She had been frustrated with Betty’s pushiness about a year back and had tossed her phone in the trash and paid in cash for a week at a remote cabin in Giles County. Betty had found her in five days.
When she hadn’t been able to track Mel by phone or credit card activity, she’d done the next logical thing. She’d contacted three psychics that they knew and paid them to locate Mel using Remote Viewing and Psychometry, because obviously that’s what you do when your friend doesn’t want to talk to you.
She’d never bothered to really try to hide from Betty after that. What would be the point? Now she lay on a hard hotel bed and stared up at the ceiling. She didn’t turn on the television or listen to the radio. She knew the murders would be headline news, and she didn’t want to hear anymore about it.
She’d done her job, and now it was over. She had to let everything that had happen in that house go; she had to let Jack go. She should never have gotten involved with him in the first place. The pain she was going through now was her own fault, and she damn well knew it.
By the time that she left the hotel, she’d managed to convince herself that she was alright. She was glad that
she hadn’t had to reap Jack’s soul, but she also knew that, even if he lived, they could never have had a relationship.
She had been allowed to live as a child for one purpose and one purpose only; to reap souls for the light. She had never tried to pretend otherwise, and she wasn’t about to start now. The light had never told her to reap and be happy. It had only told her to reap.
She wasn’t meant to have a relationship. Her life was too hard and hectic for that anyway. She was a Reaper, pure and simple, and that was all she was ever going to be. She could live with that; she would have to.
At the end of three days, she got back into her car and headed home.
***
Betty jumped on her as soon as she walked through the door. She swung Mel, screaming and laughing, around the room.
“What’s with you?” Mel asked when she finally managed to pry Betty off of her. “You’re always happy to see me, but you’ve never been quite this happy to see me before.”
“Mrs. Mabry paid you,” Betty grinned.
“Well, that’s good news, but we’ve been paid before. It was never a cause for this much celebration.”
“She paid you $98.4 million dollars,” Betty said beaming at her. “Why didn’t you tell me that you found the gold?”
“It wasn’t my gold,” Mel said astounded at what Angie had done.
“She said you found it, that you’re taking half, and she said she won’t hear nothing else about it.”
Mel plopped down on the couch in shock. She’d never expected Angie to give her anything more than what she was owed for the job. She hadn’t really thought about the gold since she’d driven away from the house. Her mind had been on other things for the past few days.
Betty sat down next to her on the couch. “So what are you going to do with all that money?”
The truth of the matter was that she didn’t know. She didn’t really need money. What she did provided her and Betty with a comfortable living. She never thought she’d have this kind of money in the bank.
Then a thought occurred to her. “Take half of it and send it in a cashier’s check to Jack Roday in care of Theresa Gilroy. Do it anonymously. I don’t want them to ever know where it came from.”
“Anything else?”
“Yeah,” she said with a small smile. “Write Treasure Trove on the check.”
“Okay. Speaking of Jack,” Betty said and picked up the television remote. “I thought you might want to see this.”
She ran down the DVR list and clicked on a news recording from that morning. The morning news anchor flashed onto the screen. The caption scrolling across the bottom of the screen read, ‘Missing Memphis Police Detective, Jack Roday, believed to be dead by family for the past twenty years, was found frozen in the lair of a serial killer and is now recovering at a local Memphis hospital.’
Betty paused the playback. “I only recorded this clip because you know the story better than anyone else. They know for sure that Jack is the same Jack Roday that was reported missing twenty years ago, because they did a fingerprint match. And they know that he hasn’t aged a day in the last twenty years.
“Some are calling his survival a miracle while others are calling it the progression of modern medicine. I happen to know he’s alive because of you. Anyway, they have a clip of him in the hospital, and they asked him about you.”
“About me?” Mel asked. “What about me?”
“Just watch,” she said and hit the play button.
The news anchor talked for another minute or so, and then Jack was on the screen. He was lying in his hospital bed looking amused and slightly irritated with the reporters that were surrounding his bed.
“Det. Roday,” one of the reporters called out. “What can you tell us about your time with the serial killer Abbott Harlowe?”
Jack shrugged. “Not a thing. I don’t remember anything about what happened. I don’t even remember the day I went missing. I just remember going to bed on February 10th of 1993, and then waking up here in the hospital just couple of days ago. Right now, I’m just grateful to be alive.”
Jack looked good. As a matter of fact, he looked just as she remembered him. And why wouldn’t he? He’d been frozen in time for the last twenty years.
“Det. Roday,” another reported called out. “Abbott Harlowe said that there was a woman in the house that had crossed over the souls of his victims. He claims that she knocked him out with drugs and stole his research. What do you say to that?”
“I say that it’s a load of crap,” Jack said with a sarcastic smile. “A ghost hunter? That’s just ridiculous. There’s no such thing as ghosts. Obviously, there was someone else there because the police said that Harlowe was tied up when they arrived at the house, but come on.
