Ghost Mortem (Bordertown Chronicle Book 1)

  They looked to one another. No one had an answer.

  “My point is,” I continued. “I think we're all creatures of habit, for better or for worse. I don't know you guys. But you seem like okay kids. I don't know what's keeping you here. Because I don't know what's on the other side either.”

  “None of us ever do,” said Ashley.

  “Not even the ghosts?” I said.

  The three boys shook their heads and shrugged.

  “Especially not the ghosts,” said Ashley. “They're probably the most terrified people here.”

  “Because of the Oversoul,” I said.

  “That's a pretty big part of it, yeah.”

  That's a frightening thought, I pondered.

  A few youths passed by on skateboards. Those of us smoking—old souls, all of us—looked down at the youths on the street. They seemed so care-free by comparison.

  That's when I noticed a striking similarity between the artwork on one of the skateboards to the one I'd seen in Danny Dorian's possession, that night we met by the highway gas station. I couldn't be sure, but it looked to be the same artwork, by the same artist: a skeletal boarder coming out of a Hellmouth. But I would need a closer look at the skateboard, preferably while it was stationary, to be sure. It could just be my imagination. I hoped it was only my imagination.

  Chapter 35

  I walked toward the square, which was now clear of any litter left over from the Samhain Festival, save for the few youths riding around on skateboards. They were mostly the same group who'd accused me of cultural insensitivity when I'd worn the wolf-man mask and gloves.

  The wolfy youths did some tricks against the railings of the steps leading down into the square.

  The ten-year-old boy I'd spotted from the Heaven-Eleven rode over to a small group of boys and sat down, propping up his skateboard beside him.

  I moved in for a closer look. That's when I knew. The boy's skateboard didn't just look like Danny's skateboard. It was Danny's skateboard.

  “Hey,” I said, somewhat startling the wolfy youth sitting by Danny's skateboard.

  “Hey yourself, new guy.”

  “Where'd you get that skateboard?”

  “What…what does that matter?”

  “Because it isn't yours,” I said.

  “Yeah it is!”

  “Let me see that,” I said

  I snatch the board from next to him before he could muster any further protest.

  “Hey,” he said, trying to get it away from me. “Give that back!”

  Now that it was in my hands, my height advantage made it easier to keep it away from the youth.

  “Hey!” he shouted. “That's mine!”

  “No it isn't,” I said, examining the artwork on the body of it. It was a uniquely stylized, and urbanized Grim Reaper riding his skateboard out of a Hellmouth, with a flurry of bats spraying out from behind him.

  “What do you think you're doing, dude?” said another voice.

  I found I was quickly being surrounded by wolfy youths with skateboards.

  “Give the boy back his skateboard now,” said a lady in a jean jacket and a tube top.

  I recognized her as one of the crowd that mooned us that first night we arrived in Bordertown. And she had brought a number of bigger adult guys with her.

  “This doesn't belong to him,” I said.

  “Yeah it does,” the boy said.

  “No it doesn't. It belongs to a girl named Danny Dorian.”

  I couldn't help but notice that the pack's resolve wavered at this.

  “Who gave you the skateboard, Billy?” said the apparent pack leader.

  He was a commanding adult in plaid, with a black, bushy beard. A number of the others quieted down and let him take charge.

  Yup. Definitely the pack's alpha.

  “No one…” the boy said sheepishly, looking at the ground.

  “Then where'd you get it?” the alpha said.

  “I found it.”

  “Ugh,” I said. “Where did you find it?”

  “I don't know,” he said.

  “Listen,” I said. “I need you to show me where you found this skateboard. It belongs to a girl not much older than you. And she might be in trouble.”

  “We were…”

  The boy looked sheepishly at the pack leader. I got the sense the alpha might also be his dad. Or at least, the boy saw him as his alpha dog. There was something he didn’t want to say in front of him.

  “Don't be mad?” he said.

  I looked back at the pack leader.

  “It's important,” I said.

