“I didn’t mean that the way it sounded,” he called. “I probably shouldn’t even have brought it up. You know how rumors get started.”
Sadie strode angrily to her Scene-2-Clean van and was fumbling with the lock to the large van when he reached her.
Snagging her by the arm, he turned her around. “Oh, hey, don’t cry.”
Sadie angrily rubbed damp tears from her cheeks with her palms. “I’m fine.”
He reached out and lifted her chin with a tip of a finger. “We’ve all got our own shit to deal with. I know that,” he said softly. “I had no right to say what I did.”
She brushed his hand away from her face and sniffed loudly.
“I’m fine.” Sadie nodded to her vehicle. “I’ve got to get my supplies if I’m going to finish cleaning in there.”
“Okay.” He nodded. “You know, you can call me if you need to or, hell, even if you just want to, okay?” he stammered.
Sadie raised her eyebrows in amusement at the big bad detective thrown off so easily by a few female tears.
“For the job, right?” She chuckled, enjoying his momentary discomfort and wanting to tease him now. “Or are you wanting to take me out on a date?” It was a joke but when he blushed crimson from the collar of his shirt to his blond hairline, it was Sadie’s turn to feel uncomfortable.
“Bowman and I go way back,” he said, clearing his throat loudly. “I don’t cross those kinds of boundaries.” He took a couple steps backward, looking like he could not wait to get the hell out of there. “But, hey, if Bowman’s ever out of the picture, I am so there.”
He winked at her and Sadie blushed deep red. He was gone before she could do anything but stare after him and slowly shake her head.
Once his car had left the parking lot, Sadie snagged a couple of empty medical waste bins from the back of the van as well as a new hazmat suit and other cleaning supplies. She carried a couple loads inside the school. She was determined to get the majority of the job done today, no matter how long it took. She donned her gear, still using the principal’s office as her safe zone, and then walked to the end of the hall. She was immediately relieved to find that the ghost of Virgil Lalty wasn’t hanging about.
Nose to the grindstone, Sadie told herself. She was getting the distinct impression that if anything else could go wrong on this job, it would.
16
Soon she was doubled over at the task at hand. She scraped away the dried tissue that had been softened by her chemical emulsifiers. She sponged off and dabbed at blood spatter and swept up maggots. Her eyes focused on each area of the job intently, and she did her best not to think of anything else. Sadie was used to shutting down her emotional side when she worked a scene. You couldn’t clean up bodily fluids and be thinking of the people involved. It was strictly a mess that needed cleaning.
She was in the zone and worked the scene section by section, hour after hour without a break. She blocked all the personal thoughts that crept inside her head. Like how her dad may be floating in limbo land because of her. Also, the fact that if Zack had been working the job alongside Sadie as usual, they would’ve been finished by now. They would’ve probably celebrated a job well done with pizza and beer and then maybe picked up a video and snuggled on the couch.
The thought hurt and she squeezed her eyes shut to the visual of resting her head on Zack’s shoulder. When she reopened her eyes Virgil Lalty was standing in front of her. He had the same bewildered expression on his face that he’d had the day before.
Sadie had reached the final stage of cleaning. The art center area was complete, and she’d just finished the janitor’s closet area and was preparing to carry out medical waste bins filled with contaminated materials. She no longer required a full respirator at this stage, and that made it easier for her to talk.
“Virgil Lalty, I presume,” Sadie said, straightening to face him. No time like the present to deal with the ghost.
He started and looked around as if the name could’ve referred to anyone but him.
“Yes, I’m talking to you,” Sadie said, her lips curling up into a small smile. “Let’s start with the basics and get this ball rolling. Yes, you’re dead. Dead as a doornail, so to speak. I, Sadie Novak, in addition to running a trauma clean company that cleans up the remains of victims like yourself, can also see and talk to the spirits of the dead. Depending on how you look at it, that can be a blessing or a curse. So you can tell me whatever you want to tell me and I, in turn, will try to help you move on to the next dimension because you, sir, appear to be stuck here when you should’ve moved now.”
