We chatted for a bit longer, avoiding all talk of Astard, the sheriff, or murders, while I baked a couple of brats and reheated some spaetzle for a side. Anne waved goodbye once the coffee was gone and my meal was ready.
I chatted with Peter and Wendy, telling them about my day while I ate before calling it a n early night.
The day may have started off lousy, but it managed to redeem itself in the end…
Chapter 23
Project Top Hat
More than a month went by without my hearing from Earl on any new assignments and things were starting to calm down to something that passes for normal. I still rode my bike to work every morning and ignored the people pointing and staring and whispering behind my back. Astard spent a night or two in jail and was sentenced to pay a hefty fine and stay at least two-hundred feet away from me at all times, in addition to the probation he got for the assault. The article was written, which was less than flattering for him, but most of the stories in that paper focused around Mr. Boday and the Cryptic Killer, so Astard didn’t suffer too badly from the ordeal, all things considered, at least as far as I’m concerned.
It was mid-December when Wendy, dressed in a heavy winter coat, announced that there was a car driving up the gravel driveway. I knew that ghosts don’t actually feel the cold, but since Wendy froze to death, I think she might have been remembering the cold, especially with the layer of snow outside. I sympathized with her, as I was curled up on the couch, bundled up in thick layers, as I sipped my hot coffee and watched a baking show on the Food Network from the comfort of my reception room.
I got up off the couch and made my way to the front door, opening it before Earl made his way to the porch, carrying a large box with both hands. He was in his usual suit, but now he added a heavy black coat, dark sunglasses, and a black fedora to his outfit.
“I’ve got a surprise for you!” he announced as he came up the steps.
“Which is enough to make me suspicious…” I scoffed, moving aside in invitation to come in.
He stomped the snow off his shoes, wiping them on my rubber doormat and came inside, angling towards the dining room, where I usually did my freelance work for him. After I shut the door, a woman with pale skin, red hair, and plenty of freckles, stepped through the closed door, following him. She was dressed in a white dress that looked inappropriate to the cold of winter.
Peter and Wendy, recognizing the woman for what she was and started talking with her, while I mostly tuned them out as I focused on Earl.
“Did you know you’ve got a ghost trailing you?” I asked, point-blank.
This earned me a befuddled look as he replied, “What do they look like?”
“Woman, tall, pale, red hair, freckles, and wearing a white dress,” I answered, glancing at her from the doorway.
“That’d be Lisa Shelby,” Earl responded, looking sad. “That’s too bad… she’s been missing for more than a month, now, and…”
“And you were hoping for better news,” I finished for him.
“Exactly,” he affirmed. “Well! I guess the secret’s out, now!”
“What do you mean?” I asked, not understanding.
“I mean, she’s probably already told you why I’m here!” he chuckled, shaking his head.
“Actually, she’s been talking to Peter and Wendy,” I shrugged. “So, how about you tell me what the secret is?” I suggested.
“Got a new project for you!” he smiled, looking delighted that he got to be the one to share the secret after all.
“Even more suspicious…” I muttered. “I take it involves ghosts?”
“Hopefully not too many,” he grimaced. “We’re hoping you find them alive.”
“Them, who, exactly?” I asked, quirking an eyebrow, glancing at the box as he pulled out a plastic bag with a woman’s pendant necklace. This necklace caught the attention of Lisa Shelby, who practically ran to the table, looking longingly at the jewelry.
Before Earl could answer, I held up a hand to him so I could speak with Lisa without interruption.
“Lisa?” I asked, getting her attention. “My name’s Jane and I can see and hear you…”
“I know,” she smiled bittersweetly, looking at me. She had pale blue eyes and I thought she would have been lovely in life. “The kids have been telling me about you…”
“I hope they weren’t bothering you,” I soothed, avoiding the obvious topic. “They don’t see many people that are… like you…”
“You mean people that are ghosts?” she asked with that bittersweet smile of hers.
“Then you know…” I whispered apologetically.
“Mmm,” she nodded. “It was hard to accept, at first, but I’ve grown used to it…”
“Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?” I asked, glancing at Earl to see how he was taking this. He seemed to be staring at the space I was looking at, while still managing to miss looking directly at Lisa.
“You mean about how I died?” she asked, looking depressed.
“If you don’t mind,” I answered softly, trying to soothe her as best as I could. “I know the memories are painful…”
“I was driving home from a cabin getaway I was planning as a surprise for Dominic,” she told me, looking wistful.
“Is Dominic your husband?” I asked gently, trying to coax answers from her without too much pain.
“Yes,” she smiled as a tear came down her cheek, disappearing as soon as it was no longer touching her. “It was our one-year anniversary and I was going to surprise him with the news that I was pregnant! We had been trying for so long…”
“But you never made it home…” I coaxed, wanting her to get back on track with what happened to her.
