Bean lay with Peasley on her arm in his bedroom, both asleep. There was a noise, distant but sharp, but it was a bell ringing. When it repeated, it became unmistakable to Bean that it was the dinner bell. Her eyelids fluttered and she listened for it again. She stiffened as the bell stopped suddenly and she stood, careful not to wake Peasley. Bean rushed quietly down the stairs, went to the front door and threw it open, bringing her face to face with a tall man named Bogmire.
"Evening, ma'am," he nodded.
"Evening," she said coldly. "Can I help you?"
"You can start by accepting my apologies," he said. "I hope I didn't catch you during supper."
"No, that's fine."
"Yours was the last house on my list today, been walking between empty farms all day in the hot sun," said Bogmire. "Thought I'd tick this off my list, not have to come back tomorrow."
"What's this about?" she asked as a screen door banged in the back of the house.
"You alone here, ma'am?" asked Bogmire.
"My husband should be back from the city, any time now," she lied.
"Happy to hear," he said. "May I trouble you for some water?"
"Of course," she said. "I'll get some. You can take the glass with you."
"Actually ma'am, my business tonight," paused Bogmire, "this ticking off the list business, it's gonna require me coming in. If that's alright." Bogmire shifted his weight and Bean noticed that his heavy boot was now a few inches over the door jam.
"Will you tell me what this is about?" she asked.
"I will, yes," he nodded. "Can I come in?" Bean took a glance at the devolution gun and the possibilities started hanging all over her mind. She wasn't a killer and so, she stepped aside silently and let him come in.
In the back, Luigi slipped in through a screen door, but he stopped at the kitchen as soon as he'd recognized the voice of Bogmire. He kept the Poltergust in hand and started listening carefully. Bogmire had a steady hand but was probably the most dangerous of all the piantas in Buoy Base. Yet, Luigi didn't know he was back. Last time he'd checked, Bogmire was in Delfino Isle. Had Cackletta recalled him?
"I'm a deputized military officer," said Bogmire. "We're looking for an escaped criminal, just doing a sweep. Seen anyone through here the past two days, vagrants?"
"No, vagrants are always passing by but nobody near the house," lied Bean. Their footsteps thudded deeper as they moved through the house. Luigi couldn't tell if they were coming in through the living room or the hall and so, he hesitated.
"This man, here," said Bogmire, showing Peasley a security image of of Luigi's face.
"He's young," said Bean. "No."
At the last moment, Luigi slipped out of the hallway door just as Bean and Bogmire entered through the kitchen door. Bean held the photograph of Luigi as she poured Bogmire some water. She gave him the water as he gave her a second photograph.
"We're looking for his father, too," said Bogmire. "Similar look and build but a bit older. May or may not be moving together." This one was a security photograph of Waluigi holding a gun at a clerk. Bean's eyes lingered on Waluigi's face, recalling Luigi's at the same time, trying to make the connection.
"No," she said and tried to hand the photo back, but he waved it off.
"Keep them," said Bogmire as he noticed the toys on the table. "Any kids with your husband?"
"Yeah," she said. "Just one."
"How old?"
"Eight."
Bogmire poked his head into the hallway, just missing Luigi passing through the hallway and into the living room. He lifted his glass and drunk it all down.
"Thank you," he nodded.
"I'll show you around the grounds," she said, "then the house, then you can be on your way." She held the screen door to the outside open for him but he shook his head.
"We'll start with the house," he said and strolled into the living room just as Luigi hid behind some furniture, sitting down on a couch and pulling out a phone. "Eight, you said? Boy? And your husband. Just gotta… check in. With the home office. This freaking thing."
"This man dangerous?"
"Between you, me and a lamppost? No," answered Bogmire. "Sweet kid. But he's wanted. My boss has half the city's looking for him. Half the city and me. So. And if you find him, there's a helluva price. Think on that if he comes by, acting sweet." Luigi looked up and spotted Peasley standing in the foyer, standing halfway down the stairs. If Bogmire turned his head, he would see Peasley clear as day. Luigi motioned for Peasley to get out, but the boy pointed at Bogmire, making a gun with his hands. Luigi shook his head and sharply motioned for Peasley to get out. Peasley silently made his way down the stairs and was soon in full sight of the living room but he vanished down the hall as Bogmire remained on his phone. "All right. Show me upstairs." The screen door screeched and banged and Bogmire turned, looking sharp at Bean. He moved fast to the kitchen and the moment he exited the living room, Peasley reappeared in the hallway. He opened a small door under the stairway and motioned for Luigi to enter it. "This door doesn't latch?" Bogmire called over Bean.
