Fatal Secrets

by Ehsani, Vered

“Okay, boys, enough,” Lee ordered. “Axe will tell you when he’s ready to, and I don’t like that tone of voice, Shadow.”

  Did I mention Lee can get very maternal and patronising?

  More trees replaced the town and I watched the road carefully. A sign grandly announcing Dead Man’s Falls came into view. Shadow glanced at me but I shook my head.

  “We’re looking for a dirt road. There. Turn up there, Faye.”

  Faye’s turn was slightly sloppy and we almost ploughed into a tree. As it was, we lost some more paint and added a few more dents.

  “Lee, you sure you can’t drive?” Shadow whispered and snickered.

  “You call this a road?” Faye asked.

  I shrugged. “It’s an old service road. It’s not used much, or it wasn’t.”

  Lee snorted while rubbing her neck. “It still isn’t.”

  Although it was well past sunrise, the road was dark, the sky blocked by a thick canopy of branches. Lower to the ground, bushes grew unchecked. The service road had definitely not been serviced any time recently. We bounced along, adding a few more scratches to the sides. I was glad we’d stolen Cal’s car and not Faye’s.

  “Dead end,” Faye announced, pointed to the log strategically dumped across the road ahead of us and giggled. “And we all end up dead.” Her giggle turned into hysterical laughter.

  “Maybe you should stay in the car and rest,” Lee suggested as she eased out of the car, armed with her shovel.

  “Yes, please do,” Shadow added, following me out.

  For once, Faye didn’t argue or talk back. She slumped into the closest thing to ghost sleep.

  The three of us stood facing the log. It was actually two logs stacked together to form a barrier. It hadn’t been here all those years ago, but I knew where we were. The car was parked over a culvert, through which a stream crossed under the road. The water was frozen, but there was no snow to obscure the sign I was looking for. Still I hesitated.

  “What’s the story?” Shadow’s soft voice cut through the memories.

  I shook my head and floated towards the downstream side of the culvert. Lee jumped down, muttered about mud on her boots and followed me as I floated along the side of the stream. After a couple hundred metres, I stopped.

  “Here.” I pointed at a large cypress tree towering above us. At the base was a pile of stones.

  “Not very subtle with the grave markers there, janitor,” Shadow drawled.

  “It was the least we could do.” I didn’t feel like explaining any further just then. I knew he’d get the truth out of me eventually, but not right then. I glanced at Lee who was leaning against the shovel.

  “Oh, no.” She waved a finger, her breath solidifying into a small cloud in front of her mouth. “This is your dig, Cooper.”

  “And your life at risk, Lee,” I reminded her. “You don’t have to dig all of it. Just the first couple feet, and I’ll do the rest. It was a pretty shallow grave.”

  I didn’t mention we hadn’t had time for anything deeper. I didn’t tell them what an emotional mess Jacob had been in and how I had to carry his brother’s body into the woods and bury it. Oh yeah, the memories were returning in force now.

  Lee scowled. “Ever since you died, I’ve been at risk.” She plunged the shovel through a crusty layer of ice, leaves and earth and into the soft soil underneath. She tossed the dirt at me. “Why…” Another shovel. “I bother…” More dirt went flying through me. “Is beyond… Me.”

  After several minutes of digging, she paused to take a breath and glare at me. “You know, Cooper, when I told you I was bored, I wasn’t actually asking for you to give me something to do. And this definitely wasn’t what I had in mind for my post-retirement.”

  I shrugged and gestured for her to continue. “Now you know better.”

  I knew we were close when I saw the edge of something that didn’t look like soil. I motioned to Lee and she backed off, huffing a bit. I began to sink into the ground and thought better of it. I didn’t want to be waist-deep in someone’s grave. I knelt down and focused my energy on shifting away the soil. A bone appeared. It was stained with blotches of brown and green. I kept at it until a set of ribs popped into view, followed by a skull with a deep gash in it. I pointedly ignored that gash. The tarp I had wrapped the body in, as well as the dead man’s clothes, were mostly gone except for a few bits here and there.

  “So what’re we looking for?” Shadow sunk into the grave and peered at the bones as if they would answer him.

