A Long Way Down Read online

  Or, to be more specific, there wasn’t anyone who was alive up there. As Brody walked around the side of the bunker he saw the ghost of a slender, hollow-eyed young man huddled against the wall. He looked up at Brody, pure fear in his expression.

  “Hey, it’s okay,” Brody said softly. He was aware that Daw was right behind him, but didn’t acknowledge him at the moment as he eased closer to the young man.

  “You…you can see me!”

  “We can, because we’re ghosts, like you.”

  “His name is Russ,” Daw whispered to Brody.

  Russ must have heard him anyway, because his eyes widened in shock. “You…you’re dead, too?”

  “Yeah,” Daw replied when Brody stepped aside to let Daw get closer. “Died the same way you did, I suspect.”

  “Over the…?” Russ’s voice trembled. “Over the…?” He gestured to the edge of the roof and then broke into tears.

  Daw was beside him seconds later, enfolding him in his arms.

  Brody held up one hand to keep the others back.

  “Why…why did he do that?” Russ whimpered, wiping away his tears. “Who kills someone like us?” He looked up at Daw as if he had the answer. “What did we do to him?”

  “You keep saying him,” Daw replied, easing his hold on Russ. “Did you see who did this to you?”

  Russ shook his head. “But it was a man. He asked if I thought I was worth a damn because he didn’t. He hit me with…with something. Not hard enough to knock me out. Then he picked me up…I had been sleeping right here before he attacked me. He carried me over there and threw me off.” He pressed his face to Daw’s shoulder. “Then I was…” He shuddered. “Dead,” he whispered. “Watching when they found me. I couldn’t…I was up here, again, looking down. How?”

  “Because you’re a ghost,” Brody replied as he joined them. “I would guess you were so terrified you don’t remember flying up here.”

  “It happens,” Kurt said from behind them. “When I was drowned I ended up on the edge of the river. It was like one second I was in the water, dead, and the next I wasn’t. In the water I mean.” He chuckled. “I was definitely dead.”

  At that point Russ seemed to realize Daw and Brody weren’t the only ones there. “All of them, of you died in the alley?” he asked Daw. “He threw you off here, Daw? Why didn’t I see that happen?”

  “Because it didn’t happen here,” Daw replied. “Kurt just told you he was drowned. As far as I can tell there’s no lake down there.”

  “I thought…” Russ was obviously very puzzled as he looked at the group again.

  “We’re not stuck where we died,” Jon said. “I’m Jon, by the way, and since he didn’t bother to introduce himself, this is Brody.” He put his arm around Brody’s waist.

  “I’m Tonio,” Tonio said. “That’s Van and Gene.” He gestured toward them.

  It took a moment for Russ to grasp what they were telling him. “Then I can leave?”

  “Yes,” Daw replied. “Before you ask, you can get away from here—” he pointed to the roof, “—but apparently you’re stuck in this world until you find out who killed you, the same as me.”

  “And them?”

  “No. It seems…”

  “Why don’t we go back to the house to finish this conversation,” Brody suggested.

  “How?” Russ asked.

  “The same way you got up here from the alley, by flying, although I suspect you floated up. If you think it, you can fly. Ask Daw. He wasn’t all that sure it could happen at first.”

  “No kidding.” Daw took Russ’s hand. “Up, up, and away, kid.”

  “I’m not a kid,” Russ protested. “I’ve told you that at least a dozen times.”

  “And I told you, you’re not nearly as old as me, so you’re a kid in my book.”

  “Bullshit!” Russ growled before he gave him a puzzled look. “Why can you hold my hand? I tried to pick up my pack and my hand went right through it.”

  “Ghosts can touch other ghosts,” Brody told him. “In time you’ll be able to pick things up and move them.”

  “Until that happens you’re going to be real frustrated,” Gene said, getting nods from the others.

  “Where’s your backpack?” Jon asked. Russ told him and he got it, putting it under his shirt because, since it was daytime, it would have been visible if anyone looked up. “Okay, let’s head home.”

  “Think it, kid,” Daw said to Russ as he began to rise into the air. He smiled when Russ came up, too, but didn’t let go of his hand.