  “Fine,” the alpha wolf said.

  “Well, me and the guys, we…just…kinda went out for a bit…in the pick-up…on the highway…”

  The alpha crossed his arms. The lady in the tube top spoke up.

  “Billy, you know you're not supposed to go outside the town limits on your own.”

  “Yeah, but there was five of us…and it was just a quick joyride…just to stick our heads out the window and feel the wind…just for an hour or so…”

  “Can you take me there?” I asked. “I need to know exactly where you guys found it.”

  He looked at the alpha again, and the lady in the tube top, whom I gathered might be an older sister. Or his very hot, albeit tough-looking milf of a mother.

  The alpha and the milf seemed to exchange a wordless nod of agreement, and then nodded to the boy.

  “Okay, but we're coming with you,” said the alpha.

  We piled into two pickup trucks, and onto maybe six motorbikes. Then, as a pack, we traveled out beyond the outskirts of town, past Genjuro Takeda's farm, and further up the wood-surrounded highway. The youths seemed to really enjoy sticking their heads out the sides and letting the wind blow through their faces and hair.

  Huh. Must be a dog thing…

  The guys and gals on motorbikes seemed to like the windblown feel too. None of them wore helmets, which would drive my dad totally insane if he saw them like that. After the accident…dad got a little safety-crazy. But these guys seemed to like the wind-swept look.

  On the motor bike in front was 'Alfie', their alpha—I swear to god that's what they all called him—I'm not sure whether it's a coincidence and that's his real name, or if that's just the nickname for the alpha dog.

  And boy was Alfie ever an alpha. Not only did any word from him seem to command respect, but all the females in the pack seemed to swoon at him. It probably helped that his plain shirt opened halfway down, revealing muscles that might have made Tarzan jealous.

  I was beginning to see what Vikki and Doc had been saying about the people of Bordertown. I mean, just to look at all these guys, one might think they were a rough biker gang—probably with their hand in some illicit stuff. Presumably smuggling. Bordertown is a border town, after all—but they seemed to have such a strong sense of community here. And….well, to band together like this to go and help look for a girl they didn't even know, just because she might be in trouble? Well, it was humbling. I was beginning to come around to seeing the people of Bordertown the way Vikki and Doc did. It was so different from my experience back in the big city.

  We crossed paths with a police cruiser at one point, and some of the youths thought it appropriate to give them the raspberry. One kid started mooning them.

  So I figured, fuck it. I'll moon them too. What are they going to do, kick me out of the ride-along program?

  So we mooned them together and laughed.

  Then, just as we passed the cruiser, my eyes locked with the driver's.

  That's when I realized it was my dad. And the blonde next to him had to be Vikki.

  Oops.

  I quickly pulled up my pants and looked behind us to see dad's cruiser skid into a U-turn, and begin following us.

  A few clicks later, the boy who'd had the skateboard pointed, and we all stopped and got out.

  “It was lying right here,” the boy said.

  My dad's cruiser pulled u
p to the group, and he got out. A few of the pack looked at him mistrustfully, but he ignored them and directed his comment towards me.

  “What's going on here, Gavin?” he said. “Or do I even want to know?”

  Behind him, Vikki got out of the cruiser. I wanted to make eye contact with her, but she looked away. Why wouldn't she even look at me?

  “I don't know,” I said. “This kid…Billy…he found this.”

  I handed my dad Danny's skateboard.

  “And?”

  “And…You remember that girl Danny Dorian? I was talking to her at that gas station on the way in? She's missing?”

  “Yeah,” he said with a nod.

  “It's hers.”

  He examined it.

  “What makes you so sure of that?” he asked.

  “It's the artwork. It's one-of-a-kind.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “She said her dad painted it.”

  “I don't know. Are you sure? It looks like it could be store-bought.”

  “Then why does the signature tag at the bottom read 'R. Dorian'?”

  He opened his mouth. Then he shut it. Then he opened it again.