“No shit,” he mumbled.
“None whatsoever,” Sadie remarked. “I’m going to take a couple minutes to bring all these bins out to my safe zone.” She nodded. “End of the hall there.” She waggled a finger at him. “In the meantime, you can just stay here and think about whatever it is that might be holding you back. The name of your murderer? A message for a loved one? A feeling of guilt about crimes you’ve committed on young children? Whatever.”
He opened his mouth to speak, and the sliced wound on his neck flapped with the movement. Sadie held up a finger. “Wait until I get back.”
She made three trips to the end of the hall with the bins, and when she’d completed that part of the job, she took a deep breath, sighed, and went back to face the not-so-dearly-departed Virgil Lalty and his flapping skin.
“I didn’t do it,” Virgil announced the minute she entered the janitor’s closet.
“Didn’t do what?” Sadie asked.
“I didn’t do nuthin’ to the kids of Ocean View. The kids here like me. They trust me.”
“That’s what makes the ugly things you did even more disturbing,” Sadie said, anger coloring her face.
“I took pictures of ’em,” he admitted.
“And got off on it.”
“No, I just needed the money. My grandson goes to this school. He’s smart as a whip, and I wanted to give him the advantage of a school like this. I get an employee discount but, hell, even at half the price I couldn’t afford the tuition on a salary like mine.”
“So you sold pictures to kiddie porn sites?” Sadie spat with disgust.
“Well, in truth I didn’t know they were sicko sites like that. The kids were all dressed in what seemed like just regular pictures. What they called ‘candid school yard shots.’ ” He sighed. “How was I to know the pedophiles get off on those kinds of pictures?” he asked indignantly.
“But you did know, or at least you suspected because why else would you get a shitload of money for candid school yard photos of kids?”
He nodded, conceding that point. “It was wrong of me. One of the third-grader’s dads, well, he ain’t perfect either because he saw his son’s picture on the site.”
“And he killed you.”
“Yup. But here’s a question for you: What the hell was he doing on that site in the first place?”
Sadie nodded slowly. “Fine. Got the name of your killer? I’ll pass it along to the authorities and let them figure things out.”
“Murray Thompson.”
She looked over at Virgil Lalty, who looked positively miserable. He sounded convincing, and Sadie realized that he was probably telling the truth.
“Can you still help me?” he asked. “Can you get me to heaven?”
Sadie had no idea if heaven was the best option for a guy like Virgil Lalty, but she also knew that particular decision was not going to be made by her.
“All I want is to be with my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Can you help me or not?”
Sadie sighed. “Can you think of any unfinished business you’ve got here?” she asked.
“Well, there’s my grandson,” Virgil said. “Like I said, he goes to this school.”
“You’ve got a message for your grandson? What’s his name?”
“Andy. He’s in fourth grade. A good boy. A smart boy.” He had a look of utter pride on his face. “Can you make sure
he gets to stay in the school?”
“I don’t know what kind of arrangement you made with Principal Tu, but I’m sure she wouldn’t kick him out just because you’ve died and—”
“She might,” he said, looking like he didn’t trust Ms. Tu farther than he could throw her. “After the information of those pictures gets out and the other parents put pressure on her.”
“I don’t get it,” Sadie said. “Why would you want him to stay here if he’s not wanted? You’ve got to know kids can be cruel.”
“It’s a good school. If Andy finishes here, all kinds of doors will open for him down the road.” He quietly looked down at his hands, which were calloused and toughened beyond the slices from the knife. “He won’t have to mop floors for a living. He’s going to have a better life.”
“I’ll do what I can,” Sadie promised, but she had no idea how she’d convince Ms. Tu it was a good idea to keep the grandson of a suspected pedophile in the school.
“Is that it?” Sadie asked. “Do you feel ready to go? To move on?”
He nodded. “Ain’t nothing here for me anymore.” He hesitated. “Those pictures I took, well, you need to know that if they were used for anything bad, that didn’t come from me.” He pointed a finger in Sadie’s face. “You make sure my daughter and Andy knows that too.”
