Ghost Dancer (A Modern Magics Story) (2 page)

We turned off the computers, locked up the office and headed out. Thulu and I shrugged into our winter jackets and set the alarm as Danika followed us. The air outside had a bite to it and it wasn’t the best kind of weather to do house-to-house visits, but hopefully that would make it seem more real. The morning fog hadn’t yet burned off, even though it was almost noon. We slid into our SUV, and I motioned for Danika to join us.

Thulu drove to a nearby residential district with small, narrow houses and tiny backyards. He found parking around the corner, and we made a show of stapling our flyer to a telephone pole. We knocked on the first door and a tired-looking, middle-aged woman answered. We did our spiel about looking for the lost dog, had she seen him and handed her a flyer. She solemnly said she’d stay on the lookout.

We repeated the process as we moved farther down the street, closer to the address where Danika’s killer lived. My anxiety level rose with each step, and I hoped it would come across as concern for our “lost” dog. Danika trailed after us, her scent of burnt rubber much stronger and blowing toward us on the breeze. Careful to face Thulu, so it looked like we had stopped to talk a moment, I looked at her from the corner of my eye and asked if she was okay with this.

“Danika, you can stay in the car if this is too much for you.”

“I’m okay, La Fi. He can’t see me or hurt me, right?”

“I doubt he’ll be able to see you. And no, sweetie, he can’t hurt you anymore.” My voice cracked a little on the last words.

She straightened her thin shoulders and gave me a brave smile. “I’m good. Let’s keep going.”

A teenaged boy approached us as we moved on. It took a moment for me to realize he wasn’t alive. He was more solid than most of the dead we dealt with and had an energy and life about him that contradicted his ghostly state. He paused a moment when he realized I was making eye contact and that Thulu could also see him. He nodded once to himself, smiled at Danika and joined our group, trailing the smell of peanut butter, with a hint of vinegar. He seemed to be about fourteen, with dark hair and eyes, and the thin look of a teen who hadn’t quite finished puberty.

“You’re looking for that guy that killed her aren’t you?” he asked without preamble.

Thulu and I nodded.

“Are you the people who have that detective agency for the supernatural? I sent her to you. You seem kind of young to be detectives.” His voice was doubtful.

I nodded. “I’m La Fi and this is Thulu. And we really are detectives.”

“Yeah, okay. Good. I’m Parker. I’ve been watching this guy. I got here right about the time he killed her.” He lowered his voice to a whisper only I could hear. “He is one sick bastard. He hurt that little girl really bad.” His eyes took on a haunted look. The irony was not lost on me. He nodded his head toward the house we were making our way to. “He’s not home right now. But I think he’s getting ready to snatch another kid. He’s acting all twitchy.”

“Is my dog still there? Is Rudy okay?” asked Danika.

Parker looked at her, his expression sharpened and his scent became more vinegary. “Yeah, he’s there and still alive. The guy’s kid was outside playing and heard the dog in the back and thought it was for him, so the man gave him the dog.” He hesitated and turned his attention back to me and Thulu as if he wanted to say more, but shook his head with a glance at Danika.

There was something about Parker I immediately liked, and I wondered what his story was. There were plenty of ghosts around and not all of them made their way to us, but a good many had over the years. Parker was different in a way I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

“He has a kid?” I asked. “How old?”

“Yeah, a little boy about seven or eight. He doesn’t have a wife or a girlfriend there though. Just him and the kid.” Parker said.

Thulu and I exchanged a look.

“Does he hurt his son?” Thulu asked.

Parker shook his head. “Not that I’ve seen, but I’m telling you this guy is super dangerous. Because he’s crazy smart. He passes for normal, you know? So you guys need to be very, very careful. He pretends to be nice, but he’s mean.”

“Where’s the boy now?” I asked.

“With the man. He took the kid and the dog to the park, but I’m guessing they should be home soon.” Parker pointed down the street in the direction we were headed.

