Ghost Castle (The Ghost Files Book 8)

by Chanel Smith

  “Well, do we call him Jhon, Jairo or both?”

  “I suppose we ought to ask him,” I replied. “Now, what did you have in mind for him and the rest of our case?”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Okay, Jairo,” Ellen began.

  Popeye looked up at her with a startled look. “How did you know to call me that?”

  “I’m psychic, remember?” she joked.

  Jairo seemed to accept that. “My mother always used that name.”

  “Well, it’s certainly better than Popeye,” she responded. She got straight to business. We’d called Popeye, who had stayed the night in Medellin and was about to go back to his hideout in the hills before we called him. “I need you to help us again tonight. I know that what happened last night frightened you, but you’re just going to have to work through that.”

  “That’s pretty direct,” he laughed. “I like that. Too many people circle all around what they want to say instead of saying it.”

  “We don’t have time for circling,” Ellen responded. “I’ve got to prepare you for something that is going to perhaps be terrifying for you, but if you remain focused on the goal and trust me to guide you properly, you’ll come through it fine. Are you willing to help us?”

  “I’ve been scared before,” Jairo replied. “Tell me what you need.”

  Knowing Ellen’s plan, I sat back and watched Jairo for his reaction.

  “What I want to do is channel you along with Monty to the other side of the veil. What that means is that your body will, essentially, stay in the natural world, but your spirit will pass over into the paranormal world.”

  “You can do that?” He looked at her with wide eyes.

  “I’ve done it many times and I haven’t lost anyone yet,” she smiled. “Ask Monty.”

  Jairo looked in my direction and I nodded.

  “Up to this point, we’ve allowed Juan David to control our communication. If we keep that trend going, we’ll never solve this case, which, basically means finding out what it is that is holding Juan David back from moving on toward the light and being set free from the world of limbo where he is trapped.”

  Ellen paused, watching his reaction. Satisfied that he’d raised no objections so far, she continued.

  “I will be channeling through you and speaking through your voice, but Monty will be there with you in case something goes wrong.”

  “Something goes wrong? What do you mean?”

  “It’s a tricky situation your first time. Monty can attest to that. He had to do this alone on his first try and I nearly wasn’t able to bring him back. He’s been through this enough now that he has some control over his own conscience and actions while he’s on the other side. He will stay focused on you and make sure that you are okay.

  “You will feel some control over your thoughts and emotions, but you won’t have total control. Most of the interaction that you have with Juan David is going to be originating from me and moving through you. That’s the place where you have to relax and trust me, understand?”

  “I understand. It is a scary thought, but I understand,” he answered.

  “This is going to be good for you as well, because one of the first things that I’m going to do is set things right between you and your cousin. When I finish briefing you on what we’re going to do, you’ll need to fill me in on exactly what you said so that I can have some accuracy.”

  “It would be nice to set things right with him. That’s been troubling me for a while, since there was really nothing that I could do about it.”

  “So, basically, we have a win-win situation here. We’ll set things right between the two of you and once he is more open to communication, we’ll find out what is troubling him and how we can solve it. Once we solve his problem, he’ll be able to move on and, fortunately, so will you. Now, at this point, you know what is going to happen and what we hope to gain by it, you can either walk away or you can stay in and see this through. However, once you make your decision, you have to commit yourself to it completely.”

  Jairo considered what she had said carefully and I watched him, speculating about what was running through his mind. Jairo was the type of person who typically made a decision and stuck to it; damn the consequences. That quality in him was both good and bad, depending on how it was used. It had led him into becoming a killer, but it had also led him to change. If he would commit to what Ellen was asking of him, we would solve our case. If he didn’t, it would be very difficult to remove the phantom from El Castillo.

  Jairo looked around him at the castle, out across the gardens and eventually let his eyes come to rest on the distant slope on the other side of the valley. In a somewhat absent voice, he began to voice his decision. “I’ve done a lot of ugly things in such a beautiful place, perhaps not directly involving this castle and these gardens, but this community nonetheless. If I can do something that sets things right, why not begin here at Medellin’s only castle where beauty is cherished, celebrated and shared. I’m in.” He looked directly at Ellen when he spoke those last words.

  “Very good,” Ellen replied. “We’re going to practice a little bit, so you’ll understand how to relax and how it feels. I can’t do it a lot or for very long, because I have to conserve my energy for later, so I need you to concentrate fully on what we’re doing.”

  “Don Monty,” Ariel called out as he arrived on the wide balcony that overlooked the gardens. “I’ve got the information that you asked for. It took some digging, but I think I have exactly what you wanted.”

  Ariel greeted Jairo and Ellen in turn, before turning back to me.

  “Let’s take a stroll in the garden,” I told him. “Ellen and Jairo need to work on something without distraction.”

  “Whatever you like, Don Monty,” he replied.

  I looked directly into Ellen’s eyes, not quite able to completely dismiss my earlier skepticism by leaving her alone with Jairo. “Will you be okay?”

  “I’ll be fine, Hon,” she replied with a smile, knowing exactly what was running through my mind.

  I glanced at Jairo and smiled. “Relax and have fun. I promise it doesn’t hurt.”

