Ghostly Investigations Box Set

Chapter 2-3

Brody patted his back. “It happens. Is he here tonight?”

“Hard to tell from where we’re standing. Let’s wander.”

* * * *

Mike was halfway to the door when Sage grabbed his arm. “I saw the man in the picture,” he said excitedly. “But…”

“Not possible,” Mike replied shortly. “He’s dead. He was murdered last night.”

“You lied to me?” Sage said in dismay. “Not that it matters. I knew he was dead the second I saw him and his friend—who’s also dead. They’re here, and they’re ghosts.”

Mike rolled his eyes. “Look. I don’t know what you’re trying to pull…”

“I’m not lying,” Sage protested. “I can see—”

“Dead people? That worked in the movie, but not with me.” Mike looked pointedly at the drink Sage was holding. “Maybe it’s time to ease up on those.”

“Damn it! It’s the truth. I can see ghosts, and that’s what the guy is. A ghost.”

Figuring he’d play along to see what Sage would do next to try to convince him, Mike asked, “What’s he wearing?”

“Jeans, a blue work shirt, over a dark red T-shirt.”

Okay. He was here last night and saw Watts. But why the games?

“Am I right?” Sage asked.

“Yeah. Lucky guess. Half the guys here are in jeans and blue shirts.”

“Not work shirts.” Sage looked around, then pointed. “They’re right over there. Honest.”

* * * *

“The detective’s here,” Jon said, nodding toward him.

“Harris?” Brody looked. “Well, damn. I told you he was good.”

“Who’s he talking to?”

“You’re asking me?” Brody replied. “I never…What the hell?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Whoever the other guy is, he sees us. He’s looking right at us. I mean at us.”

“He can’t be.”

“Oh, yeah? Move away a bit, and watch his eyes.”

Jon did. The man’s gaze followed his movement. “Now what do we do? What if he tells Harris he sees us?”

“I think he already has, from the look of disbelief on Harris’ face.” Brody chortled. “I bet Harris is about to call the guys in the white coats. Come on.” He walked toward Harris and the other man.

“By all that’s holy, he’s here,” the man who’d seen them said to Harris. “In fact, he, they’re, coming over.”

“Sage…” Harris sighed. “I know you believe what you’re saying but it’s impossible. Dead people don’t come back, except in bad movies. If I were you, I’d go home and sleep it off. That’s what I’m going to do.” He smiled. “Well, not the sleeping off part. I haven’t been drinking.” He started toward the door, stopped, and asked Sage, “Were you here last night?”

Sage looked as if he wasn’t going to answer, then nodded. “I was. So was he. The guy in the picture. I was going to tell you that when you took off for the bar.”

“Alone?”

“He was when I saw him. Over there.” Sage pointed to a table in a dark corner of the room. “I didn’t stick around for very long so…” Sage shrugged.

“Okay. Thanks. That helps. Is there anyone else here now who was around last night?”

Sage looked around. “Him, I think, and that couple over there,” he replied, pointing out the men.

Harris thanked him before heading it their direction. As soon as he was gone, Sage looked directly at Jon. “He doesn’t believe me, but I do see you.”

“I know,” Jon replied. “What are you? I mean…”

“I think he’s a medium,” Brody said. “Right?”

“Yes,” Sage replied. “That’s the term for it.” He grimaced. “Unfortunately, when people hear it, they think of some woman dressed like a gypsy, working out of a tent in a carnival, or a sleazy storefront shop. I’d rather die than do something like that.”

“Dying’s not all it’s cracked up to be, so I’d pass if I were you. By the way, I’m Brody and you know he’s Jon.”

Sage started to hold out his hand, stopping with an embarrassed wince. “Can we go somewhere less public? People are beginning to look at me funny.”

Brody laughed. “Sure. Where?”

“My office isn’t far from here.”

“Lead the way.”

“Why are we going with him?” Jon whispered as they followed Sage out of the club.

“Because you can talk to him and he can tell Harris what you know that might be relevant to why you were killed.”

“I don’t think Harris would believe him.”

“Then we’ll have Sage set up a meeting.”

“Riiiiight.” Jon looked at Brody as if he was crazy.

“I could,” Sage said, obviously having overheard them, now that they were out on the street. “He lives in the same townhouse complex I do, so I see him on and off.”

“We’ll see,” Jon replied doubtfully.

They stopped talking as they walked the few blocks to Sage’s office. The sign on the door said ‘Sage Crewe—Landscape Architect’.

When they were inside, Jon immediately went over to one wall which was covered with sketches and photos of what he presumed were yards and parks Sage had created. “I could happily live next door to this,” he said, tapping one of the park pictures. “But then,” he sighed, “I would happily live anywhere, just to be alive again.”

* * * *

Sage smiled slightly when Brody put his arm around Jon’s shoulders and said, “It could be worse. At least you’ve got me hanging around to keep you company.”

“I’d be crazy by now if you weren’t,” Jon murmured. “How you managed to survive on your own…”

“I have a mission. Not that it’s done me much good. Five years and all I have to show for it is zilch.”

“How did you die?” Sage asked.

“Shot by someone who didn’t like that I was an undercover cop. They never found out who did it, so I’m stuck here. Once in a while I meet someone like Jon, but they’ve all moved on.”

Sage sat in one of the chairs along the wall under the sketches and photos, gesturing for the ghosts to take the other ones, “If you can.”

Brody snorted. “Of course we can. You think we’ll sink through a chair?”

“You probably wouldn’t,” Sage retorted. “But I met a ghost a while back who was newly dead. He had trouble staying materialized, to say the least of in one place if he wasn’t standing on the ground. I learned then that it takes a lot of willpower to stay visible and interact with the real world.”

