A Haunting of Ghosts

by Edward Kendrick

  “That covers it, other than the fact Jon and I visited Grant’s house and office and didn’t find anything worthwhile,” Brody said. “We were at the house before he was killed.”

  “We didn’t meet Mike until after Grant’s murder,” Jon said. “That was at Sage’s office. Convincing him we existed was…interesting. Once he believed we did, we told him what I knew about Grant, which wasn’t much.”

  “But,” Brody said, “we came up with possible scenario for why someone killed Jon. The first time he and Grant went to Far Horizon they were with Irwin and another man. Jon was on his phone at one point and we figured that maybe the other men thought he was taking pictures of them. If that worried one of them, it might explain why Jon’s phone and laptop were missing.”

  “To destroy the photos on the phone, and the laptop if he downloaded them,” Van said, nodding.

  “Yes,” Brody replied. “Then Mike told us that Grant had been murdered, possibly by Thomas Irwin. He’d found out that both men were at the club just before Jon’s murder. Irwin left a few minutes before Jon did, and Grant left right afterward.”

  “Even when he told us, I still didn’t remember being at the club until Brody prodded me. Then I recalled meeting Grant there after he’d called me at work. He suggested we should exchange addresses if we were going to keep seeing each other, so we did. I put his into my phone. I didn’t see Irwin there, but then it was pretty crowded,” Jon said.

  “A good way to make certain you had your phone with you,” Gene commented.

  “Why wouldn’t I have?” Jon asked.

  Gene shrugged. “No reason, but he might have wanted to be certain, if he was the one who was worried about you taking photos. If it was Irwin who killed you, and Mike said he was at the club, too, then maybe Grant was telling the truth, meaning he’s not your killer.”

  “Meaning Irwin was,” Van said. “At least presumptively.”

  “Something we can’t prove, since both Grant and Irwin are dead, now,” Jon replied morosely.

  “How did that happen?” Van asked.

  “Irwin, you mean?” Brody asked. When Van nodded, Brody told him about Irwin going on the run after killing Grant, and the shootout that happened when he was located. “There was a second man with him in the rooming house where he was apparently hiding out. According to the ME, he’s the one who killed Irwin, probably hoping it would look like Irwin died when the cops shot him while trying to arrest him. Unfortunately, when Mike entered the room the second man shot him. Mike managed to fire back and killed him.”

  “Before ending up in the hospital,” Jon added. “Irwin did, too, because he wasn’t dead when the cops found him, although he died while in surgery. Brody talked with his ghost.”

  “He didn’t admit to killing Jon?” Gene asked Brody.

  “No, and that was my fault,” Brody said. “I had reason to think he might know who killed me so I was focused on that. If I hadn’t been so selfish…”

  “How many times do I have to tell you that you weren’t,” Jon said, hugging him. “If you hadn’t asked him, you’d never have proven who did kill you. Well, Mike wouldn’t have.”

  Brody nodded, returning his attention to what they were doing. He scrolled down to the report on the second man in the room, tapping the screen. “As you can see, his name was Ogden Reed. He’d been arrested several times when he was younger for possession with intent.”

  “He was the man with Irwin when all of us were at the club the first time,” Jon said. “Okay, the only time all four of us were there at the same time.”

  “But…” Van said thoughtfully. “Okay, you said you returned twice, hoping Grant would be there. It’s possible either Irwin or Reed went back there, too, looking for you. That is if your theory is right about one them thinking you were taking pictures of them and they wanted to destroy them. I take it neither of them knew your full name or phone number.”

  Jon shook his head. “I gave Grant my number, but we never traded last names or addresses at that time, although as I said, we did the night I died. I’m…I was real leery about doing that at first with someone I’d met at a club and barely knew.”

  “Mike states in his reports that Irwin and Reed were involved in dealing drugs,” Gene said. “If Grant wasn’t, there would be no reason for him to pass your number on to either one of them. They would have wanted it to track you down, Jon, but there was no logical reason for them to ask him for it. So instead they, or at least Irwin, goes back to the club, looking for you.”

  Jon nodded. “We came to the same conclusion. It should be in Mike’s files. We also decided it had to be Irwin, because he’s the one who killed Grant and he was there the same time Grant and I were.”

  “So he follows you when you leave, attacks you, perhaps without meaning to kill you, and takes your phone.”

  “Uh-uh,” Brody said. “He had to be close enough to hear Jon give Grant his address, because we think he also stole Jon’s laptop and that had to have been before Jon got to the parking lot.”

  “How long was he…were you dead, Jon, before someone found your body?” Van asked.

  Brody replied before Jon could. “Two to three hours, according to the ME, but let me check to make certain I’m right.”

  Jon grimaced. “You don’t have to. I may not remember being killed, but I do remember what was said while everyone was standing over my body. It was at least two hours.”

  “Plenty of time for the killer to get into your place to steal your laptop.”

  “True,” Brody agreed. “We only figured it was beforehand because he might not have wanted to chance it after killing Jon.”

  “If it wasn’t an accident and he intended to kill him, I don’t think a little thing like breaking into the apartment, or even using his keys, would have bothered him,” Gene said.