Sadie wanted to argue that the pictures couldn’t be used for bad if he’d never taken them in the first place, but she decided to let it go. She couldn’t change the past. “Okay,” Sadie agreed, but she couldn’t clear his name for him and, even if she could, it wasn’t her job. After all, as Pretty Boy Floyd had told her, she wasn’t Sadie Sleuth. She wasn’t Super Sadie off to save the world.
“I want you to close your eyes and think about anyone in your family who has gone before you. Your wife, perhaps?” Sadie gently suggested.
“Edna’s there. I can see her.” His voice was quiet with wonder. “She’s surrounded by white light. It’s beautiful.”
“Can you hear her voice calling to you? Relax and feel her arms reaching for you. Allow her to pull you over.”
“I’m coming, Edna,” he said. “I’m coming home to Jesus.”
Sadie watched as the image of Virgil Lalty began to shimmer around the edges and then slowly dissipate. The minute the shimmer started, Sadie knew he was leaving for good. Once his image was totally gone, Sadie felt the rush of adrenaline that always followed when she helped a spirit go over. It slammed into her, a powerful surge that made her higher than Vicodin ever could.
Quick behind her euphoric feeling came the guilt for not helping her own dad.
“Soon,” she told herself. “Soon it’ll be Dad’s turn. Not yet, but soon.”
Sadie loaded the medical waste bins into her van and drove down the 405 in the direction of Scene-2-Clean’s warehouse. The rubberized waste containers filled with contaminated materials from her various jobs were stored in a secured warehouse. Periodically a waste company showed up to take the bins and their putrid contents to put them through sterilization and disposal.
The drive to the warehouse was slow going. Traffic was snarled due to a prior fender bender, and Sadie impatiently flipped from station to station on the radio. Everyone wanted to sing about love or lost love, and every song cut too deep to offer any kind of distraction, so she made a few phone calls.
Dawn was chipper and invited Sadie to a late lunch at her house during Dylan’s nap time. Sadie agreed but almost instantly regretted that decision. She didn’t feel like having Dawn’s sympathetic looks regarding Zack. She didn’t want to hear about how she could win back her man, and there was no doubt that was how Dawn would play this up. Especially once she heard Zack had asked to come home. Dawn was a list maker. Sadie imagined her sister would already have a list of all the steps Sadie needed to take to improve her life, get her man, and solve world hunger.
The idea of that kind of list actually caused Sadie to smile to herself as she gunned the accelerator to take advantage of a break in a faster lane of traffic. Maybe lists were exactly what she needed to improve her life. First thing on that list would be to start drinking heavily after work each day.
She laughed at herself but then caught her own pained reflection in her rearview mirror. Number two on that list should be to do something—anything—to take away that pitiful hangdog expression from her eyes.
Her cell phone rang and she frowned at the incoming number. She said, “Hello?”
“I think I owe you an apology,” said Pretty Boy Floyd.
“I’ll take yours and offer one myself,” Sadie said in reply. “I should’ve realized it was most likely transfer and no big deal.”
“And I should be more grateful that there are people like you in the world willing to work with the police.”
“I guess we’ve exchanged mutual ‘I’m sorries’ and now all can be right with the world.” Sadie smiled as she said it and checked her reflection in the mirror. It was a genuine smile and not forced. The hangdog look evaporated for a few seconds.
“Before you know it, we’ll be opening our own mutual admiration society,” Floyd quipped.
“Absolutely. Next thing you know we’ll be going to lunch like old pals,” Sadie joked back, and was answered by silence.
Then Floyd replied slowly, “That’s not such a bad idea, you know. What are you doing for lunch today? We both have to eat. Can I buy you a sandwich and a beer?”
“That would be great,” Sadie said, quickly realizing she’d be blowing off her sister but not caring. Anyway, she did have to figure a way to tell Floyd about Murray Thompson being Virgil Lalty’s killer.
