A Haunting of Ghosts

Chapter 1-3

“We had a couple of interested spectators,” Sage said as soon as he could get Mike alone for a moment. The detective had caught the case, and as often happened Sage was on the scene in the guise of a CSI technician in case the ghost of the victim was there and watching.

“Ghosts, I presume,” Mike replied. He knew Sage could see them. He’d known since soon after they’d met, while he was trying to solve the murder of a young man who was now a friend of theirs. A friend thanks to the fact Sage was a medium who could communicate with the dead.

“Yep. I was going to try to talk to them but—” Sage gestured toward the recessed shop entryway a few yards away, “—they vanished before I could get to them.”

“Shy ghosts?” Mike chuckled.

“More like they probably wanted to get away from that.” Sage pointed to the ME’s people, who were putting the corpses into body bags. “It’s bad enough knowing you’re dead. Watching your mortal remains being readied to go to the morgue would sort of put an end to any doubts they had that they’d been murdered. Since they were here, I don’t think they’ll show up at the morgue.”

“Meaning the last thing you want to do is go there, so you hope they won’t.”

Sage nodded, smiling briefly. “Do you know who they were?”

“So far, just names and addresses, or address, since it’s the same on both their licenses. Vance Acker and Gene Norton.” Mike paused when someone called his name, then went to talk to the man.

“Do you want to go to their place to see if that’s where they went?” Sage asked when Mike returned.

“I can’t get away for a while, but if you want to.” Mike tapped his lip thoughtfully. “Let me see if Brody’s available to go with you. It could ease things some, if he’s there to act as an intermediary.”

“Good idea.”

Mike took out his phone and sent a text since, as Sage knew well, he couldn’t talk to Brody—or rather, he couldn’t hear whatever he said in reply. After hanging up, he said, “He’ll be here in a few.” Taking out his pad, he checked his notes before writing the address Sage needed on a clean page, tearing it out to hand to him.

‘A few’ turned out to be less than a minute, and Brody wasn’t alone. Jon, his lover in every way except physically, was with him.

“What do we have?” Brody asked Sage.

“Two men, killed in what looks like a drive-by shooting,” Sage replied.

“The ghostie boy has arrived, I presume,” Mike commented, as he couldn’t see or hear Brody.

“Him and Jon,” Sage said.

“Why am I not surprised? At least they didn’t bring the rest of the horde, I hope.”

“Not this time,” Brody said. “Tonio and Kurt decided to get away from the barn for a while and catch a movie.”

The barn was where all four ghosts were living; having decided finding a place in the city wasn’t going to happen once Kurt had joined the group.

Sage relayed Brody’s reply to Mike before saying, “The sooner we get out of here, the sooner I can find out if Acker and Norton know who shot them. I doubt they do, or they wouldn’t have been hanging around watching what was happening. If you want, I can at least set it up for them to talk to you, Mike, presuming they’re willing.”

“I want,” Mike replied. “Make it at their place or our house.”

“No duh,” Brody said. “The other cops might look at you strange if you tried to bring them into the station to interview them.”

When Sage told Mike what Brody had said, Mike shot him the finger, muttering, “Go, before I decide to arrest you for insulting an officer’s intelligence.”

“Now would I do that?” Brody laughed, telling Sage he didn’t need to relay his reply.

They went to the lot where Sage had parked his car. The first thing he did was get out of the coveralls, booties, and mask he’d been wearing while posing as one of the crime scene investigators. Then they took off and five minutes later they were pulling into a spot in front of a small house in a middle-class neighborhood.

“They’re not going to be able to open the door after you ring the bell,” Jon pointed as they walked up the path to the front porch. “It took me forever to be able to manipulate even a pencil, to say nothing of turning a doorknob.”

“True, so I’ll go in the easy way,” Brody replied. “If they’re there, hopefully I’ll be able to convince them it’s safe to talk to Sage, and then let him in.”