Ghost

by Charmaine Ross

  I led her to the couch and helped her to sit. Laura never fainted. She was made of pretty strong stuff but Henry had done something to her. I sent Henry what I hoped was a warning glare. He just looked surprised. “Wow. I feel great. I have so much energy. I feel like a boy again! I feel like I could fly.”

  He pirouetted on the balls of his feet, arms outstretched like a monumentally fit gymnast. Then he strode towards me with his arms out in front of him like Superman, gaining speed as he moved. He leapt from the toes on one foot and soared to the ceiling, laughing.

  “I can do it!” he cried. “I’m flying.” He circled the room, his face flushed with excitement. “Who would have thought being dead would be so much fun!” He circled the room, disappeared through a wall and came back in along the hallway. He hung mid-air for a moment then fell like a stone to the floor soundlessly. It was odd seeing an old man plunging to the floor in complete silence. I guess he wasn’t made of the same type of stuff as he once was.

  “Are you hurt?” I asked. I stepped towards him, then stopped. I couldn’t help him if I wanted to. Besides, he wasn’t made of anything that could be hurt.

  Henry struggled onto his hands and knees and slowly got to his feet with what looked like an enormous effort. “I...I don’t think so.” He tested his limbs, moving them with ease. “Nothing broken—not that I have anything to break.” He flopped onto the couch next to Laura, “I feel worn out!”

  “I guess it takes a lot of effort to fly,” I said.

  “Is the old man flying?” Laura asked. She looked at the ceiling, ducking as though she was expecting an old man to drop through the roof on her at any moment.

  I pointed to where he sat, “He’s next to you. He did fly, but he sort of ran out of oompf.”

  “That’s exactly what happened.” Henry’s gaze sidled to Laura, his eyes lit, “When we stood together though, I felt energized. Full of life. I wonder. ..” His gaze was trained on Laura. Somehow, he got a zap of real-body energy, and it looked as though he was hooked.

  “Don’t even think about it, Henry.” I’d have to keep an eye on him, now that he knew he’d get an energy lift from a body.

  “The lady means what she says. Don’t do that again, Henry.” Elliot stood behind me and I had a distinct feeling he was protecting me. That was a new emotion for me. No man had ever protected me before. I had to fight for everything I’d earned. Earning a doctor’s degree had been pretty competitive. I had to work harder than my male colleagues, and as I’d escalated into the realms of a specialist, the competition had grown more fierce. All I could do was gape at Elliot as he stood like a guard at my back.

  My skin prickled with awareness as though he was a physical person and he was brushing up behind me. I half expected him to lay his hands on my shoulders. As if he could. He was little more than vapour, yet I was still intensely aware of his presence. I didn’t get the same impact with Henry’s presence and I wondered what it was about Elliot that made me feel this way. So aware of him. He looked down at me, his gaze quiet and serious, yet there was something else behind those eyes. Something that hinted at stronger emotions.

  I mentally shook myself back into the present moment and forced myself back to what we were here to do. “Okay, where is your will, Henry?” I asked.

  He gestured to a front room that was off the hallway just next to the main entrance. “In the study.”

  I walked into the room to find Henry standing by the desk when a moment before he was just in the hallway. I jumped, hand over heart. “Henry. You have to stop doing that!”

  “Sorry.” But he didn’t look as though he was sorry at all. “It’s in the top drawer. In a white envelope.”

  I opened the drawer he’d indicated, rifled through a few neatly stacked loose papers and found the envelope. “Found it! I’ll get it over to your lawyers.” ·

  “Can you read it so I can make sure everything’s in there that needs to be?” Henry asked. “Surely you did that before ...” my voice died off. I didn’t want to state the obvious. It sounded so…permanent. Maybe that’s what was crossing his mind. I mean, this really was his last chance.

  I opened the envelope and read the contents out aloud to Laura and Elliot. “Wow. You were rich, Henry. It says here you left everything to Paul and Lucy Richards. It all looks in good order.”