  “You okay there, Daw?” Brody asked from above them.

  “Yep. I’ve gotten the hang of this flying thing.”

  With Jon in the lead, they headed back to the house.

  Chapter 4

  “You live here?” Russ asked Daw as he looked around the main room.

  “They do,” Daw replied.

  “You don’t?”

  “I’m their houseguest until we find out who killed me—and you, and a couple others, we think.”

  Russ processed that before asking, “A serial killer, like in the movies?”

  “Like in real life, too,” Brody said wryly. “Why don’t we sit and we’ll explain everything.”

  It took a while, with Russ asking the same sort of questions any new ghost has about what their life will be like until they’re able to move on.

  “But all of you stuck around even after you, or this Mike guy, proved who killed you,” he said toward the end.

  “We did, because we had a reason to,” Brody replied. “For me, it was not wanting to leave until Jon could. In the interim I became friends with Tonio, who told you why he didn’t leave, then Kurt, and Van and Gene. That’s the thing about us. We are friends and friends don’t desert each other.”

  “Sometimes they don’t,” Russ said morosely. “Sometimes they betray you and then run as fast and as far as possible.”

  “Then they aren’t true friends,” Kurt replied.

  “Betray you, how?” Gene asked Russ.

  “Daw knows. Oh, he’s not the guy I’m talking about. It was…” Russ worried his lip with his teeth, looking at Daw for help.

  “From what he told me,” Daw said, “when he was younger, which wasn’t all that long ago—” he chuckled and patted Russ’s shoulder, “—he got in with the wrong crowd because of this guy who wasn’t me. They had a thing going on, and then Russ decided he wanted out. Not of the relationship but from the gang. This guy promised to help but when everything went bad he deserted Russ.”

  “Bad, how?” Jon asked.

  Russ took up the story. “When I let the guy who ran the gang know I wasn’t going to deal anymore, because that’s what I was doing, he said I’d regret it if I tried to quit. I thought it was just a threat until he went to my folks. He was a jock, with a lot of fans because he was…this is so clichéd…he was the high school’s star quarterback. Anyway, he told my folks I was gay and making money selling myself to support my habit.” He looked at the others, shaking his head. “It was lies, all of it, I swear, but as soon as they heard the word ‘gay’ that was it.”

  “They kicked you out?” Tonio asked.

  Russ nodded. “At first they didn’t believe him, and then the guy I was going with backed him up, before he took off for wherever.”

  “Shit, Russ,” Kurt said. “That’s how you ended up on the streets?”

  “Yes. Running for my life because the jock told the others to take care of me before I ratted them out to the cops. I hitched halfway across the country, ended up here—” he clenched his hands together, “—and ended up dead.”

  “It’s not so bad, once you get used to it,” Tonio said.

  Kurt grinned. “We can see any movie we want without the ushers kicking us out.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a great perk,” Daw told him. “On the other hand,” he said thoughtfully, “there’s a lot of movies I’d like to see that came out after I hit the streets. For some reason they frown
on people like me and the kid going in without paying.”

  “I’m not a kid,” Russ muttered.

  “You’re what, nineteen now? I’m twenty-six. You’re a kid. A kind of cute one, but…”

  “Maybe we should get back on track?” Brody suggested.

  Russ nodded, hoping he hadn’t reacted visibly to Daw had said. Ever since he’d met him, he’d had a kind of a crush on Daw. He figured it was because Daw treated him like he mattered, which was rare, given how they lived. It didn’t stop him from having feelings for the guy.

  “Let’s take a break, first,” Van suggested. “Russ has learned a lot in the last hour or so. He needs to assimilate it. Kurt, Tonio, why don’t you show him around.”

  Brody arched an eyebrow at that, even though he agreed. Tonio and Kurt got the message and took Russ up to the second floor.

  * * * *

  As soon as they were out of earshot, Van said, “If I don’t miss my guess, Daw, the kid’s got a thing for you.”

  Daw rolled his eyes. “I’m old enough to be his father. Well, experience-wise anyway.”

