A Long Way Down Read online

  “That brings up a question,” Tonio said. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

  “Bet I can guess what it is. Yeah, I am, just like the rest of you.”

  “Dead?” Kurt’s smile was pure innocence.

  “That, too.”

  At that point, after laughing with the rest of them, Brody said, “I’ll be back soon. I need to pay a visit to our hosts—” and left.

  “Your hosts?” Daw asked.

  “Mike and Sage. They own the house. They bought it because of this.” Jon swept an arm around. “So we’d have a decent place to live for once.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Well…” Jon went on to explain about the barn, with the others pitching in.

  * * * *

  Sage and Mike were doing their usual Saturday morning chores when Sage caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned off the vacuum.

  “We have company,” he said told Mike, who was in the process of dusting bookshelves.

  “How many?” Mike asked.

  “Brody.”

  “Okay. Why?”

  “I have a question for him,” Brody said.

  “He’s got a question for you,” Sage told Mike.

  “Have at it.”

  Brody nodded. “Ask him if he knows anything about some homeless men who’ve died recently. Or, to be more specific, ones who did swan-dives off rooftops.”

  When Sage relayed Brody’s question, Mike replied, “I haven’t heard anything, but unless they were murdered, I wouldn’t. Do you think they were, Brody?”

  “I think it’s a possibility. I ran into one, he’s a ghost now, who says someone threw him off the roof last night.” He went on to give Mike the details, which Sage repeated verbatim. “According to Daw, that’s the guy I’m talking about, he was there when the police arrived. He says they put it down to either suicide or an accidental fall, maybe because of alcohol or drugs. He swears that’s not what happened.”

  “Unfortunately, that’s probably how it was reported by the officers involved. If the coroner agrees, he’ll list it as such and that’s the end of it. Did Daw say if the ME was on the scene, or crime scene investigators?”

  “No. According to him, the EMTs collected his body and told the officers they’d take it to the morgue.”

  When Sage told Mike what Brody said, Mike frowned. “Sloppy.”

  “He was obviously homeless,” Brody replied scathingly—and Sage relayed.

  “That’s no damned excuse,” Mike said tightly before taking a deep breath. “Okay. I take it you want me to see if there were any other deaths that matched his.”

  “According to him, there are rumors on the street that at least three other men died the same way,” Brody said.

  Mike nodded when Sage repeated Brody’s words. “Understand, they could all have been accidental, or suicide, but I will see what I can find out. Not until Monday, though.”

  “Got it.” Brody chuckled. “Your weekend is for you, not work, well other than housekeeping.”

  “Exactly,” Sage replied, not bothering to tell Mike what Brody had said.

  “Okay. You know where to find me, if you learn anything.”

  Mike grinned when Sage repeated Brody’s words. “Across the backyard, staying out of mischief.”

  “As if.” Brody retorted before vanishing.

  “Do you think there’s anything to this,” Sage asked Mike.

  “If what Daw told Brody is the truth, and not a cover-up for why he ended dead, because he was suicidal or high on something, then maybe.” Mike frowned. “I don’t like the idea it might have happened before and no one caught onto it.”

  “How many homeless victims’ deaths are investigated as murder unless they were obviously beaten or stabbed, or what have you?”

  Mike sighed. “Probably less than there should be, which doesn’t speak well for the department.”

  “One less panhandler on the street, bothering the good citizens of the city,” Sage said sourly.

  “Unfortunately, yes.”

  * * * *

  “So?” Jon said when Brody rejoined them.

  “Mike’s going to see what he can find out.”

  “You told him what I said?” Daw asked.

  “Yes. Hopefully, he believes it. Well, he must since he is going to check for any other, similar deaths. But not until he goes into work on Monday.”

  Van tapped his fingers together, looking at Gene. “We might be able to speed things up.”

  Daw cocked his head in question. “How?”

  “They’re primo researchers,” Kurt said before they could reply. “If it’s out there, they’ll find it.”