  Henry faced me, his face blank. “Paul and Lucy...Richards? I don’t know them. That’s not my will.”

  I waved it at him. “It has to be. It’s on the Elder and Slate stationery. It’s got your details on it, your signature and your witness. And their address. You must know them. Maybe you’ve just...forgotten.” I didn’t know what happened to memories when there was no brain to keep them. Elliot had forgotten everything about his life for some reason and Henry had now been dead for two days. I didn’t know if memory loss was normal, but then again, I didn’t know a whole lot about the afterlife. That would be Laura’s domain.

  “I left everything to the Leukaemia Foundation.” Henry brought me up to the end of my thoughts fast. The Leukaemia Foundation was nothing like Paul and Lucy Richards. I handed the will to Laura and quickly filled her in on what was going on.

  Henry shook his head, “I know I don’t know them. I’ve never heard of them before. I left all of my possessions to the foundation.”

  “You must know them? Work? Family?” Elliot suggested. “People in your past. School-friends. Girlfriends.”

  Henry clicked his fingers, “Wait a minute...Lucy Richards…but that was so long ago, surely irrelevant. But the man—Paul. I have no idea who he is.”

  “That’s a good start,” Elliot said. It was good to have a detective on my side. Doing something that he did as his job could be beneficial. It might also help Elliot remember more about himself. Maybe that’s why he was chosen to help me. His detective skills. “Henry, tell us everything you can remember about Lucy, no matter how small or insignificant you think it is.”

  “It must be twenty-five years ago, before I met my wife. Lucy Richards was my girlfriend. Well, not even that really. We shared a few nice nights together. An amiable thing. I didn’t really know her. We were both so young. We didn’t go out for very long and we never kept in touch after those few days. The romance was only very brief. I can’t understand why she would be in my will.”

  “It’s a start. We’ll check out the address. You never know what might turn up.”

  Henry looked totally deflated. I felt sorry for him. He must have been geared up for the next stage, whatever that might be. And now, he wasn’t going anywhere.

  “Why are you leaving all of your money and property to the Leukaemia Foundation? Don’t you have any other relatives?” If it were possible, he looked even sadder than he had a moment ago. I certainly knew how to put my foot in it. I apologised, and Henry held out his hand, palm out, as though to put my worries at rest. It did nothing to assure me.

  “Fair enough question. I asked you to be involved and you should know. There’s no-one else to leave my money to. Enid, my wife, died ten years ago.”

  “What about children?” I asked.

  It took Henry a moment to gather himself. When he spoke, his voice was rough with emotion. “I had a daughter, Elizabeth. When she was ten, we discovered she had leukaemia. It ravaged her little body, took the life out of her. I watched it take a little more of her every day. It didn’t take long before it took all of her.” Henry was silent. No wonder he was so upset. He thought he’d be meeting his wife and daughter. Not still stuck in this world worrying about his will.

  “The people at the hospital were so nice. So supportive. They took care of us during her illness. Helped us find peace in her death. Even afterward, they visited us. They were a huge impact on our lives. We never had any more children. I don’t think Enid could have coped if something else were to happen to another child. And I didn’t push. I don’t think I had it in me, either.”

  “That’s why it’s so important, you see. The Leukaemia Foundation can d
o so much good with the money. Help people that are going through the same thing we went through all those years ago. That’s why I needed your help so badly. For those people. But these Paul and Lucy Richards—how on earth could my will have changed to their names?”

  “We’ll get there, Henry. I promise.” How could I say no to an old man who only wanted his money for the good of many? It was a simple enough request. Maybe the last thing anyone could ever do for him. Besides, I had Elliot and Laura to help me.

  “Cassie...” Elliot and Laura spoke at the same time.

  “Look, we’ll just go to the address in the will, ask who this Paul and Lucy are and set things straight. How hard than that be?”

  “You’ve got the wrong idea, Cassie. That will was planted. Put there on purpose. There’s a lot of money at stake. These people are more than likely dangerous. You need to get the police involved. Don’t do this yourself. These documents were most probably exchanged for Henry’s true will after Henry’s death. There’s nothing simple about it,” said Elliot.

