Gheist

by Richard Mosses

  Amy shrugged. “I guess so. Really, she has no clue.”

  Kat didn’t think for a second that Mrs Danton was clueless. She was likely the one person around here who knew exactly what was what. She breathed deep. She either believed Amy and went ahead, ran the risk of being caught in a trap, or they did nothing, just walked away after all this time. If it was a trap, or they did nothing, either way led to Kat being not much worse than now. They could get caught anyway, some stupid blunder during the job was all it would take. Best option was to go ahead and assume they were expected. Soon as she knew the way the security systems worked from Amy, Kat would finish her plan and they could get started. But there was one thing nagging Kat. “How did she speak to you? Could she see you?”

  “You know that was what was really weird. I’m in the penthouse suite and the phone was on the table. They thought it was the phone itself that was the anchor, which was lucky.”

  “So they can detect anchors too?”

  “I was just getting to that. Hold your horses.”

  “There was this other guy there with her. He was like you, he could see me, talk to me, was like an interpreter, pointed out where I was standing, so when I said she looked right through me, well that’s coz she couldn’t see me. But her eyes were still, you know, savage. He was the one who found the phone.”

  “Scrawny bloke, silly wispy beard, dead eyes?” Jar Guy.

  “You know him?”

  “He was the one who took my heart out.” Was he staff or a contractor? Seemed odd he just happened to be at the casino, but given how long Amy had been away he could have been called in to question her. Kat took a mental note to be sure to hide the anchors well next time, and as far from the casino as possible.

  “There was something else, though,” Amy said. “I didn’t see it face to face, but on the CCTV footage there was one time when it looked like something else was inside her. Like she was possessed or something.”

  “Possessed? By a demon?” If there were ghosts why not demons too?

  “I dunno. Just something rose to the surface of her skin. Something inside her. Like a younger version of herself.” Amy shrugged. “It was only there for a moment.”

  “I’ll let Melchior know next time I see them. Maybe they’ve seen it?” This was complicated enough without more supernatural weirdness. They just had to keep moving forward.

  31

  “We’re ready,” Kat said. She looked in turn at Clint, Fingers, Jack, Amy, and Vincent. It was hard to believe it had come to this. It was even harder to believe she was doing this with dead people, and that some of them were kind of her friends. Was this really happening or was she in some protracted mental breakdown? It was too late to be worrying about something like that. “We do this tonight. I’m not taking any chances on the Dantons expecting us. We’re not looking for money, so a quiet night with no scheduled movement of cash is a good time. They’ll have fewer staff and we’ll have more opportunity.”

  “Okay, sweetheart,” said Clint, smiling before Kat could reprimand him. “I’m ready.”

  “Anyone not know what they’re doing?” said Kat. “Anyone want to back out?”

  “I still think this is insane,” said Jack. “But I’m in. I’m ready.”

  “Blood and glory, mate,” said Fingers. “Think of that. I’m all in.”

  “Yeah, mate,” said Amy, mimicking. “I’m all in too.”

  “I’ll see you all when you get back,” said Vincent. “Good luck.”

  “Thanks,” said Kat.

  Before heading off, Kat checked the anchors one last time. Clint’s lighter, Finger’s glasses and Jack’s flick knife, were all strapped tight to the charms Melchior had given them. Another phone with another download of Amy’s video sat in the small cash box too. She closed the lid and locked it, putting the key in the watch pocket of her jeans. No fancy dress tonight. She needed to blend in and hope security wasn’t looking for her. Kat put the cash box in the glove compartment.