  Gene laughed. “We’re not that good, but we can check to see if there have been any stories online about deaths like yours, Daw.”

  “I’ll be honest, it’s unlikely they made the news,” Van added, “Unless they happened on a slow news day.”

  “We’ll also run a search for similar deaths in other cities,” Gene told him. “If we do have a serial killer on our hands, he might move around.”

  “Who the hell would target the homeless?” Tonio asked.

  “Live on the streets and you’ll find out,” Daw retorted, fisting his hands. “We’re not anyone’s favorite people by a long damned shot.”

  “Maybe the cops should, I don’t know, spend their nights staking out rooftops?” Kurt suggested.

  “Do you realize how many buildings there are, not counting houses?” Brody replied. “Take it from an ex-cop, doing that would require more men than the force has in total, even if it was possible to convince someone like Mike’s lieutenant it was necessary.”

  “It was just a thought.”

  “I know.” Brody patted his shoulder. “Before we go off halfcocked, let’s find out if there have been other murders.”

  Daw glowered at him. “You don’t believe me?”

  “I believe you heard rumors on the street about them,” Brody said. “It doesn’t mean they happened and you know it. That brings up something else I should have asked you, Daw. Do you have any enemies who might have wanted you out of the picture? Someone who thought you were infringing on the area they’d staked out for panhandling, for instance. Or someone at a shelter, or anywhere else as far as that goes, who got in your face and you dealt with him.”

  “Nope, and nope. I’m…I was real careful about where I set up to beg, or to find johns. I didn’t look for trouble. Had enough of that growing up.” He held up his hand. “Don’t ask. It’s none of your business. Got it?”

  “Yep,” Brody replied. “Unless it becomes relevant to why you were murdered, it’s forgotten.”

  Reflexively, Daw rubbed his wrist even though it didn’t hurt. It never will again. One less reminder, I suppose. He wasn’t certain if that was good or bad. He saw that the others had picked up on the gesture and turned away, going to the window.

  Since it was on the ground floor, facing the house, and it was daytime, the curtain was open. Brody had told him, earlier, that all the curtains stayed closed at night when the lights were on, as they didn’t want neighbors wondering if someone lived there.

  “Sure, it was converted into living quarters to be rented out, but with no one coming and going they might ask questions Mike and Sage don’t want to answer.”

  “Like is it haunted,” Jon had said, laughing.

  Even though he was still trying to get a grip on everything, which was a lot to deal with, Daw had smiled, because it was amusing.

  Now, as he stared out at the yard, he saw two men exit the house. He was certain they had to be Mike and Sage. That was confirmed when there was a knock on the door and Brody went to open it.

  “Here to see if we’re still alive and kicking?” Brody joked after telling Daw who was who.

  Sage rolled his eyes. “Bad, Brody. Real bad.” He walked to where Daw stood, saying, “Mike has a couple of questions for you.”

  “Okay, I guess.”
>
  Van and Gene got up, telling the others they were going to start their research. When Sage told Mike, he wanted to know if they were working on another story. Through Sage, Van explained they were going to do some digging to find out if any of the murders had ended up on the news.

  Mike chuckled. “Doing my job?”

  “I thought you were going through police reports,” Van replied, and Sage repeated.

  “I am. If you find anything, let me know. It will help if there’s a chance the deaths were murders.”

  “He doesn’t believe me anymore that you do, Brody,” Daw said angrily.

  “I didn’t say I didn’t believe you,” Brody protested.

  When Sage relayed the conversation, Mike said, “It’s not that I don’t think you’re telling the truth as you know it, but I need proof. I presume there weren’t any witnesses to what happened to you, Daw. There probably weren’t for the other three deaths. I’ll find out one way or the other when I go through the reports. Before you get your hopes up, if someone had witnessed the victim being pushed or tossed off the roof, they should have come forward. If they had, the death would have become a murder case.”

  Daw looked at him as if he was crazy. “I don’t know of any homeless guy, or woman, who would voluntarily talk to the cops. They know they wouldn’t be believed.”

