by Gareth Otton
“Yeah, I guess I will.”
She grinned at him, then leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. It was soft, quick and surprised both of them.
“Thanks for tonight. See you Monday.” Her words came out in a rush and before he had chance to respond she was jogging to her car. The rain had blessedly held off for one day, but it was still cold.
The indicators on her Mini blinked as she unlocked the car and climbed in. He waited while she started the engine and pulled away. She gave him a brief wave before she left and he waved back, his eyes following her tail lights down the street until they disappeared around the corner.
“I see you had a good night.”
Tad jumped and turned toward the sarcastic voice.
Maggie stared at him with an odd expression on her face. Her aura was purple flecked with green and he was too tired to work out what that meant. He was also too tired to have it out with her as he meant to when she got home.
Now that Jen was back, he just wanted to put the day behind him. He didn’t have the energy for anything else.
He nodded to Maggie and closed the door. He didn’t ask her about Mark, she didn’t offer anything. Other than that initial comment they ignored each other as Tad went about the house doing some last minute cleaning and turning out the lights.
He was ready for bed. He had to talk to Jen in the morning and he might as well talk to Maggie then. The annoying thing was that he had been in a good mood until Maggie showed up. As he climbed the stairs he was determined to capture that good mood again.
He thought of the evening, the relief at seeing Jen again and the pleasant conversation with Stella. It was a surprisingly pleasant end to a crappy day.
The moment that stood out to him as he climbed into bed and closed his eyes was the goodbye kiss at the door. It had been a chaste, friendly kiss, but he could still feel her lips against his cheek.
It was an interesting thought that occupied his mind until sleep claimed him.
17
Saturday, 21st November 2015
10:00
It was tense in the Holcroft household the next morning.
Tad woke at nine, heard Jen moving and decided to stay in bed until ten. He needed time to get his mind working.
After showering and changing, he made his way downstairs and found Jen at the breakfast counter talking with Maggie. Their conversation ended as he walked in and he got the impression he wouldn’t have liked what they were talking about. He stifled a groan. He was barely awake and was already exhausted. He needed a holiday.
Tad said good morning and made himself a coffee before joining them. He sat on the stool next to Jen and turned his attention on her.
“Come on then. What happened yesterday?”
She sighed, glanced at Maggie, then went into her tale. Tad was stunned by the time she got to the ghost. As fascinated as he was with its reaction to Jen’s scream, the emotion that won out was his returning terror for her safety.
“Damn it, Jen. This is exactly what I’m talking about. You need to wait until you’re older to do this sort of thing. You could’ve been killed.”
Jen’s aura was muted until he spoke, but a hint of red woke it up again and she turned on him.
“Maybe if I was prepared for yesterday then I would’ve been better able to handle myself?”
“No, you shouldn’t have been in that position. You can’t go out looking for trouble and blame me when it finds you.”
“Please. Trouble is never far away you’re around.”
The comment had physical weight and Tad flinched. His expression took the fire out of Jen, but it was too late to take it back.
“I think I’ve done a good job of making sure whatever trouble I get involved in doesn’t find its way back to you. Frankly, I’m fed up of having this argument… of arguing with you full stop. All you ever do is go against what I ask. What even gave you the idea to do that yesterday?”
Jen’s anger flared, and she wasn’t thinking when she answered. “I was talking with Maggie about how you learnt to be a Proxy. I figured that if you couldn’t be bothered to teach me, then I would teach myself like you did.”
Tad looked at Maggie who seemed every bit as surprised as he was.
“This was your idea?”
Her shock quickly turned to stubbornness.
“I’m not your daughter, don’t think to talk to me the way you talk to her. No, I didn’t give her the idea. But that doesn’t matter. You’re not listening. What she did yesterday was because you don’t trust her enough to teach her what she needs to learn.”
Her voice grew louder and drew attention. Faces appeared in the doorway.
“She’s told you again and again since I’ve been here that she wants to learn to protect herself. You keep ignoring her and then blaming her when—”
Tad lost control. He slammed his hand on the counter, making Maggie jump and stop speaking. He pointed at her.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about. I suggest you stop before I lose my patience. I’m already pissed that you refused to help look for Jen yesterday. Don’t make me angrier by sticking your nose into business that doesn’t concern you.”
She wasn’t intimidated. “What the hell do you mean I don’t know what I’m talking about? I think I’m pretty well qualified to comment on this. I had a front row seat to your childhood and being a ghost gives me some authority on the subject.”
“You think being a ghost for a week gives you an understanding on a subject Tad has been dealing with for eighteen years?” Charles spoke in an uncharacteristically harsh tone. “You think it makes you an expert in something I have been living for over one-hundred-and-fifty years? Trust me. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He turned to Jen. “What this young know-it-all ghost has failed to tell you was how hard Tad had to work growing up. We were forced together by necessity, not because he wanted this. It was hard for both of us, not to mention dangerous. No child should suffer through it.”