  She breathed deep, turned the key in the ignition, put the car into Drive and headed north out of town and into the desert as the sun went down and the lights came on. The team were quiet, probably resting. She wouldn’t normally like to start with a few hours of driving, but without a chauffeur what choice did she have. Staying overnight was too risky. Kat turned on the radio to break the silence, but she couldn’t find anything she wanted to listen to, so switched it off again. She wound down the window and breathed in the warm dusty air, listened to the sound of the desert as its nocturnal inhabitants came to life and the wheels of the car rumbled along the quiet highway. As she got closer to the Inferno Creek Casino Kat looked forward to feeling nervous again. She should have fluttering loops in her stomach, palpitations, sudden heat flushing through her. But she was cold and calm. Almost robotic. What if she got her heart back and nothing changed? Could she be stuck like this, remote from the world, separated by plate glass? Hadn’t she felt something in the casino when she was ready to win, and again while scoping out Inferno Creek? It would be alright. It had to be. Once she figured out how to get it put back in. Maybe she could hire Mrs Danton’s man. Hopefully he was freelance. She’d still need money for that. She was going to break into a casino vault. Something no one had gotten away with – and not actually steal anything. If anything showed she was insane then that was it, surely? Kat could set herself up for life, or at least a few years of comfort if not outright luxury. Get some interest back on her deposit. No, this wasn’t revenge. This was much better. This was humiliation and reparation. Killing the Dantons’ reputation would see their empire crumble and none of that would be on her conscience.

  She pulled over along the road between Beatty and the Inferno Creek Casino turning. It was good to stretch her legs and loosen up before they got started. Kat took the cash box out of the glove compartment, dug a shallow grave for it in the warm desert dirt, and buried it. If she couldn’t remember where she’d left it, she could find the box with the phone. Everyone should be within range of the casino from here.

  Time to play her final hand.

  Amy jumped into the system, familiar from her last visit. In the security booth, she checked the live feeds first. Security was light, as expected, and following the routes she’d mapped out. They had a little while until there was a change of staff. Long enough that there wouldn’t be any early handovers, but not so long that they weren’t tired and ready for a coffee break. Made them more susceptible to suggestion and more likely to make mistakes.

  The next step was to take the feeds into the booth and the backups and put them on a loop. But she knew she had to keep the timestamp running too and ensure there were no repeating movements within the view. Not as easy as it sounds. Amy spliced together some archive footage and some live feed. She set it running.

  It was trivial in comparison to flicker one of the lights outside as a signal to Kat that everything was ready. Amy went back to keeping an eye on the live cameras.

  There it was – the signal. The fake gas-lamp with the electric bulb went dim for two long beats, a short one, and three long, before returning to light the car park. GO. In retrospect it seemed a bit much, too noticeable. Kat breathed in and out, exhaling slowly.

  She crossed the parking lot and entered the main entrance, followed by Clint, Jack and Fingers. It was busier in here than it had been last time she’d visited. This was good, made it easier to hide in the crowd, and it wasn’t so busy that there were a lot of guards about – just as she’d expected. So far, so good.

  In case she was being watched, Kat went through to the casino floor and sat in front of a one-armed bandit, feeding quarters in and watching the reels with one eye, scanning the crowd and security with the other. There was a door she had to go through and it was guarded most of the time.

  If she wasn’t careful she was going to run out of quarters and have to get some change. Were these like pinball machines? Shove them too hard and you trigger a sensor and forfeit the game. Kat wondered if
she could ask Fingers to help her along a little. For the greater good, of course.

  “Hey, it’s good to see you,” an all too familiar voice said, with a way too familiar hand on her shoulder. “How’ve you been, love?”

  Tony.

  She was sure she’d been mistaken last time. Shit. It was definitely him. This was really the wrong time, the wrong place. What was he even doing here?

  She moved the hand off her shoulder without even looking and adopted an accent pretty close to Amy’s. “I think you’ve got the wrong person. Kindly take your hand off me, before I call security.”

  “Ha, good accent, Katrina McKay,” Tony said. “But I’d recognise your sweet arse anywhere, hen.”

  Kat closed her eyes tight, hoping he would go away. Maybe he was dead. The Dantons had caught up with him and like so many they left in their wake he was now a ghost. It was just bad luck he happened to be here. Except for the hand on her shoulder. She opened them again. The guard was still in front of the door. She risked a look at Fingers and Jack. Clint must have been behind her. Kat tilted her head slightly towards Tony. If he was the same Tony she’d gotten engaged to it would be pretty hard to get rid of him without some kind of confrontation.

