Heaven Painted as a Christmas Gift

by Smith, Dean Wesley

  “Take us back to the restaurant parking lot,” Jewel said, laughing.

  An instant later Belle found herself standing beside Nancy and facing Jewel and Tommy in the mall parking lot beside the Sizzler. The fresh air and cooling afternoon breeze felt wonderful.

  “Be in Vegas and settled in by two weeks from tomorrow,” K.J. said to Belle and Nancy.

  Then he vanished.

  Belle looked over at Tommy and Jewel, who were both smiling. “Is this what we do? We save people and put bad people away?”

  “We do,” Jewel said. “And more.”

  Belle looked at Nancy who was nodding as well.

  “I think I want to learn more,” Belle said.

  “Great,” Tommy said. “But how about showers, a change of clothes, and some dinner first.”

  Belle had no idea how she would do any of those things as a ghost, but they sure sounded good.

  Section Two

  A VERY STRANGE TRIP

  NINE

  BELLE AND NANCY sat in the back seat of a Mercedes SUV as Jewel had the driver, an elderly woman who owned the car, take them to Belle’s apartment. The poor woman had just been coming out of the mall with packages and Jewel had merged with her and had her drive them.

  Tommy assured Belle and Nancy that the woman would never remember a thing, but Belle wasn’t sure if that was better or worse.

  Tommy sat in the front seat mostly just taking deep breaths after what he had gone through inside that pervert’s head. Belle didn’t blame him at all. When she asked him why the deep breath, he had said it made the memories recede faster.

  The woman stopped in front of Belle’s apartment and all four got out.

  Behind the wheel the poor woman suddenly looked puzzled, looked around, then shook her head and drove off.

  “She doesn’t live that far from here, so it will be fine,” Jewel said. “She’ll just think she got distracted.”

  The North End neighborhood of Boise around Belle’s apartment was stunning this time of the year. The huge oak trees that formed canopies over the streets were all turning bright fall oranges and reds. And the air always smelled of cut grass and fall flowers.

  It was the most beautiful place in all of Boise to live, and Nancy’s apartment was only a few blocks down and one block over from Belle’s. Belle had no idea what she was going to do next. But whatever it was, she was fairly certain she could no longer live here.

  In fact, she wasn’t certain how a ghost could live anywhere, for that matter. So many questions to be answered.

  “I would suggest you pack some clothes and minor stuff and not stay here tonight,” Jewel said.

  “Agreed,” Tommy said. “The police will be locking this up and posting guards at some point. Easier to get a good night’s sleep if people aren’t showing up at all hours of the day or night. Is there a great hotel with suites in town somewhere?”

  “Homewood Suites by Hilton,” Nancy said. “Out pretty close to where we were by the mall.”

  Belle nodded. “I hear it has great suites and water jet tubs in each room.”

  “I’d suggest we all go there then for the night,” Jewel said.

  Belle didn’t much like the idea of not staying in her own apartment, but she understood. She didn’t know how four ghosts could get rooms in a suite hotel, but she would learn that when the time was right.

  “Belle,” Nancy said as they started toward the front apartment door. “Look.”

  Belle looked where Nancy had pointed. Down the street a half block was a battered old blue van. Her ex-husband’s van.

  “What is the slug doing here?” Belle asked, shocked.

  “Heard about what happened this morning to us,” Nancy said. “I’ll bet he’s trying to rip you off before the police lock this up.”

  “Who’s the slug?” Tommy asked, suddenly looking worried.

  “My ex-husband,” Belle said, turning and storming toward the front door. She might be dead, but she could still teach the idiot a thing or two.

  She went through her own front door without closing her eyes and stopped in the middle of her living room. She had really, really enjoyed furnishing this place and had it exactly as she liked it, with brown cloth furniture, an oak dining room set, and a large screen television that she and Nancy had watched many a movie on.

  “This is nice,” Jewel said as they entered behind her.