  “If you only know how many times I heard and said that,” he laughed.

  “Yeah, well…” I shrugged and let the sentence linger, unfinished.

  I had focused solely on the negative things that the Medellin cartel had done during Escobar’s reign of terror and it had drawn me back into such a deep hatred that I really needed to balance things out. I wouldn’t have worried about such things before Ellen came into my life, nor for quite a while afterward. But some of what made her such an open and happy person who was at peace was because she had learned to balance things out.

  Though I was not one who subscribed to the end justifying the means, learning to understand and embrace the good things that can come out of any situation was a means of balancing things without accepting their negative results. I had read in several of the items that I had studied that Pablo Escobar had been very benevolent in Medellin, even while he was controlling and destroying it. Ariel had compiled a list of Escobar’s benevolence for me to study. He presented it to me as we walked in the gardens.

  The list that was handed to me was much more extensive than I had imagined. On it were housing developments, private homes purchased and given to homeless families, sports complexes, soccer fields, donations to civic projects, cultural arts and transportation. An assumption that I had made earlier was beginning to come unraveled and, I must admit, I wasn’t comfortable with it.

  Medellin had been held in a tight grip during Escobar’s reign, but at the same time, he was helping to build it up and lay the foundation of the transformed city that Medellin had become. It would take me some time to embrace that thought; balance or no balance.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The evening began in a similar fashion up until the point where we made contact with Juan David. He wasn’t as angry as he had been before. My thermomete
r was registering the temperature to be in the mid to upper 30s. With Ellen zoned in on him, Jairo and I sat down and tried to relax. It was easier for me than it was to him.

  “Relax and stay focused,” I reminded him. I could already feel Ellen beginning to take me through the process that would lead me into the paranormal dimension. Though I’d gotten used to it, it still took all of my focus to allow it to happen. I felt myself pass through the veil, so to speak, and then Juan David appeared before me. The moment he saw me, he turned in my direction and frowned at me, mostly confused, but slightly irritated as well.

  “Are you in, Monty?” Ellen’s thoughts asked me.

  “Yes,” my thoughts responded.

  “Okay, I’m bringing Jairo.”

  Connected through Ellen, I was able to begin to communicate freely through her to Jairo. “Relax, Buddy,” I said in a calm voice and then saw him appear beside me.

  “What the hell are you doing, here?” Juan David shouted at him. He spoke in Spanish, but the connection that linked Ellen, me and Jairo together allowed me to understand his words through Jairo.

  “Remain calm, Jairo,” Ellen interjected.

  “I came to see you,” Ellen replied through Jairo. “I came to make things right.”

  “You can’t make things right. No one can. Things are the way they are. They’ll stay that way.”

  “They’ll stay that way and you’ll be stuck where you are forever,” Jairo responded.

  “What the hell do you know about where I am?” Juan David shouted. “Get the hell out of here and leave me alone.”

  “Look, Juanito,” he said. “I made things right with Miguelito and I wanted to make them right with you, but I was still in prison when you died.”

  “But you did get out, didn’t you,” Juan David snapped. “Fabio won’t have that same luxury.”

  “You mean like your own luxury of only five years?” Jairo countered.

  “Easy, Jairo,” Ellen interjected again. “Let me do this. Try to keep your emotions in control.”

  “Yeah, well you could have surrendered at the same time that Miguelito and I did and gotten the same deal, but you and Pablo were too damned stubborn.”

  “Fabio could have too. He could have chosen to stop, but he didn’t. Him being caught, extradited and sentenced is on him, not on anybody else.”

  “It was your blabbing mouth that put him there!”

  I could see the rage in Juan David’s eyes and tried not to distract myself by wondering what my thermometer was registering at that moment.

  “Focus, Mon,” Ellen reminded me.

  “You’re right,” Jairo answered. “In part, yeah, some of the things I said probably did hurt him, but when Fabio was caught, he was acting on his own. None of the rest of us were involved. You know that’s true.”

  “It was those damned Mexican cartels!” Juan David shouted. “If I could get my hands on…”

  “You can’t, Juanito,” Jairo interrupted. “There are a lot of things that we can’t undo, but we can make our peace and move on.”

  There was a long silence between them before Jairo spoke. It wasn’t Ellen speaking through him, but Jairo’s own words. “I’m sorry for all of it, Juanito. For Fabio, for all of what I said and for all of what I did.”

  “Yeah?” Juan David said in a much calmer tone as his eyes searched Jairo’s. I could still see hidden agitation there, but it wasn’t directed at Jairo. “I’m sorry too, but like you said, we can’t undo what has been done.”

  “But we can move forward and be at peace,” I decided to add. I’m not sure why, but part of what I had been thinking about where balancing things out had suddenly entered my thoughts.

  “Monty, what are you doing?” Ellen asked.

  I never injected myself into things and it surprised her.

  “Sorry,” I replied.

  Juan David came toward me, made a full circle around me and then spoke. “You’re the one who was with the mona.”

  “I am,” I replied. “She’s my wife.”

  “You two and that Paisa have been a pain in my ass for the past several days. So what do you want?”

  “We want to help you.”

