A/N: Hi, just a quick comment on what Writer's-BlockDP asked me: I did not consciously copy the name 'Zimmer' from Master's Weapon by Secret Spy Guy but I did read it (you should too, awesome story). The name must have stuck. My character is nothing like the one in that story though!

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.


Echo´s

Mike took a bite out of his pizza and walked to the window of the office. The day was slowly turning into the night, the cloudless sky painted in a variety of pink and orange colors. He felt tired. Cases like this always wore him out. He looked at the desk Zimmer had lend him and walked back to it. Again he pressed the button of the cassette player and listened.

"Amity Park Police Department, how may I help you?"

"Hello? Yes. This is Arthur Brennig speaking. I just saw that ghost Invisobill in the park. If you hurry you can catch him."

"Mr. Brennig, ghosts are not really our department. We are not equipped to catch ghosts. Is he causing any disturbance?"

"No, he is just sitting there, on a swing. It's despicable. Children will play there tomorrow. You should do something about all these ghosts that are invading our town. This thing turns up everywhere, he disturbed a party last night and..."

"We really don't have the manpower to go investigate every ghost sighting. If he is not causing any trouble just leave him."

After that Mr. Brennig got into an argument with the police officer and hung up angrily. When questioned later he repeated the story, adding that 'Invisobill' had left when he had returned from the phone to look outside once more. The phone call had been recorded at 3:49. Mike continued to listen.

"911, what is the emergency?"

"There is a dead body in the park at the playground!"

"OK calm down boy, what´s your name?"

"I´d rather not say, but it is really true, I saw her, she was dead, in the playground, just... dead."

"Are you with her now? Isn´t she just unconscious? Can you see if she is breathing?"

"SHE HAS NO HEAD LADY!"

At that the line went dead. Mike frowned, rewound the tape and played it again. The caller was obviously a boy, fairly young too. But the voice sounded strange. He wondered if it was the recording equipment that caused the distinct echo in his voice. He sounded very distressed, but then he would if he just found a headless corpse.

What was a boy his age doing in the park at that time anyway? This phone call had been recorded at 3:55, only minutes after the first one, and had been traced to Casper High School. Phantom had left during the Brennig call. Had he made the second call? Did ghosts make phone calls? Why at the school?

Mike looked at his now cold pizza and pushed it away to reveal the newspaper clippings of the infamous ghost boy again. He had read them all earlier, trying to put a picture of Phantom together. There were no clear pictures of him, only shots from a distance, very unclear and often out of focus. But then it must be next to impossible get him on a picture at all, the way he kept disappearing. The pictures that were there were mostly taken with camera phones.

He shifted the articles, looking at the head lines. Some seemed to incriminate him, naming him a thief and a vandal. Others proclaimed him a hero, a savior of the town. One headline caught his eye: 'Invisobill is Danny Phantom'.

The article went on about a ghost invasion and how the ghost boy had shouted his name when leaving to fight the ghost king. The article was vague about how the boy had pulled it off, but Amity Park had been saved and the ghost boy had disappeared for a while. Phantom's popularity had risen then. Zimmer entered the room and closed the door behind him.

"Getting anywhere?" he asked, taking a chair and sitting down heavily. He looked at the pizza. "Are you going to eat that?"

Mike shook his head and Zimmer picked a piece and took a bite.

"If I didn´t know any better," he continued, "I´d say your serial killer followed you here. The murders that happened in Chicago five years ago are completely identical to this one, right to the smallest detail, placing her hands like that, the way the head was cut of."

He threw the pictures on the desk and Mike looked at them. He had to agree. It was like looking at the pictures from back then.

"Find anything interesting in that?" Zimmer asked Mike, pointing at the newspaper clippings.

Mike shrugged. "Nothing definite," he said, "Listen to this."

He bend over and pressed the play button of the cassette player once again. The voice of the boy sounded through the room, reporting his gruesome find. Then he pressed the stop button.

"What´s with the echo," Mike said, "Is that something that was caused by the recording equipment?"

Zimmer blinked, then bend over to press the rewind button to listen to the message again.

"Now that you mention it," he said, "There is an echo to his voice, isn´t there... At what time was this call?"

"Only six minutes after the Brennig call".

Zimmer thought about that. "I´ll look into it. You think it may be Phantom himself that made the call? That seems a bit out of character?"

"Does it?" Mike asked and pointed at the newspaper clippings on the desk, "Every time Phantom is spotted he is fighting another ghost, never humans. And while he causes a lot of damage, he seems to make sure nobody gets hurt."

He picked up an article and showed it to Zimmer who read it quickly.

"OK, so he saves this little boy here, but what about when he kidnapped the mayor, or the robberies?"

Mike raised his hands in the air. "I don´t know. There is a lot I don´t understand. Why call at the school for instance, there was a phone booth just outside the park."

"I can clear that up for you," Zimmer answered, "It was out of order. And speaking of the school, there was no sign of anyone breaking and entering the school, but we did find the phone he used. It was in the office, on the floor, like the caller hung up really forcefully. Which of course supports your theory that Phantom made the call, he could just go through the wall to get there."

"What I would really like to do," Mike wasn´t sure about this, "Is talk to this Phantom guy. Is there any way we can get into contact with him? The Fentons maybe?"

Zimmer snorted. "They chase him. He´s not likely to talk to them. No. But we could make it generally known that we would like to talk to him, maybe he will pick that up. There is no real danger for him to come to us, it´s not like we will be able to hold him."

He thought for a moment. "We could ask the Fentons to assist us though. If we do want to hold Phantom, I´m sure they have a way."

"You think he did it then?"

Zimmer shrugged. "I don´t know. But he was there and he is a ghost. As far as I´m concerned, all ghosts are evil until proven otherwise."

Mike got up. "I´m going home to get some sleep."

"Do you want me to drive you?"

Mike shook his head. "Nah, I´ll walk. I need some air."

With a wave of his hand he left.