“I have to agree with the detectives investigating the case. The person that knocked Harlowe out and tied him up was probably his next intended victim. It’s not that rare for a person will report a crime, but not wish to become any further involved, even if they’re a victim themselves.
“As far as the missing research goes, I can’t really speak to that. I don’t know that Harlowe even had any research in the house. I can only say that none was found by investigators. The man is insane; so I would suggest taking everything he says with a grain of salt.”
The clip ended and Betty turned off the T.V. Mel felt like she had been kicked in the gut. Harlowe had been right. Jack didn’t remember her at all. Not only did he not remember her, the very idea of her existence was a joke to him.
“You did it. You saved his…” Betty said before seeing the look on Mel’s face. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she lied. “I was just surprised to see him.”
“Bullshit. He’s alive, Mel. Why don’t you just go back to Memphis and see him?”
“Because he doesn’t remember me, and because I don’t want to. Jack is a great guy, but I don’t want a man in my life. I have enough problems without trying to add romance into the mix.”
“Being in love isn’t a problem; it’s one of the great joys of life. One that you deserve to experience.”
“I wasn’t in love with Jack, Betty. I barely knew the man.”
“And yet, here you are sitting here with a look on your face as if someone just shot your dog. You can lie to yourself about what you feel for Jack but don’t try to insult my intelligence. I know you better than you know yourself.”
“Good, then you know that I don’t want to talk about this anymore, ever,” she said and stood up. “So where is my next job?”
“Mel, you just got home. Maybe you should take a couple of days off just to settle your mind a little.”
“I just took three days off. My mind is a settled as it’s ever going to be; so what have you got for me.”
Betty gave her
a critical look but finally pulled a note pad from the end table and started reading off job options.
Epilogue
Four Months Later
“What’s next?” Mel asked Betty when she got home from her last job.
She’d just handled a nasty case of a Revenant up in Pennsylvania. Lucky this one had only killed one person, but it had destroyed a whole heard of cows in Amish country.
“You have fourteen stitches on your neck from the job you just got home from. That malevolent spirit nearly killed you”
“It was a Revenant, not a Malevolent,” Mel corrected her. “There’s a big difference between the two.”
“I don’t give a damn what it was. My point is that you almost got your throat ripped out. You should take a few days to heal. At least until the stitches come out.”
“No, I want to work; so tell me what we got, Betty.”
She had worked every day for the past few months, but it was doing little good to help focus her mind. She found herself thinking of Jack all the time. She looked at the two pictures of him she had on her phone with increasing frequency.
She’d almost erased the pictures several times, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. She’d be erasing the only thing she had of him, the only proof that she had ever even known him.
And the pictures only existed on the phone. No matter what she did, she couldn’t get them to transfer over to her computer. If she lost the phone, the pictures would be gone forever.
“Fine, it’s up to you, I guess. I have a Mrs. Patricia Madison that is having a problem with a rental home of hers. She’s had five renters in the past six months, but they all move out within a few weeks.”
“What kind of problems have her renters complained about?”
“Things moving around, noises, voices, just your standard stuff. She said she doesn’t believe that it’s dangerous, but she has to do something about it if she ever hopes to keep anyone in the house for the duration of the lease.”
“Did the problems start when she acquired the house?”
“Strangely, no,” Betty said, pulling the ever present notepad from the top of her desk. “She’s had the house for several years, but the problems only started a few months ago.”
“Maybe it’s a ghost that one of the renters brought with them and it just stayed behind after they left.” It was unusual for a ghost to do that, but not unheard of. “Where’s the house at?”
“Shelby County.”
Mel glared at her suspiciously. “Where in Shelby County?”
“Memphis, but…”
“No.”
“Mel, I know you had a hard time there, but that doesn’t necessarily make the whole city worthless. You won’t even be on the same side of town as Mrs. Mabry’s house.”
“No,” Mel said again.
“Well, then I’m afraid I can’t help you,” Betty said spinning her chair around to face her computer screen. “You asked what we got; well that’s what we got.”
“There’s nothing else?”
“Nope, you’ve taken just about every case that’s come in for the last few months. Now it’s this case or nothing. I’m sure we’ll get another one in a few days if you want to wait.”
Mel groaned. She didn’t want to just sit around and do nothing for the next few days. She felt better if she was on the move. That’s why she’d been working so hard. It wasn’t as if she needed the money. God knew she had plenty of that.
She kept half of her share for herself and given the other half to Betty. Mel hadn’t really spent much of hers. She bought a new computer and a tablet but little else. Unlike Betty, who was now wearing so much jewelry that Mel was shocked that she could stand up under the weight of it.
“Fine,” she said, giving in. “I’ll go to Memphis. Call the woman and set up an appointment for tomorrow morning at 10.00.”
“Will do,” Betty said.
Betty didn’t turn to look at her, but Mel knew she was smiling. She could feel it in her bones. The only difference in rich Betty vs. poor Betty was that now she glistened with a dusting of diamonds when she smiled. It was disgusting.
