Lost In Shadow
Chapter 7
Leo looked about; he'd never been in a library before. He watched April do the talking, asking the librarian about old newspapers, and then watched the librarian walk away to another part of the building.
April approached Leo. "She says we should use the microfiche," she said. She's gone to find us the cards and film she thinks should be relevant."
"The microfiche..?"
"This." April indicated towards a machine that looked like an odd PC to Leo. "It's a machine that reads microfilm; you can get a ton of info just on one little card... Ask Don, he'll know all about them..."
"He's probably got one lying around somewhere in all that junk," Leo rolled his eyes... secretly deciding he wouldn't ask Don. Not unless he wanted to purposefully induce three long boring hours on himself...
"So what were you telling me before, about the computer?" April sat down.
Leo nodded. "Yeah, apparently the ghost just went and walked right through it and completely fried it, the lair still smells of burnt plastic. Don was fuming when I got back, and Raph wouldn't shut up about how cold it was and was totally paranoid she was gonna wreck the TV. Every time she went within three feet of it he started twitching. It drove us crazy. Neither of them would shut up all evening, they want me to get rid of her, and I'll try, but I want to do it in a nice way." Leo frowned as he thought. "They told her to get out and Mike said she totally flipped and screamed non stop for like three hours straight and even shattered a glass. He thinks she wants to stay with us."
"Maybe she does. Perhaps she's taken a shine to you guys." April smirked. "She must be lonely. What will you do when we get information about her?"
"See her family. They probably never found out what happened to her, I mean she's not at rest, so they never found her body. She said it herself, she said; 'there's nothing left'." Leo explained. "Oh yeah... and Don and Raph wanted me to ask you if you could get hold of a fire extinguisher for us. The powder type."
"...Right..." April nodded with a sigh, watching as the librarian sidled up to them, giving Leo a strange look. He was acutely aware of how strange he must look, sat swathed in a trench coat and fedora indoors on such a pleasant day.
"Do you know how to use the microfiche?" The librarian asked.
April nodded. "Yes, thanks."
"We do?" Leo whispered.
"Oh yeah, I use them for work all the time. Good for research. Some companies do great aperture cards and film. Some great National Security ones." April grinned. "The internet's good too, of course."
The librarian left them to it; April inserted the microfilm into the carrier. Leo winced. "... Looks complicated..."
"There's a knack," April smiled. "We've got 'till 11:00, after that I've really got to get to work, okay?"
Leo nodded, watching as April explained and demonstrated how to use the machine; it didn't seem too hard after all... with practice he'd be fine. They searched through newspaper after newspaper, article after article, and death records until April had to go. They'd found hundreds of missing girls, but only seventeen Susans, most of which were brunettes and the others too old or too young.
It took all day but eventually Leo found a short article in the New York Post. A missing girl called Suzie O'Connell, aged fourteen, vanished on the 7th December, 1975.
-----
Raph was taking his frustrations out on a training dummy, pummelling it with his fists and slashing at it with his sai until there wasn't much left. Splinter stood in the doorway.
"Raphael. I think it's time you had a rest."
Raph gave it one last smack and nodded. He grabbed a bag of pretzels from the kitchen and walked through into their living quarters, shooting a bewildered look at Mikey who sat on the floor rolling a basketball. He looked over at Don, who was concentrating on what remained of his computer, sorting out what was salvageable and what wasn't, Raph wandered over.
"What's he doing?"
"Huh?" Don looked up irritated; he'd had a foul mood on him all last night and all that day. Raph jerked his head at Mike.
"Oh. He's playing ball with the ghost." Don mumbled.
Raph gave a disbelieving shake of the head and glanced back over at Mike. "I thought its speciality was walking through things. How can it touch the ball?"
Don snorted and replied distractedly, "... molecules... psychic energy..." He paused to examine a piece of electronic junk, and threw it down in disgust. "Possibly electromagnetic fields... either way I really don't care. There's very little I can salvage from all this mess..." He threw the singed motherboard across the room in anger.
Raph frowned. "Chill dude. Jeez, when did you turn into me?"
"You don't own the exclusive rights to anger, Raphael..." Don scowled. "F off. I'm busy."
Raph felt his temper flare and was about to make something of it... but he knew how Donnie felt about his computer. He also remembered him building the first one all those years ago when they'd only been little kids.
Before they were officially allowed to go topside, they'd killed a lot of free time playing games on it... now, for the first time since then, Donnie was entirely computer-less. Raph found himself letting it slide. He raised his hands in surrender mode and walked away.
"Fine. Whatever."
Mike rolled the ball across the floor again, the ghost standing a few feet away, gently pushed at it with her toe and the ball rolled back towards Mike again, slowly picking up speed.
"Check it out, Raph." Mikey beamed. "She can move things."
"...too bad she can't move manhole covers and get the hell out..." Don's voice grumbled in the background.
Mike sighed and rolled the ball back. "I asked Don to work out how she does it, but he's too busy sulking..." Mike whispered. "Maybe when he gets used to her he'll be okay."
"Listen Mikey, Don's just lost... hang on..." Raph frowned at him. "Uh huh... and just how long are we planning on letting her stay for, bro?" He couldn't help the sarcasm creeping into his voice.
Mike blinked then laughed. "Raph, it's not like we have a choice. She's adopted us. She's here forever." He grabbed the pretzels from Raphael. "Sour cream and chive." He smacked his lips and rolled the ball back to the ghost.
"Suzie! See if you can kick it hard..."
Raph sat back on his heels, a chill creeping up his spine. "Forever?!" He shook his head. "Wait a minute... 'Suzie'?"
"Well she didn't respond too well to Susan, or Sue... besides, she looks like a Suzie, don't ya think?" Mike grinned. Raph had a strange urge to strangle him.