  “No idea,” I said and frowned at him. “Have some respect. You’re standing inside someone’s grave. Come on, man.”

  Shadow shrugged and rose up slightly. “He’s dead. What does he care? What’s the gash from?”

  Trust Shadow to notice that and want to know. “That’s where his head accidentally met up with an axe.” I scowled without looking up. “Seriously, Shadow. Get out of the grave. It’s creepy.”

  Shadow made a noise that was probably rude. “You were the one who put him here in the first place. Hardly respectful.”

  “Hey, boys,” Lee called out from where she was leaning against a tree. “Can we hurry up a bit? It’s bloody cold out here and little, old Chinese ladies don’t make good popsicles.”

  I stared at the skull, at the gash in it. I couldn’t see anything here that would be of any interest to Cal. “You know why they call this place Dead Man’s Flats?”

  “No, but I love a good story,” Shadow said.

  Still staring at the skull, at the empty eyes, I continued. “In the early 1900’s, a man from Canmore killed his brother.” I paused. “With an axe. He threw the body in the Bow River. He, uh… He figured that his brother’s ghost couldn’t haunt him if the body was carried away downstream.”

  Shadow snorted. “Little did he know. He doesn’t sound like a bright fellow. Is that what happened here?”

  “Something like that,” I said softly. “It was an accident though. Amos here,” I gestured to the bones, “and his brother Jacob had a slight misunderstanding.”

  “Some misunderstanding.”

  “Yeah.” I sighed. “Amos wanted Jacob to leave his job. I didn’t get all the details and afterwards, it didn’t seem to matter. Tempers and axes flew and this was the result. I helped clean up.”

  “Loyal friend,” Shadow murmured and leaned towards the skull. “But why were you here in the first place?”

  I kept quiet. My jaw clenched.

  “Fine.” Shadow shrugged his shoulders. “Keep your secrets, what’s left of them. What’s that?”

  I peered closer. A tarnished chain snaked around the neck bones. I focused on tugging at the chain; it snapped but not before whatever was at the end popped up. I levitated a small tube.

  “It’s a memory stick.” Shadow motioned to it. “Sports version.”

  “Sports version?” Lee laughed. “What does it do, relay races?”

  “It’s water resistant,” I explained. “And maybe mould and rotting flesh resistant too.”

  “Which means it might still work,” Shadow murmured. “So what’s in it that’s so important?”

  I leaned back. The cracked skull watched me. Okay, maybe not but that’s what it felt like and yeah, it was probably just me freaking out with flashbacks and bad memories returning and all. Obviously, skulls can’t really watch you.

  Then again, ghosts can’t really drive cars.

  I kind of missed not remembering what happened.

  “Don’t know. But I know who does.” I told them about the other news article, the one in which I’d seen the names of Jacob and Amos. “Jacob’s working with the prosecutors as a witness in a case against the UN Gang. He must’ve known Amos had some real evidence. Maybe that’s why they’d fought in the first place. This must be what Cal wants. Makes sense. Nothing else here but…” I waved a hand towards the bones.

  “Great,” Lee said in a tone that was decidedly not great. “Can we go now?”

  “Yeah, except…” I
stared at the bones. “You’re not going to like this part.”

  “What part?” she demanded.

  I rubbed my chin. “The part where we carry Amos’s remains and make sure he gets a proper burial. That part.”

  Shadow’s smile almost split his face, his white teeth neon against his dark skin. “Nice. Very nice, janitor.” He rubbed his hands like I’d just announced an early Christmas party.

  Lee just stared with a blank expression. “I’m sorry. I think the cold has numbed my brain and frozen my ears. I thought you said we were going to carry the bones away. But obviously, what you really meant was we’re going to burry the bones away.”

  I peeked up at her, grinned and shrugged my shoulders.

  “Axe. Cooper.” She put on her dentist drill / jackhammer glare guaranteed to pierce through bulletproof armour. “I am not driving all the way back to Vancouver with mouldering bones in the backseat with me.”

  “Of course not. Perish the thought,” Shadow offered with an amiable smile. “We’re going to drive back to Vancouver with the mouldering bones in the trunk.”