  Sage frowned, telling Mike what Daw had said.

  “Unfortunately, you’re probably right,” Mike agreed. “What I want from you, Daw, is details on what happened from the moment you got up to the roof. Did you see anyone, or have a feeling there might have been someone up there?”

  Daw thought for a moment then shook his head. “I think, yeah, I know I was sorta surprised that there wasn’t. Then I figured it was because there were other guys who might have been pushed off buildings, so no one wanted to take a chance.” He smiled bleakly. “Should have listened to my gut and found somewhere else.”

  Sage relayed Daw’s words to Mike, but not Kurt’s brief comment that Daw wasn’t the first guy to make that mistake.

  “So, anyway,” Daw continued, “I went up to the next roof where I could catch a breeze. No one up there, either, so I figured I was safe enough. I was beat, but not so bad I forgot to get out my protection.”

  “What was that?” Mike asked when Sage told him what Daw said.

  “An iron bar. We, well a lot of us, carry something in case punks come after us. Not that it did me any good this time. Like I told them—” Daw nodded toward the other ghosts, “—I woke up when the bastard put his hand over my mouth. The next thing I knew I was being thrown off…” He paused, frowning. “No, no, that’s wrong. I just remembered. I tried to fight back, to get my bar, but he already had it. Maybe he saw me hide it under my pack; maybe he got lucky and found it. He hit me with it. It dazed me enough I stopped fighting. Then he picked me up and, well, you know the rest.”

  After Sage relayed what Daw had said, Mike wrote it down, as he had been since Daw began his story. Now, he said, “Unfortunately, even if he did hit you hard enough to leave a mark, the coroner would have put it down to damage from the fall.”

  “The killer would have known that would happen,” Brody said, and Sage repeated.

  “I’m sure,” Mike agreed. “Daw’s body may still be at the morgue, unless his next of kin has been notified. I’ll check the autopsy report to see if there’s any mention…Where did he hit you, Daw?”

  Daw tapped a spot right above his left ear. Sage mimicked his gesture for Mike.

  “All right. I’ll see if there’s any mention of a specific wound, there,” Mike said.

  “Do you think that’s what the killer did to all his victims?” Jon asked, impulsively touching the spot on his own head where his murderer had crushed his skull. He sighed sadly, and then smiled when Brody put an arm around him, obviously knowing what he was thinking—and commiserating.

  Sage relayed Jon’s question to Mike.

  “First I have to decide if the other deaths are murders before I can do anything else. By now, I’m sure the bodies have been claimed, or buried by the city if they weren’t. Before you ask, no, I won’t ask for them to be exhumed. Like I said, with the extent of the damage, if something wasn’t noted in the autopsy report, I doubt digging the corpse up to reexamine it would find anything new.”

  “About my next of kin, forget it,” Daw said tightly. “I didn’t carry any ID because I didn’t have a driver’s license, so the cops probably don’t know my last name. No one did, and I liked it that way.”

  “Were you ever fingerprinted,” Mike asked after Sage told him what Daw said.

  “No.” Daw smirked. “I was a very good boy. Okay, let’s say I never got picked up for doing anything I shouldn’t.”

  Mike chuckled when Sage relayed Daw’s reply. “Guess you got lucky, considering how you were living. What is your last name?”

  Daw hesitated, nodding when Brody said, “It doesn’t matter anymore, so tell him.”

  “Smith. And yeah, that’s for real.”

  “I’m sure it is. It’s a common surname,” Sage said, and then told Mike.

  “All right. I can’t add it to the report on your death, Daw, because there’s no way I could know. On the other hand, it might help if it turns out the other deaths were murders.”

  “How are you going to prove if they were or not?” Daw asked, and Sage repeated.

  “That’s a very good question. Until I’ve looked at all the reports I can’t say. Sorry, but that’s the best answer I can give you right now.” He started toward the door, adding, “That’s all the questions I have for you for at the moment, Daw.”

