A Long Way Down Page 9

  Daw frowned. “Maybe, but if that happens, we’ll find out where this barn is and stay there.”

  “We’ll need to, if we’re going to turn it into a shelter.” Russ smiled in elation. “Maybe this being dead isn’t as bad as we thought! I mean it’s not how I’d want to be, but if we can help other ghosts…Yeah, it’s all good.”

  “Kid, I think you’re right. For now, though, I’m going to get some rest, and hope we get lucky tomorrow.”

  Straight-faced, Russ replied, “They said sex doesn’t happen for us.”

  Daw laughed heartily as he got up. “You’re something else, but I’ll stick with you, anyway.”

  “That’s all I ask,” Russ replied as he watched Daw head upstairs. Maybe, in time, you’ll see me as more than a friend. Maybe not. Either way, you’re stuck with me.

  Chapter 9

  I think we spotted him

  Brody read the text from Kurt, that he knew had been sent to the others as well, and let Daw know what it said. “Let’s go, and hope it’s not a false alarm.”

  They flew up and then headed east to the area Kurt and Tonio had been assigned to watch. Which building? Brody texted.

  The vacant one where they’re doing some reconstruction, next to the movie theater

  K. See it

  Seconds later they joined Kurt, who was hovering above the fire escape. Tonio, Van, and Gene had already landed and were moving toward an obviously homeless person sleeping next to a large structure a few feet from the rear of the roof.

  A man wearing a dark hoodie and ratty jeans was cautiously climbing the fire escape. When he reached the top, he cast a hasty look down at the alley before easing onto the roof.

  “Why do you think he’s our guy?” Brody asked while he punched in Sage’s cell number.

  “He came up five minutes ago, snuck around, spotted the guy, and returned to the alley. He dug through the construction Dumpster, got something, and now he’s back.”

  Brody repeated what Kurt had said and gave Sage the location, just as Jon and Russ showed up. “You might want to tell Mike to get some officers here, fast,” he said to Sage. “We can only hold him off for so long.”

  “Okay, guys, as soon as he hits his victim, get to work,” Jon called out. “We really don’t want him tossing the guy into the alley.”

  “No shit,” said Kurt, who was already filming the man as he crept toward his target.

  Brody and Jon dropped down to the roof.

  “I guess we get to watch,” Daw said to Russ, who was beside him at that point.

  The other ghosts surrounded the intended victim, holding their places until the attacker used the piece of rebar he was carrying to hit the man’s temple, eliciting a cry of pain before the man went limp.

  “If this was a cartoon…” Daw said when the attacker—who had now proved to everyone’s satisfaction that he was the killer—suddenly stumbled forward, only to be pushed sideways by Brody and then backwards by Van.

  “Reminds me of when I was in middle-school and some bullies decided to shove me from one to another to another like I was a volleyball or something. At least that’s all they did.” Russ’s expression darkened momentarily and then he chuckled. “The vice-principal came out right then, and boy did he read them the riot act. It wasn’t the first time they’d done that to younger kids and they’d been warned, so he suspended them.”

  “I’d give everything I have to be able to get in a couple of punches,” Daw muttered. “On the bastard, not the kids who tormented you, although…”

  The killer had begun screaming in terror as invisible hands thrust him away from the homeless man. “It’s not happening,” he babbled. “The heat. Driving me crazy.” He spun around, staring wildly at his intended victim, who had managed to get to his feet and was staggering toward the edge of the roof. “It’s you!” he shouted. “You did something to me, just like the others.” The killer dashed toward him, going through Jon when he tried to stop him.

  “Stay where you are,” a voice shouted. “Put your hands above your head. Now!”

  “And the cavalry arrives,” Daw said when a police officer, closely followed by a second one, leapt off the fire escape onto the roof.

  The killer ignored the officer. “He’s the Devil’s spawn,” he screamed. “He has to die!” He made a grab for his prey.

