“Can you guys finish without me?” I asked when I got back to the table.
“Sure,” said Jackie, “Why?”
“I have something I need to do. Last minute Christmas stuff. I’ll catch you both later. Thanks for lunch, Randall.” I ran out of the restaurant.
Quickly, I hiked down to where those sleazy apartments were. One thing I loved about the downtown area was that everything was within walking distance. You’d get a workout, but it wasn’t so far away that you couldn’t hoof it.
I went in the building when I reached it and headed straight for the landlord’s apartment. I know he saw whoever killed Helen. He at least saw something despite how drunk he might have been. Besides, I had never trusted the bastard. I heard movement inside and a TV blared when I approached. I banged my fist on the cracked wooden door.
“Open up,” I shouted. “I know you’re in there.” I banged on it again,
“What do you want?” demanded the landlord as he opened his door.
I kicked the door knocking him back. His staggering told me that he had been drinking. “I want to know the truth,” I said. “I know you saw who killed that woman. They came through here. There’s no other explanation.”
“I don’t know—I’ll have you arrested for this.”
“The hell you don’t!”
Clumsily, the landlord swung at me. I caught his hand, wrenched it behind his back, and bashed his face onto a nearby table. All that time spent with Tiny and his friends was really paying off. “Listen you sack of shit. I want the truth.” I pulled on his twisted arm to make my point.
“All right,” he yelled through clenched teeth. “A man with a woman did come through here. He crawled through my window from the fire escape, said that the woman had passed out from too much partying.”
“Why didn’t he use the regular entrance?”
“I didn’t care and I didn’t ask. He said that he was being stalked and needed a back way out. Hell, he paid me $500 cash to keep my mouth shut. So I told him about the emergency exit and that was that.”
“And you lied to the detective about it.”
“I don’t like cops. They can kiss my ass for all I care. Nosy bastards.”
“Who rented that apartment?”
“I don’t know, some guy. He paid cash for it.”
“What did he look like?”
“Don’t know,” wailed the landlord, “Never saw his face. We never talked anyway. I got a letter stating that some guy wanted a place to live to get away from everything. It had a thousand dollars in cash. All I had to do was leave the key. So I did.
“I know he used it. People went in and out of there all the time.”
“Who?” I demanded.
“I don’t know. I never bothered looking at them. Mind my own business I do.”
I let him up.
“I’ll have you arrested for assault,” threatened the landlord.
“Go ahead,” I challenged, “Then they’ll arrest you for obstruction of justice. You lied to that detective. He won’t forget that.”
I threw the drunken jerk to the floor and left. So the killer did go through his apartment and had been renting it under the table. Now, if only I could identify who it was.
Twilight had fallen when I stepped out onto the street. It always gets dark so quickly in the winter. I buttoned my coat all the way up as the icy wind whipped around me. Gray clouds in the sky told me to expect more snow. Snow for Christmas; how fitting.
My breath formed crystals before me as I hoofed it back to my car. Only the exercise kept me from feeling the cold. My cheeks and nose had turned numb long before I reached my car.
“Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.”
I smiled as I passed a group of carolers singing in front of a store. They had gone all out with their Victorian costumes. Their music brought some warmth to my insides as I mulled over what to do next. Eventually, I settled on waiting for Jack’s phone call.
“Hey, Mel.” Randall ran up to me as I opened my car door.
“Randall? Where’s Jackie?”
“She went home. Had some stuff to do. Hey, can I get a ride to City Hall? My car is in the shop and I really don’t want to walk.”
I paused for several moments. True, Randall had been ruled out as a suspect and he had been nothing but nice to Jackie and I. Besides City Hall wasn’t that far. “Yeah, sure,” I said.
Thankful, Randall hopped in the passenger seat. “It’s really cold out.”
“Yeah,” I replied, “Guess it’s going to stay that way for a while.”
“So how are you involved in that murder?” he asked as I pulled onto the street. “The police don’t allow just anyone to help.”
He had a point there. “I sort of witnessed it.”
“What? Oh my gosh! So you know who did it.”
“Actually, no,” I replied, “I didn’t see the killer’s face and everything happened so fast that it was all a bit of a blur.”
“So you have no idea who did it.”
Alarm bells started going off. Why was he so interested? “Look, I know you’re as curious as everyone else, but I have no idea and the police have forbidden me from talking about it. You’ll just have to wait until they find the guy. Like everyone else.”
“I hate waiting.”
My phone rang. “Sorry, I have to take this.”
“Mel,” said Jack when I answered, “I just decrypted those files you brought me. You are not going to believe this. Randal Hopkins was funneling money into various accounts using charities to do it. That is why he was in charge in all of those charity drives.
“The files were expertly set up. They all pointed to his accountant. But he knew nothing about it. He was set up for the fall.”
Don’t act nervous, I told myself. “Really? That’s sounds great.”
“Great? Mel, did you understand what I just said?”
“Yeah,” I tried to keep my voice level.
“Is Randall Hopkins with you right now?” Jack asked as he caught on to my situation.
“Yeah, we’ll be there in a bit.”
“Where are you?”