  “Seven years isn’t that much older,” Jon said. “Brody’s six years older than me. Okay, if he’d lived he’d be fourteen years older, but who’s counting.”

  “You, obviously,” Brody replied, hugging him.

  “Whatever. I think Van’s right, Daw.”

  “Yeah, well…Damn it, he better not have. I don’t need a puppy trailing me around.”

  Gene chuckled. “First he’s a kid, now he’s a puppy?”

  “You know what I mean. I’m a loner. Have been since forever, it seems. Yeah, I made a couple of friends. Russ was one of them because he needed protection until he got the hang of things. That was it. I haven’t even seen him recently except to say hi to.”

  “I don’t think that matters to him,” Gene replied.

  “It’s a moot point, anyway. As soon as we find out who killed us we’ll be gone to the great beyond.”

  “Find out and prove it,” Brody said. “It’s not going to be easy. Solving these kinds of murders never is.”

  “Where do we start?” Daw asked, needing to get off the subject of Russ.

  “Once, well if Mike finds out anything about others who might have been killed the way you and Russ were, we visit the sites,” Brody replied. “It’s possible the victims’ ghosts will still be there, if they believe they can’t leave.”

  “If he gets names, Van and I will do more research,” Gene said. “While I doubt there’s any connection between the victims, we’d be stupid not to try and find out.”

  “There’s none between me and Russ,” Daw said. “At least none that I know of.”

  “Exactly,” Van replied. “That you know of. Besides which, there is one. From what you said, you mentored him when he first landed in the city.”

  Daw shook his head. “Protected, not mentored. There’s a difference.”

  “Semantics,” Van said just as Russ, Tonio, and Kurt joined them.

  “What’s semantics?” Tonio asked. He pointed at Van. “I don’t mean a definition. I know what the word means.”

  “Whether Daw protected or mentored Russ. We’re looking for any connection between them.”

  “Two is a pretty small set, I think that’s the word,” Kurt pointed out.

  “That’s why we’re hoping Mike can find names for other homeless men, or women too, I guess, who took an unexpected nosedive off a roof,” Brody replied.

  “If he does, and we can find a link between Russ and Daw and them, we’ll have a starting place,” Jon added.

  “Get real,” Daw said tightly. “We know the link. We’re homeless. Whoever the bastard is, he’s targeting us.”

  Russ spoke up, nodding. “He is. He asked me before…umm, yeah. He asked if I thought I was worth anything. I told you that. He must see us, guys who live on the streets, as dirt to be gotten rid of. Right?”

  “Like half the people who see us,” Daw spat out. Then, reluctantly, he added. “I’m beating a dead horse, aren’t I?”

  Brody shrugged. “Perhaps, but who can blame you?”

  “I say we drop the subject for now,” Jon said. “We can’t do anything more on this until we hear from Mike if he’s found out anything, and that won’t be until Monday.”

  “Let’s work on the bathroom,” Kurt said. “We can disconnect all the plumbing.”

  “With what?” Gene asked.

  “Tools? I bet Mike’s got some.”

  “We’ll…you’ll need a pipe wrench, tongue-and-grove pliers, a hacksaw, a metal file…” Russ paused. “A basin wrench, maybe.”

  “How do you know all this,” Tonio asked.

  “My father was a plumber for a while.”

  Brody chuckled. “In that case, you can supervise.” He went to look out the window. “They’re back. I’ll see if they have what we need.”

  * * * *

  “Mike, Brody’s here,” Sage said when the ghost appeared in the kitchen where they were putting away their groceries.

  “Do I dare ask why?”

  “We need some tools if you have them,” Brody said, and Sage repeated.

  “Don’t tell me. You decided to work on the bathroom now, instead of waiting for us.”

  “Hey, you’re welcome to join in.”

  When Sage told him what Brody said, Mike shook his head. “Sage and I have plans for tonight. Let’s go down to the basement and see if I have what you need.”

  To Brody’s surprise, Mike did, with the exception of a basin wrench. “Whatever that is,” Mike muttered as he put the rest of them in a box.

  “You’re going to disconnect everything?” Sage asked as they returned to the kitchen.

