The Grey Ghost

by Nicholas Cara

  Patsy turned to Joe and said, “OK buddy let’s see this magic trick of yours. Because honestly I’m having a tough time figuring this one out, I’m only seeing one leg there.”

  Looking up at his partner, Joe couldn’t think of any reason to not show Patsy the magic cloth. Shrugging, Joe reached into his pocket, removed a white folded handkerchief and slowly laid it on the top of the coffee table. Joe had turned in the cigarette case to the captain the previous night, fully expecting to use it when they questioned Gregs at the station, but that hadn’t happened. Reaching forward, Joe unfolded the handkerchief revealing the small tattered magical piece of cloth.

  “You’re kidding me bud. All of this because of that little thing?” Patsy said leaning forward to look at the scrap.

  “Just watch…” Joe replied picking up the cloth and again stuffing into his watchband. Joe sat back and closed his eyes waiting for the now familiar rush of strength that accompanied the change. After a few seconds, Joe quickly placed weight on his left foot and jumped up onto his feet in front of his stupefied partner.

  “Ta-Da!” Joe said smiling at his friend.

  “Well bless my eyes…” Patsy said looking back at Joe.

  “See I told you that you were taller when you did that…” Kate called out from over by the window. Looking at Patsy Joe had to admit she must be right because he was actually looking slightly over his usually towering friend.

  “It’s a miracle, simply a miracle Joe!” Patsy said swinging his hand to slap Joe on the arm. He pulled it quickly away when he noticed instead of smacking the shoulder of his friend his hand passed straight through the now ghosted shoulder.

  “Holy Cow!” Patsy yelled in surprise looking and waving his hand back and forth as if it was at fault.

  “Sorry big guy. I should’ve warned you about that,” Joe said laughing at his confused friend.

  “You’re lucky. I tried to hug the big lug and fell flat on my face,” Kate offhandedly interjected still at the window mired in thought. Finally, after another few moments she walked over to the couch and sat down. There was something about the journal they found with Jason, something she remembered but just couldn’t put her finger on and it was driving her mad.

  An audible flash and a cry of pain jarred Kate from her thoughts as she looked over and saw Patsy collapse on the floor a few feet from Joe. Kate rushed over to where Joe was already kneeling by his fallen friend who was grabbing his shoulder in pain.

  “What happened? Patsy, are you OK?” Kate cried out kneeling down next to the floored detective.

  “Man, Joe why the blazes did you do that?” Patsy cried out rubbing his injured shoulder.

  “Holy Mackerel Patsy, I’m so sorry. I had no idea I could do that!” Joe replied looking at his right hand as if he expected it to be smoking like a discharged pistol.

  “Do what? What happened?” Kate said to Joe still concerned over Patsy who was slowly trying to stand up.

  “I was telling Patsy about what I can do, you know, change my clothes, appearance yadda-yadda and then I mentioned the new little trick I found out about yesterday morning with the Mayor,” Joe replied helping Patsy back up to his feet.

  “What new trick?” Kate asked.

  “Like I was telling him yesterday, when I dove on the Mayor I somehow made him pass through the bottom of the podium along with me!” Joe replied “I then picked up those two bombs that had been thrown on the podium and ran into that warehouse next to City Hall and those little things came right through the wall with me too!”

  “Wait so you’re telling me you can make things, even intangible people, pass through objects along with you? That’s amazing!” Kate replied.

  “But only when I’m touching them. When I threw those candle sticks over my left shoulder inside of the warehouse I heard them hit the side wall before I ran out the back. So they were solid enough to blow that building sky high as soon as I let them go,” Joe continued.

  “That’s fascinating, but what does any of that have to do with what happened here?” Kate asked. “All I saw was a quick flash and a loud “ZAP!” and Patsy fell over.”

  “It felt like I was struck by lightning!” Patsy explained. “There were little shocks all over me, starting right here on my shoulder. It felt like things in me weren’t quite there or connected right. Before I knew it I was on the ground.”