  “Thanks,” Belle said. “I’m going to miss it.”

  “I can see why,” Jewel said.

  Nancy went past Belle and looked into the kitchen. “He’s not in there.”

  Then Belle heard a scratching noise coming from her bedroom and she went that way, past the bathroom and into her bedroom.

  Dressed in his normal baggy and stained jeans and an old work shirt, the slug was standing on one of her chairs trying to get something from a ceiling light over her bed.

  As Belle got into the room, the slug said softly, “Got it.”

  Belle instantly knew what the bastard had. It was a miniature camera. He had been filming her.

  As he stepped down off the chair, she went at him, thinking she was going to hit him and hit him hard, but instead she went inside him. And what she saw there in his mind made her sick to her stomach.

  The creep had been filming her dressing and in the bathroom for years and selling it online to different porn sites.

  And he had done the same thing to Nancy.

  Belle wanted more than anything else to just stop the bastard’s heart, but instead she backed out and sat down on the bed.

  “You all right?” Nancy said, instantly at her side, holding her.

  “You need to climb in there for a minute, see what that bastard has done.”

  “Are you sure?” Nancy asked.

  Jewel nodded, so as the bastard worked to get a camera embedded in a headboard, Nancy merged with him.

  Belle watched, expecting Nancy to kill the man, but she did as Belle had done and came out looking disgusted and angry.

  “What’s going on?” Jewel asked.

  “The bastard recorded me in here and in the bathroom,” Belle said, “and Nancy in her apartment as well. He did it for years and sold the recordings on the Internet.”

  Belle didn’t know what to think. She couldn’t let this bastard get away with this. But her ex-husband was just a pervert. Tame compared to the monster they had brought to justice earlier in the day. And Belle had a hunch that since she and Nancy were both dead now, not much would come of making anything official against him.

  Nancy reached over and squeezed her hand.

  Behind them, the bastard just kept working to get one camera out of the headboard. He had clearly spent some time hiding it there and now didn’t want it discovered.

  Belle looked up at Jewel who was looking worried, and Tommy who was looking angry.

  “Can you do something to his mind for me?” Belle asked.

  Jewel looked puzzled for a moment, then smiled. “What did you have in mind?”

  “I’m thinking he needs to grieve for us some,” Belle said, starting to smile at the idea that was forming in her mind. “How about at any mention of my name, of any picture of me, of any thought of me or Nancy, he just breaks down into sobbing tears and can’t stop. Can you do that?”

  “I can sure try,” Jewel said, laughing.

  Tommy was shaking his head and smiling.

  Nancy just reached over and hugged her. “Perfect, just perfect.”

  “Let’s wait until he gets done and outside,” Belle said. “I don’t want him here sobbing while I’m trying to pack.”

  At that, Jewel and Tommy both just applauded.

  TEN

  JEWEL WAS AMAZED at how strong Belle and Nancy were turning out to be. And they clearly cared for each other and knew each other from a lot of years of friendship.

  Jewel had no doubt that the two of them would make a great Ghost Agent team.

  Belle’s ex-husband only took a few more minutes to get his
cameras, then with one look around to make sure he hadn’t disturbed anything too much, he went out the front door and locked it behind him.

  Jewel followed him and merged with him as he went down the sidewalk toward the street.

  The guy really was a low-level creep. And he loved his porn. Jewel could see that he hadn’t actually loved Belle for a lot of years, but had been using her to support him and make some money selling candid pictures and film of her and Nancy.

  He really, really deserved to be taught a lesson and Jewel was going to be glad to do it.

  She quickly planted the thoughts in his mind about how much he was going to miss Belle and Nancy.

  And then she used feelings and memories from the death of his dog at a young age to make the grief real and uncontrollable when he thought of the two women.

  Then Jewel took off all restraints on holding back the grief. He would not be able to, ever. No matter the situation.