  “That is a very good question,” my dad said. He turned to the youth. “You say you found this out here?”

  “Yeah,” said the kid. “Just…right over…” he ran off the road and into the ditch, and then hopped onto one particular spot, “…here!”

  Dad and Vikki approached the spot, as did Alfie, followed by me.

  “You can still see a kind of impression where it had been lying on the ground,” said Alfie. “It's probably been here for two or three days. See that dry patch?”

  “It's a wonder somebody didn't find it sooner,” said my dad.

  “Not necessarily,” said Vikki. “This highway isn't on any maps. Most of the roads connecting to Bordertown aren't.”

  “Why not?” I asked.

  Vikki looked like she wasn't ready to talk to me directly, so she just looked away.

  Ouch, Vikki!

  “It's a precaution to deter smugglers,” she said. “This way we don't get people trying to cross over to Canada or the States all the time.”

  “So how are we going to find her?” I asked.

  “I don't know, Gavin,” said dad. “I mean…she could have gotten into a vehicle…or she could be anywhere in these woods…it could take days—weeks to search them.”

  “May I?” asked Alfie.

  Jack handed Alfie the skateboard.

  Alfie held it to his nose and sniffed at it. Then he handed it off to the tubetop-wearing milf. She did the same and handed it off to the next member of the pack.

  “If she's anywhere in these woods, we'll sniff her out.”

  Shortly, the whole band of wolfy bikers and youths were fanning out into the forest. Dad, Vikki and I followed closely behind them.

  “She came from this direction,” said Alfie, taking us back along the street. “She didn't leave much of a scent here. She was probably riding by pretty fast, by the side of the road. And then she gets to here…”

  We stopped back by where Danny's skateboard had been discovered.

  “And this is where the scent is strongest. She probably fell into the dirt here. And there was a, uh…there was a…sniff, sniff…there was a man here too…sniff…Great big sweaty one by the smell of it. His trail doesn't go anywhere though. It's just along here.”

  “He probably grabbed her and pulled her into a vehicle.”

  “You think you could get a make on the vehicle?” I asked.

  Vikki and Alfie both looked at me like I was an idiot.

  “Kid, I'm good. But I ain't that good. Even a werewolf can only smell so much. No. I can't tell you the make of the car.”

  “So…you're saying she could be anywhere? Taken in any vehicle? And there's nothing we can do to track her?”

  “Sorry, kid.”

  Alfie handed me the skateboard. I held it close. It was the last piece of this girl left in the world, for all I knew.

  I held it close and slumped to the ground. I don't know what came over me. I was just really sad all of a sudden. Seeing that first victim in the corn fields had affected me pretty deeply as it was, but knowing the girl—having actually met her—was totally different.

  I don't know why my mind had so quickly jumped to this conclusion and gone to this dark place, but somehow, I knew it was the same killer. I knew in my gut it was Darius Danko, and he was so close…almost like he was taunting us—me and my dad.

  “Gavin? Are you all right?” my dad asked.

  “I don't know…” I said. “This is…this is all that's left of her.”

  “Come on, Gavin. We don't know that.”

  “But it doesn’t look good, does it?”

  “No,” he admitted. Then he sighed. “We're going to have to report this to the R.C.M.P. And someone's going to have to notify the girl's family.”

  “I'll get on that,” said Vikki.

  Vikki made her way back to the squad car.

  “Sorry about your friend, son,” said Alfie.

  Alfie gathered his horde and left. Vikki, my dad and I were all who remained on the otherwise deserted highway.

  Vikki began making a report on her notepad, and talking to dispatch from inside the police cruiser.

  I just sat there by the side of the road, where the skateboard had been found. Dad sat down next to me and sighed loudly.

  “Dad?” I said.

  “Yeah?”

  “How come mom never visits?”

  He looked up at the sky, seeming to consider this. Finally, he just shook his head.

  “I mean…we can all see ghosts,” I continued, “you, me and Raven. Why hasn't mom ever…you know…come to say she's…okay? Or…not okay or whatever?”