We made our way to the next house and continued our cover story, while keeping an eye out for a man with a boy and dog.

Most people weren’t home, so we didn’t leave anything at those houses. I felt bad about misleading the people who were home, but I also wanted our cover story to stick. As we walked up to the next house, a strong gust of wind cut through the air, blowing my hair into my eyes. I shivered as I zipped up my jacket and wound my scarf around my neck.

We were about three houses away from the killer’s address when we spotted a man, a boy and the dog we were looking for. From the distance the dog looked just like the one in the picture. I had an idea. I nudged Thulu and cried, “There!” before taking off in the direction of the dog at a run. The rest of our little party followed us.

“Oh my god, you found him,” I exclaimed as I came up on the trio and prayed that Rudy would go along with my ruse, as I scooped him up. The poor dog gave me a startled look, but my hugs must have let him know he was safe with me and all I received were kisses on the cheek.

I held his squirming body for a moment longer before handing him off to Thulu.

“Oh, thank you so much for taking care of our Rudy. I was afraid we’d never see him again.” I smiled at the human monster facing me with his mouth open in surprise and the small boy, who was beginning to get tears in his eyes.

“That’s my dog,” said the small boy.

The man was flustered for a moment, but he knew that dog could not possibly be ours because he knew who it really belonged to.

His voice was deep and gravelly when he spoke, “Lady, I got no idea about your dog, but this ain’t him.”

Thulu had been examining Rudy, who was still squirming to get down. I realized Rudy sensed Danika and was looking at her.

“He’s still wearing his collar,” Parker said.

I reached for the tags and found the one that said “Rudy.” I showed the man. “See here? His name is Rudy, just as I said.” I pointed to another tag. “And this is his rabies tag, but his tag with our contact info is missing.” I waved a flyer at the man showing the picture of the dog, but not letting him look too closely.

“We lost our dog about two weeks ago,” I improvised. “We’ve been searching all that time and even had a lost dog page set up for him.”

The man frowned. Two weeks would have been before he took Danika. I wasn’t sure how long he had watched her before taking her, or if he had watched her at all, but I took the chance that he wouldn’t question the timing very closely. I hoped he’d think Danika had simply found our dog and was taking care of him, just as the man had.

“How did Rudy get burned?” Thulu asked with a frown.

The man started to back up a few feet, possibly deciding this wasn’t an encounter he wanted to have after all.

“I don’t know. I just found him wandering and my son loved him, so we kept him.”

“And just ignored the tags? Didn’t even try to find out where he belonged?” My voice raised in volume and octave.

The man peered at me sharply and moved closer again. I didn’t like that. “Yeah, exactly like that. My son fell in love with the dog, so I decided to keep him.” His voice was firm, even and gave no hint of remorse. The coldness made me want to get as far away from him as I could, but I didn’t move.

I glared at the man, getting into my role as a dog owner. “That is just so wrong.”

“So what are you going to do about it?” he demanded, his voice was still even and almost quiet, but with a hard edge that left no doubt he was a threat. A very big threat. His eyes hard chunks of granite, I saw muscles bunch at his thick neck.

I backed away a few feet, knowing that standing my ground was not the tact to take. Pretending a fear I didn’t feel, I stammered out a few incoherent words.

“Let’s go, honey,” said Thulu. “We have our boy, so let’s just go.” Thulu’s voice sounded uncertain, and I knew he too had figured out our best bet was to let the man “win.”

“Daddy, they’re taking my puppy.” The tears in the boy’s eyes tore at me, and I could only look at him as I shook my head. “I’m sorry, but this is not your dog, sweetie.”

The man grabbed the boy’s hand and started to drag him toward us. Thulu and I moved into the street to allow them to pass. We continued down the block. No way were we going to lead him to our SUV. So we made a brave show of going the opposite direction. At the corner we risked looking back, but there was no sign of the man or his son. I breathed a sigh of relief as I leaned against Thulu.

