The Bertie Mansion

XXI

The next morning everyone slept in except Rob, who didn't need sleep, and were awoken by the doorbell. The government had come calling in explanation of what happened to the two missing people of the Downy Mansion and to announce the death of two of them. Jade didn't need to feign surprise because she was hosting the two previous occupants.

Curiously enough, there wasn't any questioning or need for alibis and the investigation was very hush-hush as if they knew it had been a ghost attack that did it and didn't want to spread the news. The country as a whole thought ghosts were just an addition to scary movies, so it was probably a well-kept secret. Jeremy kept his head down and the agents ignored him well enough. It helped him that Caleb stuck to his side like he had been glued with the good stuff.

"Alyssa," her grandfather scolded. "I told you I hired Jeremy to babysit. He's even got his friend. Isn't that nice of him?"

"I guess so," Alyssa said. She pouted before flouncing inside the sitting room. Her reaction to hearing her parents died was reasonable. There were tears and lots of snot and then a long nap, but she seemed on the rebound with the help of the people in her new home. Kids were more resilient that way.

Alexander tried to keep the mood up. "She can be a handful. If she asks you what the male dolls she has look like beneath their underwear, deny knowledge."

"Alright. We should be fine," said Jeremy. He shook the other man's hand.

"Right. Be warned, once she popped the head off one Ben guy doll, and then put Ben's on one of the girls? That was hilarious." The old man barked out a laugh and slapped his knee a few times. No one else found it remotely funny. He sobered up and glanced between the two boys. "No good?"

"No," Caleb agreed. They were helping him get up-to-date in his thinking since it was equivalent to his daughter's last request of him, but occasionally he slipped. "See you later."

"That I will," Alexander said, and then he left to take care of some business that dealt with wrapping up the case of the now-ruined Downy residence.

A few of Alyssa's toys had been retrieved from the partial wreckage and she played with one of her dinosaurs. Its head bobbed with its long neck, making it fun to just move and watch the head go up and down. It had been dressed in a frilly pink tutu and looked like it had been through a sparkly sticker explosion.

"What's Mr. Stompy up to now?" Jeremy asked as she twirled around the room. She wasn't back up to full energy, but in a good hour she was close.

"Mr. Stompy is a ballerina!" she declared. To prove her point she made it spin around on its tail and leap about the room some more. She was occupied for the moment in her fantasies.

"What have you got?" Caleb asked as the men settled on the couch. Jeremy pulled out a book he had stored in the mansion's library.

"Only Engard's Official Complete Military History of the Past Two Centuries: 2100 to 2300," he proudly announced. "Of course, it's assuming we won't have another war before we reach the new century."

Caleb waved away the last words. "That doesn't matter. So it'll have the Great War?"

"Oh yeah, it takes up at least half of this book. See? We'll have to skip through until the later years, somewhere in the middle." Jeremy started flipping through the pages. Rob had given them permission to go digging for answers because he wanted to move on, he just wasn't sure he could tell his secret himself.

"What are you doing?" Alyssa asked, coming over to investigate. Jeremy patted the back of Mr. Stompy bouncing on his knee.

"Just looking up a name," he said. Since children could be smarter than they seemed, Jeremy decided to ask her straight out. "Have you heard of a Roberta Frier?"