Southern Rites (Max Porter Mysteries Book 7) Read online

  Southern Rites

  A Max Porter Paranormal Mystery

  Stuart Jaffe

  Table of Contents

  Southern Rites

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Afterword

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Copyright Information

  For my bandmates,

  Tim, Gary, and Tony

  Also by Stuart Jaffe

  Max Porter Paranormal Mysteries

  Southern Bound

  Southern Charm

  Southern Belle

  Southern Gothic

  Southern Haunts

  Southern Curses

  Southern Rites

  Nathan K thrillers

  Immortal Killers

  Killing Machine

  The Cardinal (coming soon)

  The Malja Chronicles

  The Way of the Black Beast

  The Way of the Sword and Gun

  The Way of the Brother Gods

  The Way of the Blade

  The Way of the Power

  The Way of the Soul

  Gillian Boone novels

  A Glimpse of Her Soul

  Pathway to Spirit

  Stand Alone Novels

  After The Crash

  Founders

  Real Magic

  Short Story Collections

  10 Bits of My Brain

  10 More Bits of My Brain

  The Bluesman Complete

  For more information, please visit www.stuartjaffe.com

  Chapter 1

  On several occasions during Max Porter’s youth, he heard his name called over the loudspeaker at school, summoning him to the principal’s office. After enduring a raised eyebrow from the teacher and the hushed curiosity of his peers, Max walked the long hall which only seemed to stretch further away the more he walked. He had no idea if the news that waited would be good or bad, only that he dreaded the discovery. Walking up the driveway of a suburban Winston-Salem home, Max felt that way again.

  His wife, Sandra, came up beside him on the right. They had been through a lot together — especially in recent days — and she had never wavered. He clasped her hand for a little extra strength.

  “I don’t like this,” a rich voice said before Marshall Drummond appeared on Max’s left side. Drummond, the ghost of a 1940s detective, had been a crucial partner in the Porter Agency since its inception. If Max had not already been feeling uneasy, this simple statement would have chilled his skin.

  Sandra pointed out a realtor’s FOR SALE sign. A large red SOLD had been slapped across the sign. Despite the hot weather, close to a month without rain, the lawn grew thick and green. Somebody had no qualms about conserving water.

  “I’m telling you,” Drummond went on, “this is a bad idea. You should both know by now that messing with witches never goes well.”

  “What should we do then?” Max said, unable to hide the growl in his voice. “It’s been what? Three weeks since all that went down at the Devil’s Tramping Ground? With the Hull family decimated, I figured we’d have had more time before this nonsense started up again. But Mother Hope and her Magi group call the shots now. And since she’s a witch, we’ve got to deal with her. At least, until we can change things.”

  “Doesn’t mean we’ve got to like it. We certainly don’t have to come running like eager puppies.”

  “Well, I didn’t expect to be hearing from them so soon. So excuse me if I’m a little off my game.”

  Sandra put out her hand. “Both of you — stop it. There’s no need to be bickering. We’ve got to be calm and professional going in to whatever this is.”

  Max knew Sandra was right, but that didn’t make it any easier to swallow. The call that came in that morning had made it clear — the Porter Agency, the research firm he and Sandra had built up with Drummond, now belonged to the Magi group. They could pretend that they were merely on retainer, but they all knew that the Magi group would never let it remain so simple.

  As they walked across a red brick pathway, Max caught Drummond peeking in his coat pocket. That pocket was once the home of their friend Leed — a man who had died and been reduced to a ball of energy. The events that helped Mother Hope and the Magi gain power had also ripped Leed from the world. Other than an occasional glance at his pocket, Drummond had displayed no behavior of loss or mourning. Max could only hope his friend would be okay.

  The front door opened and Leon Moore stepped out. Mother Hope’s right-hand man, he stood tall and strong, his dark skin hiding his features in the soft shade of the porch. Max tightened his grip on Sandra’s hand.

  “Thank you for coming so fast,” Leon said.

  Max’s top lip curled. “Didn’t have a choice, did we?”

  With a nod toward Sandra, Leon said, “You all look well. I’m glad to see nobody suffered too greatly from before.”

  Sandra’s eyes flared. “You don’t think a young boy being shot should be considered suffering?” The Sandwich Boys, PB and J, had been working for Max and Sandra only a short time, but PB took a bullet to the shoulder on their last case. “You call us from his bedside to do what? Check out an empty house for ghosts or something? Why bother with us? I’m just a beginner in witchcraft. Mother Hope has enough power of her own to handle whatever this is. Or perhaps we can lay out the truth — you really just want to show us who the boss is now. Isn’t that right?”

  With a confused grin, Leon stepped back to allow them inside. Max whispered to Sandra, “Way to keep it calm.” As they passed Leon, Max eyed the man. “Looks like your witch boss is making you younger again.”