  She then made sure at the slightest thought of Belle or Nancy, he would break down and cry uncontrollably. And she added that women on porn videos would all remind him of Belle and Nancy, no matter what they looked like.

  Jewel made sure all of it was in place in the creep’s mind. Not even intensive counseling would be able to fix this problem for him.

  Then, as she left his mind, she gave him a suggestion about looking at the most recent images of Belle he had gotten off the camera feed.

  She walked away as he collapsed on the sidewalk, sobbing and wailing and crying.

  It was not a pretty sight.

  Belle and Nancy were both beaming and applauding the show.

  Tommy was laughing. As Jewel came up to him he said, “Remind me to never get you mad at me.”

  She kissed him and said, “I can’t ever imagine being mad at you.”

  “Good,” he said.

  At that, all four of them turned their backs on the sobbing man on the sidewalk and went back inside.

  ELEVEN

  BELLE PULLED HER favorite summer dress out of her closet to pack. But even though the dress was in her hand, and she could feel the light silk texture, it still remained on the hanger in the closet.

  She turned to show Nancy who was standing by the door. Nancy just shook her head.

  Jewel was sitting on the bed trying to explain the ghost element of everything to both of them. Tommy was in the living room taking a nap.

  “So you are saying that we can get as many free clothes as we want?” Belle asked. “And it won’t be stealing?”

  “That’s right,” Jewel said. “You take the ghost element and it replaces itself after three or four hours in the original. So you can go back and take it again and again.”

  “How long will the ghost clothes remain in our closet or drawers?” Nancy asked.

  “So far I haven’t lost a one,” Jewel said. “But until this trip, I ran my hand over all of them every day. They might all be gone when I get back from this trip and I might need to go shopping again. I never asked K.J. that question, to be honest.”

  “Unlimited shopping,” Nancy said, shaking her head. “This is sounding better and better.”

  “Wait until you taste the food,” Jewel said. “It’s why Tommy and I are dressed like this in our running attire. We had just finished running when K.J. came to get us. We have to exercise every day so we can eat what we want. Everything tastes so fantastic.”

  “So food is the same way as clothes?” Belle asked, putting the dress on the bed and turning back to pull out more.

  “It is,” Jewel said. “Say you take an apple from a buffet. The original apple remains, but you have an apple in your hands as well. K.J. thinks food tastes better because we are eating the essence of it. I would tend to agree with him.”

  “Looks like we’re back to running,” Nancy said, laughing. “As Belle will tell you, I love to eat.”

  “Doesn’t show,” Jewel said.

  “Thank you,” Nancy said, indicating her thin body. “This is from time in the corporate gym every day.”

  “Well, on this job we have lots of time,” Jewel said.

  Belle suddenly realized she was going to miss her job. It had been challenging. Not as rewarding by a long ways as saving those two girls’ lives, but still a good job.

  “You don’t need to take too much tonight,” Jewel said. “We can come back tomorrow and get what you want to take to Vegas.”

  Belle shook her head. “I loved this place. I had made it a home, but I feel it’s now part of something else, something I can’t touch or have any more. So I don’t want to come back.”

  “I felt the same way about my little house,” Jewel said, nodding.

  “We’ll make a new home,” Nancy said, nodding.

  “And since everything is free,” Belle said, “I’m looking forward to that.”

  Belle figured out what she wanted and packed the clothes into the ghost equivalent of one of her rolling luggage bags that she usually carried on planes. She made sure she had a couple pair of shoes, then changed into Levis, a silk blouse, and tennis shoes.

  Since no one could see her, there was no reason to dress up for traveling as she normally did.

  Finally, after taking the ghost elements of some of her favorite jewelry, she said, “I’m ready.”

  Nancy led the way out of the bedroom, followed by Jewel. Belle looked back one more time at her bedroom. It was just a bedroom. No real memories in it and honestly, she was glad to be leaving it after what her creep of an ex-husband had done recording her in it.

