by Amy Boyles
I crossed my arms and jutted out one hip. “And who’s going to give you anything if you’re not asking for it? No one. If you come with me, you can appeal for equal rights. For the ability to live freely among the living.”
What was I talking about? The whole thing was asinine. They already had the right to live with humans. What were they really fighting for?
It hit me. “Me,” I said. “You want people like me to leave you alone.”
“That would be most appropriate,” Captain Blount said.
“I can only promise that I won’t help you cross over if you don’t want me to, but as for others like me, I can’t speak for them. You’d have to appeal to them directly.”
“Then it’s no deal,” Granny Mildred said. “We want our rights fair and square. If you can’t promise them, we’re out of here.”
They started to disappear. I reached out. “But wait!”
Too late. They’d vanished.
Sheesh. These folks were a thousand times more hardheaded than any living people I’d ever dealt with. They wanted me to speak for the Ghost Team and for other humans who helped spirits cross. Well, I couldn’t do that.
If they wanted to remain safely where they were, meaning spirits inhabiting the earth, then they’d have to stay right where they were—haunting gravestones in Haunted Hollow.
I sighed and sank to the ground. Great. Now I was back to square one. Looked like the best chance I had of finding out if the computer was at Slick’s house would be to do a little breaking and entering all by my lonesome.
I wouldn’t involve Alice or Ruth—they had reputations to uphold in town.
Me, I didn’t care about my reputation. All I cared about was getting the e-mail and kicking Anita on her butt out of my job.
My heart clenched. Or did I? Was there more I cared about than that? The friendship I’d seen between Ruth and Alice made me yearn for something else than simply tracking down rogue spirits and forcing them to cross to the other side.
I was waiting. Waiting for my life to begin.
A crushing sensation filled my chest. After all, I’d felt my life had nearly ended when my father died. He, along with the Ghost Team, had been my life.
Now both were gone.
Yet I didn’t feel as empty as I’d figured I would. I wasn’t crippled by loneliness. No, I’d become so obsessed with work that I’d pushed all other feelings to the side.
But now that the work wasn’t in front of me, now that I had some distance from it, I could see that there was so much more I wanted to do.
“Blissful Breneaux.”
I jerked my head toward the voice. A chill prickled down my spine as my gaze swept over the gravestones.
Hovering several yards away bobbed a translucent spirit. His form was long, meaning he was tall, with flowing dark hair, luminescent skin. Well, you know, not really skin, but he himself was luminescent.
His voice was gravel-filled. His dark eyes were piercing, and his mouth coiled into a mocking smile.
“It’s been a long time, Lucky,” I said.
Lucky Strike pulled a crumpled pack of smokes from his pocket. He tapped a cigarette into his palm, brought it to his lips and lit it with a ghostly Zippo.
“Blissful Breneaux,” he repeated in a deep voice. “I hear you’ve been looking for me.” He gave a slight bow. “Well, you’ve got my attention. What can I do for you?”
TWENTY-ONE
So many thoughts rampaged in my mind. The first was that I longed for my Ghost Team gear. I wanted to trap Lucky. Wrangle him with the customized lasso I owned—one specifically designed for holding spirits.
But the one from Alice that I jerry-rigged might still work as well.
But unfortunately I didn’t have it.
Lucky took a long pull from his ghostly cigarette. “What do you want?”
To take you in? Stop you from causing any more mayhem?
Then I realized it wasn’t me who needed to speak; it was Lucky.
“What is it you want, Mr. Strike?”
His eyebrows shot to peaks. He studied me as if expecting I would back down, pull my punch and prove I was only entertaining him by asking the question.
“You want equality, is that it?” I said.
He flicked ghostly ash on the ground. “I’ve done some things.”
“Last time I saw you, Lucky, you were fleeing the scene of a water main explosion.”
He chuckled. “That was good fun.” He wore a white and black striped tuxedo with tails. It was almost a carnival-like outfit. Something Beetlejuice might wear.
“You want a computer.”
My heart jumped to my throat. “Word travels fast.”
“I know where it is. I’ll take you to it.”
Yes! Yes!
“Under one condition.”
I clenched and unclenched my hands. “Which is?”
“Help me.”
I grimaced. “I can’t promise that.”
He smiled. Lucky wasn’t backing down. Good. That’s what I was betting on. “Then let’s play a game.”
“I don’t like games.”
“Oh,” he cooed, “you’ll love this one.”
“I doubt it.”
He smirked. “Catch me and I’ll come with you. Don’t and you leave me alone.”
I opened my mouth to speak when he cut me off.
“And…go—”
Lucky zipped down the hillside.
Shinola on a stick! This was it. Catch Lucky and I could go home. I couldn’t give up an opportunity like this. I simply couldn’t.
I raced to the Land Cruiser and climbed inside. I gunned the engine and backed up, coming to a grinding halt inches from wrecking a headstone.
I threw the gearshift into drive and slammed the accelerator. The vehicle jumped forward. I righted the steering wheel and drove.
“Where’d you go, Lucky?”