  Leon unconsciously rubbed his back. When Max had first met the man, he was an old librarian, stooped and weak. Since rising in power amongst the Magi, Leon had lost all of that. He still had gray in his hair and wrinkles on his skin, but Max knew that should the man be willing to make a deal, Mother Hope would be willing to cast a spell and shave off more years.

  “Follow me, please,” Leon said, and led the way deeper into the house.

  Devoid of any furnishings, the empty house had a soft layer of dust on the wood flooring. Drummond floated nearby. “Looks like this place was on the market for quite some time.”

  Max knew Leon could not hear or see Drummond, but he still had to quell his natural reaction to shush the detective. He often wondered how Sandra dealt with it all — Max could only see and hear Drummond; Sandra saw and heard all ghosts.

  As they headed single-file down a narrow hall, Leon said, “As part of the Restructuring, the Magi are purchasing several properties in Winston-Salem.”

  “The Restructuring?” Max asked.

  “The Hull family controlled all of the magic usage in this state for so long, nobody really knows how to go forth now that they’re gone. Since we’re the only qualified group, and we are in charge at the moment, Mother Hope thought it was a good time to restru
cture the way things are to be done.”

  “And you need to buy property for that?”

  Leon stopped at a closed door. “We need offices and housing for new employees and safe locations for those in trouble, not to mention prisons for those who break the law but are beyond the capabilities of the local police. It’s quite a logistical endeavor. Then, of course, we want to protect the public from any houses that exude excessive magical energy.”

  “I don’t know why I bothered asking. How about you open that door and get this show going? We really don’t want to be here any longer than necessary.”

  Leon’s nostrils flared, but otherwise he remained stoic. “Of course.” He turned the knob and pushed open the door.

  As Max entered the master bedroom, his skin prickled. The wooden floor had shattered toward the ceiling as if a giant fist had punched through from below. Many splintered boards stood perpendicular to the floor and some bent even further out. The gash in the floor crossed nearly from wall-to-wall.

  That alone would have been eerie enough, but sitting in the middle of this gap, supported by several pieces of vertical floorboards, Max saw a pine-box coffin. The top had been ripped aside, discarded near the only window in the room. Max approached and saw the remains of a man long since dead — all bone and tattered clothing. The tricorn hat, brittle belt, and long-barreled musket tucked at his side suggested somebody from late-18th or early-19th century.

  “Well, well. Look at that,” Drummond muttered as he flew over the coffin. “This is far better than a few trinkets on display in a museum.”

  Sandra stepped around the coffin. “You dug up an old body. Great. What is it you want with us?”

  “For starters,” Leon said, “we want to know who this is. But more importantly, we did not dig him up. When I purchased this house, it had been untouched. Two days later, I entered to find this.”

  “Okay. You’ve got a few grave robbers roaming about. Again, what is it to do with us?”

  Max’s shoulders slumped. “Not grave robbers, hon.” He pointed to the floorboards. “If somebody had come in here and ripped this flooring open, there would be ax marks.”

  “He’s right,” Drummond said, “and the wood they chopped would have been thrown aside. This has been exploded from below or pulled up by something powerful.”

  “Yes,” Leon said. “No ax marks. No sign of breaking and entering. Nothing to suggest grave robbers. Besides which, Mother Hope took one step in here and she knew. Something powerful, something with magical strength, brought that coffin up.”

  Drummond crossed his arms. “Hey, that’s what I said.”

  “Fine,” Sandra said. “You’re all geniuses for noticing the lack of ax marks. That doesn’t explain what you want from us, aside from identifying the remains. What is it you want us to do here?”

  “Do? Nothing. You are researchers. We want you to research. Find out who the man is and why somebody would have wanted to rip him from the ground. The rest is Magi business and none of your concern.”

  Max could hear Sandra’s blood heating up. She snapped out a finger at Leon. “If you think we’re going to just run over here every time you call and solve your little mysteries without any idea of what or how that information is going to be used —”

  “You forget quickly,” Leon said, not even bothering to turn his face from her accusing finger. “Your husband has been cursed by Mother Hope. You’ll do whatever we ask or she’ll send him into the ghost world while keeping his body in a coma.”

  Max involuntarily reached up to his chest. The mark of Mother Hope’s curse seemed to vibrate under his skin. Unless that was his raging heartbeat.

  Brushing off his concerns, he looked closer at the skeleton. Dust and cobwebs clung to its broken smile. Several teeth had fallen from the skull but could be seen in the coffin near the left clavicle. In fact, other than the missing teeth, the skeleton looked remarkably preserved — except for two matters. First, the right femur was missing. Second, a dustless patch marked the skeleton’s chest yet had been covered by its dusty hands.

  Max said, “This man held something. From the shape, I’d say it was a book.”

  “Oh, yes,” Leon said. “I almost forgot about that. It’s a journal, we think. Haven’t had much time to look at it, yet.”

  “I doubt that.”