“On fifth and Main. Fifteen minutes from—”
“Hang up the phone,” Randall pulled a gun out and pointed it right at me.
“Jack, he—”
Randall snatched the phone and threw it out the car window. “I should have known you’d figure it out. All Jackie ever did was talk about how great of a detective you were. That’s why I went out with her, so I would know what you were up to. Turn right here.”
I turned the wheel trying to formulate a plan.
“I should have known that you’d figure it out,” continued Randall, “I had hoped that my warning on the roof would scare you off. But you don’t give up do you?”
“Why’d you do it?” I asked.
“Like I’d tell you.”
“Why not? I’m about to be killed anyway.”
“Turn here,” said Randall.
I steered the car down another road.
“You’re right though. Helen was a good accountant. Too good. She found a discrepancy in my books. I told her to not worry about it, but that stupid woman stole my books and went through them. She was smart enough to decipher them. Afterwards, she threatened to go to the cops.
“I managed to convince her to meet me at that apartment. When she wouldn’t listen to reason, I panicked. But I didn’t mean to kill her.”
“But you did.”
“And what of it? At least now she’d be kept silent. I mean she wouldn’t even take the money I offered her. Who’d know I’d come across a drug addict with a conscience.”
“Rehabilitated,” I said, “How’d you get her out of there?”
“That was the easy part. I heard you and your friends coming up the stairs so I carried the body onto the fire escape. I knew that the landlord always kept his window open, so I let myself in. Gave him money to keep quiet and lie and in his drunken stupor he gladly
accepted.”
“So you rented that apartment.”
“Of course I did. But I gave the landlord my accountant’s name. Unfortunately, he died unexpectedly.”
My mind flowed everywhere as I tried to think of a way out of my predicament. “Why’d you kill your accountant? Did he get too greedy for your taste?”
“You really think of everything don’t you? No, he didn’t get greedy. I made the original books and then had him rewrite them so everything would be in his handwriting. I burned the originals.
“He was being set up to be the fall guy. Everything was going smoothly until he figured out what was going on. It’s really too bad about that accident.”
Something still didn’t make sense and my curiosity refused to let it go. “I don’t get it. Why the scam? Why steal money from your own charity funds?”
Randall’s face twitched. “I’m broke. I lost everything in this recession. Without any hope of this economy improving, I needed money. People love to give to charity and it wasn’t hard to convince the city council to go along with sponsoring various charity drives. Good PR. They put me in charge and I just took a bit of the proceeds as compensation.”
“Why date Jackie?”
“To keep an eye on you.”
“She really likes you,” I said, “Your actions will break her heart.”
“Like I care,” spat Randall. “Get on the freeway.” He poked me with the cold steel of the gun’s barrel. “That little bitch will get over it.”
Okay. That did it. That just royally pissed me off. A plan finally formed in my mind. By telling me to turn, we ended up right where Tiny’s favorite hangout was and all of the parked bikes with people standing around them told me they were there.
So take this, asshole.
I punched the accelerator forcing my poor car to careen across the street and to the bikes. Turning the wheel and hitting the brakes I plowed into the parked bikes knocking several of them over. I hit the accelerator again. My rearview mirror told me that we would have company as several guys hopped on their bikes and came straight for us.
“What the hell are you doing?” yelled Randall. “Stop! Now!”
I pressed the accelerator allowing my car to collect speed as I plowed through the street weaving through traffic to miss other vehicles. Maybe I had developed some of my Aunt Ethel’s driving habits after all.
I spotted Detective Shorts getting out of his car. The bikers still pursued me. Perfect. Speeding up some more I headed straight for the detective’s car.
“Stop, or I’ll—”
Randall never finished his statement. Bracing myself for impact, I rammed Detective Short’s car. Crunching metal filled my ears as shards of glass went everywhere. Darkness enveloped me as the airbag released surrounding my head.
Dazed, I barely registered the shot that went off as Randall fired at the detective.
Instantly, Detective Shorts crouched low pulling out his weapon yelling, “Drop your weapon and get out of the car now!”
My neck hurt as Randall grabbed my hair and yanked me toward him. “I’ll kill her. I mean it.”
“Drop it!”
“You back off, or she’s dead!”
This was not working out the way I wanted it. The roar of bikes was suddenly upon us. Randall didn’t notice them as he busied himself shouting at Detective Shorts and threatening to kill me.
“I mean it!” Randall pressed the gun against my neck.
Without warning, the passenger door flung open as strong hands clenched Randall hauling him out of the car. My neck sighed with relief when he let go of me. I glanced over and watched as Tiny wrenched the gun out of Randall’s grasp and pinned him against the car.
An officer opened my door and pulled me out and slammed me against the side of the car. I heard the handcuffs as he prepared to snap them around my wrist.
“Not her,” shouted Detective Shorts. “Arrest him!”
The officer acknowledged his orders, released me, and handcuffed Randall.
“You all right?” asked Detective Shorts.
“Yeah,” I replied, still a bit shaken. As the realization of what I did hit me I uttered, “Hope my insurance pays for this.” My car was totaled. So was detective Shorts’.
“You can’t arrest me,” spat Randall.