  “I was just trying to…I guess we’ll call it Ghost you like I did the Mayor. When I hit him I could feel this…whatever this is….surround the Mayor before we passed through the podium,” Joe stated, trying to find the right words to explain it. “But just now with Patsy I was trying to project that feeling…power I guess…toward Patsy. I reached out my hand toward him and felt it build there, but instead of projecting out and surrounding Patsy like it did the Mayor it built up and suddenly before I knew it “ZAP!!” The power released and slammed right into him!”

  Joe looked over to Kate hoping for some sort of explanation.

  “Don’t look at me. I have idea how this little thingy works,” Kate replied.

  “Well that is something you are going to want to figure out there bub,” Patsy said eyeing Joe’s wrist where the cloth was tucked away under his watch. “I mean there’s a big difference between helping some guy and zapping him onto his keester. Though I guess since I’m the first to get zapped we can count that as my initiation into this secret little group.”

  “Secret group!” Kate blurted out scaring the two companions. “How could I forget about that? Oh, I’m such a goober sometimes!” Kate continued lightly smacking herself in the head. “Can either of you get your hands on that journal they found with Jason?”

  Still dumbfounded by her outburst the two simply stared back at the young brunette.

  “Well can you?” Kate barked. “Don’t just stand there with your mouths open.”

  “Sure we can, but Kate what are you going on about?” Joe finally asked.

  “Great, Patsy you’ll have to drive,” Kate said completely ignoring Joe’s question as she quickly reached for her coat and started for the door. Kate looked back at the two still standing there with puzzled looks on their faces.

  “Well are you two coming?” Kate asked grabbing for Joe’s wheelchair and rolling it toward the hero.

  Reaching down to turn his chair around so he could sit down before transforming back to himself, Joe said, “Honey, please take a breath. At least tell us what you are talking about. Why do you want to see that journal?”

  Throwing them both one of her million dollar smiles, Kate simply responded before she winked at Joe and strode out the front door into the morning sun.

  “That journal and I need to see a doctor, so let’s go!”

  Joe and Patsy glanced at each other both completely confused.

  “She has to see a doctor?”

  “Fifty nine pounds per inch on rebound…excellent,” Rosán frowned reading the forward piston’s pressure gage’s printout. So far, the doctor had been able to cut the rebound pressure well over half of the machine’s original estimates. However, yet he fearfully knew that it still wasn’t near the range needed to meet his vastly approaching deadline.

  “Is it done?” Rosán said over his shoulder to Vega as he heard the large hulk enter his private office. Rosán quickly stuffed the printout into his pocket away from prying giant eyes.

  “Yes it’s done, just like you wanted. I kept things nice and quiet. No one will know anything’s wrong until well after they push the plunger and then there’s no going back from that,” Vega replied with a low growl.

  “Excellent Mr. Vega,” Rosán replied walking over to a large drafting desk that displayed a topographical map of Capstone City. “This stage one attack on the ground’s infrastructure should weaken surrounding walls more than enough for stage two to have the desired effect. I commend you my large friend for your stealthy success without your tiny compatriot.”

  “Has Wiggy shown up?” Vega growled. “I’m going to have to hav
e a few words with that rat for leaving me high and dry on that dirt pile. He’s not involved in this because of his looks.”

  “Yes, yes, I do understand that even in spite of appearances our Mr. Gregs did have his purpose in our grand exploits, the peon being our expert in all things that as they say go ‘boom.’ However there have been some developments brought to my attention regarding the fate of our Mr. Gregs. It seems that our friend went ahead and did something quite unwise last night. He allowed himself to be caught and arrested near his apartment.”

  “Doctor if that rat talks…” Vega replied now on edge.

  Mr. Gregs will not be talking to anyone anytime soon my large friend,” Rosán interjected holding his hands up to calm the fury of the giant. “Apparently, our mutual benefactor has ears everywhere, even at Police Plaza. Mr. Gregs was met by legal counsel as soon as he arrived at the police station, and under that instruction has remained as we should say to our mutual benefit, silent.”

