29 Tommy Meets Another Ghost

Ray heard a clatter. Another bicycle. He looked up from Tommy's play to see a teenager on a mountain bike coming down from a dirt trail, or a fire road, that meandered down from the hills and then went back up without exiting onto their street. He knew there was a side path a few houses down, but no one ever crossed near their backyard.

Tommy heard and then saw the teenage boy too, and Ray could see there were two more coming fast. They passed within 50 yards. Tommy stood up from his half dozen toy cars and trucks carefully laid out in an intricate road system carved into the sand. His jeans had dirt ground into the knees and his hands were dark with his road making play. He would need a bath tonight. Tommy looked up towards the hills that started not far from the reaper house backyard and that hid all manner of wonderful just out of his sight. Tommy said, "Ray let's go see what's over there."

Ray felt bad for the kid. "Mmmh. Maybe we shouldn't go wandering off."

"Come on, Ray. What could it hurt to take a short hike? We could go exploring, you and me." He walked over to one of the trees in their backyard and picked at the bark while he studied the road and hills beyond. That old worn two-track road came down from the right to within sight of where he stood and then went temptingly meandering out of sight behind the trees to their left and then on into the hills. They were keeping the kid in a prison of sorts. That it was for his own good didn't make it any less a prison.

"It could hurt a lot. Daisy would take your short hike out on me."

Tommy lowered his head. He was a good kid. Lonely. They needed to find a way to let him play with some other kids. Ray was a jerk playing the Daisy card on him. It always worked. Tommy wouldn't do anything he believed would get him in trouble with Daisy. He sat back down with his cars and got interested in carving out a new road. Ray could see the outline resemble the loop of the road he so wanted to explore.

Ray moved to hover in a tree a stone's throw from Tommy's play. Daisy he could see was at the window watching. When it came to mothering, her newly discovered career, she had the zeal of the newly converted. She probably really would hurt him if anything happened to the kid. She was gone from the window when he glanced back. When Ray was Tommy's age he and his friends would've taken off into those hills exploring. And would stay gone until the end of the day. They would visit berry patches, steal apples from people's backyards, and drink water from unguarded yard hose hook ups. Different world that was. He had no doubt that his old colleagues would act on an opportunity like that. The kid out and about. He did. Got him killed, but he didn't know then how dangerous the powers that had an interest in this kid really were. How devious they could be. He probably should have guessed after the fuck up at the Ferguson mansion and Jane explained to him a few of the facts about grim reapers. It turned out those few facts were not the key facts that would have kept him alive. Or, maybe they were. He just didn't listen. Anyway he should have listened and that should have been enough. He should have walked away. Would-a could-a should-a.

He looked up. The clouds today were few and set against a wonderfully deep blue sky. He wondered if they had blue skies like this on the other side. These clouds were those fluffy snow white types that change shapes ever so slowly as you watch them. He could remember watching them as a kid. He and his friends would… He glanced down to Tommy. He wasn't alone. Fuck. Incredibly there was a child ghost talking to him. He stopped himself, his first impulse, and watched. It was a little girl. She seemed about his age - when she died. No telling how old her soul was. Very odd. From what he knew the reapers always put child ghosts over. Some of them were really lax about adults, but all of them thought dead children needed to go over. He couldn't hear them talking. The girl didn't know he was in the tree. Tommy grew more animated. The girl moved lower to meet Tommy's head level - not really sitting. He was giving her a couple of his toy cars. Ray was close enough and she didn't seem to mean Tommy any harm. They were just talking. Suddenly she looked around. Tommy must have mentioned him. Tommy looked around and caught sight of him in the tree and pointed him out to her. The girl saw him too and started moving away. Tommy jumped up and took her hand. She was shaking her head and wanted to flee. He moved down to ground level and waited. He would let her come to him. She looked like she was seeing a demon straight out of Hell or pretending to, and he guessed it was the former. She was terrified of her own kind. That was odd, too.

Tommy was holding her by the hand and pulling her closer towards him.

"Ray's a good ghost. He won't hurt you. He takes care of me." Tommy looked from Ray to the girl and back again. When they were about 15 feet away she refused to come any closer. "It's OK. Really. Ray won't hurt you. Will you Ray?"

"Hi, Tommy. No, I won't hurt your friend."

"This is Lin, Ray. Lin, this is Ray." Tommy's face was all lit up.

"Hi, Lin." He decided not to push things asking a lot of questions.

"It's OK, Lin, he won't hurt you." Tommy let go of her hand. He turned and smiled at Ray.

Lin stood stiff and unmoving - even for a ghost. She looked ready to bolt at the least unexpected move from him. He smiled at her. Something easy. "Lin. When did you die?"

She looked from Tommy to him. "I'm not sure. Maybe three years ago. I don't remember the calendar dates anymore."

"Did you die near here, in Seattle?"

"Yes." She thought about it looking down at the ground. "We lived for a short time in some place called Canada and then came here. Then we all died."

Tommy frowned, "Your whole family?"

"Yes, at night. I was sleeping. We were shot dead."

"I know how that can happen. My first parents got killed last year. Now I have new mom and dad."

Ray didn't like the direction of this conversation. To Lin's left and out of her line of sight he noticed Daisy walking towards them. "Lin, the lady coming this way…"

She turned to look, screamed, and bolted heading for the hills. Now that's a reaction you don't see everyday.