"Whatever. What do you mean 'forever'?"
"Do you want her to start screaming again? She only shattered a glass last time... who knows what'd happen if you make her do it again." Mike smirked "She might even get... the TV!"
"Very funny, I can't believe we're being held to ransom by a little girl."
"So you do accept she's a person." Mike munched on a pretzel
"She... its dead, Mikey, it doesn't belong here. Especially with us."
"Well, when Leo's done whatever he's doing, perhaps she'll go live with her family."
Raph rapped Mikey on the head.
"Hello? Do you really think they'll want that, to be haunted?"
"They might miss her and want her back." Mike suggested he ducked the ball as it flew past his head. "Whoa! Cool Suzie!! That was some kick."
The ghost stood, beaming. Raph shuddered. "Do you really think you should be encouraging it?"
"What?" Mikey shook his head. He threw the ball and watched as she 'caught' it, the ball levitating a couple of millimetres from her fingertips.
"Isn't that awesome?"
----
Leo stood waiting impatiently outside of Channel 3 News. He'd called April as soon as he'd found the ghost's name, and April had promised to search the records they had at the news station. Unfortunately she was working late, Leo wanted to go himself, but he knew he wouldn't get anywhere. No way would the girls family let in a creepy guy in a trench coat.
Eventually April emerged, looking slightly stressed; she jumped when she saw Leo.
"Oh... the ghost... Right. I found an address, here." She rummaged in her pocket. "Are we going to visit now?"
Leo nodded. "I thought I was going to have to wait all night..."
April shook her head. "I have to earn a living, Leo. I can't just drop work, I'd get fired. I don't have unlimited free time like you guys. The things I do for you. In forty five minutes time I could be in a warm bath, filled with essential oil, soaking away the days stress..."
Leo winced. "I'm sorry; I just want to get this done before my brothers kill me. I appreciate it. We appreciate it. Really. Everything you do."
"I know... "April flagged a cab. "My boss is just giving me a hard time, the usual..."
Leo followed April into the cab, pulled his hat over his eyes and stared out of the window. "East New York." April said to the cab driver. "Linden Houses." The driver mumbled something incomprehensible, gave Leo a hard stare, then drove off.
---
"Well here we are." April stared up at the block. "I don't think you should come in Leo. You'll be at too close range; their attention will be focused on you. They'll notice something odd."
"I dunno..." Leo stared up at the building uncertainly. "I don't like the look of it. It might not be safe."
April rolled her eyes. "Then imagine having to live there. I'll be fine." She pushed the address into Leo's hand. "If I'm not back in half an hour then follow me, but I'm sure everything'll be okay."
She pressed the number on the intercom system but there was no reply. April sighed and was about to key in a different apartment number when the door opened and someone came out. April grabbed the door and with a cheery "Thank you!" bustled inside.
The elevator stank as she rode it up to the sixth floor, but she took her mind of it by reading the graffiti.
April rang the bell and waited. There was no response, yet even through the walls and the door, she could hear that the TV was on in the lounge. Perhaps the bell didn't work. She knocked hard on the door. It was eventually answered by a tall woman, who looked to be in her late fifties though April wasn't entirely sure, with brassy bleach blonde hair. She gave the impression of trying to look younger than she actually was, wearing clothes that just didn't look quite right on her. She gave April a hard stare asking her what the hell she wanted with out her even having to move her lips.
"Hi." April beamed. "My name is April O'Neil. A journalist, I'm doing a report about some things that happened in the past... I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about a girl called Susan O'Connell."
The woman snorted. "Susan? I had a daughter called Susan. We called her Suzie. She went missing a long time ago. That what this is all about?" She sighed. "I suppose you can come in."
She led April into a small room furnished with a brown sofa, two matching chairs and a Formica coffee table with about six weeks worth of TV Guide and Soap Opera Digest strewn all over it.
"Sit down. " She pointed to one of the brown chairs. April sat and took out a note book smiling professionally.
"So what do you want to know?"
April took the bracelet from her bag and passed it over to Mrs O'Connell. "A friend of mine found this in the sewers."
The woman looked up puzzled.
"He's a... ah... maintenance worker." April explained. "Anyway... we found an old newspaper article and found that you had a daughter called Susan who went missing."
The woman nodded. "That's right... she had one like this, too. I got her it for her thirteenth birthday." She rubbed the silver between her fingers gazing at it a moment.
"Do you think this is hers?"
The woman shrugged. "Maybe."
"Do you know what happened to your daughter?"
Mrs O'Connell looked at April sharply. "Police already asked me all this years ago. I tell you what I told them. I don't know. She started to hang out with all them bad kids and started giving me lip..."
"What bad kids?"
"You know, nasty kids that lived around the neighbourhood. Suzie was obsessed with this one guy... thought she was in love with him... followed him everywhere... but he was just using her. I even tried locking her in her room but she wouldn't have it. Then one night she never came back. Police interviewed them but they said she wasn't with them that night."
"Do you remember any names?" April asked.
"Nah... Only the one she liked... Danny, I think... Soames? Sullivan.. yeah.. I think it was Sullivan."
"He still around?" April asked casually.
"In jail last I heard." Susan's mother snorted. "Best place for him... nasty... violent man."
"I see..." April looked down at her notes. "Well thank you. I appreciate your time." She pointed at the bracelet. "You can keep that if you want."
Mrs O'Connell looked like she might refuse for a moment then she nodded. "...Alright."
"Did you make sure she took the bracelet?" Leo asked.
April nodded. "She has it... you think Susan will leave you guys now?"
Leo bit his lip. "I hope so... if she doesn't Raph and Don might kill me."
April laughed. "I'm sure it's not that bad, Leo!"
He watched her walk back into her apartment and shook his head.