The Grey Ghost

by Nicholas Cara

With that Joe tossed his badge on the desk, unfortunately hitting the large stack of folders Captain Robinson had been working on, causing them to topple onto the office floor.

  “Confound it Bevine!” the Captain cried out. “Hold what against me? Look at this, do you how long that took to organize?” Robinson said reaching down trying to pick the stack up in some reasonable order. Only then did the Captain notice the badge lying on the floor where it had toppled along with the pile.

  “Did you drop something, son?” Robinson said reaching for the badge and flipping it into Bevine’s lap.

  “Wait…I’m not being…let go?” Joe stammered looking at the polished shield sitting in his lap.

  “Let go? Who told you that?” Robinson said looking straight into Joe’s face for an explanation. “Not unless you’re resigning, which I’ve got to tell you unless there is something really wrong with you in the head from over there I probably won’t let you do. You don’t have a screw loose up there do you Bevine? I’ve read a lot about some boys coming back that are let’s say….different.”

  “Different? Cap if you haven’t noticed I’m not going to be dancing the two-step anytime soon!” Joe railed, amazed at the fact the Captain seemingly hadn’t notice he only had one leg now. “How can you let me stay on the force with only one leg, stuck in this infernal chair!” Joe said slapping the arm rest of his wheelchair, which had started to feel like a coffin surrounding him the longer he sat in it.

  “Listen Bevine . . . Apparently contrary to your own beliefs you were not the only young strapping man that left Capstone City or dare I say ‘this precinct’ to go and fight in the war. I’m trying to keep this city safe with nearly half my manpower. I’m as far south from retirement as I can be. Incredulous to my wishes it seems the scum and riff raff of this fair city have all missed the draft! Would’ve done the lot of rats good too, maybe make an honest citizen out of a few of them instead of leaving them to gnaw of the liberties of good honest folks left here,” the Captain stated again standing up to look down at Joe.

  “But Captain, what can I do for you like this?” Joe questioned pointing down to his lower half.

  “I’m not sure to be honest with you,” Robinson said looking straight down in Joe’s face. ”I had expected the same old steel jawed Officer Joseph Bevine that I had remembered before he went off to save the world to come into this office. Are you still that man son, or did you leave that part of you over there too? Because I need that marshal of the law back son. If you’re not him anymore I’ll take that hardware,” Robinson finished reaching out his hand for Joe’s badge.

  Joe looked up at his commanding officer watching Robinson’s hand reach for his badge, he hesitated for a moment hearing the whisper of doubt he knew all too well lately breathing like a hot breath on the back of his neck. Joe almost let him take the badge until a the captain was inches away from the shiny metal of the plate and a feeling conviction that he hadn’t felt since before leaving for the service return to his gut. It was an entirely different matter to Joe when to resign on his own terms, but now to have someone figuratively take his badge right from his hand? No he couldn’t…he wouldn’t have that; he earned it and wasn’t going to give it up without a fight. With a long forgotten resolve burning in his heart, Joe quickly blurted out, “No sir! I am your man, SIR!”

  Captain Robinson again peered over his officer noticing the straightened back and puffed out chest. A complete transformation from the slumped over beaten man who had wheeled into his office just a few seconds ago.

  “That’s the man I need right now Bevine. When you come into this station leave at home whoever you were earlier. We have no time for that sorry sack of potatoes. My boy I have three officers who weigh more than the desks they sit at. I dare say you could outpace them in that chair of yours and I still let them stay around. One of them being your partner I would recommend you let him run after a few suspects. It can only do Patsy good.”

  Happy to hear that he would be teaming up with his partner again Joe said, “You can count on me sir. So when do I start?”