  “And technically, Faye’s driving, not you,” I added.

  “Like I need to be reminded,” Lee snapped.

  “Plus they’re not really mouldering,” Shadow said. “The stains are from the dirt.”

  “Thank you, Shadow,” Lee said, her tone icier than the ground. “That makes me feel so much better.”

  “I thought it might,” he said.

  “Lee, I gotta do this,” I pleaded. “These bones need a proper burial. I’m pretty sure that’s how I right the wrong. Put the world back into balance. Work on the regret. You know, karma and all.”

  “Now who can resist that logic,” Shadow commented.

  “Fine,” she snarled in a this-is-so-not-fine tone that warned of future retaliation. “I’ll see if there’s a bag or something in the car.” She stomped off.

  “That’s the spirit,” Shadow called after her and laughed, sinking further into the grave.

  Several minutes passed, the only sound being Shadow’s chuckles and the occasional bird song. When Lee came back, she had one arm stretched out to one side, a greasy bag dangling from her fingers.

  “It’s the tyre cover,” she grumbled. “Someone thought the tyre should look pretty or something. The car’s a wreck, but the spare tyre is covered.” She flung it at my head and rubbed her hand vigorously against her pants. “Can’t believe I had to touch that. Grease marks and…”

  I ignored her mutters about grease and germs. I stared at the bones. “Guess I’ll… ah… start with the head.”

  I was so glad I didn’t have to use my hands.

  Gingerly I poltergeisted the skull up out of the soil. It wobbled overhead (ha, ha). The lower jaw dropped through Shadow and clinked against the ribs.

  “Nice,” he said, his eyes hooded.

  “Hey, you want to try this?” I grumbled as I slid the skull into the opened tyre bag.

  “No,” he said. “It’s far more entertaining to watch you try.”

  Although pretty much everything that could rot, had rotted, there were still a few scraps of ligaments holding some of the bones together. I discovered that when I got to the vertebrae. The ribs fell away, but the backbones clung together and wiggled like a snake as I levitated them.

  “That’s not going to fit,” Shadow said.

  “Nope.” Frowning, I snapped the back in half and stuffed it in after the skull. Lee jumped at the sharp crack the bones made.

  Amos hadn’t been too big in life, and without all the meat, his bones were much easier to compact. Even still, not everything could fit into the bag. The leg bones were too long, so I left them out.

  “Ah, Lee, could you get the zipper?” I asked after several failed attempts.

  She was still mumbling complaints as she stomped towards the desecrated grave. Keeping her eyes fixed firmly on some invisible point in the trees, she jerked at the zipper. The contents of the tyre shaped bag clanked, sounding like a mighty big wind chime.

  That’s one hellish wind chime.

  “You carry the bag and I’ll get the leg bones.” I was tired, but I knew from the glares and mutterings that there was no way she was going to carry the bare bones in her hands. The bag was bad enough. Memory stick in her pocket, she trudged behind me, holding the bag as far from her body as possible, while I levitated the leg bones ahead of me.

  Shadow floated through the tree trunks for fun. I’d once asked him about his idea of fun. He claimed it was just like anyone else’s: hanging out with friends, taking road trips, floating through trees, attending friends’ funerals, digging up bodies. In that case, this whole event must’ve been a real party for him.

  We were just about at the service road when I saw we had company. The law enforcement type of company.

  Bones & Memory

  So here I was, with the bones of a murdered man, and we had visitors.

  Two men in uniform got out of their truck, which was parked behind our beat up, tin can on wheels. Oh, and add ‘stolen’ to that list. Faye waved at me from inside the car.

  “Blast,” I hissed, and ducked down behind a bush. It was a totally unnecessary move for a guy who was invisible to all but drunks, babies and Lee. The two guys checking out our stolen, beat up car definitely weren’t drunks or babies. I gestured to Lee. She was very short sighted but she could see we had trouble, and she crouched down beside me, while Shadow sunk into the ground up to his waist.

  “You could distract them while Faye drives out,” Lee suggested softly.

  “They’re blocking our car,” I pointed out.