“There’s a great deli in Fremont.”
“Roxy’s? It’s awesome. I’m just on my way to my warehouse to do a waste drop but I could make it there for, say, one thirty?”
“One thirty it is. See you then.”
Sadie caught her reflection again and there was no guilt riding in her eyes, only a look of excitement that had been missing for a while. She quickly dialed Dawn and made an excuse about having to work. Then she flipped the radio back on and sang along happily to Katrina and the Waves’ “Walking on Sunshine.” Lunch with a good-looking guy might just be what the doctor ordered. Of course she wished it was Zack. The old Zack. Zack who’d given up pills and rocked her world. She let out a painful sigh.
When she reached the warehouse, a slight drizzle was falling but it did little to dampen her mood. Sadie backed the van up to the entrance and then opened the facility’s roll-up doors. First she unloaded all the rubber bins from the back of her vehicle, and then she locked up her van and rolled the big warehouse door back down. She entered the facility through the regular door to the left. She’d spend a few minutes sorting the bins into stacks to make them easier for pickup, and then she would double-check her inventory to make sure she wasn’t running low on any items that might come in handy should Seattle experience a sudden influx of dead.
Her phone rang as she was hefting a bin. She saw it was Zack and debated letting it go to voice mail but decided to take the call.
“I’m at the warehouse and I’m kind of busy,” she answered. She huffed and puffed a little as she hoisted the last big load.
“I could come and help you with that,” he said. “You know I never like you lifting all those heavy bins and—”
“It’s okay. You should look after yourself. I’m fine.”
“Well, I just wanted to ask if you wanted me to feed Hairy or if he’s already been fed.”
Sadie straightened. “You’re at the house?”
“Well, yeah. I got back about an hour ago.”
His voice was dulled. The letters ran together like proper enunciation was too much effort. How long had he sounded that way? She felt hurt and angry that he’d been sneaking pills on the sly.
“Zack, I never said you could move back,” Sadie said softly. “As a matter of fact, I said I needed to think about it because you need to get yourself well first.”
Zack di
dn’t reply. Sadie walked to the back of the warehouse to check stock on the pallets in the back.
She dropped a particularly heavy bin, and the sound seemed to trigger an echo or a louder sound at the front of the warehouse. Sadie turned in direction of the sound but was distracted by Zack talking hurriedly into her ear.
“We can work this out if we’re together,” he told her.
“It’s going to be real hard to fix things between us if we’re apart.”
“I’d probably agree with you if you hadn’t been lying to me and sneaking pills behind my back!” she said heatedly. “Plus you were the one who left me, remember? You. Left. Me! I didn’t kick your ass out, even though you obviously needed a kick in the ass.” She coughed a little. “You left and didn’t even give me a chance. You packed up your clothes and went to stay with your old girlfriend.” She coughed again. “How do you think that makes me feel?” She coughed harder this time.
“Are you okay?” Zack asked.
Sadie ignored his concern, and through bouts of coughing she shouted into the phone, “No, I’m not okay! You left me for your ex-girlfriend!” She let out a wracking cough.
“Sadie?”
Sadie softened her tone a little. “Look, you gotta get help. I can’t do that for you.” Cough, cough. “But I can drive you where you need to go and do what I can. You and I . . . well, we can’t even pretend to be a happy couple together without you being well. The rehab process worked for you before. Say the word and I’ll make the arrangements to take you back to that place.”
“It’s not that bad,” Zack protested, his throat clogged with emotion. “I can get a handle on it and make this right.”
Sadie wanted to say more, but she was doubled over now and her eyes were stinging. It was then that she realized the warehouse was filling with thick black smoke.
“What the hell?”
She frantically ran to the door but a line of flames greeted her at the entrance.
“Oh, crap,” she muttered.
She could hear Zack shouting into the phone that was in her hand.
“I gotta go. I’ve got a fire situation,” she said into the receiver, and then snapped her flip phone shut and proceeded to look for something, anything, to put out the fire.
Dead and Kicking Page 21