Ghosted (5 page)

Mr. Jones looks to his left and his right. He
sees the message on the window as condensation make the letters
run.

I see more breakable things in the kitchen and
hurl them at him. He ducks behind the couch, but I know several hit
their mark. He curses, pops up and fires his gun. Three
shots.

There is no one there.

I hurl a trashcan behind him, and strike him
in the back. Paintings and pictures fly off the wall and all of
them target him. He ducks as he backs out of the living room into
the hallway. I run out of projectiles, so I move the doors
shut.

As they slam I turn and run down the hall. I
don't know where they went. But I'm happy they're gone.

I run back to the living room to the door and
hear Mr. Jones through the doors, talking to someone. "She got
away…probably out the back. Hell if I know. When the hell did you
install some kind of defense system in her apartment…"

I move through the door. He stands by the
elevator, waits for it to open.

I put my hand through the button panel. We
both hear a click and the light goes out. He presses the button
several times. "Looks like the elevator's out." He turns back to
the living room.

I slam the doors.

Mr. Jones lowers the phone. "What the fuck is
going on?" He screams. "Who ever you are I swear I'll find you and
kill you."

"You already did," I say aloud.

I am shocked when he hears me.

Mr. Jones takes a step back, his weapon up. He
aims it at the door, at the wall, and at the two inert officers.
"Who's there?"

"A victim."

"A victim, eh? Well you're going to be a
victim soon as I find you, you son of a bitch."

"Why did you try to rape Caroline?"

He doesn't answer right away, so I wait. I
know I can hold the doors closed. How long can he commune with the
dead?

Mr. Jones bangs on the elevator doors. He
turns to the apartment doors but I push larger pieces of the broken
arrangement at him. He stumbles head first into the
door.

"I'm waiting." I stand close to
him.

He laughs. "You're not going to get me to
admit to anything."

I wish he saw me.

I wish it with all my heart.

He gets up and starts to walk through me. He
stops. His eyes widen. He raises a finger and points…

…
at the elevator.

I turn and see my reflection staring at him
from the polished gold doors. I look terrible. Blood covers half my
face. The other half are bruises. My clothes are torn. Mud covers
me.

"I killed you…" he says. "You're not here. I
dumped you into that ditch."

"Why did you try to rape Caroline?"

"Oh no. This is a trick!" He shoots the
elevator. Holes appear in my chest. "You're not real!"

"Why did you try to rape Caroline?"

"Shut up!"

"Why?"

"I said shut up!" He fires again, and again,
and again. Finally his gun clicks.

But I am still there.

"Why?"

Mr. Jones laughs. "You stupid bastard. You had
to get in the way. Just had to be a hero."

"Why?"

"Because he pays me to get rid of problems,
kid. He paid me to get rid of you."

"Why?"

"Because you were going to identify me. And
you stopped me from killing that bitch!"

The truth.

I see the apartment door open and the nozzle
of a gun slip through the crack.

"Why?"

"Because he wants her inheritance. The
bastard's broke. She dies then he can use it."

Broke? "Who?"

But Mr. Jones never answers me. The gun fires
twice and strikes him in the back. He falls at my feet. I watch the
door as Mr. Black steps through. He wears a gray suit and black
gloves. He looks around the small room, sees the two officers and
smiles.

I recognize the gun.

It's Detective Pellis's gun.

7

I don't want to face the implications of the
gun. But they stare at me from Mr. Black's gloved hand. A cell
phone rings. He pulls one from his pocket as he stands in the
center of the carnage. "Black…" his expression shifts from smug
satisfaction to irritation. "They what? How could they find him?
Jones said he hid the kid's body…"

Kid's body?

My body?

"All right. Things are settled here. That
half-ass bastard can take the fall. Give me a few seconds while I
set things up here." He disconnects his call and tucks his phone
into jacket pocket. He kicks Jones's body. Mr. Mercedes. "Shit
head. They found the body, you moron. You never could do anything
right." He steps inside the apartment and leaves the doors
open.

They found my body. I believe I should feel
some sort of excitement at this fact. It won't rot out in the
elements. Nor will it be consumed by wildlife. But my immediate
thoughts move back into the apartment to look for Detective
Pellis.

And Caroline.

Mr. Black makes noises in the kitchen. He
discovers a bottle of cleaner and paper towels and uses them over
several surfaces. Perhaps he believes it will erase his own
fingerprints. But nothing erases the blackness from his
soul.

I walk slowly past him, past the kitchen down
the hall. I step through the doors to look inside of each room. I
don't want to see her. But I have to. I need to see what he did to
her. And to the detective. I don't know if I can look at her body
and not cry. I've never been a crier. But at this moment my eyes
burn and tears pool along my lower lids. How can a father kill his
own daughter? What's wrong in a universe where such people continue
living while the innocent die?

I put my hand on the last door on the right
and push through.

"Oh my God…Dan?"

Her voice shatters the illusions in my mind. I
rush forward into a stairwell and look down. I see blood smears
along the side of one wall a floor down just as Caroline appears on
that floor. She looks up at me. "Caroline?" My voice doesn't echo
inside the infinite staircases below.

"Yes! You've got to come help me. He shot
Detective Pellis and he almost shot me. Can you come
help?"

Caroline's voice doesn't echo
either.