  Brody was there in an instant, pushing the homeless man out of reach at the same moment that one of the officers fired a shot. The bullet stuck the killer in his shoulder. He staggered back, his foot hit the low parapet, and with a scream of terror, his arms flailing wildly, he went off the roof. The sound of his body hitting the ground echoed down the alley.

  “Poetic justice?” Russ asked softly as he began to fade away.

  “Oh, no you don’t,” Daw said at the same moment that he, too, began to vanish. He made a grab for Russ’s arm. “We’re staying. Remember?”

  * * * *

  Brody had been on his way over to where Daw and Russ were standing when he saw them turn insubstantial. “I hope you’re together, wherever you end up,” he said softly.

  “I’m sure they are,” Jon replied, putting his arm around Brody’s waist. “They need each other.”

  “Well, he needs me,” Daw said as he slowly materialized again, holding tightly to Russ’s hand. “Not sure about my needing him.”

  Russ winked as the pair became totally visible—to their friends. “He’ll deny it until, well, I can’t say his dying day, he’s been there, done that. But he does need me.”

  Daw smiled at Russ. “I suppose so, damn it. The two of us have things we have to do.”

  “That was the final proof that bastard was your murderer,” Van said as he and the rest of the ghosts came over. “Welcome back.”

  “Thanks,” Daw replied. He peered into the alley. “So help me, if that fucker’s ghost shows up he’s dead meat.”

  “I doubt that will happen,” Brody said. “He knows who killed him, and why. On the other hand it would be nice if he did, at least for a minute or two, so we could find out why he went on his murderous rampage.”

  “He was crazy,” Russ replied. “End of story.”

  By then, one of the officers was talking to the homeless man, obviously trying to calm him down, because the man was shaking uncontrollably. The other cop was on his way down the fire escape. He got to the bottom at the same time another squad car pulled into the alley. A moment later Mike and Sage came into view, too. As they neared the body, Mike said something to Sage which elicited a shake of Sage’s head.

  “Probably wanted to know if Sage saw the killer’s ghost,” Jon commented.

  “Do we want to go down there?” Gene asked.

  “Nope,” Brody replied. “I don’t think they need us at the moment. When they’re done here, I’m sure they’ll stop by the house to find out exactly what went down.”

  Van had been watching the officer who was talking with the homeless man. Now he gestured toward them, saying, “From the cop’s expression, he thinks the guy was hallucinating.”

  Tonio chortled. “Wouldn’t you, if someone told you he watched as his attacker started to reel around, totally out of control?”

  “Perhaps,” Van replied. “Although I’d figure what he was seeing was a man drunk out of his gourd.”

  “As good an explanation as any, I suppose. At least as far as the cops are concerned,” Gene said.

  Brody nodded. “For now, let’s head home. There’s nothing more we can do here. Kurt, you might want to put your phone in your pocket before either of them—” he pointed to the officer and the homeless man, “—see it.”

  Kurt immediately did as Brody said, and then the ghosts took off, flying back to the carriage house.

  * * * *

  “Okay, why did the two of you come back?” Jon asked once all the ghosts had settled in the living room.

  “Like I said, we have something we want to do,” Daw replied. “Besides, we missed your smiling faces.”

&
nbsp; “Uh-huh.”

  “We did,” Russ protested; his expression guileless. “Well, that and we had an idea that sort of fits with how we were living before we died.”

  “Do tell,” Gene said. “In what way?”

  “When you stop and think about it, there’s probably a ton of ghosts who are homeless, right?”

  “Not sure about the ‘ton,’” Brody replied, “But I imagine there are more than a few who are stuck here for one reason or another.”

  “Exactly, and they should have a safe place to stay until they can move on. Kind of like here but not here.” Russ pointed to the floor.

  “I would hope not,” Gene said under his breath. “I think we’ve reached maximum capacity.”

  “And then some,” Daw replied, having overheard him. “You’ve let us stay, and even made that bedroom for me, but I think it’s time Russ and I moved on, if we can find the right place.”