  “What happened? Wiggy has never had a problem slipping around the flat foots before,” Vega grumbled.

  “Well from all reports it seems that this mysterious Grey Ghost who saved the day at the courthouse was involved,” Rosán laughed.

  “Yeah, the big hero really saved the day at City Hall. He’s nothing more than a glory hound that the rags are building up to sell papers,” Vega replied.

  “Never mind that hogwash. Right now we must press on with our schedule even without the services of Mr. Gregs for the foreseeable future,” Rosán countered.

  “Well, if Wiggy doesn’t get out of the joint soon, we will be proceeding without him permanently. Minos does not allow for loose ends,” Vega growled turning to leave the office. “And if this hero keeps getting in our way, I’m going to have to make a real ghost out of him soon.”

  EXPLOSION ROCKS SCAR HILLSIDE

  3 Seriously Injured in Blast Levelling Hillside, Burying Warehouses.

  By: Michael Hay

  Disaster struck the Florid Road connection project this morning as blasting resulted in a chain reaction landslide leaving three workmen at Capstone City Hospital being treated for life-threatening injuries. The charges were to be used for widening an underpass section of I-46 near Florid Road, which would later connect the road along the Scar Ravine to the Trumbull Memorial Bridge reportedly nowhere near the explosion’s origin.

  Sabotage of the charges is being alleged by the demolition crew and the authorities have not ruled it out at this time.

  “There is no way the charges our crew placed should have caused this. This was a complete and deliberate sabotage of the planned explosion for reasons unknown to us at this time. A full internal investigation is under way to find those responsible,” reported Foreman Joseph Roski in a statement released afterwards.

  Other than the injuries reported, the resulting landslide also buried multiple storage containers and one warehouse belonging to the Ole Barnes Steel Company at the bottom of the Scar. The storage container and warehouse were reported empty at the time and no injuries have been reported at the Mill…*Continued on A3

  GREY GHOST HAUNTS LOCAL THEATER / SAVES BOY

  By: Erin Daycie

  Twice in less than two days reports have been filed of suspected Grey Ghost sightings. Last night local police responded to a disturbance outside the Tinselcity movie theater where it is reported by witnesses that a young boy apparently was being held hostage by an armed individual.

  The suspected attacker, one Eugene “Wiggy” Gregs, reportedly was running from police at the time he took the young boy hostage at the theater severely injuring the boy’s father, Mr. Thomas Wain, in the act.

  Reports from the scene claim that during the altercation the mysterious individual named the Grey Ghost appeared behind Gregs attacking him through the brick wall that he had been backed against by police…*Continued on A5

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “She still locked in there?” Patsy asked blowing the steam away from his fifth cup of coffee that shift. A couple rounds of coffee were nothing new to the detective, but the pile of paper cups on his desk this early would attest to the long night the group was continuing.

  “Hasn’t taken a break, stretched her legs or even come out for air since we got here,” Joe replied tossing the report he’d been skimming. “It’s so quiet in there; all you can hear is her scribbling stuff.”

  “Well you know WE are the detectives and there shouldn’t be a bit of trouble if WE go into OUR evidence room and see what’s going on,” Patsy said puffing his chest.

  “OK big tough guy. Why don’t YOU march in there and tell HER that,” Joe smirked flipping his thumb at the closed evidence room door.

  Looking at the closed door, then back at Joe, Patsy flopped into his desk chair with a huff.

  “I said there SHOULDN’T be a problem,” Patsy said while taking a large gulp of his drink. “I never said anything about testing that little theory…”

  “Wise man,” Joe replied looking back to his reports.

  “Huh, well take a peek at this…our Mr. Ghosty made the front page again. You’re becoming this Daycie gal’s meal ticket,” Patsy laughed tossing the afternoon post at Joe. “I might start myself a little scrapbook.”

  “Quiet down Patsy,” Joe said looking around for anyone who could’ve heard his partner before bring his attention to the post.