“I’m old enough to decide for myself,” Jen answered.
Charles laughed and nodded at Maggie. “Yes, you are just like her. Old enough to think you know everything, but too young to realise just how little you actually know. Tell me, you decided for yourself yesterday, how did that go?”
Jen opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Maggie had no such problem.
“You’re using the outcome of one incident as proof that Jen shouldn’t get to decide her own fate? Shut up old man. Your way of thinking was over before we got electricity. You have nothing to add—”
“Enough!”
All eyes in the room turned to Tad in surprise. He’d had as much as he could take of this. His recent existence was nothing but stress and he reached his limit.
“This is getting us nowhere. Yes Jen, you’re getting older, but you need to trust that I know what I’m doing. I’m not trying to be cruel, I’m trying to keep you safe. Whether you agree with that decision or not is irrelevant. You need to trust that I’m acting in your best interest or this will never work.”
He turned to Maggie. “And you. I understand you’re having a hard time and have issues to iron out with me. But you’re not a parent, you’re not a Proxy, and as Charles pointed out, you’re new at being a ghost. You haven’t seen a fraction of what Proxies and ghosts deal with, so no, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Maggie shook her head.
“I think you were right when I first came to you. This isn’t going to work. You being my Proxy was never going to be a good situation. I should’ve listened.” Turning to Jen she asked, “Is your offer to be my Proxy still open? If it is then we both get what we want and he—”
“No!”
The impact of the word was four times as strong as it came from four sources at once. Tony, Miriam, Charles and Tad were of a like mind on this. In spite of herself Maggie flinched.
“That will not happen,” Tad said in a deadly ton
e. “You want another Proxy? Fine. I’ll give you a list. But you will not force yourself on Jen. I forbid it.”
Jen had been quiet, just listening and not daring to speak. At Tad’s words her stubbornness returned.
“You can’t stop me if I want to be Maggie’s Proxy and she wants to be my ghost.”
Tad glared at her. “You go on thinking that. I promise, you’ll be disappointed.”
Jen just glared right back. “What are you going to do? Watch me every second of the day? Even you can’t do that. Sooner or later a chance will come when you aren’t looking and I’ll let Maggie in. You can’t stop me.”
Tad knew that wasn’t the case. He could force Maggie to move on. Either that or destroy her. Either way she would no longer be around.
But he couldn’t do that.
This argument and her recent actions aside, she had been one of his closest friends. He would also lose any hope of gaining Jen’s trust. It would be an act of betrayal that went beyond what anyone could forgive.
He was still struggling with an answer when there was a knock on the back door and a second later it opened.
Kate entered, dressed for work with a happy smile on her face that faded as she realised she was interrupting something. She looked from face to face, lingering on her ex-lover as though she could read something from Miriam’s expression.
“It looks like I’ve interrupted something juicy. What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Jen snapped. “Just Tad trying to control everyone’s life as usual.” She didn’t wait for a response, she just hopped from her stool and stormed from the room. No one spoke as she stamped her way up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door behind her.
“Hmm. It sounds interesting,” Kate said. She still sounded happy and as she no doubt planned, her tone cut through the tension. “But whatever is happening, it’ll have to wait. I’ve got big news.”
“You can arrest Mark?” Maggie asked, forgetting the preceding conversation and glowing in excitement. Her aura was a blue so pale it was almost white.
Kate snorted and stepped further into a kitchen, taking the stool Jen had vacated. “Hardly. We’ve still got nothing on him. But, like I said, I do have news. I checked out what you told me about yesterday. I looked into those names and as you can probably tell,” she motioned to her clothes that were creased and had obviously been lived in for a day and night at least. “I’ve been working on it all night.”
She leaned on the counter and made eye contact with each person in the room. Kate had always known how to get the interest of a crowd.
“I looked into the cases they’ve worked, searching for anything unusual. At first I didn’t see anything, but then I noticed they’ve all been involved in unsolved murders. None of them are detectives so they weren’t in charge, but they were all first on scene.
“Again this wasn’t too much of an issue, unsolved murders aren’t the most uncommon thing in the world, sadly. However, there was something of interest.”
She paused just long enough to make sure she had their attention, and just when it looked like Maggie was about to burst, she finally spoke.
“All the victims worked for Joshua King.”
She leaned back looking pleased with herself. It was Maggie who took the bait.
“So?”
“So I’ve been looking all night and have so far found over twenty deaths that were either murders that weren’t solved or looked like natural deaths, but were related to both these policemen and Joshua King. No one has put the connection together before. Either these people worked for different companies that were only related by their parent companies, or they worked directly for King and there wasn’t enough of a pattern to draw attention to it. Whatever the case, no one has put together the fact that there are a series of deaths over a short period that are all related by employment to one man and have your boys as the first officers on scene.
“It was enough for me to take it to my bosses first thing this morning and lay it out for them. It was enough for them to open an investigation and put me in charge. I’m officially the head of one of the biggest investigations in the UK right now.”