  “Which would be where?” Brody asked.

  “You guys talked about the barn you lived in for a while.”

  Brody lifted an eyebrow. “It was fine when it was only the four of us, and damned crowded when Gene and Van moved in, too. I have the feeling you’re thinking about a lot more than six.”

  “Well, yeah,” Russ agreed. “Surely a barn could handle that.”

  “There’s a reason it was only us, and why we used the hayloft, which was out of sight, instead of the lower level,” Jon told him. “Even though the barn was abandoned, or more because it was, we didn’t want anything in the main part that said someone was living there, in case nosy parkers looked through the windows. They couldn’t get inside because all the doors were blocked.”

  “You’re thinking about creating a shelter like the ones for the homeless, right?” Tonio asked.

  “Yes,” Daw replied. “Is that crazy?”

  “Not at all. The thing is, you need the right building. One that’s large enough that you can partition it into small rooms to hold a bed or two, and maybe chair or nightstand. When Brody and I first met, we settled in the attic of a boarding house, but it lacked a certain something, like privacy. We were taking a chance the owner wouldn’t come up and discover someone was living there, especially after Tonio moved in.”

  “The kind of building you need is going to be hard to find,” Brody said. “We looked, until Kurt came up with the barn idea.”

  “You two probably know more about where to look than we did,” Van said. “Surely you crashed in more than one vacant building while you were on the streets.”

  “I did,” Daw replied. “The problem is, they didn’t stay vacant for long. Someone would buy them up, tear them down, and then build a fancy high-rise or office building.”

  “That would definitely be a problem,” Kurt said.

  “You think?”

  “What about…” Kurt went into the office, returning with one of the laptops. Booting it up, he went online while saying, “The barn was well outside the city.”

  “And?” Russ asked.

  “I did a photo shoot on abandoned towns in the area. The story should still be in the paper’s archives.” It took Kurt a few minutes to find it, and then the town he was looking for. “It doesn’t look like much but it’s way off the beaten path and, well, what do you think?”

  “Three buildings?” Russ said. “They look like they’ve been there forever.”

  Kurt chuckled. “Because they have been. There were more but time, nature, and weather pretty much destroyed them. This one—” he tapped on of the photos, “—used to be a hotel.”

  That piqued Daw’s interest. “So it’s got a lot of rooms?”

  “There’s five on both the second and third floors, if I remember correctly, plus the lobby, and a restaurant with a kitchen behind it on the ground floor. Oh, and a largish communal bathroom at the end of the hallway on each floor. There’s nothing much in the way of furniture. I suspect what was there was scavenged a long time ago. It’s not in the best shape, the roof leaks, some of the doors are missing or hanging by one hinge, blah, blah, blah, but with some work…”

  Brody, being practical, asked, “How far from here?”

  “A good twenty miles, I think. Maybe more,” Kurt replied. “But for any ghosts we find, that shouldn’t be a problem. Getting to the barn wasn’t a problem for us, and it wasn’t exactly in the city.”

  “No kidding,” Tonio said. “But twenty miles?”

  “Let’s take a look at it,” Daw suggested. “Then we can debate if it’s too far away.”

  “In the morning.” Jon stretched and took Brody’s hand. “It’s been a long night. I think we should all get some rest.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Gene replied, while Tonio and Kurt nodded in agreement, and the three pairs of ghosts headed upstairs.

  “You should go up, too,” Russ said to Daw.

  “No, we should. The bed’s pretty narrow, but I bet it’ll hold the two of us if you’re not a restless sleeper.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yeah, Russ, I am. Before you get the wrong idea, this is not a declaration of love or anything. You’re a good kid; we seem to have something going on between us, and…hell.”

  Russ grinned. “Sharing a bed is a good way to find out if we can stand each other up-close and very personal. Works for me.”

  * * * *

  Brody nodded toward Daw and Russ as they came downstairs the following morning, whispering to Jon, “Looks like things are getting a bit more one-on-one between them.”