“Someone has used cigarettes to burn this poor boy,” Thulu said softly. “Let’s get him over to Ally, so she can give him an exam before we contact anyone.” Ally was the best veterinarian we knew. She was also Thulu’s cousin and my best friend.

We quickly made our way around the block followed by the two ghost kids. Danika was turning somersaults in the air in joy that we had rescued Rudy, who kept struggling to get to her. Rudy was one smart dog if he was able to see his mistress. It spoke of their bond, and I felt a hitch in my stomach that they had ended up as they had.

Once we got back into the SUV, Thulu handed Rudy to me. I thanked Parker and asked if he’d like to join us. He smiled and nodded as he and Danika floated into the backseat.

I carefully looked Rudy over to see the burns Thulu had pointed out. I was careful to not touch them, but the poor pup had about half a dozen burns on his back. Some looked relatively fresh, and were very deep, bloody and oozing, while others had scabbed over and looked like they were a few days old.  I was pretty sure the man had done that and recently, too.

I called Ally, and explained to her what had happened. She and her husband, Brent, owned a popular animal clinic. She told us to bring Rudy in.

Thulu and I had no pets, although Ally had been trying for years to talk us into one.

My plan was to get Rudy checked out, return him to his family and hope that Danika could move on. I said as much to Thulu who simply nodded his agreement. And I wanted to chat with Parker some more. We needed to get info to the cops about Danika’s killer and do so without blowing our cover. That was going to be tricky because anonymous tips weren’t always followed up as thoroughly as we’d like and sometimes we had to make several calls to get action. I hoped Parker could give us more information that would convince the cops to investigate the man.

I had Danika lean forward so Rudy could sniff her, hoping he could detect the scents that I was able to smell. I had no idea how much a dog understood. He wiggled out of my arms and tried to jump into hers. He gave a small yelp when he went right through her and landed on the backseat. He sniffed the air, cocked his head to one side and quickly came to terms with the situation. It didn’t take him long to figure out he couldn’t physically interact with her. He contented himself with lying on the seat next to her, obviously happy in her presence. Now and then he tried to get her to pet him, but of course his little head went right through her body.

By the time we reached the sparkling clinic, Rudy had settled down. Ally wasted no time giving the little dog an exam, and she quickly confirmed that Rudy was on the thin side, but had been fed, so wasn’t exactly starving. She frowned over the burns and shook her head in disgust. She picked Rudy up and explained that she needed to treat the burns and would bring Rudy back when she was done. Danika danced after Ally. I thought about stopping her, but didn’t.

Thulu and I remained in the little exam room with Parker floating nearby. We waited for Ally to return with the dog.

We needed to let Danika’s family know he had been found and was safe, but I wondered if we would be better off turning the dog over to the cops.

“I don’t want this to be a mess, Thulu,” I said quietly.

“It won’t be.” His voice was firm and reassuring.

“Parker, do you know where he put Danika’s body?” I asked.

Parker frowned. “He’s got a building in back. It’s little, but has a basement that’s deep underground. He reinforced it all with concrete. That’s why no one hears anything. And he tunneled out from the basement so the backyard has this underground area for the bodies. It’s really creepy because it’s like he made his own private crypt. He has everything reinforced with concrete under there, La Fi. He made these weird coffins out of fiberglass or something. Each coffin has a window over the top half of the bodies. And there are lots of bodies down there. He goes and visits them. A lot of the coffins have what looks like mummies inside. I floated in to look at some of them. A few are more recent. Like Danika. ”

My heart sank as Thulu asked, “How many is ‘lots,’ Parker?”

“Maybe twenty or so? I didn’t want to count them.”

We had to stop that man; that was first and foremost, but figuring out how to report him without telling the authorities we saw ghosts was going to be tricky.

Ally returned with Rudy and a serious expression. Danika floated after her with a frown.

“Hey, guys, where exactly did you get this dog?” asked Ally.