"It used to, it's busted," she said as she moved over to him, giving Luigi enough time to enter the small space under the stairway with Peasley, who followed Luigi down deep concrete stairs. He pulled the door closed and it creaked behind them. Bogmire stepped out into the hallway, his devolution gun drawn but not leveled.
"Drafty house," he muttered.
"Farm house," corrected Bean.
"What's down there?" asked Bogmire as he walked over to the thin wooden door, opening and closing it as it creaked. He opened it again and looked at Bean gravely.
"Laundry room," she said. "Door must've blown it open."
"Two things," said Bogmire and he paused. "Two things. First, I have a family of my own back in the city, and I want to see them again. Second if anything happens to me, and I don't report back to my boss people in fifteen minutes, they're gonna know I disappeared searching this house, and inside of another fifteen you'll have an army of more men like me kicking down your door. Ok?"
"It's a laundry room," repeated Bean but Bogmire motioned for her to enter it first.
The bare concrete basement was starkly lit by a hanging lightbulb. The only things in the basement were a small washer and a dryer as well as a large canvas hamper the size of a fridge. There were no windows, nowhere else to go and Bogmire leveled his devolution gun at the hamper. "You want to call out whoever's hiding behind that hamper?" he asked.
"If someone was hiding in the house, that's what I'd do," answered Bean. "But nobody is in the house. Open it up."
"No, I think I'm gonna put a shot through it just to be safe," said Bogmire and he leveled his gun at it, with Bean stiffening at the motion. "You want to call him out?" Bean stayed silent but slinked over to the hamper and pulled it open, showing it as empty. She then threw open the washer and dryer, picked up a bucket and emptied it of water and then showed that to him.
"Now if you promise not to wag your gun at my shoe rack, I'll show you upstairs then show you out," Bean told Bogmire with a harsh coldness in her voice.
She stormed up the stairs and a little cowed, Bogmire followed her up. The water from the bucket flowed into a small stream across the room and into a drain below the hamper. Within the dark and earthy tunnel below the drain, Peasley led Luigi through with his flashlight. It led to just outside the barn and a trap door covered with dirty opened up about two inches. Luigi and Peasley propped it open, looking out at the farm house.
"My granddad built this but he didn't tell any of us why," said Peasley. "My grandma said it was because he was nuts."
"Thank you, granddad," whispered Luigi.
"That wasn't the man," said Peasley.
"No," nodded Luigi. "I know him, that's what's funny. His name's Bogmire. I like him. He'll go away when he doesn't find me, he won't hurt her." They watched in silence for a while and in the distance, Bogmire left the house alone and scoped the grounds before going to the waterway.
"My mom died when I was young," Luigi told Peasley. "I was younger than you. Me and my brother were practically vagrants and we were alone and for a long time, I thought she was stupid for getting killed when we were so young. She had to have been involved with bad stuff and the bad stuff ended up killing her. But now I see, after I got through university that we weren't so alone, and my brother and I had each other. One day, nine years ago, I sold out my own brother. To pirates." He looked at Peasley, wondering if the boy would see him as a bad guy now. He didn't even know why he was tellign Peasley this, he thought he'd moved on from what he did all those years ago... but he hadn't. Not really. "But my brother got away. He ran and I ended up on a ship, sitting alone in my empty cabin, going to this city and I saw myself over and over eventually killing the men that I sold my brother out to. Finding them and tearing them apart. Saving my family."
"But you didn't," said Peasley.
"A scientist in the city found me, put a gun in my hand, and gave me some things," said Luigi. "I didn't have my family anymore. I had my work, my money. My plans. For my life. That's what I'd kill for. Not something I don't have and can't ever get back." He paused and looked hard at Peasley. "There's just men figuring out what they'd do to keep what's theirs, what they got. That's the only kind of man there is."
"I'm not going to let Bean get killed," said Peasley and Luigi looked at the boy, wanting to put his hand on his shoulder, but he didn't.
"I think we're clear," Luigi told Peasley and he opened the trap door, climbing out. Luigi reached down to help Peasley out. He looked down at Peasley in a hole with a trap door and could only see the face of Harhall. What he did to Mario, he did to Harhall as well. It didn't feel like that when he did it but it was the same. Wasn't it? He grabbed the boy's hand and lifted him out. Bean came out, saw Peasley's face and her own broke with relief. Peasley runs to her, and in the distance they embrace.
Bean and Luigi shared a look, one of mutual understanding. It seemed like words would pass between them but he quickly turned his eyes back to the corn fields.