The two live men didn’t seem to notice them at all, or the fact that two naked ghosts were sitting in the back seat.
“You going to be okay?” the sheriff asked poor Ben.
Tommy really felt sorry for the kid. No one should be forced to look at what that kid saw in that car.
The first time Tommy had seen something like that was after a firefight in Afghanistan. Three Taliban had tried to make an escape in a small car and when Tommy’s unit was finished, the small car looked more like sponge.
That had been in Tommy’s first month of deployment. No young person should ever be forced to look inside a car like that, or inside the patrol car that Ben had looked into tonight.
Ben nodded in response to the sheriff’s question. Then asked, “So what happens next?”
“Help arrives from Bonnie County in the next twenty minutes,” the sheriff said. “We’re going to need to set up flares to warn traffic.”
Tommy knew that, but that wouldn’t be needed until more people started to arrive.
The sheriff went on “Two tow trucks from the forest service are headed here now and it’ll take both of them working together to pull the car up. Then the medical examiner from down in Bonnie will take the bodies once we get them out.”
“We’re not going to get them out down there?” Ben asked. Tommy had wanted to ask the same question, but didn’t because neither of the men would hear him.
“They’re more than dead,” the sheriff said. “No point in risking injury and lives of men to go down there and pry them out when they could do it right here on the road. Won’t make a damn bit of difference.”
Ben nodded.
“But,” the sheriff said, “I’m going to need you to go back down there, Ben, and take pictures of everything, including the best you can of Tommy and the Doc. Think you can do that?”
“I can,” he said, swallowing and then nodding. “I’ll do it with both the crime scene camera and my phone to make sure we got it all.”
“Good,” the sheriff said, nodding. “Let’s get that going before company starts arriving.”
With that both men climbed out of the car and closed the doors, again leaving the car running and the heater going. Tommy knew that was standard on cold nights to leave the car running and the heater going for a place to warm up.
Tommy glanced over at Jewel who sat back, an arm across her chest, her other hand covering her crotch area.
“A bashful ghost?” he asked, smiling at her.
She shook her head, clearly realizing how she was sitting. Then leaned forward and got her pants and again wrung them out where Ben had gotten them wet again with the water off his slicker.
Tommy did the same for his shirt and his pants, wringing both out again. But this time they were feeling dryer.
“I feel bad for Ben,” she said.
“So do I,” Tommy said. “The kid is young and this will bother him the rest of his life. But the sheriff has no choice. Ben has to do it because the sheriff knows that climbing down that hill might kill him.”
“That hill killed us,” Jewel said, putting her feet back up and leaning back into him again.
“That it did,” Tommy said, enjoying the view once again of her wonderful body stretched out in the back of the patrol car. “But I sure don’t feel dead.”
“Neither do I,” she said. “And that’s bothering me a lot. I’m not angry, not sad, not feeling like all my education was a waste. Nothing. I feel like I’m just moving on to the next part of my life and all that training is going to come in handy somehow.”
“I feel exactly the same way,” he said.
“So what do we do next?”
“We sit here warm until our car is up and on the road and our bodies are taken.”
“You think we might end up being pulled with our bodies?”
“I hope not,” Tommy said, suddenly very worried about that. “And I hope like hell we’re not stuck out here haunting this corner for all eternity.”
“Oh, no,” she said, sitting up and turning to face him directly. “You don’t think that might happen?”
“Never been a ghost before,” Tommy said, shrugging. “No clue. We’re just going to have to wait and see if we can catch a ride with the sheriff back into town.”
She sat there, a horrified look on her face. “That would be hell.”
“I honestly don’t think that’s going to happen,” Tommy said. “I feel we’re to do something more. Don’t you?”
She nodded slowly. “That’s what it feel like to me as well.”
“Then we relax and wait,” he said. “Unless you want to get dressed and head out walking back toward town. It’s about nine dark and wet miles. We could make it in a couple of hours.”
She turned around and stretched out again, putting her beautiful legs up so her feet would get warm from the heater.
“Let’s wait.”
“Good,” he said. “Because I’m still enjoying this.”
“Really?” she asked, glancing at his penis again and then nodding. “Guess so.”
“This is heaven,” he said.
“So just staring is heaven to you?” she asked.
“A first level of heaven,” he said, laughing.
NINE
TOMMY MANAGED TO not make a pass at her and she managed to not make a pass at him over the next few hours, although a couple of times she had been tempted. She just didn’t feel it was right so soon after being killed.
Something seemed wrong about that. She wasn’t sure just what.
They just sat naked, talking about their lives, their years in college, their old boyfriends and girlfriends. The more she heard about Deputy Tommy Ralston, the man, the ghost, the more she liked.
And she really liked his sense of humor and his ability to stay calm in this situation. She tried to get him to talk a little about his three years in the Marines, but he had simply said, “We can talk about that later. Just say it taught me a lot about life and paid for my education so far.”