  She stopped in the bathroom and packed a few personal items, then left her suitcase in the small dining area and went to the kitchen. There, on a top shelf she pulled down a white sauce dish about the size of a child’s shoe. It had been her grandmother’s.

  The real one stayed on the shelf. She only held the ghost one.

  After a moment she put it back and the ghost one vanished back into the real one.

  “Guess there are some things that are better to just leave.”

  She headed to the living room where Jewel had got Tommy moving. He really looked groggy.

  Nancy was looking at Belle, worried.

  She came over real close and asked, “Are you going to be all right?”

  Belle looked up into the wonderful concerned green eyes of her best friend and nodded. “I think I will be. Let’s go get you packed.”

  Nancy nodded and hugged her, and to Belle that felt wonderful.

  And comforting and right.

  Jewel and Tommy went out the door first, followed by Nancy.

  With one last look around, Belle said, “It was nice while it lasted.”

  Then she turned and headed out of her apartment without a look back.

  The slug of her ex-husband had managed to make it another twenty steps toward his car and was lying on his back sobbing.

  Belle just broke out laughing as a cop car showed up.

  She wondered how the idiot was going to be able to explain the secret surveillance cameras in his pocket. She knew that every time he tried, he would break into uncontrollable sobbing.

  Jewel and Tommy, arm-in-arm, went past the slug. Then Belle, arm-in-arm with Nancy, walked by the creep.

  She couldn’t think of a better way to leave that jerk.

  Then Belle shouted ahead to Jewel. “Thanks. And I hope you teach me how to do that at some point.”

  “Be glad to,” Jewel said over her shoulder, laughing.

  They walked down the sidewalk toward Nancy’s apartment as the sobbing of Belle’s ex-husband echoed through the otherwise quiet neighborhood.

  TWELVE

  JEWEL AND BELLE helped Nancy get packed, then the four of them walked three blocks over to a stoplight on a major street. To Jewel the late afternoon was starting to feel cool. After three months in Vegas, she had forgotten what being chilled felt like. And she was only wearing her jogging clothes, which were fine when exercising, but didn’t provide a lot of protection when just moving normally.


  When a large white SUV with a man driving stopped to wait for the signal on the big intersection with mansions and large trees on four sides, Tommy moved out and slid in the driver’s door and took over the guy.

  Then Tommy instantly jumped back out. “He’s headed in the opposite direction we need, and the guy is in a hurry to catch a family dinner.”

  Jewel nodded. They didn’t mind hopping rides with people, as long as it didn’t cause them trouble.

  They waited for two more lights before a man in a large white van stopped at the light and Tommy tried again.

  After a moment, the man gave them a thumb’s up.

  “Now that’s still going to take me time to get used to,” Nancy said, indicating that Tommy was now controlling the man behind the wheel.

  Jewel understood that. It had taken her months to get used to some of this, and she wasn’t sure if she still was yet.

  Jewel quickly helped both Belle and Nancy get into the car with their bags, tossing the bags through the sidewall of the van.

  After she was sure the two women were in place in the back seat, she slid into the passenger seat just as the light turned green.

  “So someone’s going to have to give me directions,” the man said, his voice sexy and his smile wonderful. The guy was dressed in a three-piece gray suit and wore a blue silk tie

  “Wow, who is this guy?” Jewel asked Tommy.

  “Local news anchor headed for a boring gathering of charity fundraisers out near the airport. He doesn’t know where this hotel is.”

  “Glad to help on that,” Belle said from the back seat. “Just stay on this street and get through town to start with.”

  Ten minutes later they were jumping out of the van at an intersection near the hotel. Tommy didn’t want the guy to be seen in the parking lot of a hotel since so many people would recognize him. So Tommy had him pull over and pretend to be talking on his cell phone until all three women were out with their bags.

  Then he climbed out.

  The poor guy looked at his dead cell phone, shrugged, put it away, and started back into traffic.