I put my hands to my face and pull down. This
causes my tears to flow but I don't care. I have to go to her. I
have to tell her. I walk the stairs down, three sets of six until I
round a corner and see Pellis lying headfirst on one set of stairs.
Blood pools on the lowest level. She is on her side, her arms above
her head. Her eyes stare straight ahead.

Caroline rushes up and grabs my hand. I feel
her now. No icy ghosts, just warmth and kindness. She pulls me to
her and I wrap my arms around her. Death isn't cold. It's alive,
and warm and full of regret.

"I knew he didn't kill you. Daddy said Jones
killed you. That he was afraid you'd identify him." She pulls away
and looks at me with her perfect face. "Where have you
been?"

As I touch her forehead I see past the
detective's body, to a single pair of leather boots on the left.
The rest is there if I want to look.

But I can't.

"Danny?"

"I've been right here, beside you, all the
time. But I need you to tell me what else your father said,
Caroline. Who shot the detective?"

"My dad did. He was very angry. I didn't know
he was coming up the stairs as we were doing down. When I saw him I
was so happy—" Her eyes widen. I know she remembers, though she
doesn't want to. "Then I saw the gun in his hand. He pointed it
at—"

She pulls away from me and stares at the body
below. "Oh God…"

I can't look. It's not the way I want to
remember her. I touch her shoulder and squeeze. She turns and looks
at me. "That was you…wasn't it? The envelope, the plate, the touch
on my arm? And the note on the window?"

I nod.

"My father wants me dead. I saw his eyes as he
shot me. But I don't know why…Danny…I have to know why!"

I give her the only answer I can. "Because
he's broke. Jones said he gets your inheritance if you
die."

Her eyes finally fill with tears. She does not
move toward me. She's focusing on something else. "My grandmother's
money. His mom. When…when she passed away he was furious she left
it to me. Mom tried to warn me about him, but I wouldn't listen.
Once he has that money, he'll kill her too."

No he won't.

My stomach feels queazy. I don't know why… I
think it's because after everything Caroline, myself and the
detective did to survive, Mr. Black wins after all.

I hear noises upstairs. Mr. Black is still
here. I turn away from Caroline and start back up the
stairs.

"Where are you going?" she calls
out.

"To pay your father a visit. Don't follow me,
Caroline."

I step through the door with little notice of
how or why again. Mr. Black moves from the living room to the
entrance and back inside. I don't care what he thinks he's doing.
And somehow I know he won't see me, not the way Jones
did.

He places the cleanser on the coffee
table.

I move it off to the floor.

He picks it back up again.

I move it again.

He watches it and narrows his eyes.

I leave it alone.

As he turns to leave the room, I shut the
doors in his face and hold them shut. He grabs the handles, yanks
and pulls.

He swears and kicks at them.

I move to the window and write another note.
To get his attention, I hurl the bottle of cleanser at him. It
bounces off his head as the sound of sirens breaks the
silence.

Mr. Black turns and he brings his gun up and
aims at the window. But there is no one to shoot. I wait. He sees
the note and his eyes grow wide. In those eyes I see his daughter,
what little resemblance there is. He wipes the window with his hand
as he looks around. "Who's here? I'm going to find you."

He runs to the last door and opens it. I
follow him and my stomach twists again. I pause in the hall. My
head aches again as I resume my pursuit of Mr. Black. He takes the
steps two at a time. I don't understand his rush. His daughter's
body is only a few flights down. He picks his way past Pellis and
looks at his Caroline's body.

She stands next to him. She watches him. Tears
stream down her cheeks. She sniffs.

Mr. Black spins around. "Who's
there?"

Ah…he hears her the way Jones heard me. Why is
that? I like to think it's because guilt allows them to hear the
ghosts of the ones they kill. Jones came after me. He went after
his daughter.

The sirens wail outside.

"You…you heard me sneeze?"

Mr. Black turns again and this time I know he
sees her. His face becomes a mask of shock and awe, and one of
fear. He points his gun at her again.

Caroline's expression changes from sorrow…to
anger. "You would do it again?"

He fires.

The shot pings off the concrete and he
ducks.

"Why?" She marches at him.

He moves away, around, next to her body.
"You…you're not real."

"Why?"

She reminds me of me. I feel queazy
again.

"You're just my imagination. You're gone.
You're on the floor. I can see you on the floor!"

"Why?"

He fires again. Again the bullet pings
around.

She moves in close. Mr. Black presses himself
against the wall. The sirens stop but I hear people below. The
elevator isn't working. They're taking the stairs.

"Why did you do this, daddy? Why did you kill
me? Was it for the money? You could have had the money…" she
sobbed. "I…I just wanted someone to love me." She turns her head to
look up at me where I stand by Pellis's body. "I wanted
Daniel."

He hears the beat of the approaching company
and tries to move past her, and past me.

I hurl him back down. He lands between the two
women and fires his gun up the stairs. The bullets pass through
me.

I am not really here.

I am ghosted.

Shouts from below. "Police! Put the gun on the
ground and raise your hands!"

But Mr. Black has no intention of following
orders.

He tries to rise.

Gunshots ring out. His body jerks and
writhes.

"Cease fire!" The voice echoes in the
stairwell.

Gerome Black still rests between them, the gun
in his hand, his chest a mass of blood. His eyes stare into
nothing.