Just as being an intern in a major Seattle hospital had taught her more than she ever wanted to know about life and death.
“So why come to Buffalo Jump?” he asked.
“Pay off debts and get away from the insanity of big city hospitals,” she said.
He had nodded and let it go at that. She didn’t add in that she had been engaged a year before she left and didn’t really want to be married to another doctor. She had broke it off and part of the reason going so far away was to not have to be around him any more either.
She wondered if he had something similar. People moving into the middle of nowhere often did.
After three hours, their clothes were dry enough that she suggested that they get dressed. The clothes were still damp and cold, but would warm quick enough.
She was kind of disappointed he wasn’t going to be naked. She had enjoyed him looking at her body and she sure liked looking at his.
Outside, on the highway, it now looked pretty crazy. Two tow trucks with large winches were backed up to the edge of the road and blocked into place so there was no chance they would go over.
The medical coroner’s van from Walsa had arrived. It was the only small hospital that had staff and an emergency room between Buffalo Jump and Missoula. And it had the only working coroner in five counties. That van got a lot of mileage she had heard.
After they were dressed, she and Tommy both just sat side-by-side, hips touching, and watched through the rain-covered front window as the two trucks pulled the smashed patrol car with their bodies up the slope and onto the road.
Two of the men who first looked in, turned and lost their lunches onto the side of the road.
“We are not a pretty sight,” Tommy said.
“Extreme death never is,” she said.
It took the sheriff and three others about an hour to get their bodies out of the car.
Jewel thought it weird to watch her body being laid out on a stretcher on the road and
covered.
“I’m still wearing the white blouse and jeans there,” she said, pointing to her body. “So what are these?” She pulled on the slightly damp fabric of her white blouse.
Tommy glanced at her and just shook his head. “There’s a whole mess of things about this I’m not understanding.”
“Me too,” she said. And she hated that feeling. She had a hunch Tommy did as well. He seemed like the same kind of person she was, a person who needed answers and reasons why things worked.
The clock on the dashboard said it was a little after two a.m. when the coroner’s van pulled away with their bodies in it.
They stayed seated in the warm back seat of the sheriff’s car.
She was relieved. And didn’t feel a thing as the van disappeared around a corner.
“Looks like we don’t have a connection to those hunks of flesh anymore,” Tommy said, clearly sounding relieved.
“Yeah, thankfully,” she said. “I didn’t feel a thing as they were twisting my body to get it out of there.”
“I didn’t either,” Tommy said. “So that answers that question.”
They sat in silence as the smashed patrol car was loaded onto one of the two tow trucks and it headed off down the road, followed by the other one.
“Where are they taking it?” she asked.
“A state police impound yard about two hours away toward Missoula.”
Sheriff and Ben talked with a few others for a few minutes, then the sheriff nodded and he and Ben came back toward the car.
“Here we go,” Tommy said, sitting back.
She pushed closer to Tommy and reached out and held his hand. He squeezed her hand gently, and didn’t let go.
The sheriff and Ben got in at the same time. Ben took his hat off and tossed it onto the floor in the back seat. Some water splashed on her, but it didn’t matter.
Ben didn’t see them.
The sheriff just left his hat on.
The sheriff did a quick U-turn and headed back for Buffalo Jump.
After about a half mile, she let out a breath and squeezed Tommy’s hand. “Looks like we’re not stuck back there at least.”
Tommy let out a huge breath as well and nodded. “That would have not been fun.”
In the front seat, neither man said a word to each other. Clearly they were in shock and tired.
Finally, as they got close to Buffalo Jump, Ben turned to the sheriff. “Anything I can do to help?”
The sheriff just shook his head. “Just try to get some sleep and get those pictures into the office when you can.”
“I will,” Ben said.
“And kid, thanks for the good work tonight. I know it wasn’t easy.”
Ben only nodded and said nothing.
Suddenly, she had a thought that made her jump. “Sheriff, remember I was going on a medical emergency?”
The sheriff didn’t seem to hear her.
She reached forward and tried to touch his shoulder, but her hand went through. She could feel the sadness and extreme exhaustion he was feeling. And the anger at the entire situation.
She pulled back and looked at her hand.
“Weird, huh?” Tommy asked.
“Very,” she said. She leaned forward again, tried to just lightly touch his shoulder and then said loudly, “Original medical emergency.”
Then she sat back, frustrated.
A moment later, the sheriff turned to Ben as they pulled up in front of Ben’s small trailer. “There is one thing you can do for me.”
“Anything, sheriff,” the young kid said.
“Call down to the state police and have them send a doctor on the original medical call Tommy and the Doc were headed on. I forgot all about that until just now.”
“Will do, sheriff,” Ben said.
Tommy looked at her, surprise on his face. “That worked. Wow!”
“As you said,” Jewel said, smiling, “a bunch of stuff we don’t know about this new ghost status just yet.”
Ben reached back and grabbed his hat from the floor, his hand brushing Jewel’s leg.