  “Calm down Joseph. There isn’t a soul in the entire station except for the captain shut away in his office and old Judy all the way by the front desk. The force is out patrolling the streets doing our usual serve and protect bit; two things we should be out doing right now if we want to honestly earn those pretty paychecks of ours,” Patsy said waving away Joe’s concerns.

  Joe nodded in agreement. They were wasting their time sitting here. It wasn’t as if they were helping Kate with whatever she was doing with the kid’s journal. It’s been hours since Kate had them race from his parent’s house stopping only at the WKNM radio station on the way. Kate had bolted from the car into the studio and had just as quickly returned a few minutes later with a small, black case. When they had arrived at the precinct, Kate locked herself away in the evidence room with the case and the Paloski kid’s journal, leaving both Patsy and himself sitting outside waiting like a couple of expecting fathers near a delivery room.

  “Yeah, let’s hit the streets partner,” Joe said pushing his wheelchair away from the desk. “I know that girl and she won’t even notice we’re gone. I’ll ask the captain if he can give her a lift on his way home later.”

  “OK bud let’s ROLL!” Patsy said with a laugh.

  “Hasn’t gotten old yet, has it?” Joe sighed, shaking his head slightly.

  “Surprisingly not bud,” Patsy laughed. “You know I think it still has some wheels on it.”

  The police cruiser sent a small spray of rainwater in the air as it weaved its way through the shadows of the side streets. Glancing over from the driver’s seat, Patsy noticed the hawk-like stare Joe had as he scanned the passing alleys. Leaning on the gas to pick up speed for the last section of their patrol, Patsy swerved quickly to the curb and put the car in park. Finishing with the first part of their usual routine, Joe opened the passenger side door to hit the street on foot.

  Reaching out to his partner, Patsy tapped Joe on the shoulder motioning him to wait.

  “Since we finally have a minute to our own, bud, I think we need to have a little chat,” Patsy said glancing away from Joe who inhaled uncomfortably.

  Knowing this would eventually come, Joe sat back and waited quietly. He figured he’d let Patsy take the first step.

  “I want you to know I’ve been thinking about it and I think, well, it’s a really great – stupid but great idea,” Patsy flatly stated never looking away from the front windshield. “Possibly the stupidest, but again maybe the best idea you’ve ever had.”

  Confused by his partner’s vagueness, Joe asked, “Patsy, what in the blue blazes are you talking about?”

  �
�You being the big bad Grey Ghost,” Patsy replied finally looking at his partner. “I mean, yeah it sounds like it’s something straight from a dime novel, but frankly in this town with as crazy as its been, getting it could just work.”

  “It never was my intent to be this…character, Patsy” Joe said frowning. “All I ever wanted to do since I got back was to just be me again. Here comes along this miracle, a REDO, and man believe me as soon I had a handle on it I was going to tell everybody, honest pal. You were going to hear me yelling it from the rooftops! I tell you it’s been… well simply killing me to hide it from you, or Mom, or Dad but I frankly thought I had so much time!”

  Joe looked away from his partner, starring down at the handkerchief that he had unconsciously pulled out from the inside pocket of his jacket. Folded inside of that handkerchief was the magic cloth, which had now become both his salvation and possible ruin.

  “Those newshawks created this Grey Ghost and pal I’m not sure whether to just let it haunt me or this entire city,” Joe said in disgust.

  “Buddy-o I can tell you I thought the idea was looney toons when I saw you throwing Wiggy around that street,” Patsy chimed in. “But then I saw something in that mook’s face when you were thrashing him, pure fear. That mook thought no one could touch him. I mean he had just slashed that kid’s pop right in front of me to make a point. And suddenly he’s as frightened as that terrified little guy is when he sees you. To be truthful Joe, we - the police I mean, don’t scare a lot of these hoods anymore. It’s become a different game out here since you left and we don’t have a lot of pieces to play with.”

  “But you pally, and what you can do,” Patsy continued now on a roll. “Well it might change things, you know, insert a new piece on the board that they don’t understand, maybe tip the scales our way a little. Maybe we can put a little fear of the law back into these thugs, or if not at least the fear of you.”