Ghost Slayers
Chapter Six
By Relm
"Zelgadis Greywars? What else do you have on him?" Lina asked while frowning. Looking at 'Zelgadis' Lina was sure that she didn't know him. But the name struck a chord in the back of her mind. 'Maybe I read about him in the newspaper a while back.'
"Not much. He's not married and according to this he might not have any immediate family. Nobody knows what happened to him, he just disappeared one day." Amelia explained.
"No leads at all?" Lina's frown creased further.
"Nothing according to this. But then this isn't exactly a detailed report on his case. This is just a Sailune City community site. All the stuff is going to be general anyway. If you really want to know the assorted details you'd have to ask the police. And they don't give out details to anyone."
"Unless of course you have a friend in the police. Or a guy who's completely in love with you that works there." Filia commented out loud while grinning at Sylphiel.
Sylphiel blushed. "Gourry is not in love with me Filia! And even if he was I couldn't just call him to get information. He would lose his job!" She protested.
"Not if you let him know it's for a case of ours. Officer Gaberieve is a big supporter of Ghost Slayers." Lina pointed out.
"Well you know Lina I think he supports our company not because of what we do but who you employ." Filia nudged Sylphiel in the side grinning mischievously.
"Cut that out Filia!" Lina scolded the blond woman. "We've help him clear up a couple of his cases so I'm sure that's why he's supportive. But seriously Sylphiel why don't you give him a call? At the very worst he could just end up saying no."
Sylphiel frowned. "Well I could try. But I'm not going to pressure him for more information then he's willing to give." She insisted picking up the phone and dialling.
"Fair enough Sylphiel."
Sylphiel held the phone up to her ear and waited for someone to pick up on the other end.
"Hello Sailune Police. How can I help you?"
"Hi this is Sylphiel Nels Rada. I was wondering if I could talk with officer Gaberieve if he's available?" Sylphiel asked nervously.
"One moment please. I'll put you through."
"Thank you."
"Hello? This is officer Gaberieve."
"Hi Gourry, it's Sylphiel."
"S-ylphiel? Wow this is nice… you calling me at work I mean. I was so bored. Zangulus has stuck me with all the paperwork even though he knows it makes my head spin. And boy is it spinning Why I-"
"Um Gourry?" Sylphiel interpreted him unable to control her grin. Gourry wasn't the brightest of fellows but he had a good heart and was a good worker. But strangely whenever Sylphiel was around he couldn't stop rambling on and on.
"Oh sorry. Got carried away again huh? So what can I do for you today?"
"Well I wanted to know if you'd help me with a case we're dealing with."
"What's that?"
"It's to do with a man named Zelgadis Greywars-"
"Is he dead?"
"Well yes and no I suppose…"
"Huh?"
"What I need to know is if you can tell me how the police's progress is concerning Mr. Greywars' missing person's case."
"Sylphiel I'm not supposed to give out information to people outside the station."
"Yeah that's what I figured. Filia and Lina put me up to calling you about it since Mr. Greywars' ghost is here and all-"
"His ghost? So he must be dead. But you said he was both dead and live. How can he but both at the same time?"
"Well he appears to be a ghost but he's not reading like one. Our instruments seem to indicate that he's alive."
"Hmmm…give me a moment."
CLICK!
Sylphiel frowned at the phone.
"Sylphiel what's wrong?" Lina asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well either he put me on hold or he hung up on me."
"Wait then. If he hung up on you you'll know in a moment or too."
Sylphiel waited and waited and waited some more, then sighed and waited again.
"Maybe he put you on hold and forgot about you." Filia suggested snickering.
Sylphiel glared at Filia.
"Hey Sylphiel? Are you still there?"
"Yes I am Gourry."
"Gee I'm sorry I left you waiting so long. I had a talk with my boss. He said I could tell you some of the minor details of the case."
"That's wonderful Gourry! Thank you!"
"Okay now I just have to figure out how to get into the case file on the computer… I think I press this button? No wait it was this one!"
Sylphiel sweatdropped. She didn't need to be there to know that this wasn't going to be good.
"There I think I got it. Oh wait no what's that thing popping up? Uh-oh um… I'll be right back Sylphiel." Gourry left the phone on the side but didn't bothering putting it on hold so this time Sylphiel could hear everything going on. "Hey Zangulus could you come here for a moment. I think I did something to computer. It's making lots of noises and things are popping up that are making rude comments about me. I don't like it, it's scary."
Sylphiel facefaulted. 'At this rate he'll end up erasing everything.'
"Gourry why do you always do this? And what the hell did you do this time?" Sylphiel could hear Zangulus talking.
"I wasn't trying to blow up the computer. It's lying, don't believe what it's saying." Gourry protested in his defence.
"What were you trying to do?"