  “Yeah. I already told the mona that you couldn’t help me. Nobody can.”

  “Well, the mona is the one who is speaking to you and channeling Jairo and I. There are a lot of things that we can do if you give us a chance.”

  “You can’t undo the shameful thing that I did. It’s something I have to do.”

  “If you tell us, then we can carry out your wishes. That’s the same as you doing them, no?”

  Juan David considered the words for a moment.

  “The shameful thing that I did wasn’t done alone. It can’t be fixed alone.”

  “I thought you said that it was something that you had to do alone,” Ellen answered through Jairo.

  “That must be the mona talking through you, Popeye,” he smiled. The smile was a welcome change. “You can never tell a woman anything, they always bring it back on you later.”

  “The superior sex,” Jairo responded. The expression on his face as Ellen’s words came out of his mouth was priceless.

  Juan David began to laugh. “Now I know that was the mona. That’s almost as funny as yesterday when I scared the piss out of you.”

  “Glad that I could entertain you.” I could tell that Ellen was starting to weaken.

  “You better wrap this up, Babe,” I cautioned.

  “If we can’t help you, maybe we can bring someone who can,” Ellen suggested.

  “Are you sure that you can do that?”

  “I’m sure, but it would be much easier if we didn’t have to communicate this way. It would be easier if you would just reveal yourself in the natural world and speak to us.”

  “If you bring the person that I want to talk to, then it’s a deal,” Juan David replied. “You have to bring him for the Alborrada, but out in the garden, beside the big fountain in the center.”

  “It’s a deal,” Ellen replied.

  “I want to talk to Miguelito. I want to watch the fireworks with him and then tell him to set the shameful thing right.”

  “What shameful thing?”

  “That’s none of your damned business.” He glared at Jairo. “Miguelito knows. Bring him.”

  “We will be in the garden by the big fountain for the Alborrada with Miguelito then.”

  Satisfied, Juan David started to turn away and Ellen was beginning to draw Jairo out of the paranormal and back into the natural world. He looked at me and said, “Tell the mona that I’m sorry that I slapped her.”

  It always takes a moment to recover one’s sense when passing through the veil and coming back into the natural world. I recovered a little bit more quickly than Jairo, but I still felt a little bit woozy when I checked on him.

  “You alright, Popeye?” It sort of came out automatically. “Sorry; I meant to say, Jairo.”

  “Yeah, I’m alright, just drained,” he answered.

  I turned to check on Ellen. She was taking deep, heavy breaths like she was recovering from running a 400-meter race. She would be completely out of it for the rest of the night and well into the following afternoon. I knew that I would have to carry the load, but I hoped that Ariel and Jairo would be able to help.

  “You okay, Babe?” I asked.

  “Yes, I’m okay.”

  “Did you get that last thing that he said?”

  “Yes,” she answered simply.

  “Okay, well, let’s get out of here. We’ve got some work to do. Unless I miss my guess, finding this Miguelito isn’t going to be easy.”

  “Easier than you might think,” Jairo replied. “Miguelito is Juan David’s nickname for his brother, Jorge Luis.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Jairo,” I began. Since I’d begun to try to balance things out, I’d been meaning to have the conversation that I was leading into with Escobar’s former bodyguard. Up until that moment, I hadn’t
been able to compile my thoughts and feelings on things. I still didn’t have them together completely, but I had settled some things about Jairo and decided that was the best place to start bringing it all together. “I have a confession to make.”

  “You do know that I’m not a priest, Don Monty,” he grinned.

  “Yes,” I chuckled nervously. I didn’t often allow my feelings to flow so freely but I was learning and determined to find that balance that I had started to seek. “I was pretty skeptical about you when you first came to help us. You see, I used to be a law enforcement officer and in my mind, just like nearly every one of us, a criminal and a killer is always a criminal and a killer and will never change. You’ve proven that theory wrong. I can tell that you’ve changed.”

  “Your theory isn’t as far off as you think,” he replied. “A criminal and a killer is always a criminal and a killer; that cannot be changed. When you take another person’s life, you’ve inserted yourself into a place of authority that is not yours to have. Now, in some cases, my actions were necessary to protect and preserve the people around me, in others, those actions were little more than defensive. You do understand that we were in a war with the Cali cartel among others.”

  “I understand that, yes.”

  “Well, that’s only partial justification, especially when you consider that we wouldn’t have been in that situation if we hadn’t been participating in the illegal activities that we were.”

  I nodded my understanding and he continued.

  “Your theory is also correct in that a criminal and a killer cannot change. Given the opportunity to kill or commit a crime again, they will. It takes other people intervening, stopping them from doing what they are doing and forcing them to surrender before they can change. At some point, a choice has to be made. That choice is to either continue clinging to those things that made them a criminal and a killer or to let go of them.”

  “That’s true with any change of behavior,” I responded. I pondered his words for a few moments. I was at a similar place. I could choose to learn how to find balance or I could cling to skepticism. Skepticism wasn’t necessarily bad; it kept a person from being a sucker, but too much of it made someone cynical. Medellin was teaching me that lesson, though I didn’t have a full grasp of what I was learning.