  “I don’t want to get the police involved. What am I going to say—I saw a ghost who asked me to help with his will? They’ll drop me off at the nearest looney-bin. Besides, I do have the police involved—you, Elliot. You’re all the police I need.”

  “This could be dangerous,” Elliot said.

  “What else can I do? I said I would help and that’s just what I intend to do. It’s the only way I’ll…”

  “Only way you’ll do what, Cassie?” His frown grew deeper.

  I was going to say it was the only way I’d be free of this curse and get back to my life but I didn’t want to see the hurt expression he’d given me first this that morning at the expense of my careless comment. He was a spirit, but he still had feelings.

  “Look, I gave my word to the both of you. That’s something I take seriously. I’m going to help you move on to where you need to go. If I were you, I’d take me up on that offer. It’s not like you’ll get any help from Mum and she’s possibly the only other person in this world that could help you. We’ll get this mess straightened out!”

  I marched outside onto the veranda, swiping my hand over my face and sucking in a deep breath.

  I didn’t know why I was so agitated. Maybe it was because my plan for the simple solution of not seeing spirits was heading the wrong way. Maybe I had over-simplified things. Or maybe, I was so damn desperate to get my life back to normal I didn’t want anything standing in my way. But if this Paul and Lucy Richards were the only real-life people in my way, then I’d break their door down myself and get things sorted out without anyone’s help.

  If I couldn’t help Henry, I knew where I’d be and there was no way I was going to end up like Mum, living in the prison of the middle of the outback. I had a job. I had a life. And I was damn well going to fight to keep it.

  Chapter Four

  I still had a job to contend with and if I wanted to keep it, I needed to be right where I now was—doing the past three days’ worth of paperwork that had piled up on my desk. The man who kept pacing the small length of my office was making getting through the mountain of paper exquisitely hard.

  I’d find my eyes drifting to him time after time. He moved with the grace of a panther. Long, conservative, flowing strides took him from wall to wall, where he’d fluidly swivel on the balls of his feet and retrace his steps. His eyes strayed to me every so often, agitation shadowed in their depths.

  He’d taken his trench coat off, as well as his jacket and left them casually slung over the back of the chair that was on the other side of my desk. Beneath the coat and jacket he wore a matching grey vest that was done up with small, shiny black buttons. A burgundy tie was faultlessly arranged at his throat and was tucked beneath his vest. A crisp white shirt brightened the dove-grey of the suit.

  I had to admit, the clothes of yesteryear did make the man. Or maybe it was his physique. Broad shoulders, square chest, flat stomach. But he had no body. Not physically anyway. He was little more than air to me. Never to be touched no matter how much I admired him. He wasn’t a flesh and blood man. He was a ghost. A vapour. And besides, when I turned this cursed gift off, I’d never see him again.

  The realisation didn’t have the optimism it held last night for some reason I couldn’t quite fathom. Maybe it was because I was just bone tired. I had come back to my office straight from Henry’s house. Even though we had to find Paul and Lucy Richards, I also had my patients, to keep healthy and alive. They were the people I should be seeing.

  There was a knock at my door. Surprising. I wasn’t expecting anyone, but then again this was a busy hospital and there was usually a run of people tracking me down for one reason or another. “Come in,” I called.

  Charles Cassidy, the Director of Medical Services walked into my office, closing the door quietly behind him. “How are you feeling, Doctor Hunter?”

  “Er...I’m fine. Thank you.” I had to take a moment. Charles didn’t come for a friendly-how-are-you-doing visit. Ever. My gut twisted. An unexpected visit from Charles usually meant something serious. “Please, have a seat.” I indicated the chair with Elliot’s coat folded over the back opposite my desk.

  “This won’t take long, Doctor. I’m just here out of procedure. You’re...not like the others. I usually don’t have any issues with you.”

  I frowned up at him. “I’m not following...”

  “Henry Davis. Your patient. Have you heard anything about him?”