"I just wanted to look at a case file."
"And you felt compelled to crash the computer while doing so?"
"I didn't mean to! Did I break it?"
Sylphiel could hear Zangulus sigh, he didn't sound all the impressed.
"No Gourry you didn't break it. Just give me a moment I'll get it running again in a jiffy."
Sylphiel could hear some rustling on the phone as Gourry picked it up.
"Sorry this is taking so long Sylphiel." Gourry apologized.
"Having computer troubles Gourry?"
"Yeah I'm no good with the things." Gourry laughed.
"Well you know there are always computer courses you can take if you want to sharpen up on your computer skills." Sylphiel suggested.
"Yeah I know. In fact the station even chipped in for me to take a couple. I didn't do too well though. I flunked."
Sylphiel giggled. "That's okay. A lot of people have problems with computers."
"That's true. And who needs computer smarts when I've got Zangulus to help me?"
Sylphiel could hear Zangulus grumbling which in turn made Sylphiel laugh.
"Alright, it's fixed. Don't go messing it up Gourry." Zangulus warned Gourry.
"Thanks Zangulus. Okay Sylphiel now then onto that case file…which case file was it again?"
Sylphiel sweatdropped. "The missing person's report for Zelgadis Greywars."
"Ah right here we go. No wait that's not right. How do you spell the last name?"
"Greywars, g-r-e-y-w-a-r-s."
"Thanks. Okay here it is. Greywars. He was reported missing by his boss on July 6th. Zelgadis Greywars is 23 years old, lives alone and has no immediate family. The investigation is still ongoing."
"So I'm guessing the case went cold."
"Yeah looks that way. We haven't had any new breaks in that case since last year. Everything listed here was a dead end. Hey wait a minute!"
"What is it Gourry?"
"It says here that Zangulus and I were the officers investigating the case. That's funny I don't remember this case at all! Zangulus must have done most of the work."
Sylphiel sighed. Gourry might have been a good cop but his memory left something to be desired. "Well is there anything else you can tell me? Like his address?"
"I'm sorry Sylphiel I can't give you that information. There's only one other thing I can tell you, and that's where he was last seen. The last time anyone saw Greywars was at work. He was working late in his office and offered to close up. So the other workers left for the night. When they came in the morning they had assumed that Greywars had left. Is that helpful to you at all?"
"Yes it is, thank you Gourry."
"You're welcome. Eeep I'd better get back to work. My boss is giving me the evil eye. Bye Sylphiel!"
"Bye Gourry." Sylphiel hung up the phone.
"So what info do you have?" Lina prompted her for information right away.
"He's 23, lives alone and has no immediate family. He was last seen at work and the investigation is still ongoing. But it's gone cold." Sylphiel explained.
"Did you get his address?" Filia asked.
Sylphiel shook his head.
"Darn that would have been a good place to go to get some readings." Filia frowned.
"We can still go." Lina said fishing around her desk.
"No we can't. We don't know where the place is."
"Yeah so, we can still find out."
"How?"
Lina held up the previous year's phonebook. "With this."
"Why do you have old phonebooks?" Filia raised an eyebrow.
"For research purposes. I've got phonebooks dating back 30 years. It's handy when you want to check up a ghost that used to live someplace." Lina explained while flipping through the book.
"Yeah if you know the name of the ghost. And just where did you get all those books anyway?"
"I have my sources." Lina said mysteriously. "There we go. Greywars, Z. Hmmm… he doesn't live too far from Sailune City Library. Come to think of it Sailune Publishing is just two buildings over from the library. Maybe something happened to him at work and he got confused and ended up in wrong building." Lina mused.
"Should we go check it out? Or go to Sailune City Library first?"
Lina tapped her fingers in thought. "Well since Amelia has been cooped up all day I think she should come out on this one."
Amelia cheered.
"And also since Mr. Greywars here seems to be scared of Filia I think Sylphiel should stay and keep an eye on things."
"Okay." Sylphiel agreed to the arrangement hesitantly. She didn't have a lot of problems being around ghost. But Mr. Greywars wasn't a normal ghost so that made her a little more cautious then she'd normally be.
"Alright but still which fist, library or home?"
"Well how about this Filia, why don't you and Amelia go to the library and I'll check out his home." Lina suggested.
"Going alone... are you sure that's wise Lina?"
"From the information Sylphiel got from officer Gaberieve, the event that caused this problem with our ghost probably happened at his work and not his home. So it's better that you two stick together just in case. Besides if it's still an active investigation I highly doubt I'll be allowed to just waltz right into his home. I'll just do some readings outside the building. Is that okay with you two?" Lina asked Amelia and Filia.
The two women nodded.
"Alright then let's get going. I'll drop you off at the library and I'll come by once I'm done with Zelgadis' home."