Kitty's words took over Jake's thoughts that night.
"It's Tina…. She's dead….
No. There was no way. She couldn't be dead. He had just seen her. It couldn't be true. But seeing the paramedics roll Tina's lifeless body into the ambulance just proved that it was real.
"The cops said it appeared to be murder," Marley said as she joined Jake in his bed, hovering over his mattress. "There was a stab wound in her side from a sharp knife."
"Do you think it was the same person who killed you?" Jake spoke up for the first time since finding out about Tina.
Marley nodded. "It must have been."
"Have you seen Tina at all?" Jake asked. "Can you see other ghosts?"
"No," Marley said. "I haven't seen her. Or any other ghosts."
A sick thought came across Jake's mind. "Do you think Tina knew something? Like, maybe she knew who killed you, and the killer wanted to get rid of her before she told anyone."
"Maybe," Marley said, sounding distant.
"I'm going to get to the bottom of this," Jake said in a hard voice.
"Jake, be careful," Marley warned. "I don't anything to happen to you."
"Nothing's going to happen to me," Jake said, convincing himself more than her. "I promise." He reached out and touched her cheek, even though he knew neither of them would feel anything.
"Get some sleep, okay?" Marley said when she noticed Jake yawning. "We'll figure it out in the morning."
Jake nodded and pulled the covers over his face, trying as hard as he could to forget the day's tragic event and fall asleep.
Jake gets a call from Tina telling him to come over right away.
"I know what happened," she says. "I know who killed Marley."
Jake rushes over to Tina's house as soon as he hangs up, but it appears someone is already in her house.
"Tina!" Jake bangs on the window. Tina doesn't hear him. She sounds like she's crying.
Jake then hears a voice. "You should have left it alone," the person says. Jake can't make out who it is.
"Please," he hears Tina beg. "Don't hurt me."
Jake wants to run to get help. He tries to move his feet, but they're glued to the concrete. "Tina!" he shouts again.
"It's too late," the voice says.
"Please don't do this," Tina pleads. She's sobbing.
"You've given me no choice," the person says. Whoever it is is crying too.
Jake tries to shout for help, but no sound comes out. All he could do is helplessly watch through the window.
He sees the figure grab something. Tina screams.
"I'm sorry," the figure says, and without hesitating, stabs a knife in Tina's side.
Jake hears Tina fall onto the floor with a loud thud. Then he hears the front door open. The killer's about to run out. Jake can almost see the killer's face. The killer finally turns around and-
"Jake, wake up!" Kitty screamed in Jake's face.
Jake jerked awake and took deep breaths. His heart was pounding in his chest. "What happened?"
"The police are here to speak with us," Kitty said.
"Okay, I'll be right down." Once Kitty left, Jake sat back down on his bed and tried to process his dream.
If only Kitty had bursted in a second later. Then he would have seen the killer's face. But would he have even been right? It was a dream. His imagination. Even if he had seen the face, it probably wasn't really who the killer was. But then again, there was something special about Jake. If he could talk to ghosts, there was probably other things he could do as well.
"Jake!" Kitty called. "Hurry up!"
"Coming!" Jake yelled and ran downstairs to meet Kitty.
"So what was your relationship to Tina Cohen-Chang?" A bored-looking police officer asked.
"She was my friend," Kitty answered. "We took a drama class together."
The officer focused her attention to Jake. "And you?"
Jake cleared his throat. "Well, Officer Parks," he said as he looked down at her name tag. "She was my friend too. I didn't know her as long as Kitty did, but we were pretty close. I believed her when she said she didn't kill Marley."
Officer Parks nodded. "I see. Now we suspect that Miss Cohen-Chang's killer is the same person as Miss Rose's. Is there any information the two of you can give us?"
Jake thought back to his dream. He knew it obviously wasn't reliable evidence, but it was something. It was so vivid, it had to mean something.
Kitty shook her head. "I don't know anything. We're still trying to find out."
"What about you, Mr. Puckerman?"
After a few seconds of hesitation, Jake finally spoke. "I don't know anything either," he said, deciding to keep his dream to himself-at least for now.
Officer Parks said goodbye and left soon after, leaving Jake and Kitty alone with their thoughts.
"We really need to catch this person," Jake spoke up after a long time of silence.
"Jake, whoever it is, they're probably going to be after us next. I think we should let the police handle this now. It's getting really dangerous."
"No way," Jake said firmly. "I'm not giving up until we solve this."
"Jake, open your eyes!" Kitty shouted, catching him off guard. "You're risking your life. You have a family back home. What's going to happen when your mom finds out you were killed trying to chase the murderer of a girl you don't even know?!"
"I'm supposed to be doing this," Jake said quietly. "There must be a reason I'm the only one who can communicate with her."
"Well I'm not going to stand around and watch everyone around me die," Kitty said angrily before running upstairs to her room and slamming the door behind her.
Jake decided to leave Kitty alone to blow off some steam. He walked out the front door and contemplated what to do next.
As Jake sat on the front steps outside Kitty's house, his phone started to ring.
"Hey mom," he answered after looking at the caller ID.
"Jake, how are you? I haven't spoken with you in such a long time! How's your project with Ryder?"
Jake almost forgot about the lie he told his mother. He still felt horrible about it. "It's uh, going good. We're, um, going to a bunch of cities in Ohio to find all the, uh, national parks for our project."
"Oh, that sounds fun, sweetie," Ms. Puckerman said cheerfully. If only she knew what Jake had really been doing all this time.
"Yeah, it is."
"But when are you going to be back, sweetie?" she asked. Winter Break ends next week."
"I know, mom, I'll be back soon," Jake said. "I, um, have to go. I'll call you soon, okay?"
"Okay, have fun."
"I will. Love you. Bye." Jake hung up and came face to face with Marley.
"Was that your mom?" she asked.
Jake nodded.
"You should really tell her the truth. Just incase something, you know, happens."
"Yeah, I know." Jake hung his head in shame. "She's going to kill me."
"Nice choice of words," Marley chuckled.
"Oh, shit, sorry," Jake held in a laugh. "I didn't mean that. "
Marley laughed along with him. "It's okay."
Jake stopped in his tracks once he reached Tina's house. For the past couple of hours, police cars have been surrounding the house, but for now, there were no signs of them anywhere.
"Where did all the police cars go?" Jake asked Marley.
"I'm sure Tina's parents asked them to leave," Marley figured.
"I think we should go inside and check her room for evidence or something," Jake said. "Maybe she does know something we don't."
"That's a really risky plan," Marley said, her voice laced with concern. "And besides, I'm sure her parents aren't going out anytime soon."
"The killer must have known that Tina was onto them. There has to be something in Tina's room. Some type of evidence against them. Something that would make the killer feel threatened by Tina, and killing her because of it."
"How are you going to get Tina's parents out of the house, though?" Marley asked.
Jake sighed. "I have no idea.
"I do," Marley said, her face lighting up. "They're holding a memorial for Tina tomorrow evening. Everyone in town's gonna be there."
"But I should really be there too," Jake said.
"I'm sure Tina would rather have you find out more clues on both our murders. And I don't think you'll have any other time alone at her house besides then."
"Yeah, that sounds good." Jake nodded.
"Are you going to take Kitty with you?"
"Nah, she seems kind of angry with me. And I don't want to put her life in any danger. i guess it's all up to me now."
"You're so brave," Marley said. "Just don't die, okay?"
Jake laughed. "I'll try not to."
"Okay, good," Marley said, her eyes twinkling. "I really hope we find something at her house."
"So do I," Jake said as the two of them walked back to Kitty's house. "So do I."