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Later that afternoon after Ray had persuaded Lin that the monster she saw was not really a monster. He got her to come back to the house where Daisy calmed her down enough for them to talk to her.

Ray, Tommy, and Daisy had her in the living room where they questioned her about transition details or in other words how she was murdered. Mason soon joined. After she got over her initial fear of Daisy she wanted to stay close to her friendly voice. Ray suspected Daisy was influencing her mood directly.

Daisy was trying hard to be nice. "So Sweetie, do you remember how you died?"

"I was sleeping and then I found myself outside next to a man dressed in dark clothes and he looked scary to me in the dark. There was another one nearby like him. I ran as fast as I could."

"Did they talk to you?"

"They said something, but I was so scared I ran far away."

"Do you remember your family name?"

"Tang."

"And you all died the same night?"

They heard Reggie's car pull up outside.

Daisy said, "Honey, now you wait here. I'm going to get some more friends for you to talk to. One of them is a policeman. Maybe we can get you some answers."

Ray wasn't clear on the why of all this questioning. The kid was dead and nothing was going to change that. But Daisy had gotten this into her head and the little girl was lonely, and Ray could see she was thrilled with all the attention. If she was terrified of ghosts and reapers that would have left her pretty much alone and ignored for the last three years.

Daisy left and within a few minutes the front door opened and John, Reggie, and Grace along with Daisy entered. Reggie couldn't see Lin, or him for that matter. Daisy sat between Reggie and Grace taking hands. John settled in close to Lin.

Lin noticed right away that John could see her. She asked, "How come you can see me? You don't look like them." She nodded in Mason and then Daisy's direction.

"Hi, Lin. I'm like Tommy. I can see you." He offered his hand. She looked at it. She reached out and touched it and when she could feel resistance she broke into a big smile. Tentative at first, Lin took hold John's much bigger hand. John smiled to reassure the kid. And then Ray watched as Lin, desperately, reached up and hugged John. John was taken aback but gave her a return hug. It must have been a long three years. She wanted to stay on his lap, so he got her comfortable and then started extracting the facts he would need.

Ray hovered close by. He felt like a shadow had moved across what was otherwise a good day. He remembered something about that name, Tang. It sounded too familiar.

Daisy broke contact with Reggie to get a tablet and pen. She handed them to John, and she sat back down.

"So your name is Lin Tang. How many were in your family…that died that night?"

"There was my father, mother, my little brother, and my older sister. I had my own room as did my sister."

Ray couldn't feel hot or cold, but at hearing the family listing, he got a very very cold chill running through his incorporeal self. How did George describe this feeling like the universe had a fuck-with-me gun and he felt like the gun was loaded and cocked aimed at his head.

John looked over to Daisy. He said, "And you're not sure of the date. About three years ago?"

"Yes."

"Do you remember the address?"

"No."

"Where have you been these last three years?"

"I've been wandering from house to house. I like to find houses with kids. I like to pretend I'm still alive. I can watch them play games and watch the TV and movies with them." She pondered something. "In the dark…when we're all watching a movie or something good on the TV…I…sometimes I feel like I'm alive again, and it was all a bad dream."

Reggie asked, "Haven't you met any other ghosts?"

"I'm afraid of ghosts. I see them and hide."

"And what about reapers?"

"Until today I didn't know what those were. I thought they killed all of us."

Daisy wiped away a tear. "Honey, those reapers didn't kill you or your parents. They were there to help you cross over."

"Cross over to where?"

"Haven't you see some bright lights?"

"I used to every day, but I always went the other way."

"You were supposed to go into them."

She grimaced at that idea and shook her head. "I don't want to."

"It's OK, Honey, when you're ready they'll come for you."

She shook her head again. She wouldn't be going into them anytime soon.

That gun aimed at his head went off. Ray left the house. He remembered the Tang name. For the first time since he died he needed fresh air.

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George drove up to the house. She got out and noticed Ray moving past her.

"Ray." He didn't seem to notice her and kept on going. He even seemed to speed up some. She shook her head and opened the door to see most everyone plus one in the living room. They brought her up on what they had learned so far of the little girl ghost's background.

George said, "So her entire family was murdered in their sleep. It sounds like a professional job." And that got her to thinking. She looked up to see Ray come through the wall.

She met John's eyes. John said, "Tomorrow I'll go through the records. We've got the family name…"

Ray said, "It happened in July of 2011. John, I can give you the neighborhood."

John said, "You…"

"Yes, I and two others plus an observer from China."

"An observer?"

"The contract was unusual. The order and money originated from mainland China. Whoever it was sent their man to make sure it was done as per contract."

The room got quiet. George knew Ray had killed before. She knew Jane and Tom had too, but she deliberately compartmentalized those unknown unexplored questions away and out of sight, and she never had any faces to attach to the facts…until tonight.

"I'm sorry, Lin. I was one of the three that murdered you that night." Ray looked down and then left through the wall before anyone could say anything more.

Tommy jumped up and called after him, "Ray. Ray."

George could see Tommy crying. He ran upstairs.

John said, "I have enough. Tomorrow I'll get Roxy involved and we'll track down the case file."