“It was raining…” she continued, taking the hint. “The roads were winding and unfamiliar… There was a car behind me that was honking at me to go faster… I took a turn too hard and…” here, she whimpered quietly, trying to hold it back.
“And you lost control…” I finished for her, earning me a nod.
“I think my body is still there…” she cried, looking slightly horrified.
“The car that was behind you…” I pressed, knowing Earl would want the details. “Do you remember what it looked like?”
“It was a dark green, I think,” she answered, looking slightly unsure. “It was a big car and it had one of those license plates that you can read in the rearview mirror…”
“What did the license plate say?” I asked, somewhat urgently.
“It said…” she hesitated as she closed her eyes, trying hard to remember. “Oh behave…”
“Oh behave?” I asked, thinking it an odd license plate.
“Right, but it was backwards,” she told me, her face telling me she was thinking hard. “And it had the letter three for the letter E.”
I grabbed a sticky note and wrote it out, figuring that the plate must have actually read as ‘3VAH3BO’ in order to get it to only seven characters.
“Like this?” I asked, holding the note up to her.
“Yes!” she exclaimed. “That’s it!”
I handed the sticky note to Earl, telling him, “It was either an accident or she was run off the road. A car with this license plate was behind her as she was on her way home from booking a cabin as a surprise for her husband, Dominic. She wanted to surprise him with the news that she was pregnant… She thinks her body is still there…”
“Whether they ran her off the road or not,” Earl mentioned, sounding slightly angry, “they’re still a witness that didn’t report it…”
“We’ll find your body,” I told Lisa, sure that Earl would do exactly that.
“Thank you,” she whispered to me, sounding utterly relieved.
“Come play with us!” Peter demanded to Lisa, motioning with his hand.
With a smile, Lisa ran after Peter, looking glad for the excuse to play with kids she would never have…
I sat at the dining room table with a sigh as I as
ked Earl, “What will you do with the information?”
“I’ll pass it on to our FBI contact,” he told me with a frown. “That was going to be the surprise…”
“That I’ll be working with the FBI again?” I asked him, sipping my coffee, which had gone cold while I had been talking with Lisa.
“Yes, through project Top Hat…” he informed me, pulling out several more sealed plastic bags, each containing something that looked personal to someone. The objects ranged from jewelry, to clothing, with one or two children’s toys.
“So!” I declared in a cheerful tone that wasn’t entirely convincing. “Tell me about Project Top Hat!”
“Project Top Hat,” Earl explained, looking like he was gearing up for the kind of long explanation that he loved. “Is a collaboration between the CIA and the FBI, but will be funded by the FBI.”
“A collaboration like the Cryptic Killer case?” I asked, not sure I liked the idea.
“Yes and no,” he answered evasively. “Yes, in the sense that you will be working with the FBI, but no, in the sense that you will be looking for missing persons, rather than serial killers.”
“Missing persons like Lisa Shelby?” I asked, getting intrigued while also being slightly repulsed at having to find dead people…
“Hopefully live ones, rather than dead ones,” Earl grimaced. “Basically, you will be the entirety of Project Top Hat.”
“Okay…” I acknowledged slowly, growing to the idea. “Tell me more…”
“Once or twice a week, maybe more, maybe less,” he hedged, looking uncertain, “either I or a representative, will bring a box like this,” he told me, indicating the box on my table, “full of personal objects of people that have gone missing.”
I nodded understanding and beckoned for him to continue.
“If you find a live one,” he went on, “you’ll tell me, or the representative, and we will get in touch with the FBI agent put in charge of being our contact on this project and they will mobilize forces to rescue them.”
“Sounds good!” I chimed, liking the idea of finding those that are lost and bringing them home safe and sound. “What’s the catch?” I asked a moment later as cynical reality set in.
With a sigh, Earl explained, “The catch is that, since we’re doing this favor for you, in terms of giving you missions you prefer and getting you an extra paycheck, you would take on more missions that involve actual espionage…”
“You want me to spy for you…” I almost groaned.
“Yes,” he told me bluntly. “Your abilities are the single greatest gift our agency could have hoped for, and my superiors don’t like that you refuse to use them for us!”
I sighed, feeling weary of this argument Earl and I have had for a while now, and, to be honest, I could see their point.
“Okay,” I relented with a heavy sigh. “I’ll do more spy missions for you if I also get to help find more missing-persons.”
“Fantastic!” Earl cheered, looking like he only just managed to refrain from doing a fist-pump in the air. “What do you say we get started?”
And with that, history was made… That first session yielded more than Lisa’s body. It also found a little boy, in need of insulin, that had been kidnapped by his father in a custody dispute!
Project Top Hat has been my single proudest achievement. Through it, thousands of missing-persons have been returned home safely and is widely considered the single most successful projects the FBI has ever had, even to this day!
Yes, on good days, evil loses and justice prevails!
Call Me Dreamer Page 15