  My stomach compressed into something painful. “He passed away. Unexpectedly. Very unexpectedly. I’d come yesterday morning to send him home.”

  “Yes...Have you read the results of his autopsy yet?”

  “I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage. I was knocked unconscious and have been...recovering ever since.” That was an understatement. More than a day had passed. I still didn’t have an inkling what happened, or why Henry had died. My brain seemed to be determined to keep my memories from me.

  “Yes. Yes. I heard about that. Terrible thing happening to a doctor at her hospital.” He took a deep breath and then continued, “An irregularity has come back on Mr Davis’ autopsy. I think you should take a break ...just for the next couple of days. Refer your patients to one of your colleagues. Just until we tie up this mess. You know how it is.”

  “Refer? Mess? What are you talking about? Are you accusing me of..?” I couldn’t say the words. They sat on the edge of my tongue like specs of dirt. A filthy taste came into my mouth as I digested the news. “Are you telling me I’m being charged ...with mal-practice. I haven’t even seen Henry’s autopsy results myself to form an opinion of how he might have died. I take good care of my patients!”

  Charles held his hand out as though to stop my tirade, “I know you do. You have a stellar reputation. That’s what we’re looking into. This is really only a precaution. You are a good doctor. I’m sure there’s something we’ve missed. I’m just dotting my ‘i’s’ and crossing my ‘t’s’. I just can’t have a doctor treating patients while they’re being investigated. It’s hospital regulation. Go home. Have a break. Give your head a rest and I’ll be in touch. Don’t worry about anything.” The door clicked quietly behind him.

  Something cold and hard settled in my stomach. Henry’s death was suspicious. And I was being investigated. Like I was a criminal.

  “It will be all right. You won’t be charged.”

  My vision swam as I looked at Elliot, “How do you know?”

  “I know you are innocent.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  He studied me, his gaze clear and sharp, “You’re a good person, Cassie, and wouldn’t harm anyone. It simply isn’t in you.”

  “You don’t know me!”

  “On the contrary. For the short time I’ve known you, you are a caring person who will do whatever she can to help even a stranger. You have a strong moral code and high standards. You are considerate and kind, and quite…beautiful.” He caught himself, as t
hough he never meant to say he thought I was beautiful, straightening his shoulders and creating an air of formality. “Also, I know people, and I know acting on policy. Your boss has yet to prove anything. And if they find something, then I will be here to clear your name. That is, in whatever limited capacity I can offer.”

  I wanted to ask him if he really thought I was beautiful. He was so sincere when he said it that I could believe that he really meant it. Instead, I said nothing. Even if he did think I was beautiful, where on Earth could any attraction lead? All he could ever be to me was something I had done in good conscience. I cleared my throat, “Elliot, you are still a person even if you are in spirit. You have a lot to offer.”

  He sighed, “I’m invisible to everyone. I don’t exist in this world.” He swiped at a coffee mug on my desk and his hand sailed right through, “I can’t even touch anything. I might be able to offer some assistance, but that will be limited.”

  I slumped into my chair, mulling over what he’d just said. “You’re right in some ways, but you still have your mind. Your intelligence. You can tell me what to do and I can do it. I can touch things. I can be seen.”

  “You are a good woman, Cassie Hunter,” Elliot said.

  Damn, if he kept on saying those really nice things to me, I was afraid I might never be able to let him go. Keep your mind on track, Cassie. He’s just a nice person being nice, that’s all. Besides, he might only be nice because he needs me to sort things out for him. That thought brought everything back into perspective. I was a little hurt that he might actually be nice to me to use me, but it allowed me to clear my thoughts. “I said I would help you, and that’s what I intend to do.”

  His expression told me he didn’t find that comforting and I couldn’t quite forget about the cold lump that had somehow wrapped around my heart. “Let’s look on the bright side. I guess I have the time to get to the bottom of Henry’s will now. Go to Paul and Lucy Richard’s house. Ask a few questions.” I would have liked to think I had time because I’d cleared my schedule, not because I was being investigated for mal-practise.