She allowed another moment of silence for that information to sink in. Again it was Maggie who broke the silence.
“So? How does that help us nail Mark?”
“The police won't like corruption on this level within the department,” Tad guessed as his borrowed talents from Miriam’s analytical mind put the pieces together. “This is a big deal and will look bad for a lot of people if it gets leaked before it’s dealt with. They’ve given you serious backing for this, haven’t they?”
Kate nodded proudly. “The word unlimited wouldn’t be true, but it might as well be. All my other cases have been given to other detectives and I have the full resources of the Cardiff police available should I need them.”
“I don’t care about any of that,” Maggie said irritably. “I just want Mark to pay.”
Miriam’s laughter was mocking. She was growing less impressed with Maggie every day. “You should care. Kate is saying that the number one priority for Cardiff police is dealing with this issue. We know that if Mark goes down for your murder he will bring the rest of his crew with him. That means the new highest priority in the entire police department is solving your murder. Kate has been given unlimited resources and backing to do exactly what you want. Do you care now?”
Maggie’s irritation turned to excitement and her eyes grew round. Suddenly she was grinning.
“You need to be careful,” Tad told Kate. “We have no idea how far this King guy’s reach is. If the wrong person finds out what you’re looking into, then you’ll be a target.”
Kate waved away his concerns.
“I know what I’m doing.” She pushed herself away from the counter and stood. “Anyway, that’s all I came to tell you guys. I need to go home and get some sleep. Probably a shower as well. I’m starting to stink.”
“You can crash here rather than having to go all the way back home,” Tad offered.
Kate smiled and shook her head. “Nah. I need a proper rest. I’d never get that here.” She looked pointedly to Miriam and Tad understood. As much as they liked to see each other, they could never be together when they were separated by death. It was uncomfortable for both of them.
“I might take you up on the offer over the coming weeks though. I see a lot of late nights in my future and I don’t think going all the way home will be fun then.”
Tad nodded. “Anytime, you know that. You’re always welcome.”
Kate smiled and made her way to the door. Miriam followed her out and Tad saw their silhouettes talking on the other side of the frosted glass once the door was closed.
When he turned back to the kitchen Maggie was getting up to leave. He wanted to call her back and continue their talk, but it would do no good. He would just end up at the same place.
Jen was right. If they had their minds set on this, then short of doing something that would make him lose both of them, there was nothing he could do.
Not for the first time he felt powerless. He could do with a win some time soon.
With a sigh he pushed himself to his feet. Sitting around all day wasn’t going to help. He needed to be busy. There were contacts he hadn’t been able to track down and it wouldn’t hurt to touch base with some of the ones he had already spoken to.
He decided to bury himself in work to take his mind off his troubles. He should have known it would never be that easy.
18
Tuesday, 24th November 2015
11:22
Miriam walked around the small room, touching everything and amazed whenever the thing she touched moved. If Stella didn’t know better, she’d have thought her old boss was on drugs.
“What’s up with her?” she whispered to Tad.
He turned an amused smile on her and she felt her own smile grow in turn. His good moods were infectious. She wondered if it was one of his gifts or i
f there was still something wrong with her.
Stella had been weird around Tad since the morning after the attack. It was to be expected. How many guys literally change your perception of the world? No matter the reason, she didn’t like it. It had her doing things she wouldn’t normally do.
Like that kiss the other night.
She was not a cheek kisser. It wasn’t how she was raised, she knew no one who did it, so God only knew why she had done it. Now here she was, grinning like a fool just because he was amused. She needed to get hold of herself.
“She’s just enjoying the moment. She’s not been able to do this in a while?”
“What? Walk around an evidence room?”
“That too,” Tad agreed. “But I was talking about touching things. The other night in the alley was the first time I’ve seen ghosts physically interact with the living. The other day I was dealing with a rogue ghost at—”
“There are rogue ghosts?”
He nodded. “Yeah. When a ghost isn’t with a Proxy—”
Stella stopped him and rubbed her temples, faking a look of frustration. “Wait. One explanation at a time. It’s my fault for interrupting.”
“Didn’t your parents tell you it was rude?” he teased.
“Just get on with it. You know, I’m already regretting getting you this job. You were saying about Miriam?”
“Right. Well, after the attack and making a wall real for Tony the other day, we’ve been experimenting.” He pointed to Miriam. “That’s the result.”
Miriam had settled and was looking through Stella’s files. “So she hasn’t touched anything real since she died. That’s how long? Three years?”
“Give or take. You think she’s bad? You should have seen Charles.”
“Why, what’s up with him?”
“Miriam’s acting like this after three years. Charles has been a ghost for one-hundred-and-fifty. It was overwhelming.”
Stella’s eyes went wide. “I’d think so. Has anyone ever told you how weird your life is?”
“Yes. You’ve been telling me that constantly since you found out about this.”