  “Hang on,” Brody said when Sage started to follow Mike. “We decided to turn the bathroom into another bedroom, which means we’ll need your help.”

  “Umm, sure, I guess,” Sage replied, and then told Mike.

  “What kind of help, as if I didn’t know,” Mike said. “Get rid of the tub for starters, which shouldn’t be too hard, and the toilet.”

  “Got it in one.” Brody chortled. “You could call in someone to do it, but they might wonder if you lost your mind.”

  “No shit,” Sage agreed, and repeated what Brody said.

  “One thing to your advantage,” Mike said. “The water was turned off by the previous owner when they put the property up for sale. We didn’t bother to turn it on in here, for obvious reasons. I think we can figure out how to get rid of everything. We’ll need to re-floor where the toilet is.” He grinned. “Don’t want you falling down the hole into the sewer system. What about the sink?”

  Brody glanced at the other ghosts. “Cover the top and it can become a makeshift nightstand. We can find a chair to go where the toilet was.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Jon replied. “Daw can store the stuff from his backpack in the cabinet under the sink.”

  “Stuff I can’t use,” Daw said with a sigh.

  “Do you have books in there?” Tonio asked.

  “A couple that I scrounged from trash cans.”

  “We can put in a shelf under there. I keep the books I’m reading on our nightstand.”

  “All twenty of them,” Kurt said with a laugh, ducking when Tonio feinted a blow to his shoulder. “Well, a lot, anyway.”

  Sage had been relaying the ghosts’ conversation to Mike, as usual. Now, Mike said, “We can start on it tomorrow, and late tomorrow night we can take the tub and toilet to a drop-off place for one of the thrift stores.”

  “Meaning we get to rent a truck, again,” Sage replied with a grin.

  “Yep. We should buy stock in the rental firm, as much as we use it.”

  “After that we find a bed and we’re good,” Jon said.

  “I’m sure we can pick one up for you at a thrift store,” Sage replied. “Don’t argue,” he said when it looked as if the ghosts might. “I don’t think people toss beds by their trash bins.”

  “Yeah, they do,” Kurt retorted. “The place where I used to live? People were always do
ing that, which pissed the manager off because the trash company charged extra for taking them away.”

  “A bed?” Mike asked, having gotten the gist of what Sage was talking about.

  Sage nodded and told him what Kurt had said.

  “Possible,” Mike agreed. “While we have the truck we can make a run past some apartment complexes. Maybe we’ll get lucky. Right now, though, Sage and I have things we need to do, like grocery shopping.”

  “I wish we could eat,” Daw said under his breath.

  “Think of the money you’re saving because you can’t,” Sage pointed out, getting an eye-roll from Daw in return. “Okay, we’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning, knowing Mike.”

  “That you will,” Mike agreed—then he and Sage left.

  * * * *

  “Anything?” Brody asked, going into the office in what had been the carriage house kitchen.

  Van looked up from his laptop, shrugging. “Damned all. There was one short item, probably filler, two weeks ago about the body of a young homeless man found in an alley. The police determined he’d fallen from the roof of a five-story department store.”

  “Did it list the address?”

  “No, but it gave the store’s name. I looked it up. It’s four blocks from where Daw died.”

  The others had come in by that time. Jon said, “Maybe we should check it out? For all we know the poor guy’s still hanging around, if he thinks he can’t leave.”

  “Like I would be, if Brody hadn’t shown up,” Daw said.

  “It’s worth a try,” Brody agreed. He thanked Van when he brought up the earth view on a map site so they’d know where they were going. “Everyone got that,” he asked. They said they did, and with Brody keeping a careful eye on Daw, who was new at flying, they took off.

  It wasn’t long before they descended onto the roof of the department store. Bright sunlight beat down on them, although they didn’t feel the heat it generated, or what was reflected off the roof itself.

  There were two air conditioning units and a concrete bunker with a door that obviously led into the building. There wasn’t anyone in view, which didn’t surprise Brody, given that it was early afternoon on a sweltering hot day.