Mel went down the hall to go to bed. She wanted to get some sleep so she could get in and out of Memphis as quickly as possible. She’d treat the whole situation like ripping off a Band-Aid. She could hope that the Band-Aid wouldn’t take her skin with it.
***
She pulled up in front of Mrs. Madison’s house at exactly 10:00 a.m. It was a medium-sized, two story home. Nothing fancy, but it was comfortable looking and was in a nice neighborhood.
She walked up the walkway and rang the doorbell. A woman with long, dark hair that was pulled back in a ponytail opened the door almost immediately.
“You must be Mel,” the woman said.
“Yes, I’m looking for Mrs. Madison.”
“You got her,” the woman said and opened the door wider. “Please come in and have a seat.”
Mel walked in and sat down on the overstuffed green sofa. The room was homey with a lived in, family feel. Mrs. Madison sat down in an armchair across the table from her.
“So…uh…you can really help ghosts crossover?”
“Yeah, I can. Now tell me what you can about the problems you’ve been having.”
Mrs. Madison shifted in her chair, seeming to be unable to find a comfortable position. “Well, noises, and…”
Mel looked at the woman and wondered what the problem was. She’d met people who were hesitant to talk about the ghost problems, but there was something different about this.
“Betty said that you had heard voices in the rental home,” she said, trying to help the woman along. “Are you just hearing the sound of the voice, or are you actually able to understand what it’s saying?”
Mrs. Madison shifted her eyes to the floor. “Oh, I can understand him. He talks constantly.”
“It’s a man, then?”
The woman nodded but didn’t raise her eyes to look at her.
“What does he say?”
“He…well…okay, I can’t do this,” the woman sighed. “I’m not a very good liar and getting you here like this wasn’t my idea. To tell you the truth, just about all my ghost talks about is you.”
Mel looked at the woman in confusion. “Me? I don’t understand. Why would a ghost talk about me?”
“Because he loves you,” a voice said from behind her.
“Jack!” she gasped and jumped to her feet to face him.
He was leaning against the hall door frame, smiling nervously. He looked wonderful, just as he always had. It took her a few seconds to be able to speak again.
“What’s going on here?”
“I’m so sorry,” the woman said. “I’m Theresa, Jack’s sister. Jack said this was the only way to get you here. I wasn’t sure you actually existed until you knocked on the door.”
“How did you even find me?” she asked and then answered her own question before either of them had a chance to answer.. “Betty.”
Jack nodded. “When I got out of the hospital a month after I woke up, I contacted the owner of the house that I was found in. I explained to Mrs. Mabry who I was and what you had done to save me, but she wouldn’t tell me anything about you. I even explained to her that you had sent me several million dollars, which I could only assume is what you thought of as my share of the gold that you apparently found, but she still wouldn’t tell me anything.”
“So you knew it was me that sent you the money?”
“How could I not? You wrote Treasure Trove on the check. I remember telling you about that law.”
“I didn’t think you remembered me at all. I saw your news clip. You mocked the fact that I might exist. You said you didn’t remember anything about your time in that house.”
“I lied,” he said. “I told you before that I could never forget you. You said that you didn’t want anyone to know who you were, so I told the reporter that to help you out. Had I known you were going to vanish from my
life, I would had given them your name and full description.
“Not that it would have done any good. I only knew that your name was Mel. You never told me your last name.”
“You never asked.”
“Granted. Anyway, I hounded Mrs. Mabry for months until she finally relented and called Betty. She gave her my number, and Betty called me. I told her who I was, that I’d been searching for you for months, and asked her to have you call me. She laughed at me.
“She said that there was no way in hell that you would do that, no matter how much she knew you missed me. So she set up this scheme to bring you back to Memphis, and now here we are.”
Mel shook her head at how easily Betty had guided her here. “I’m going to kill her.”
“No you won’t,” he smiled and walked over to her.
“Probably not,” she admitted. “But I do so enjoy planning her murder. You’d be surprised how often I do it.”
“When Jack woke up, the first thing he asked me about was you,” Theresa said. “When he told me who you were, I thought he’d lost his mind, or that maybe he’d suffered some kind of brain damage from being frozen.
“When all of his tests came back normal, and he was still talking about you, I assumed you were just part of some Near Death Experience, something his brain had made up when it was being starved of oxygen. I didn’t believe someone like you could actually exist.
“I tried to make him see reason; to see how crazy what he was saying sounded, but he wouldn’t listen to me. And then he told me about looking at my Facebook page on your computer and about the phone call you made to me that day.”
“I’m sorry about that call,” Mel said guiltily. “I was just trying to find out some information about Jack’s disappearance. I never meant to upset you.”
“I’m sorry about cussing you out the way I did,” Theresa said. “I’d just been dealing with the police department for so long, trying to convince them that something was wrong, that when you called I just snapped.”
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