Lost In Shadow

Chapter 8

Leo returned home to see Mike chatting to the ghost as he made himself a sandwich in the kitchen.

"..Lots of ham, see? Mega chunks of cheese... our refrigerators on its last legs so... y'know... best before and all that. Mustard! Yeah... I'd put some salad in but we don't really have much... or any..."

The ghost appeared to be observing everything with great interest.

Leo leant on the counter. "Mikey... what are you doing?"

"Showing Suzie how to make the King of all sandwiches."

Leo rolled his eyes. "Okay... makes a change from pizza, I guess. Raph and Don around?"

"Yeah... Raph's in his room. Don's behind that pile of junk over there..." Mike lowered his voice. "Only don't call it junk, he hasn't come to terms with his loss yet."

"Okay." Leo looked at the ghost. Her mother had the bracelet... and yet she was still in the lair. Perhaps she didn't know.

"Susan..." Leo began.

She blanked him, still staring intently at Mike's culinary creation.

"She prefers Suzie now, Leo."

"...right... Suzie?"

Dull grey eyes switched from the sandwich to Leo. Leo felt a chill down his spine and felt incredibly uncomfortable. He really didn't like those eyes... at all.

"Listen Suzie, we gave the bracelet to your mom. That's what you wanted right? You can go to her now. Visit her before you move on." ...Or whatever it is that you do... Leo thought to himself.

The ghost gazed at him a moment, then her eyes clicked back to the sandwich. Leo felt a sudden weight drop from his chest to the pit of his stomach. From the corner of his eye he saw Don's head poke out from behind all the junk... then nip back again quickly.

"You can go now..." Leo repeated.

She didn't move, still ignoring him.

Leo looked at Mike helplessly.

"...don't you want to see your mom...?" Mike asked, Suzie looked at him then vanished.

"...Do you think she's gone?" Leo hardly dared breathe a sigh of relief. Mike shrugged his shoulders.

"I hope so." Don piped up in the background. "I can rebuild my pc without having to worry about it getting wrecked again."

"And it is much warmer." Splinter entered the room with a smile.

"I'm gonna let Raph know!" Don cried enthusiastically, dashing out of the room.

I'll miss her." Mike watched Don sprint into Raph's room.

"I'm sorry to say that I will not." Splinter shook his head. "Having you boys quarrelling has been difficult enough... not to mention the small explosions... but I was also finding it very difficult to meditate."

"Why sensei?" Leo asked curiously.

"I'm not sure, Leonardo. Perhaps she disrupts my meditation the same way she disrupted Donatello's computer."

"Yeah, all that negative energy coming from her had a pretty devastating effect." Don said cheerily. "Even worse than Raph's negative energy."

Raph gave Don a playful punch on the shoulder. "Hey watch it." He grinned.

"Good that we're all feeling better anyway..." Leo ventured.

"Yeah, "Raph smiled. "Just do us a favour, Leo. Don't go bringing any dead peoples stuff back here again."

"I won't, believe me." Leo breathed a sigh of relief that ended in a groan. The girl had reappeared at the far end of the room and was now staring hard at him. He could almost feel those eyes skinning him with a glare, leaving his raw flesh behind. Splinter noticed Leo's discomfort and followed his gaze.

"I see." He shook his head. "I think it is time I tried to solve this now, my son."

Don shivered at the drop in temperature and turned. He saw the ghost and cursed. "This is so not good."

"Oh £$$$£!" Raphael cursed even louder. "I don't believe it."

Splinter approached the ghost. "Susan... Suzie, you cannot stay here any longer. Your presence here is unnatural... you should not be here. It is time for you to move on."

Suzie walked past Splinter and stood facing Mike, her head cocked on one side.

"Hey Suzie!" Mike grinned.

He noticed the range of expressions on his brothers faces which ranged from furious to vengeful and decided to change tack.

"Suzie... you can't stay here..."

She smiled at Mike, and then pointed to her midriff at her t-shirt stained with blood. Mike swallowed and looked over at Leo.

Leo sighed. "She was hanging out with some guy called Danny Sullivan... but he's in jail. There's nothing we can do. We can't get to him there... besides..." Leo paused. "We're not her tools for vengeance."

"There ya go." Raph said. "He's in jail. You go visit them all and when you find him you can strangle him psychically... or blow his radio up... or something. Go on... see ya... bye."

Suzie shrugged her shoulders and walked back into the kitchen, back to Mikey's forgotten sandwich.

They sat on the sofa with their heads in their hands listening to Mikey prattle away to the ghost.

"What do you think?" Don sighed. "We're going to have to talk to this Sullivan guy, aren't we?"

"How..?" Leo frowned. "With all the security it'll be difficult... not impossible... but difficult."

Raph looked thoughtful. "Maybe Casey could get in as a visitor?"

"You don't think he'll mess up?" Don said hesitantly.

Raph glared.

"Maybe April could go with him... keep him on track..?" Leo suggested.

Don nodded.

"I'll go see Casey." Raph said... "First we'd better make sure this Sullivan is the guy that was with her when she died. Hey kid! Come here."

The ghost blanked him.

"Alright... Suzie."

She didn't move.

"Suzie?" Leo tried. She looked over and stood... moving toward them, her toes just skimming the floor.

"We're going to talk to this Danny Sullivan guy." Leo explained. "Our friend Casey should be able to get in to see him. Was... was it him that... stabbed you..?"

She nodded her grey eyes never leaving his face, he felt uncomfortable her stare was so intense.

"Did...? Was it him that pushed you in?"

She nodded again.

"Suzie..." Don began. She didn't look at him... still staring at Leonardo. "Uh... hello?"

He muttered something under his breath. "Leo... ask her what it is she actually wants us to do...?"

"...good point... Suzie... what do you want us to do?"