  Brody nodded, and then said, “Let’s take a break. My brain’s aching from going over all this and trying to figure out what’s important and what isn’t.”

  Van laughed. “Wuss. We do it every time we research a case.”

  “All in one sitting?”

  “Well…no.”

  “See.” Brody saved everything then got up, stretching. “I vote we get some fresh air and sunshine.”

  “We don’t breathe,” Gene pointed out.

  “That was a turn of phrase, or whatever you call it. I need to look at something besides a computer screen for a while. Before you suggest it, I don’t want to go to a movie. It would be the same thing.”

  Jon snorted. “Only you would think that. We could take a walk in the park.”

  “Works for me,” Brody replied. “And no discussing the case until we get back.”

  The others agreed, so for the next hour they wandered through a park close to the townhouse, avoiding talking about anything other than the people around them, none who knew they were there, of course.

  * * * *

  When they got back to the townhouse, they found Sage in the office running the vacuum.

  “I didn’t want to do this while you were in here,” he explained. “How’s it going?”

  “We’re still getting all the details down,” Van told him. “Some things don’t gibe. Like why kill Jon in the first place, if all the killer wanted was his phone and laptop.”

  “I don’t know if Brody or Jon already mentioned this,” Sage said, “but one theory about why the killer wanted them was because he thought Jon had taken his picture the night they were all together at the club. We figured that maybe he thought Jon was an undercover cop who was using Grant to get information on one or both of them.”

  “What if Irwin and Reed were there to set up something, using Grant and Jon as a cover?” Gene mused. “Whether they thought Jon was undercover, or merely Grant’s date, they wouldn’t have liked the idea he was taking pictures of them. So one of them takes things into their own hands but he doesn’t find Jon until the night he died.”

  “Was murdered,” Jon muttered, getting a quick hu
g and a nod from Brody.

  “Sorry. Yes,” Gene replied. “Whether it was accidental or on purpose, it was murder.”

  “We did come up with a possible reason Jon had five hundred dollars in his wallet,” Brody said. “They wanted to make it look as if he’d been bribed to keep his mouth shut about seeing Irwin and Reed together.”

  “That doesn’t work,” Van said. “It’s not like it was a secret meeting with just the four of them there. They were out in public. What do you remember about the time right before you died, Jon?”

  Jon shook his head. “Nothing, other than getting out of my car, starting toward my building, and then pain when someone hit me over the head.”

  Van nodded. “What if someone, probably Irwin, although it could have been Ogden Reed, followed you to your car when you left the club? He comes up with some story about needing the photos you took the night all of you were together and offers you five hundred dollars for your phone. Would you have been willing to sell it to him?”

  Jon shrugged. “Good question. It was a cheapie and I didn’t have anything on it other than a couple of names and phone numbers. There weren’t any pictures, but if he was willing to offer that kind of money because he thought there were, I suppose I’d have taken it. For sure I could have used the money.”

  “If you did, and he found out there weren’t any photos, he might have been worried that you erased them after downloading them to your computer. That’s what most people do,” Gene said.

  “So he follows Jon and kills him? Why?” Sage asked.

  “An accident,” Gene replied. “He was only going to knock him out so he could get his keys and search his apartment for the computer, but he hit him too hard.”

  “All this is great in theory, but it doesn’t prove which one of them killed me,” Jon said.

  “Let me see something,” Brody said, booting up the laptop. He opened the file with Mike’s murder reports and ran a search. “That’s what I remembered. There’s nothing in here about Mike, or anyone, interviewing other people who worked for Ogden Reed. If they did, they didn’t learn anything worth recording.”

  “Why would it matter?” Sage asked.

  “Because there’s a slim possibility that Reed might have said something to one of his cronies about being pissed that Irwin had taken out Jon and Grant, which wouldn’t have been good for business since it put Irwin on the police radar.”

  “Which is why he killed Irwin,” Jon said.

  “Yep. No matter why he was at the rooming house, when the cops showed up he decided to take advantage of it to get rid of Irwin by making it look like Irwin died in a shootout. If Reed had surrendered and played dumb, he might have gotten away with it.”

  “So now we have to find out who Reed might have trusted enough to talk to about Irwin’s screwing up,” Van said.

  “Hang on,” Sage said before leaving the room. He came back with Mike, then filled him in on what he and the ghosts had been discussing.

  When he finished, Mike nodded. “Since Reed wasn’t murdered, his death wasn’t treated as one. I wasn’t involved in the investigation because I was the one who shot him. I can do some digging when I get to work on Monday, to see who his closest associates were.”

  “And talk to them, since we can’t?” Van asked through Sage.

  Mike chuckled. “I’m not sure they’d be willing to talk to me, since I’m the one who killed him, but I can give it a try.”

  “All we need to know is whether he said anything to them about wanting Irwin taken out because he killed Jon and Grant,” Brody said, and Sage repeated.

  Mike nodded. “I understand. Don’t get your hopes up, Jon, but I’ll do what I can to find out. It will take a while, one way or the other.”