  Kat turned on her stool. “Go away and leave me in peace. You’ve done me enough damage. You should think yourself lucky I don’t drag you out the back of this place and gut you,” she said in a low growl, faking as much anger and menace as she could. It wasn’t hard to imagine how mad she ought to be.

  Tony pretended to look wounded before smiling broadly. “Aw, don’t be like that, dear. It was just a bit of fun. Nature of the game, an all that. Gies a hug, eh?” Tony’s breath was sour, like he’d been drinking bad tequila, and too close.

  She could see it in his face; he’d gotten soft from spending her winnings. His eyes looked piggy and were desperate. It was more likely that he’d lost all that money, and he needed more to get it all back. How convenient his wallet had just walked in.

  Was this the guy she had been engaged to? Surely that Tony hadn’t been such a seedy, grasping creep? Where was the guy she’d snuggled up to watching TV?

  “Keep your hands to yourself, or I’ll deck you right here,” Kat said, still low and quiet, barely audible over the bleeps and dings and >put< >put< >put< machine gun fall of winnings into metal trays. “You do know that this place is run by the guy who bought up all the debt you ran out on. He paid me a little visit. Coz someone had to pay and you’d skipped town. Barely left me alive. I’m sure he’d love to know you’re here. I may even help him extract a few organs.”

  Tony’s cool slipped, a flicker of anxiety in his eye, the grin’s wattage dimmed. At least he knew she was serious. He smiled harder. “You think I’d be here if I knew that? I’m sure he’d be fine with it though. Every dime I lose is paying him back, right, hen?” He pawed at her forearm.

  “Seriously, back the fuck off, and call me hen one more time and I will end you.”

  “With all these people about? Temper, temper.” Tony waved his finger from side to side. “What say you and me get a drink for auld time’s sake, eh, darling?”

  Perhaps it was the proximity of her heart, or Tony knew just how to piss her off, but Kat felt pure anger spark through her like heated lightning. Its ferocity shocked her, while feeling emotion thrilled her. High on the rush, she tried to surf the anger, slammed her fist down onto the puggy machine and the reels spun round. Did Fingers give it a little nudge? She got three bells. Quarters started falling into the hopper, but they hit the metal in such a way that they were spat out of the slot machine straight at Tony. The first coin hit him in the groin, causing him to cover himself reflexively. The second ricocheted into his bloated stomach. The third coin hit him in the throat causing Tony to cough, just in time for the almost miraculous sight of the fourth coin entering his mouth and Tony bent over coughing and gagging as he tried to loosen the quarter and spit out bloody teeth, leading to the fifth coin striking him on the forehead. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Kat said, as Tony collapsed onto the floor.

  A small crowd formed around him as concerned gamers tried to help and the rest of the coins rained down on him from the machine. Even the guard on the door came over to help.

  Kat saw her chance and walked over to the entrance to the lower level. She looked around, no one was looking, then glanced up at the camera. Before Amy could open the door, she felt a plastic card in her hand. She looked at it; the guards swipe key. “Smart thinking, Jack. Thank you. And thanks for your help with Tony.”

  “He wasn’t treating you with respect,” said Jack, a wicked gleam in his eye.

  Kat swiped the card and it unlocked. She walked through, looping the lanyard over her neck.

  32

  The walls were painted institutional beige with black scuffs where trolleys had battered into them. Kat moved quietly down the concrete corridor, the three ghosts followed. Each of them was looking out for trouble. This was the riskiest part of the whole enterprise as they were most exposed here. The charms from Melchior kept the ghosts hidden from Melchior’s detectors, and Amy had taken care of the cameras. All it took was a bus boy with dishes, or a security guard nipping out for a fag break, and they’d need to move to Plan B and neutralise the problem before it escalated. Kat could probably bluff her way out – new staff lost on her first shift – made much easier thanks to Jack’s quick sleight of hand, so long as no one looked at the photo. She was pretty much the complete opposite in every way.