  “Eager to get back in the saddle again, sitting at home starting to wane on you is it?” Robinson said with a slight smile on his face. “However since someone didn’t let me know that he was even coming to see me today, all of the paperwork for you to even test back into the force hasn’t been started and believe it or not I can’t just drop everything for you right now Bevine. Trust me, when you get back on the streets you’ll understand and may wish to reconsider your answer. Things are let’s say…shadier around here than when you left,” Robinson said looking down at his stack of papers and started listing off the qualifying tests that Joe had to retake to get back on the force. “We’ll forgo the physical fitness exam because of your condition but you’ll have to qualify in the range again before I issue you a firearm and such.”

  Captain Robinson continued on, however, Joe was only half listening by now. “I’m really going to be a cop again; the old man is not giving me the bum’s rush out the door,” Joe thought to himself rubbing his shield between his fingers. Joe sat there half-heartedly listening to his commander in what felt like a daze for the remainder of the meeting until he was finally dismissed from the office.

  “Thank you sir!” Joe called out as he left starting to roll back toward the front desk.

  “Sadly Bevine, don’t thank me yet. Like I said you may regret it later,” Captain Robinson called back returning to his forms.

  Joe’s fortune had changed so dramatically from when he had first entered Police Plaza 1 that it was now leaving him at a loss.

  “I’ve got to tell Kate. She’s going to flip. It’s almost like…like…”is all Joe kept thinking over and over again as he wheeled away, each time never truly understanding how he wanted to finish the thought. However, stumped as he was, for the first time in what seemed to be a very long time, Joe felt…like he was taking a step in the right direction.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  That evening, Kate couldn’t help but notice the complete change in Joe. She had seen it this morning, as soon as he spun into her office at the university. From the way he was breathing it seemed that Joe had rolled himself at an insane pace all the way from Police Plaza 1 to the university. Before she could even ask what he was doing there, Joe started explaining his meeting with his captain, taking very few breaths in between. It had reminded Kate of a young boy excited over a gift on Christmas morning. Not wanting the exuberance to end, Kate never once tried to get a word in; she simply listened and nodded, quietly enjoying the excitement in her love’s face. Before she had known it, Joe told her he was going to pick her up later and hit the town tonight to celebrate.

  This is where she now found herself, strolling down Ridgefield Drive next to Joe only a few blocks away from her house. Over dinner, Joe had continued at a fevered pace talking about the opportunities the new job might bring. Keenly listening, Kate had not missed the subtle mentions of what the position would mean for “them” as Joe talked. Her woman’s intuition had been piqued by those small remarks and their intended meanings. After a glass of one of the Derby’s delicious cocktails, she at times found her mind wondering to the intentions of those remarks and tried not to get lost in them.

  Now, while walking beside him, it had dawned on her what Joe had been really missing since he returned from the war. Joe had needed a purpose.

  “That’s why he’s so happy and excited. I mean little kid in candy store excited. Look at him! I usually talk his ear off at dinner and I dare say I haven’t spoken more than my dinner order all night,” Kate thought to herself as she kept pace.

  The realization of why Joe’s mood was so changed both amazed and ashamed her that she had not seen this before. She had always known Joe to be a man of action. He was always a forward-thinking kind of guy. It was those traits Kate had loved about him and could see now how it would’ve been very hard for Joe before today. Before this great news all Joe was surrounded by was the past, with no contr
ol over what kind of future he could have.

  “Oh my poor Joe, this must’ve been eating at you since you came back,” Kate thought to herself looking at Joe next to her. “To think, the life you built back here, everything and possibly everyone you knew wasn’t going to be the same because of your injury. I knew you were hurting sweetheart from all of the changes going on, but I was a fool to think that the physical changes were the only things weighting on you. That’s why you’ve been pushing yourself so hard. I’ve got to get you to know that…”

  “Kate stop!” Joe called out reaching for her arm from behind her.

  The sudden jerk brought Kate back from her thoughts, Joe’s abruptness worried her that she may have absent-mindedly wondered into the street. Regaining her bearings and noticing no nearby cause for concern, Kate looked back at Joe and asked, “Joe what is it?”