  “What’s a few more days in the grand scheme of my life, and death,” Jon said wryly.

  “Very true, I guess,” Mike replied with a smile when Sage told him what Jon had said. “Now, if you don’t mind, or even if you do, I’m kidnapping Sage. We have to go grocery shopping. As soon as I learn anything I’ll let you know.”

  When they were gone, Gene said with a touch of longing, “Grocery shopping. I remember when I used to spend hours choosing the perfect vegetables or meats for the meals I planned for the week. It drove Van crazy.”

  “Did not,” Van protested. “Well, maybe sometimes. To me a carrot’s a carrot. You boil it, you eat it, with butter and pepper.”

  “Plebian,” Gene muttered, getting laughs from the others.

  “I think we’ve done all we can until we hear from Mike,” Brody said, shutting down the laptop. “I vote we go home and see what mischief Tonio and Kurt have gotten into while we were gone.”

  * * * *

  “Now, this is nice,” Gene said as he looked around the loft. “Where did those come from?”

  “They’re mine,” Kurt replied. “From when I was a news photographer. Brody rescued my portfolio from my apartment before the building manager cleaned everything out so he could rent the place.”

  “We had some of them hanging on the walls of our rooms at the boarding house. When we got here, Kurt stuck the portfolio under his bed and forgot about it, until today.”

  “Because we were bored and needed something to do. So—” Kurt gestured at the walls, “—now we have some decorations.”

  “Don’t worry,” Tonio said. “We put them far enough back that they can’t be seen from the floor of the barn, as shadowy as it is up here.”

  Gene and Van walked from one photo to the next, studying them. “This one is beautiful,” Van said of a shot of the sun coming up over the city, turning the buildings gold and red.

  “Too bad you can’t take more,” Gene commented.

  “Now that you mention it…” Kurt grinned and went into his room, returning with a digital camera. “Another rescue, thanks to Tonio.”

  “Okay, everyone. Stand together so he can take our picture,” Tonio said.

  Jon snorted. “I don’t think that’s possible.”

  “Who knows,” Tonio retorted. “I’ve seen pictures from haunted houses that showed what were supposed to be ghosts.”

  “Supposed to be being the operative words,” Brody replied. “Still, what the hell. It’s worth a try, but maybe out back where the lighting is better? If nothing else, he’ll get a great shot of the field and the trees.”

  They went down and at Kurt’s suggestion stood close to the trunks of two large trees, because they made a darker background. “I think bright sunlight will totally wash you out, even though you have substance,” was his reasoning.

  He focused in on them, nodding. “I can see you. Of course the camera might not.” Taking three shots, he checked the screen to see what he’d captured. “You’re there, but to be honest, you look like what you are. Ghosts. I can see most of the details of the trees behind you.”

  Brody came over to take a look. “He’s right, but…What if we were standing against the barn? It’s in shadow but there’s still plenty of light, if that makes sense.”

  “It does to me,” Gene said.

  They moved to the barn, standing close with their arms over the shoulders of the men on each side of them.

  “Go as solid as possible,” Kurt told them. When they did, he took two shots, made some adjustments and took one more. Then he suggested they spread out a little. When they had, he took two more before checking to see how all of them had come out.

  “There’s still no doubt that you’re ghosts, but this time you have much more discernable bodies and faces.”

  Everyone clustered around to see what he meant.

  “Can you download these onto one of the laptops?” Brody asked.

  “Sure.” Kurt grinned. “You want to frame them for posterity?”

  “No. I want Mike to see what we look like. Okay, he knows for most of us, but only from old photos. I don’t think he’s got a clue about Jon. Or rather, Jon when he was alive, because he only saw him when he was dead.”

  “No
t true. I was in the videos from the club,” Jon said. “Still, he might like a group photo but it’ll be missing Kurt.”

  Kurt tapped a finger to his lips. “If we bring one of the chairs down, I can put the camera on the timer and we can see what happens.”

  Brody got one, Kurt set the camera on the seat, and they all kneeled with the barn behind them. It took several tries, but they finally got a picture that did what they wanted.

  “First thing Monday morning we’ll go to Mike and Sage’s and you can upload it, and the others,” Brody said.

  “What are we going to do to keep busy tomorrow,” Tonio asked when they were up in the loft again. He pointed to Kurt. “Don’t you dare say it.”

  Kurt grinned. “The same thing we do every day. Try to take over the world.” He dashed away, dropping down to the barn floor, with Tonio right behind him.

  “How old are they? Ten?” Van asked, shaking his head.

  “Twenty-six, going on five,” Brody replied with amusement.

  “Both of them?”

  “Yep. They died at the same age. It’s probably why they get along so well together, now that Tonio’s gotten over David, and Kurt’s accepted he was murdered by a man he thought loved him, and that it wasn’t his fault.”

  “Poor kids, having to go through all that,” Gene said.

  “Kids who’ve turned into pretty damned good young men, even if they are ghosts,” Brody replied fondly.

  Chapter 6

  The ghosts, all six of them, showed up at the townhouse bright and early Monday morning. So early that Mike and Sage had barely gotten downstairs to make breakfast.