I smiled when I spotted him. He was floating at the base of the hill. I raced to catch him, but the spirit was fast.
I would be too if I could float through trees and buildings.
There wasn’t much traffic in town, which was good because I was craning my neck to keep an eye on Lucky. I’ll admit, I was barely watching the road.
Lucky glowed slightly, which helped. When he finally stopped drifting through trees and homes, he came to a bobbing halt outside a small Craftsman home.
No lights were glowing inside. Good. Whoever lived there was out. I had a feeling I knew who it was.
Lucky floated around back. I parked the Cruiser on a side street and got out. The sidewalks were quiet. The home was off the main strip, so the block was filled with residential houses containing families, not tourists looking for a scare.
I cut through a row of trees to get to the back. A creek ran behind the trees. I couldn’t see it, but I could hear the running water. I stopped at the two faces that greeted me.
Alice and Ruth were at the back door, bickering over who was going to crack the lock.
“What are y’all doing here?” I said.
Ruth shushed me. “We’re helping you.”
“How’re you helping me? And how do you know I need help?”
Alice righted glasses that were slipping down her nose. “This is Slick’s house. We came to help you.”
I brushed them both out of the way. “I don’t need your help. I don’t want the two of you getting into trouble because of me.”
Alice’s lower lip trembled. “But you’ve helped us so much, Blissful. You made us celebrities. We just wanted to help in return.”
“Yeah,” Ruth said. “Besides, we won’t get into trouble. We’ll be in and out in no time.”
My pulse raced. Lucky was inside, waiting for me. I couldn’t capture him with these two around. Wait. Maybe I could.
“You don’t happen to have that ghost rope with you, do you?”
Alice opened her handbag and pulled it out. “We don’t travel anywhere without it.”
R
uth rolled her eyes. “Not that you know how to use it.”
“I watched Blissful. I could imitate her.”
“Right,” Ruth said sarcastically. “And I could wrangle cats without gloves.”
“I’m sure you could,” Alice said.
“Not without getting scratched.”
I took the rope. “I want both of you to get out of here. Right now.” Their faces fell. I pushed on. “I’m serious. Go on. I’ll contact you later, tell you what I discovered.”
They glumly left. Finally. I glanced around, making sure no one was watching as I turned the knob.
Good old Lucky. He’d left the door unlocked. Apparently Ruth and Alice hadn’t tried the door; they’d just assumed it was locked.
I shoved it open. It took a minute for my eyes to adjust to the dim light.
“Lucky?”
“Back here.”
I followed the sound of his voice until I reached a bedroom.
There he stood, glowing and bobbing beside the bed. “Is that what you wanted?”
My gaze followed his outstretched hand. A computer lay on the bedside table. Not just any computer—one with a skull-and-crossbones decal plastered to the top.
My heart raced. I had the computer and Lucky within a hairbreadth. It was all too good, too coincidental.
I folded my arms. “What gives? I’ve been looking for you all week with no success, and then you show up knowing I want this computer and here it is. Here you are.”
Lucky sat on the bed and lit up another smoke. “I’m betting right now you want to push me on to the other side so I won’t make any more waves for you. Your people, they want to silence our voices. They want us to stay quiet.”
Anger built inside me. “You had your chance. You’re dead. Get it? What is it you want? To make mischief or to exist in peace?”
He glared at me. “You don’t understand. The lackeys never do.”
“Lackeys? What are you talking about?”
“I was hired, Blissful Breneaux.”
I eyed the computer. I wanted to snatch it up. “Hired? What are you talking about?”
He chuckled softly. “You really don’t know, do you?”
“I don’t have time for games, Lucky. Just tell me what the heck’s going on.”
He dropped his cigarette to the floor and squashed it under his booted toe. “I was hired to make mayhem and mischief. Hired to keep you”—he pointed at my chest—“in a job.”
“Me?”
He nodded. “You. All of you Ghost Teamers.”
I shook my head. This was ridiculous. “How would you be hired? It’s not as if you need money in your wallet to go buy a new car.”
“The light,” he said. Lucky’s eyes took on a sad, soulful look.
“The light?”
“It’s been kept from me.” He shook a fist. “I’ve been forced. Yes, forced to cause explosions, shut down power, all to keep the precious team alive. All the while I was promised time and time again that the next job would be my last. That the next time I caused mischief, I would be allowed to find the light. Go rest for eternity. Don’t you see? This has all been a game on you, Blissful.”
I frowned. “I still don’t understand. Who would do this? Who would stop you from passing on if that’s all you wanted to do.”
He tipped his head down and glared at me. “Do you really want to know?”
“Of course I want to know.” I shifted my weight, trying to figure out if I could snatch the computer and lasso Lucky within seconds of each other. My right hand could grab the computer, my left the lasso.
Problem was, I wasn’t left-handed and couldn’t throw worth a darn that way.
I moved a little more. “You’re telling me that you’ve been hired to do all these things, hired to keep the team employed, and all the while all you’ve wanted to do was go to the afterlife. A name. Give me a name. Who did this to you?”
He smacked his lips. “Vince Breneaux.”
