30 Ray's Past Comes a Calling
The next night George waited in the living room with Daisy, Mason, Reggie and Lin. She heard John and Roxy slam car doors outside. George hadn't seen Ray since she got home. Or Tommy either. Daisy explained that the two were upstairs talking things over. She heard John and Roxy walk through the door and looked up to see Tommy walking down the stairs with Ray close behind. George moved over to the dining room table. They all took seats and John pulled out a few files and placed them on the table.
No one said anything. Very quiet. John opened a folder and looked over at Roxy. Roxy started things off. "We found the files. The case is still open although cold. No one was caught. No suspects either."
John said, "There're a few twists. Ray, do you know why the family was killed?"
Ray looked blank. "No." He didn't offer to elaborate and John didn't push.
"Well, a scroll with a long list of names in Chinese characters was found at the murder scene."
Ray looked surprised. "I remember that now, but we insisted that the Chinese observer not leave that behind. He showed it to us after we did the job and before we left. It didn't make sense to go to all the trouble to make the crime look like a home invasion and leave something like that behind."
Roxy picked up. "The scroll snuffed out that explanation immediately. The scroll itself was never reported in the press. The detectives sent a copy to their counterparts at some Federal police force agency in China and…we got an unexpected response."
John said, "The local detectives knew the scroll was a list of names, but not why or what the significance was."
George asked, "Did the list implicate anyone?"
John said, "Absolutely. The problem was it implicated too many people. The authorities there believed the list represented children, who died, and those who were injured, due to a baby food poisoning outbreak back in 2009."
Roxy continued, "A factory owned and operated by a Mr. Tang used some known toxic ingredients, to save money, in a line of baby food resulting in the deaths of hundreds of children and the near death of many more. The food engineers he left behind insisted that in small amounts they would be harmless. Mr. Tang made the final decision. Unfortunately, babies and small children it turns out, surprise, are more sensitive than adults and many reacted by dying. Many others almost died and suffered varying degrees of damage, many permanently. At the first signs of trouble and before it was noticed by the authorities, Mr. Tang took his family and bought his way into Canada, specifically Vancouver. He soon moved down here to Seattle."
John said, "The authorities over there believed that however the murders in Seattle were done they were directly connected to decisions taken by Mr. Tang at his factory in China. He apparently thought he was out of reach of the Chinese justice system."
George said, "And the whole matter here in Seattle was dropped?"
Roxy said, "It was. There really was no way to find the actual people who pulled the triggers, or the people who hired them."
Lin sat through this talk saying nothing. George suspected that though the girl died at maybe a little older than Tommy's age she had been learning these last three years and probably understood exactly what Roxy and John were explaining. Her father's willful and reckless decisions led to the deaths of several hundred children giving the parents motive for revenge. Some of those parents not only had motive but the resources to ensure a rough justice was carried out even way over in Seattle not only on Mr. Tang, but his entire family including Lin. Her future was taken away in a few moments of violence.
Lin's face perked up and she asked, "We're all dead I know, but why haven't I seen their ghosts, of my sister and brother, and my Mom and Dad?"
George caught Ray's eyes and he said, "You said you avoided other ghosts. It could be they're still around Seattle. I can take you to your old neighborhood and we check places where ghosts gather."
Daisy broke in. "And it could be one or all of them crossed over. Roxy can't we find the reapers who took care of the family that night and see what they remember?"
Tommy and Lin were talking. Roxy projected a meaningful look to Daisy. George guessed the Dark took the Father, at least, and she didn't want to say that in front of Lin. Ray nodded towards Roxy. And the others? No hurry. Once Lin goes out of earshot.
Daisy pulled a DVD from a nearby stand and placed it on the table. It distracted Tommy and then Lin.
Lin asked, "Tommy can we watch 'Frozen' from the beginning?"
"Sure, come on." The two went over to the living room where Tommy pulled the dvd out from his growing collection.
They exchanged some cross talk until the sound from the TV drowned out their voices. George raised her eyebrows and Roxy said in a low enough voice not to disturb the happy duo. "Already done. The father, no surprise there, got taken by the Dark. The mother, surprise, did too. She may have had more involvement than has come out."
"And her brother and sister?"
"The reapers believe this girl was the first killed. They were ready for the other two and both are now on the other side." Roxy paused. "Their boss apologized for letting this one slip away. No one likes to screw up on a kid. He asked that we put her over. Or he volunteered to come over and clean their mess up. He doesn't like loose ends."
That was something to think about. George pondered that and then she could feel eyes all coming her way. "I'm not sending her over if she doesn't want to go." Apparently they were all expecting her to go Nazi on the kid and force her over.
Reggie spoke up, "Isn't it like a really bad thing among reapers to let child ghosts stay here?"
And now Mason found his voice. "Yes, it is. If she wanders about and comes close to a strange reaper she may be over before she knows what happened."
John said, "You mean we have to hide her?"
George shook her head. "Not hide, but make sure she understands that outside our reaper circle she should be careful. Otherwise, let's just let her be."
They looked over. Lin and Tommy were sitting close together watching their movie.