we’re going to investigate the basement stacks again, over,” Burt reported, his voice coming over the small speakers.  Ted quickly transferred the audio to his headset.  He looked over at Brian and was happy to see that Burt hadn’t woken the baby.
    “I’ll watch the other feeds, over,” Ted said and brought up the feeds on the monitor Mia had just vacated.  He settled into techie mode, pushing deep the concern he’d had the moment Mia mentioned Alexei.
     
    ~
     
    Ted’s eyes moved back and forth, taking in the six cameras while watching the team move down the aisle of the basement stack, concentrating on where the center aisle would have been.  Mike and Audrey pulled out books to make sure the Melville-seeking ghost hadn’t gotten stuck again.
    The library had no activity in the public areas.  A loud thump sounded now and again, but Ted couldn’t see where the sound was coming from.  He turned on his mic and said, “Burt, there’s a loud thumping coming from the upper floor. Do you hear it down there? over.”
    “I did hear a soft thump when we were in the north end of the building.  I’ll send Cid to check it out, over.”
    “Have him turn one of the cameras to face the checkout desk, over.”
    “Will do, over and out.”
    Ted wasn’t used to the old Burt yet.  The flitch did leave some corruption which caused Burt to be a bit erratic at times, but for the most part, Burt Hicks pre- Cold Creek Hollow was back on the job.  Ted tried hard to push away the fact that Mia and Burt may not have broken up if the flitch hadn’t infected and affected Burt.  Ted’s insecurities were hard to control sometimes.  They didn’t come to the surface and interfere with his working relationship, but they did fester from time to time when he was alone.
    Mia didn’t act any different, but Burt sure did.  He was kind to Ted’s wife, and the two of them laughed a lot together.  Mike, who had grown used to being protective of Mia when she and Burt were together on a hunt, had eased his watch.  The only one that seemed bothered by the new/old Burt was Audrey.  Ted caught her looking at him oddly time and time again.
    The movement of a camera pulled Ted out of his thoughts.  He switched over to Cid and whispered, “More to your