It was a punch to the solar plexus. My stomach clenched, and I immediately felt my intestines twist savagely.
“You’re lying,” I said coldly.
“Am I? Why is it I’ve never been captured when the best of the best were always sent after me?”
I cocked my head. “You’re too good.”
“Too good for you? You’re the best, they say. Yet how many times were you ever sent for me and got within distance to catch me?”
I thought about that. I’d seen Lucky one other time, and my father had kept me back.
“And who always came after me?”
“My father,” I whispered. “He always went himself.”
“But you were the best, right?” he said teasingly. “The one who could help any soul see the light and go to it. So why”—he leaned toward me and poked the air—“if you were the best, weren’t you allowed to chase the grand master ghost, Lucky Strike?”
I fumbled for words. There weren’t any. “I don’t know.” No. This was stupid.
“I do,” he shouted. “You had to be contained. Had to be kept back so that I could stay enslaved to your dear old dad. But now he’s gone. Look, I’m sorry he passed away, really I am, but your father made me.”
“Why?” I fumed. “Why would my dad do that? It makes no sense.”
“Money was drying up,” Lucky said. “The Ghost Team funding was about to be pulled. Your dad explained the whole thing to me. Asked me to do him a favor. If I scratched his back, he’d scratch mine.”
Lucky sucked his teeth. “Only he never scratched mine.”
I could feel time ticking away. “What do you want?”
“I want to go to the light.”
“Not gonna happen. Not until I bring you in.”
He smirked. Glanced at the computer. “In there is the one thing you want—your old job back. What does it matter if you have me when this proof is all you need? I even know the password.”
I was salivating. Lucky was right. Within the computer was everything I needed to know. The proof that would get my job back. Why did I actually need him if I had the e-mail that would get Anita kicked out of her job and get my tush tucked into it?
I arched a brow. “You have the password?”
He pulled a strip of glowing paper from thin air and handed it to me. I glanced at it. “How do I know it works?”
“Oh it works,” he said. “I’m nothing if not ingenious.”
My gaze darted from Lucky to the computer. I still had the lasso. I could wrangle him, maybe. But was it worth it?
“Okay, Lucky, I’ll get you to the light.”
Happiness washed over his face.
“After I get the e-mail.”
I reached for the computer. My fingers had just brushed it when something knocked into me from behind, sending me sprawling into darkness.
TWENTY-TWO
I whirled around. Lucky vanished.
“Are you okay?” came a woman’s voice.
“Who is that?” I said, pushing hands away.
A light flipped on. “It’s me, Meredith.”
Meredith Wilkes stood in front of me. Her eyes were shining as if she’d been crying.
“What are you doing here?” I said.
She brought her hands to her face. “I saw you come in. I’ve been watching Slick’s house. I have the feeling he’s keeping information from me. Information about Xavier. See, I think Xavier was going to give me the money to buy my building, but Slick is hiding that.”
“Oh. Um. But why did you follow me?”
She shrugged. “I thought you might be able to help.”
Suddenly a beam of light flashed through the window. “Those are police beams,” I said. “Come on.”
We did not need to be caught by Kency Blount breaking and entering.
I flipped off the light and grabbed the computer. I couldn’t see anything, so I felt around until we reached the back door. The lights had blinded me, putting a blue-ish orb smack in the middle of my field of vision.
“Come on and be quiet,” I said.
Meredith did as I said. We crept out the back door as the police approached the front. I still couldn’t see that well.
As we headed away from the house, I stumbled and slid down a slope. I knew the creek wasn’t far. I held the computer above my head and pushed down my heels, trying to stop my descent.
It sort of worked. I landed in the ice-cold water but managed to keep the computer dry. Meredith splashed in beside me.
With my teeth chattering, I turned to her. “Are you all right?”
“I’m freezing.”
It sounded like someone was crashing through the hedges in front of the house. I rose slowly, trying to keep the sound down.
I was soaked to the marrow. My jeans felt like concrete wrapped around my legs. My sweater hung heavy and clung to my drenched skin.
“Ugh.”
Meredith grabbed my arm. “Come on,” she whispered. “The restaurant’s not far from here. Let’s get you there and get you into warm clothes.”
“At the restaurant?” I said.
“I live above it.”
How had I missed that?
We walked slowly along the creek. I never did hear Sheriff Kency Blount’s voice booming from the house or see the police car, but it had to have been her. Who else would’ve been shining a bright light at Slick’s house?
When we reached Soul Food and Spirits, Meredith led me upstairs to her small apartment. It was nice, tidy, with exposed brick just like downstairs. She lit a gas log fire and handed me a towel.
“Bathroom’s over there.”
I took the computer and the towel into the bathroom.
“You sure you don’t want to leave the computer here? For safekeeping?”
I shook my head. “There’s something I need to see.”
With that, I closed myself behind the door. Meredith had been kind enough to leave me a pair of sweatpants and long-sleeved T-shirt on the counter.
I peeled off my clothes and dried myself as best I could. My panties and bra were soaked. I tossed them in the pile and pulled the T-shirt over my naked D-cup boobs.