  “Kate, get behind me. Is your father home already or do you still think he’s at the University?” Joe questioned pulling on her arm to get ahead of her.

  Completely confused by Joe’s question, only then did Kate notice they made it all the way back to the sidewalk across the street from her house. She had been so engrossed by her own thoughts about Joe that she had completely lost track of where they were. Looking up at the small two-story house, she quickly understood Joe’s abrupt worry and was washed over by a stiffening fear from the sight meeting her gaze. There, on her front porch hanging loosely by one hinge was the front door, slowly swinging back and forth in the night breeze. A large hole was smashed through the glass window above the door knob.

  “Dad?” Kate started to cry out before being quickly quieted by Joe.

  “Shhh! Kate stay here. If you see or hear anything, run to the Saban’s house next door and get him and that cannon of his. Wake up the entire neighborhood if you have to. We don’t know what we’re dealing with,” Joe commanded.

  “But Joe!” Kate started.

  “No buts! Stay here, I’m going to check it out,” Joe said rolling as quietly as he could across the street looking back only once to give Kate a slight but forced “I’ve got this” smile. Joe was surprised how quickly his training as a police officer was coming back to him as he slowly approached the once friendly doorway.

  “I still wish Patsy was around or at least I was armed,” Joe thought to himself as he without thinking found himself reaching for where his revolver would’ve been.

  Silently rolling up the small ramp Kate’s father had recently had installed for him, Joe reached the damaged door from the side. Taking the scene in, he was surprised by the extent of the real damage to the door. The part that both Kate and Joe had seen from across the street was not the actual door but the screen door hanging on the upper hinge. Behind that the front door itself was a pile of shards lying on the ground. It looked as if it had been kicked in but with the force of a bomb exploding the wood inward. A large section of the door could be seen farther back in the entrance way as if it had been casually thrown there.

  “On the other hand, my entire old battalion and maybe a bazooka or two on hand would be nice too,” Joe quietly muttered to himself.

  As Joe crossed the darkened threshold he spotted a dark form standing in the living room appearing to be shuffling through the cabinet. Calling out with the most authority he could muster, Joe barked out at the figure, “This is the Capstone Police, don’t move! Slowly raise your hands and walk toward the doorway!”

  The figure completely taken unaware jumped up shooting his hands straight at the ceiling.

  “Don’t shoot! Don’t Shoot!” it called out in a high-pitched, almost feminine squeaky voice.

  Never taking his eyes off of the tall, lanky perp, Joe never once considered the large dark form in the adjourning entrance way anything but a large shadow. Before he could think otherwise, the “shadow” moved straight at Joe. A large boot emerged, catching Joe square in the chest, knocking both the air and his senses from the seated officer. The force of the impact, which would’ve killed a stationary man, propelled Joe in his chair straight back out the front doorway. Joe felt a sharp pain in his back as he slammed backwards into the front porch’s banister. A loud “CRACK” sound followed as the banister quickly gave way from the force of his collision. Weightlessness gripped Joe as he fell the few feet before smashing into the muddy flower bed below, still propelled by the savage blow.

  For the next few minutes Joe drifted in and out of consciousness. Looking up from the ground, his mind quickly flashed images and sounds to him but only as if he was detached from the experience. It was as if a film was skipping on its reel projecting only every few frames. Joe saw the dark shape of a man, impossibly large…

  It was reaching down at him…

  A loud explosion…gun fire…

  Sudden commotion, the sound of people running near him and loud yelling…

  Then more explosions….

  “Kate?” Joe remembered thinking, briefly seeing a silhouette of a woman looking over him before it ran off into the house as his eyes closed.