“Really?” Detective Shorts approached Randall with a dangerous look in his eye. “Let’s look at the charges, shall we? The murder of Helen Campbell; attempted murder; reckless endangerment; embezzlement; fraud—anything else you want me to tack on? Get him out of here.”
Two officers put Randall in the back of a police cruiser and drove off.
“I guess I’ll have to have an officer take you home,” said Detective Shorts to me.
“Oh, we’ll take her home,” said Tiny.
Detective Shorts eyed him a bit. “Straight home. And no detours.”
“Will do, Captain,” said Tiny. He directed me to his bike and put me on it. “Straight home he says. But there’s no reason why we can’t get some grub on the way.”
He kicked his bike into gear and took off with his gang following close behind. Later, he stopped at a drive-thru place and picked up some burgers and fries.
“Hold these,” he shoved the bags into my hands.
I gave them to one of the other guys.
Within fifteen minutes we pulled into my apartment complex. Jackie waited impatiently by the door as we walked in.
“Mel,” she threw herself on me. “I heard all about it. It’s all over the news. That pompous, jerk Randall. I’ll—I’ll kick him where it hurts. I’m sorry, Mel, I should have listened to you. You’re never wrong about these things.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, “He’s been caught and can’t hurt anyone anymore.”
It happened again. Abject fear rose within me growing stronger each second. Screams escaped from my throat.
“Mel? Mel?”
The screams stopped, but my panic continued. It hadn’t left. It was still here, whatever it was. My world swirled before me and went black.
Sometime later I became aware of voices around me. They all talked about me as though I couldn’t hear them. I tried to speak. Nothing came out of my mouth.
“Why did you call me here?”
Father Hillard? What was he doing here?
“I don’t what happened,” said Jackie, “She just started screaming and then curled up in the corner uttering your name. It’s like she lost her mind.”
“There is a darkness in this place,” said a woman’s voice I did not recognize.
“Who’s this?” asked Father Hillard.
“My cousin, Aleyna,” said Elise. “She’s a priestess in the Wiccan religion.”
Father Hillard’s grunt told me that he didn’t approve, but he never said anything.
Someone kept whispering his name.
“She won’t stop,” said Jackie, clearly worried.
It was then I realized that the constant murmuring came from me.
“Mel?” Father Hillard knelt before me. “Mel.”
Smack!
My cheek burned from the force of his slap, but it did bring me back to reality. “What happened?” I asked.
“That’s what we want to know,” said Jackie, “You went kind of psychotic on us. What’s wrong, Mel?”
“It’s still here,” I said looking directly into Father Hillard’s eyes.
“I thought as much,” he whispered.
“What is still here?” demanded Jackie.
The lights flickered.
“What was that?” asked Tiny.
The lights flickered even more, so much so that I began to get a bit dizzy from it. A low growl echoed around us. “Mine.”
Everyone froze.
“You mean this shit’s real?” said Elise.
Aleyna gave her a stern look. “I have warned you many times to not discount the existence of spirits. Something has attached itself to Mellow here and it is up to us to help her b
e rid of it.
“Everyone say whatever prayer’s you will. But command this thing to leave this place, to leave Mellow, and to never return.”
“Here.” Chris? Where did he come from? He handed Aleyna some sage. She took it giving him an odd look. I didn’t pay much attention to it.
Father Hillard started to voice his objections over the combined traditions, but Aleyna silenced him. “Does it really matter in the end?”
Relenting, he pulled out his purple stole, prayer book, and Holy Water.
The prayers started. Each person in the room either repeated what Aleyna or Father Hillard said, or uttered their own. I remained in the corner afraid. What was wrong with me? I never get this frightened. But this thing scared the you-know-what out of me. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak.
“Mellow,” Chris knelt before me, “You have to show it no fear. You must be brave and command it to leave.”
“I can’t,” I whispered.
“You can chase murderers, but you can’t order a spirit to leave?”
“Murderers are living people,” I said.
“True. Come on,” he held out his hand, “You are not alone. Look at all those who have come to help you.”
I surveyed the room and realized he was right. I took his hand allowing him to help me up. The more I thought about this thing that I had allowed to chase me out of my home the angrier I got. Fury boiled within me. This was my home, my life.
“Get out my life you son of a bitch,” I screamed at the entity amongst the murmuring of prayers.
Cabinet doors in the kitchen banged, but I ignored it. Screaming at the top of my lungs I continued yelling at it to leave me and my friends alone.
I have no idea how much time passed, but after a while everything went still. Complete and utter silence reigned.
“Is it gone?” asked Jackie.
“I believe so,” said Aleyna. She approached me. “Elise has told me about you. You speak to ghosts. You help them move on, but that also makes you a target for the darker things out there. Always keep your guard up.”
“Enough of this heavy crap,” said Tiny, “Let’s eat.”
Elise smacked him.
“Well, I’m just saying, the food’s growing a bit cold.”
The place felt lighter than it had the last few days. I breathed deeply relieved that that thing had left. Maybe now things would get back to normal.
Janet McNulty - Mellow Summers 05 - Oh Holy Ghost Page 9