  “Please. Max, Sandra, I have no reason to be against you. In fact, Mother Hope instructed me to help you as much as possible. She assigned me because of my experience working at the Z Smith Reynolds Library, that’s all. I have to admit that doing research outside of the library walls is a bit daunting to me. So, I apologize that I removed the journal and forgot to mention it.”

  Before Sandra could stir up her anger again, Max said, “I certainly understand. We’re all playing catch-up with the new changes.”

  “Exactly.”

  “But we’re here now, and I’d like to see that journal.”

  “I understand entirely. It’s at our Winston-Salem downtown office. I’ll see that you get the address, and I’ll make sure the journal is waiting for you to pick it up.”

  Max stared hard at Leon. His cellphone rang, but he refused to look away. This first case with the Magi would set precedents for the future, and Max wanted to make sure Leon, Mother Hope, and the entire organization knew that he and his partners would not be pushed around.

  A few seconds later, Sandra’s cellphone rang. She answered it but Max kept his focus on Leon. Taking the journal could not have been an accident, and it was more than a simple display of power. There was something else at work here. Drummond’s earlier uneasiness echoed in Max’s mind.

  “Um, hon?” Sandra said. “We’ve got to go.”

  Max finally looked away. His wife’s face looked pale. “What’s wrong? Is PB okay?”

  “He’s fine.” She glanced at the cellphone. “That was your mother.”

  A cold stone formed in his chest. “Is she ... is she ...”

  “No, she’s fine. She’s alive. But she’s here.”

  The stone dropped into a stomach. “Excuse me?”

  “She called from PTI airport in Greensboro. We have to go pick her up right now.”

  “Oh, hell.”

  Chapter 2

  Max set a paper grocery bag on his kitchen counter as Sandra and his mother entered the house. He pulled out all the ingredients necessary to make chicken parmigiana and put them on the counter with a loud thump. Less than two hours since they had picked up his mother, and already he wanted to scream. She had complained that she was hungry, that they didn’t serve her anything on the flight from Detroit or on the connection from Charlotte, and that she would be happy if they could simply stop someplace quick and get a bite. Max suggested some Lexington BBQ, but she didn’t want anything foreign.

  “It’s not foreign, Mom. It’s just a bit of local culture. Like eating a cheesesteak in Philly.”

  “I don’t like cheesesteaks.”

  “Then how about Wendy’s or KFC or something like that?”

  “Fast food? That stuff is disgusting. I’m sure I can put something together when we get to your house.”

  So Max stopped at the grocery store on their way home. Sandra offered to make a nice meal for everybody, but Max’s mother said, “I wouldn’t want to bother you with such a trifle. I’ll take care of it.”

  Luckily, Sandra took her aggression out on the arm rest, digging her nails in deep while forcing a smile. Drummond had the sense to be far away from any of this, so Max was on his own.

  Before he could put water in a pot to boil, his mother grabbed an apron and started working on dinner. Sandra glowered at Max as she walked by. “I’ll get the room ready for you, Mrs. Porter.” From the first day these women had met, Max’s mother insisted on being spoken to formally.

  “No need to bother for me,” Mrs. Porter said. “I can sleep down here on the couch.”

  “We have a guest room. I’ll make the bed up right now.”

  “Oh, well
then, thank you, dear. I didn’t want to assume you had been thoughtful enough to provide a room for guests.”

  Sandra forced a grin before leaving. Once Max heard Sandra stomp up the stairs, he turned to his mother. “Why are you provoking her?”

  “Maxwell, what are you talking about?”

  “What’s going on? Why did you suddenly show up unannounced?”

  Chopping an onion, each cut accentuating her remarks, she said, “I think I’ve waited long enough to be invited, but since that clearly wasn’t going to happen, I took matters into my own hands. You two think you can do whatever you want and ignore those who have taken care of you, but you’re wrong. I know I taught you better. I can only assume that your wife is to blame.”

  “Don’t start in on her. It’s not her fault. In fact, she often suggested we have you down to visit.”

  “I doubt that.” She tossed the onions into a hot pan, and they sizzled.

  “Look, ever since we moved here, we’ve been terribly busy. It’s been hard and we’ve had to work non-stop in order to survive.”

  Mrs. Porter gestured with a spatula in hand. “Yes, I can see how awful it’s been living in this palace.”

  “This house? Not too long ago, we were in a trailer. That’s right. It’s only been a short time since we’ve been doing this well. You think I wanted you to see us when we barely had heat?”

  “I’m sorry to hear you had to go through that, but how was I to know when you don’t tell me anything? I could have helped you out.”

  Even as she tried to stir the onions, Max hugged her. It felt better than strangling her. Besides, he knew she meant it when she said she would have helped. Standing only five feet even, he had no trouble kissing the top of her head. “Thank you for the thought. But you taught me to stand on my own, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”

  Mrs. Porter tilted her head up and gave him a motherly peck on the cheek. “You’re a good boy. Even if you don’t think about your ol’ mother often enough.”

  “I’ll try to be better. But you try to be nicer to Sandra.”