  The last sound Joe heard before blacking out was the sound of a woman’s scream…Kate’s scream…

  ... 4 Days Later

  The rain started slowly, at first a light drizzle and then began the large drops quickly increasing in both speed and ferocity until the clear night had become a cascade of billowing water. These assaults of cold and wet completely soaking through his black suit didn’t register to Joe, who was sitting outside the Stone household. There he sat now drenched, starring at the garish yellow police “crime scene” tape covering the destroyed front doorway. Through that doorway he could still make out the front parlor, a place that he, Kate and her father had spent numerous pleasurable evenings now dark and empty. It lay, like the rest of the house, as only a hollow husk of the warm home it once had been. That analogy now reigned true for both 22 Ridgefield Drive and the broken Joseph Bevine.

  Over the past few days, in a way that he had not even thought possible, Joe felt even less alive than when we had lost his leg. It was as if that savage kick that had thrown him from this very porch had actually killed him. Later on, when Joe had opened his eyes in the hospital to find his family trying to comfort Kate, Joe had simply gone emotionally numb, as if he had died as well with Professor Stone but had never noticed. Since then he continued moving along in a haze, as a specter roaming along with his family’s lives, trying best to be there for Kate but having no warmth or comfort to portray.

  “A ghost cannot love a woman like her, and that’s all I am anymore, a ghost floating among men pretending to be a real boy,” Joe thought to himself wiping both tears and rain from his face. “If we had gotten back sooner, if I could have moved faster maybe I could’ve done something. I could’ve stopped them or saved him…at the very least not have been thrown out the door like a rag-doll. The Captain wants this husk working on the force. Why, so I can help Judy sign people in? I’m not a cop. I’m not sure what I am anymore….”

  There Joe sat as the rain unrelentingly continued on as if it could wash away both Joe and the horrors witnessed in this once loving household.

  “Joe! Joe!”

  Joe heard his name being called but couldn’t muster the strength of will to respond or even look toward the voice crying out in the downpour. It wasn’t until the rain lessened as an umbrella covered him did he notice who had been calling out to him. Looking up, he saw Kate staring daggers down at him, with a fury in her eyes he had not seen before.

  “What in heaven’s name are you doing out here? Joseph Bevine what are you thinking! Kate screamed at him. “We just buried Dad a few hours ago and do you think I need to deal with this today of all days! I turn around and had no idea where you were, you selfish stupid man!”

  Joe had never seen Kate so mad before. There in the middle of the storm she stood over him and railed at him for his stupidity; the two of them the exact opposite in nature, one a ball of fire whose fury could not be dampened and the other sitting as a numb creature unabl
e to feel even the heat of her flame. Never saying a single word to defend himself, Joe looked at Kate until she wore herself out screaming at him.

  “And if you…YOU… You stupid man think you are leaving me too, like this!” She screamed grabbing his coat, “you better think again you blockhead!”

  Seeing the fury in her eyes dampen slightly, all Joe could say in a small voice was, “I’m sorry…”

  “You better be! Let’s get out of this rain you frog! I’m not enjoying it apparently as much as you do!” Kate yelled back not truly understanding what his words had meant to portray.

  Kate grabbed Joe’s chair, unlocked it and quickly rolled him into the house for shelter. Having no other options for shelter she grabbed the police tape and ripping it aside rolled Joe in the front room.

  “Stay here. I have to get some blankets for us. You’re dripping all over the floor,” Kate spat leaving Joe in the parlor.

  There Joe was again, the same room where only a few days ago he had been playing the hero and had instead been slapped aside like a young child sticking his nose where it didn’t belong. They really shouldn’t even be in here, however, Joe knew that the main point of the investigation was the Professor’s study. That’s where they had found him. The brilliant man had been horribly beaten, nearly broken in half. All the thoughts of such violence brought to Joe’s mind the large monster that had easily kicked Joe through the porch.

  “The Professor had been a good man… no, a great man! He didn’t deserve that, crimey no one does. And poor Kate, they wouldn’t even let us see what that monster did to her father…she had to just sit there looking at that closed casket” Joe thought miserably to himself.

  Kate returned to the room with an armful of blankets in which she draped two of them over him and wrapped herself in another. There she stood staring at him, her hair matted down from the rain. He could tell she was still furious at him.