  “I don't know, Gavin. Maybe she took her corridor.”

  “No,” I said. “She didn't.”

  “What makes you so sure of that?”

  “Because if she did, she'd be somewhere on the other side. In the netherworld or whatever. But she's not.”

  “Wait. Gavin, how do you know that?”

  “I tried calling her. She wasn’t there.”

  “What do you mean you tried calling her?”

  “Vikki didn't tell you about the phone? The payphone by the Heaven-Eleven? The payphone that lets you talk to the dead?”

  “Oh, that. Right. Yeah, okay. I do remember her mentioning that. I thought it was just a figure of speech.”

  “Just a figure of—ugh…dad. Never mind. The point is…she's not there. Which means she has to still be here. Somewhere. Doesn't it?”

  Dad shrugged. “This is all relatively new territory to me too, Gavin.”

  I nodded. “But…why didn't she come find us though? I mean…it's not like we moved right away. She could have come back, you know?”

  “Maybe she's stuck at that spot,” he suggested.

  “Well…did you ever think of going back there?”

  “All the time, Gavin,” he sighed. “All the damn time. I must have been there like over a dozen times. I never saw any sign of her.”

  “Don't you think that's weird? I mean…she just died so suddenly. You were right there next to her. We all saw it. One moment she was fine. Tired maybe, but fine. The next moment she was just veering off the road. Like…I don't know. Do you think she chose that? And that's why she didn't come back?”

  Dad shook his head. “Sarah would never choose that.”

  “So where is she?”

  “I don't know,” he said. “Maybe it was just her time. Or maybe…maybe she just doesn't know how to find us.”

  “You think she forgot where we lived?”

  “Maybe she thought lingering in this world and haunting us would create more problems than it would solve.”

  I considered that. That was probably a good point. It didn't make me feel any better, though.

  “Still…” I said, and then broke into a sob. “She could have sai
d good-bye.”

  “I know, Gavin. I know.”

  “And Danny she's…well, she's never going to get to say goodbye to her mother either.”

  “Gavin, we don't—”

  “Don't say we don't know that. Because I think at this point we do.”

  Dad sat in silence without a response. Maybe I wasn't being fair. Maybe he knew that but didn't want to argue.

  “You kn-know…” I sniveled. “You know what the last thing I s-said was…? To that girl? To Danny Dorian? I s-said…I said I hoped something happened to her on the road. W…Why would I say that? That's like, the worst thing I could possibly say. And now dad…and now…”

  I couldn't finish my sentence. Dad couldn't finish it for me either.

  “Guys,” called Vikki, her face pale.

  Dad and I looked at Vikki quizzically while dispatch squeaked through the radio.

  “…repeat, we've got another ten-one-eighty in the town square. D.B. appears to have been staged like the one at Milford's farm. Requesting all available units. Over.”

  I didn't need to ask about that number again. We all knew that police code. Homicide. Dead body. And a sick feeling in my gut told me it was Danny.

  Chapter 36

  I rode back to Bordertown in the back of the squad car. Dad concentrated on driving, keeping his eyes on the road, and Vikki's eyes stayed forward as she sat in the passenger side. No one said anything.

  I was preoccupied inside my own head. I couldn't stop thinking about Danny. In my memory, she would always still be alive, still be making clever quips at me, then calling me a creep. There would always be a ghost of her inside my mind. I would be forever haunted by that ghost. I had convinced myself I didn't like her, but…now that I knew she was a victim of foul play, it was difficult not to think things like: If only I'd tried harder to convince her to go home to her mom, or to come with us to Bordertown. Heck, I could have offered to go with her. I could have said hey, Danny, you know I've been living with my parents too long too. Maybe we could go off together and be roomies. And get jobs. Because that's what real normal functional adults do. Yeah I got a bit of a crush on you, but if you don't like me back, well that's cool. I can just be there to look out for you. That's all I really want. That's all you really need. Just someone to look out for you.