  It was like Kat’s feet knew the way – she’d traced the route through the model Carlos had made from Vincent’s plans so often that she could see it behind her eyes when she went to bed. Someone opened a side door, a bubble of conversation burst out into the corridor. Kat was about to turn round and walk away when the door shut again and she hurried past.

  Ahead a maid was struggling with a large hopper full of towels and soiled sheets. She couldn’t seem to get it through into the laundry, if Kat remembered correctly. The steam puffing out between the plastic strips that hung down in place of a door confirmed it. Kat looked to Jack who walked up to see what the problem was.

  Turned out the poor woman had more than one hopper she was pushing, practically a small train, but no little engine that could help her.

  “I don’t have what it takes to help,” Jack added. “After the coins and the card, I’m running a little low.”

  If they stayed here, waited, someone would come along eventually. Which one would you remember less? The Samaritan or the Levite? You’d probably do less harm to the Good Samaritan afterwards.

  Kat made sure the picture on the keycard faced towards her. “Do you need a hand?” she said in her best American accent. The maid, who could have been on Connie’s team, turned and smiled. Kat noticed the cart ahead had a wheel caught on a loose floor tile. The pair of them pulled the whole train back, diverted the route, and cleared the corridor.

  “Thank you,” said the housekeeper. She looked hard at Kat.

  “My first day. I’m Kat…therine.” Kat remembered to give herself a different name. “Better get back to it.” She smiled and left the damp room before it got awkward.

  A wonderful smell came from round the corner. Almost every flavour under the sun radiated out, but most of all grilling meat and garlic. Kat had stopped caring about food. Her taste was unaffected, but there was no pleasure, no joy in food and eating. With the echo of her heart beating in her chest, her mouth watered and her stomach growled. It felt like some tantalising punishment from the Inferno or Tartarus – this was no time to stop for a steak.

  But that was a more practical problem. They hadn’t planned for a kitchen to be here. Clearly there’d been some work done in the intervening years. They had to get past an area that would be busy. Kat peeked round the corner. There were several trays and plates being sent out full and being brought back less so. The waste was shocking. Something she’d seen first-hand in the diner. Big portions satisfied big appetites
, but most of it went uneaten into the bin. Kat could have used her uniform about now, or they could swipe her one from somewhere, like the laundry maybe.

  The housekeeper was still there.

  “Hi,” said Kat. “I know this isn’t your problem, but they’ve not given me the right size uniform. Do you know if there are any spares down here I could use?”

  “Sure. Katherine, right?” The housekeeper smiled. “Happened to me too, my first day. Let me show you. They do a count from time to time, so best to bring it back here when you get the right size sorted out.”

  Was she getting someone into trouble for helping her out? She probably had kids who depended on her. Kat had gotten used to not caring much about how other people felt. The pangs of conscience were starting to overwhelm her. Maybe she could find a way to get it back here when she was done. Depends if they had to run.

  Kat quickly changed into a waitress uniform – white cotton shirt and black trousers made from some horribly rough artificial fibres – thanked the housekeeper and went back to the kitchens, drawn by the scents. She walked down the corridor with an air of purpose. Two other wait staff came out of the kitchen door and crossed the corridor, one pushing a trolley loaded with silvered platters covered with cloches, one swiping the door lock and opening it for the other. A stern man in a black tuxedo swept in as they left and fixed Kat with a penetrating look. He looked at her so long that she could see he had blue eyes, quite pale. It made them seem to stick out like eggs in a carton. “Oh do hurry up. We don’t have all day,” he said. Kat wasn’t sure what it was he expected her to do, although the door back into the casino was still open.

  “I’m on my break,” Kat said, practising her accent.

  The man’s demeanour became even more brittle. Kat was sure she saw his lip lift into a sneer for a moment. “Then you should be in the break area,” he said.