  “About time, at least from Russ’s perspective,” Jon murmured in reply.

  “Talking about us?” Daw asked with obvious amusement.

  “Now would we do that?”

  “In a heartbeat,” Tonio said as he and the others came into the living room. “We always gossip about the newest arrivals.”

  “Gives us something interesting to do,” Kurt agreed.

  “How about you show us where this town is, instead,” Daw suggested. “It’ll probably be a hell of a lot more interesting than me and Russ spending the night together—platonically, of course.”

  “Don’t we all,” Gene replied sourly. It was one of his biggest complaints about being dead, since he and Van had had an active sex life before that had happened.

  “Stop grumping,” Van said, kissing him. “At least…”

  “We’re together,” Gene said at the same time Van did. He returned the kiss and then suggested they get a move on.

  They did, with Kurt in the lead.

  * * * *

  “Not exactly the Ritz Carlton,” Brody commented, for at least the third time, as the ghosts finished their tour of the ramshackle hotel.

  It, and the two other buildings that were still standing, were set in a clearing with an almost invisible dirt road leading into it. It was obvious that the surrounding vegetation had encroached on what had once been a small town—after the town had been abandoned. Brush, moss, and vines covered most of the foundations of its few homes, leaving only a chimney here and there to mark their location.

  “No kidding,” Jon agreed. “It’s going to take a lot of work, but we’ve done it before, with the barn. We’ll need to borrow Mike’s tools for starters.”

  “Fix the leaks in the roof, maybe see if there’s doors in what remains of the general store to replace the two that are missing here, re-hang the other ones—” Brody had his phone out and was making a list. “Scrub the walls and floors, maybe do some painting.”

  “Better not paint,” Gene commented. “It doesn’t look like what’s left of the town gets many people checking it out, but you don’t want to make it obvious someone’s living here.”

  “Won’t furniture do that?” Daw asked, frowning. “We at least need beds, and maybe a sofa and chairs. This is supposed to be somewhere homeless ghosts would want to stay until they can move on.”

  “Leave the ground floor the way it is,” Tonio suggested after a moment’s thought. “The way we did with the barn. The stairs are in
pretty bad shape already. If we destroy them completely, like they totally rotted away, it should stop any intrepid explorers.”

  Daw nodded. “That could work. So, what do you think? Should we do it? Turn it into a ghost shelter?”

  Brody chuckled. “‘We’ meaning the rest of us, since you and Russ can’t hold things, yet.”

  “Yeah. Sorry. I didn’t think about that. If you don’t want to…”

  “Of course we do,” Kurt replied. “It’ll keep us out of trouble,” he added with a wink.

  “Are we going to tell Mike and Sage?” Tonio asked.

  “We have to, if we’re going to borrow Mike’s tools, but let’s keep it to generalities, like what we’re planning but not where. They already did more than their share in helping us at the barn, and then with the carriage house,” Brody replied. “At least we won’t need ladders. We can fly up to work on the roof and the tops of the walls.”

  Jon laughed. “Yeah, carrying ladders out here might scare the shit out of anyone who saw them seemingly floating by on their own.”

  “Okay, let’s go home, make a list of everything that needs doing, and go from there.”

  Daw held up his hand to stop the exodus, saying, “Thank you for being willing to help.”

  Brody smiled. “Like Kurt said, it’ll keep us out of trouble. Besides which, it will give our clients a place to stay until we solve their murders, which is a good thing.”

  “Speaking of which, how are we going to get clients?” Gene asked.

  “Through Sage,” Brody replied. “He goes to murder scenes with Mike, to see if the victim’s ghost is hanging around. He can let us know if one is, and we’ll take it from there.”

  “That should work. Umm, Daw, you’ll have to designate one floor for men and the other for women. All of us to the contrary, not every murder victim is male.”

  “Good point,” Daw said. “Hadn’t considered that.”

  “Guys, let’s go home before we continue working out the details,” Brody said—and they did.