And as it did, she got a clear image of the young college girl from Missoula tied up in the shed behind his trailer.
And she knew exactly what he planned to do to her tonight, and it wasn’t pretty.
Jewel jerked back and damn near climbed on Tommy’s lap.
“What?” Tommy asked.
She stared at Ben, then turned to Tommy. “We got to get out here. Now! I’ll explain,” she said. “Hurry.”
As Ben climbed out one side, Tommy pretended to open the door and just climb out the other.
She scooted over and did the same, finding herself standing on the road beside the car next to Tommy.
The cold was biting and harsh, but at least the rain had stopped. The gravel under her feet felt frozen solid.
Tommy stood to one side of the street, watching as the sheriff pulled away. Then he turned to go into his blue singlewide trailer. There was no doubt, from the rust and the old wooden steps, and broken screens, that this old trailer had seen much, much better days.
She turned to explain to Tommy what she had felt and seen when Ben brushed her leg. It disgusted her to have to even say it.
All Tommy had to say was “Damn it.”
And the way he said it was real cold and low and mean.
TEN
TOMMY HAD BEEN shocked when Jewel had wanted to get out at Ben’s place. And had so recoiled from Ben’s touch.
But then when she explained what she had sensed, he understood completely. He didn’t want to tell her but over the last year three college girls had gone missing from Missoula. They had gotten the notices on all three.
One just two days before.
So even though he didn’t want to believe that Ben could be the one, he had to believe Jewel at this point.
He took Jewel’s hand and they worked their way around behind Ben’s old trailer. Ben had always lived in the trailer with his mother and she had left about three years ago, leaving Ben everything.
If Ben was really doing what Jewel sensed, it made sense that Ben had also killed his mother.
Behind the trailer was a big old shed made of large unpainted wooden planks. It had a big lock on the door.
Tommy could see a power cord running to the top of the big shed from the trailer, so at least there were lights and maybe heat in there.
“What are we going to do?” Jewel asked as they got close.
Tommy had no idea what they were going to do, but first off, they needed to see the situation.
He went to the locked door of the shed and tried to grab the lock. His hand went right through it.
So without stopping to think, he let go of Jewel’s hand, closed his eyes and stepped toward the door.
And through the door.
He felt nothing at all.
Jewel, with her eyes closed, stepped through behind him and bumped right into him. For each other, they were solid. But doors were not.
Inside the shed the smell hit Tommy first. Things had died in here, of that there was no doubt. Most of the shed held old rusted tools and moving equipment. None of it usable at all.
An electric heater kept some of the chill off, but not much.
The floor was dirt and wet, which accounted for some of the mold smell, but not the death smell.
In the back of the shed, to one side, was a ratty, stained mattress on wood planks and sprawled on it was a young woman, tied up and partially covered by a light blanket.
Jewel got to her before he did and tried to pull the blanket back, but failed.
She gently touched the girls shoulder and then recoiled.
She looked at Tommy with her eyes huge and wide. “She’s freezing, but other than Ben looking at her breasts, she hasn’t been touched or harmed yet. But she’s terrified.”
“She should be,” Tommy said. “Ben’s clearly a monster.”
“What are we going to do?” she asked.
�
�I honestly don’t know,” he said. “Touch her, try to get her calmed down and ready to run if we figure something out. Just repeat that over and over to her.”
Jewel nodded and touched the girl’s shoulder.
Tommy tried touching anything in the shed, trying somehow to find a weapon.
His hand went through everything.
Everything.
He was dead.
He had to stop thinking like a live person and looking for weapons a live person would use.
He had to learn how to think like a dead person.
There had to be something he and Jewel could do. They couldn’t just stand by and watch Ben rape and kill this poor girl. He couldn’t allow that to happen.
But he was dead.
What could he do?
Then he remembered how Jewel had touched the sheriff and got him to remember why she and Tommy had been on the road.
And when he had the sheriff step through him, he knew what the sheriff was thinking, even though the contact had only been for a moment.
So maybe, just maybe, he could control Ben.
“She’s calming down,” Jewel said. “She’s going to look for any chance to run.”
“Good,” Tommy said, nodding to Jewel. “I’m going to try to take over Ben’s body and get him to turn himself in.”
“You’re going to what?”
“Only thing I can think of,” Tommy said. “I hate the idea, but no regular weapon works.”
Jewel looked very worried, but then nodded.
“Stay close to me,” he said. “I may need your strength. We’re still new at this ghost stuff.”
“With you all the way,” she said, standing and stepping toward him and taking his hand.
He felt her strength and resolve pour into him and he felt so much better.
“Let’s go get the little bastard,” Tommy said.
With that, the two of them went through the locked shed door and into the cold. Thirty steps later, they were through the back door and into Tommy’s trailer.
He was just finishing with a call to the State Police and was hanging up the phone.
“I’m going to get him to call the sheriff and confess,” Tommy said.
Jewel nodded and squeezed his hand, then let go.
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