“Not for me,” Jon protested. “I was there, watching, sitting on a retaining wall when the…when my body was found and the cops showed up.” He shivered. “I think I’d have passed on that, given the choice.”

“I take it you don’t know who killed you,” Sage replied in sympathy mixed with, he realized, a bit of ghoulish interest.

“I wouldn’t be here if I did,” Jon said scathingly.

“Not true, from what I understand,” Sage retorted. “Even if you did, you won’t be free until he’s caught.” He glanced at Brody. “Right?”

“Sometimes,” Brody replied. “I think it’s…Well, honestly I don’t know what makes the difference between getting closure when you find out who killed you and not being able to move on until the killer’s caught.”

Sage tapped his lip. “Maybe, it depends on whether the killer’s dead?”

Brody nodded. “Possibly. It would be hard to bring them to justice in that case.”

“Well, my killer’s still around,” Jon said. “I mean, it’s only been a day. I’m betting no one’s offed him in the last twenty-four hours.”

“Probably not,” Sage agreed. “I take it you don’t know who it was. All right. Stupid question. You wouldn’t be here if you did.”

Brody held up a finger. “Not logical. He could know, but with no way to tell anyone, there’s no resolution.”

“Which is where I come in,” Sage replied. “If you can figure it out, I can tell Mike Harris.”

“Uh-huh.” Brody snorted. “I got the feeling from listening to the two of you that he thinks you’re a few cards short of a full deck.”

Sage’s shoulders slumped. “Yeah. I’m afraid so.” His expression brightened. “But if we had proof, then he’d have to listen.”

“How are we going to get it?” Jon asked. “I don’t remember anything from yesterday. Zilch, to quote Brody.”

“I saw you at Far Horizon last night,” Sage said.

“I heard you tell Harris. But you didn’t see me with anyone, so that’s really no help.”

“Why were you there?” Sage asked.

“Got me. Maybe, I guess, because I was looking for someone. A guy who took me there a month or so ago.” Jon winced. “That sounds all sorts of bad.”

Sage chuckled. “It’s a gay club. I presume you’re gay, so it sounds sort of normal if the two of you made a connection.”

“If we did, it didn’t last long. I went back there a couple of times, looking for him. I guess that means I didn’t get a phone number.”

“Or go home with him,” Brody said, smirking.

Jon rolled his eyes. “I think I’d remember if I did.”

“What’s this guy’s name,” Sage asked.

“Grant, umm…”

“You don’t know his last name?”

Jon shook his head. “Stupid, huh? I go there with him and a couple of other guys and…” He snapped his fingers. “That wasn’t the first time. I met him at another club, about a week before we went to Far Horizon. Apparently I gave him my number because he called to ask if I wanted to go out again, with him and a couple of his friends.”

“I take it things are beginning to come back to you,” Brody said.

“Slowly. Yeah.”

“There’s a guy named Grant I talked with there, a while ago,” Sage said. “Tall, with blond hair that needs cutting?”

“Yes!”

“Did you get his last name,” Brody asked.

“Let me think.” Sage frowned. “New something. Newport, Newman, Newton. Sorry. I’m not sure which.”

“Do you have a computer,” Brody asked.

“No. That’s window dressing,” Sage retorted, pointing to his desk.

Brody grinned. “My bad. Do you mind if I…Okay, your computer, so you do it. Go to a site I used when I was on the force.”

“Sure.” Sage settled at the desk, booting up the computer then typing in the password. When Brody gave him the web address, Sage accessed it. “Now what?”

“Input Grant and then one of the last names.”

Sage typed in Grant Newport. There were at least a dozen, but only two in the city. When Brody told him to click on them, Sage did and came up with information, including pictures.

“Are either of those him?” Brody asked the others. Sage and Jon shook their heads.

Sage did the same with Newman. There were four Grant Newman’s in the city, but none of them was their man. Then he tried Newton.

“That’s him,” Jon said, when they got to the third picture. “Right?” He looked at Sage.

“As best as I remember, it is. The hair is a lot shorter.”

“Yeah. But the face. I know it’s him.”

“Sage, please write down his phone number and address for us,” Brody said. “I would, but it’s not exactly easy for me, even after all this time.” He held up his hands. “The pen sometimes slips through my fingers—literally.”

Sage did, while saying, “If you’re going to check him out, I’m coming, too.”

“No, you’re not. We can do that without his knowing we’re around,” Brody replied firmly.

“But…”

“No. Sorry. We appreciate your help and we’ll let you know what happens.”

Jon nodded. “In the first place, he might not have anything to do with my murder.”

“True, I guess,” Sage replied.

“If we think he does, trust me, we’ll tell you, Sage, so you can pass the information on to Detective Harris,” Jon told him.

Sage hoped his reaction to the idea of having a reason to see Mike Harris again didn’t show on his face. He’d had a thing for the handsome detective ever since the man had moved into the townhouse complex. Not that I have a clue whether he’s gay or not. He was at the club because he was looking for someone, although he didn’t act like it was his first time there. He sighed to himself. I’ll keep having dreams about the two of us together, either way.

“As if he’ll believe me,” Sage grumbled. “Mike thinks I was drunk when I told him I saw the two of you.”

“Don’t worry,” Brody said. “I can tell you things that’ll let him know you really have talked with me. I knew him, back when, since we worked on a case together a short time before my untimely death.”

“That should help.”

“All right. It’s getting late and I’m sure you want to go home,” Jon said.

Sage nodded. “Do you two have a place to stay?”

“Yeah, we’re good,” Brody replied. “Thanks for asking. You ready?” he said to Jon. Jon gave him a thumbs-up and they left, without opening the door.

I’ll never get tired of seeing ghosts do that. It’s so unreal. With that though, Sage left the normal way, locking the door behind him, and went home.