  “Yep. Kurt’s idea. We can’t do anything more about the murders until…Oops, forgot to tell you, we found another victim.”

  Sage lifted an eyebrow. “That somehow slipped your mind?”

  “Well…” Brody told him—and by extension Mike when Sage repeated what he was saying—about Russ and how they located him. “The killer hit him with something, the same way he did with Brody, before tossing him off the roof.”

  “As I said before, the chances of proving that’s how the killer disables his victims are slim to none,” Mike stated.

  “I know. Once you find who the other ones were, we’ll check out where they died,” Brody replied, and Sage repeated. “They may be long gone, their ghosts that is, if they tried leaving and found out they could.”

  “It’ll still be worth a shot,” Mike said. “I’ll let you know as soon as I get locations, and hopefully names.”

  “Thanks. Have fun, whatever you’re doing tonight.” Brody waggled his eyebrows.

  Sage laughed, said, “Not that, at least not until later,” and Brody took off.

  * * * *

  “Do something with this,” Brody said, handing Tonio the shower curtain.

  With a grin, Tonio put it over his head and made ‘woo-woo’ sounds. “That work?”

  “Try tossing it in the trash,” Brody grumbled, but he laughed with the rest of them. “Okay, Van, hold the shower bar while I unscrew the braces.”

  “Yes, boss.” Van did, while Gene jumped in to grab the shower pipe because Jon was already working to saw through it right above where it went into the faucet.

  “We have lift off, or whatever,” Kurt said when the whole assembly came free. Van and Gene wrestled it out into the hallway while Russ told Brody what had to be done to release the faucet from its connection to the water pipe in the wall.

  When Brody did, he, and the other ghosts who were able to move things, managed to get the tub into the hallway without damaging the doorframe.

  Next came the toilet.

  “Logically, this shouldn’t be too hard,” Van said as he studied it. “Disconnect it from the water supply and then remove the tank. Right?”

  “Seems like it to me,” Brody agreed.

  Since there was still water in the tank, he flushed to drain it, t
hen wiped out the remaining moisture. With that done the rest went quickly and Kurt lugged the tank out, putting it in the tub. Then came the toilet itself.

  Jon took over to undo the bolts holding it to the floor. “Now how do we break it away from the whatever?” he asked.

  “Toilet flange,” Russ told him. “My father would straddle it and rock it back and forth until it came free.”

  Brody tried, with little success until Jon joined him, wrapping his arms around Brody’s waist.

  “Now that’s in interesting picture. Kurt, get your camera.” Tonio grinned.

  “Don’t you dare,” Brody growled. Between them, he and Jon got the toilet loose and set it aside. “You didn’t say we needed a putty knife, Russ.”

  “Yeah, well.”

  “Mike’s tools are in their basement?” Tonio asked. When Brody nodded, he disappeared, returning a couple of minutes later with knives, which he and Kurt used to remove the wax that had sealed the toilet to the flange.

  “Okay, that should do it,” Brody pronounced. “Let’s put that,” he pointed to the toilet, “in the tub, too, and call it a night.”

  “I guess that means I have to leave,” Russ whispered to Daw.

  “Bull,” Daw retorted. “Where would you go? Besides, I bet they won’t let you.”

  “They can’t stop me,” Russ replied defiantly.

  “No, we can’t,” Brody said as he joined them. “You’re free to go if you want to. But why? You’re welcome to stick around, the same way Daw is, until we find the guy who killed you.”

  “You can have the sofa,” Daw offered. “I’ve slept worse places than on a floor.” He chuckled. “At least it’s carpeted.”

  “We could share it,” Russ said hopefully.

  “Nope, not big enough,” Daw replied hastily, ignoring the amused look he got from Brody.

  “I’m a ghost. How much room would I take?”

  “Forget it. You get the sofa, I’ll take the floor. That is not up for debate,” Daw said firmly before he started downstairs.

  “Not fair,” Russ murmured.

  Jon smiled, patting his back. “Give it time.”

  “I guess. Not that we’ve got a lot of it if we find the guy…” He shuddered.