She smiled and pointed at the door.

"You get the idea she wants rid of us..?" Raph scowled as they splashed through the sewer water.

"It, Raph..." Don corrected... "She's an 'it'."

"Y' think?" Leo looked at Raph. "Maybe we shouldn't be leaving Mike and Splinter..."

Raph shrugged... "We'll try this Sullivan guy... Then we're gonna have to get tough with her... it... whatever."

"Tough... "Don snorted. "Last time we got tough with her she almost brought the place down."

"Yeah... we don't want her screaming like that again..." Raph looked disturbed for a moment.

They came to a junction in the sewers. "I'm going to head to April's and ask her if she'll help us out," Don said. "I need to use her computer anyway."

Leo nodded. "Right, we'll get Casey and meet you at April's."

"I don't understand..." April looked tired. "What do you expect to get out of this? They guy is in prison... he's serving a sentence for something... maybe even murder. He's being punished."

"I don't know..." Leo rubbed his brow. It was getting so hard to think. "She wants us to do this... maybe it's the only way for her to go. Just talk to the guy. Ask him if he murdered her... maybe all we need is a confession."

Casey shook his head. "... No way will he confess to that, Leo.... We can't even ask that. There's going to be guards with us... phone lines will be tapped... security is high... There's no privacy in jail. If we make them suspicious they might turn on us... y'know..?"

"We'll just start by mentioning her name... asking if they were friends." April sighed. "He might let something slip. It is worth a try." She smiled at Leo. "Don't worry, okay?"

Leo nodded.

"Okay Casey, we're going to need to fake a drivers license or passport, any form of id... do you have a state id card?" April fumbled in her purse. "Already on it." Casey grinned. "I have my contacts. We should have them in time for visiting hours tomorrow"

"I hacked into their system and put you down as family member in their database. You're a cousin." Don bit his lip and gave April an apologetic look. "April, you're Casey's wife."

April blinked. "What?! I don't believe this!" She shook her head. "Let's get it over with. I'll call you guys' tomorrow evening, okay? Unless..." She muttered under her breath. "...we end up in jail for this ourselves..."

Leo wasn't the only one who was a little jittery the next day. Donatello was beginning to rebuild his computer... but he kept breaking off and gazing at nothing in a thoughtful way. Raphael was beating the crap out of every training dummy they had... Leonardo tried to concentrate on training but kept thinking about whether April or Casey would get caught or wondering what the Sullivan guy would say. Splinter alternated between meditation and speaking to his sons, he also seemed a little out of it. Only Michelangelo appeared happy, he was showing Suzie photographs.

"We couldn't take photograph before," Mikey was explaining. "Because we couldn't get them developed... y'know... loads of photos of mutant turtles... it's not very secret. But April got us a digital camera last Christmas and it's been so cool. Donnie showed us how to use it... its really easy and now we can take photos." He grinned. "Too bad there aren't any of us when we were kids. They'd be cool."

He pointed at some pictures. "This is us last Christmas when we first got it. I took one of Raph in the bathroom... but he deleted it so I can't show you. It was funny though, except Splinter made me do fifty flips." Mikey looked thoughtful a moment. "So I guess it wasn't that funny..."

"When Don's computer's up and running again I'll show you how to use it, only you'd better stand clear in case you break it." Mike looked at her. "Would you show up in a photo?"
Suzie shrugged her shoulders and glanced across the room at Donatello and his computer. Don and Suzie glared at each other a moment... then they looked away.

"We can try, anyway." Mike grinned. "We'll need to do it before you go though, right?" Mikey started to pack the photos away.

"When my computer's back in action, that... thing is not going anywhere near it." Don glowered.

Mike looked at Suzie... "You won't break it again, will you?" Suzie smiled and shook her head.

Mike grinned at Don. "See!" He stood and went over to put the photographs away. The ghost looked over at Don and gave a slow nod, then gave a nasty smirk. Don went cold inside... he swallowed and looked over at Leo who was gazing distractedly at a crack in the sewer wall and hadn't noticed a thing. Splinter was in deep meditation... or would have been had he been able to. Instead his whiskers twitched with irritation as he tried to clear his mind. Don looked at Raph who stood staring at him his arms hung limply at his sides as the bag he'd been pummelling swung slowly and then stopped. He looked from Don to the ghost then back at Don again with a wtf expression.

Don was about to sign to Raph to keep it quiet when he blew up.

Raphael swore loudly, causing Splinter to jump and stare at Raph with a stern expression.

"Did you see that!!? Leo, that thing is totally out to get Don!" He pointed an accusing finger at the ghost who sat with an innocently blank look on her face. Mikey turned, his expression matching Suzie's.

"What?" He looked at Suzie... she gave him a puzzled look.

"She nodded at me..." Don sighed. He'd been hoping to have a quiet word with Mikey... something less accusing... but he couldn't blame Raph's annoyance, he was pretty mad himself. "After you said she wouldn't damage my computer... she shook her head at you, but nodded at me."

Mikey looked at Suzie. "Really?"

Suzie nodded and looked sad. She pointed at Don sadly. "He's mean."

Don's jaw dropped.

Mikey laughed. "Donnie's not mean Suzie! He's a really nice guy. Honestly when you get to know each other you'll realise how nice each other is. Even Raph!" Mikey nudged Raph. "I think you just need to get used to each other." He went into the kitchen; Suzie followed drifting past Don and Raph with a mocking expression.

Don looked at Raph... "We're in trouble..." he began.

Raphael looked ready to kill someone.

"...cool it Raph. We need to talk to Leo and Splinter. Don't start anything yet. We already know what she's capable of."

Raph gritted his teeth. "Don... I think we've just sent Casey and April on a wild goose chase. They're not going to learn anything are they?"