  Shadow grinned. “You could distract them while Faye drives their truck out.”

  I glared at him. “Oh yeah, that’s a great idea. Let’s steal a cop car and add that to our rap sheet.”

  “That’s the spirit, janitor.” He snickered.

  “Yeah, and Lee’s fingerprints are on the car we leave behind.” I gave my Popeye glare, which Shadow ignored. “We need to get the car and it would help if Lee stayed unseen.”

  “So we take both vehicles then,” Shadow persisted, his eyes glowing. “It wouldn’t be that bad. They’re not cops. The logo on the truck is for the Forestry Department. They must be park rangers, or something.”

  He was right about the logo. That didn’t make his idea any less wrong. One of the rangers was back at the truck, talking into a radio. Probably telling the world to get over and check out the big news for Canmore: a car abandoned in the forest. If they only knew about the set of bones clinking around in a greasy tyre bag just a few paces away, they’d really get excited. They’d be talking about it for years.

  “It’d be great if I could sink into the ground right now,” Lee whispered.

  “It’s way overrated,” I reassured her.

  The ranger finished raising the alarm on the radio and was studying the ground. I floated up and groaned. Lee’s footprints were clearly visible where she’d sunk into the crusty soil bordering the stream. If he jumped down and walked in a few paces, he would definitely see Lee, assuming he wasn’t blind, which he clearly wasn’t.

  Faye must’ve come to the same conclusion, because the truck’s horn began hooting and its front lights were flashing. Both rangers looked at their possessed vehicle and eased towards it. I could hear them muttering together. Their muttering revved up to shouts as the truck began to roll backwards along the road.

  “She does a better job reversing,” Shadow commented as the rangers began to run after the truck. “I guess this leaves you, Axe, to drive the car. Should I be scared?”

  Metal crunched loudly. I peered out of the trees, gazing at the wreckage. The truck had veered off the road and smacked heavily into a tree.

  “Not really,” I replied as we entered the car. After putting the keys into the ignition for me, Lee hid on the floor in the backseat. Shadow stuck his head through the windshield. I started the car and put it into reverse, glad it was automatic. It eased backw
ards.

  “How does she handle the wheel and the gas pedal?” I grumbled, all my energy focused on the steering wheel.

  We rolled past the two rangers who were searching their truck for the joyrider. They stared at us, or rather at the driverless car, trying to decide if they should do something. Faye twirled above their heads and fluttered into the car, sitting between Shadow and me.

  “Why are you going so slow?” she chirped as she floored the pedal. The car zoomed backwards down the road. “Now that was fun, sugar. Can we haunt someone else?”

  Shadow snickered, Lee groaned and I focused on keeping the car straight and avoiding trees.

  “What’s in the bag?” she continued.

  “Bones,” I grunted, battling with the steering wheel. “Someone I buried a while back.”

  “Ooo,” Faye trilled. “This is the best road trip ever!”

  I glanced between Faye and Shadow. “Are you sure you’re not related?”

  Faye giggled. I think Shadow growled at me.

  Once in Canmore, Lee bought a sports bag and we stuffed all the bones in it. Way more dignified than the dirty tyre bag. The town was big enough to have several Internet cafés. We chose one that was off the main roads, so we could hide our clunker in case the rangers were looking for it.

  “So let’s see what Axe’s friends do for fun,” Faye gushed as she perched on the armrest beside Lee. Shadow remained silent, not looking at the computer screen as Lee plugged in the memory stick. A series of photos and documents popped up.

  A few minutes later, Lee whistled. “Well, well, Cal and his buddies have been busy, in all the wrong things.”

  Faye sighed. “And I had such high hopes for him. So dashing, so…” She looked around the café as if searching for the word on the walls.

  “Devious?” I suggested.

  “Disgusting?” Lee added.

  “Busted,” Shadow said, still not looking at the screen.

  “Not yet,” Lee said, her faint dark eyebrows bunched together in a frown. “But after we send these files out…”

  “Not him,” Shadow sneered. “You.”

  He gestured to the window behind us. We all swivelled to look. Our stolen, beat up clunker was now the object of attention from two cops.