Chasing Ghosts (22 page)

“
Mmmmmm.” The chicken tasted just like
her grandmother’s. Crispy and not too greasy. If she wasn’t already
in the farmer’s crosshairs, she’d go back for another piece. Now
she needed a bath. She shifted quickly and with the bones in its
beak, the gray hawk shoved off the tree branch. It watched for
small animals below and then dropped the bones for them to pick
clean. A lake was off in the distance. Before emerging from the
safety of the woods, the hawk swooped down, shifted back into the
wolf and charged toward the water.

The wolf took a tentative step at the shore,
padded in, then dove under the surface. It shifted to Sara. With
eyes open she dipped and swerved in the murky water, barely able to
see beyond six feet. Muck covered the bottom along with beer cans,
what looked like railroad ties, and an automobile covered with
green algae. Sara moved closer to the side window, peered inside,
then pulled back in alarm. She shoved off toward the surface and
came up gulping air amid a crowd of cattails.

“
Why me?” She breathed in deeply trying
to erase the image of the remains she saw in the car. All this time
she had thought it was Dagger who attracted trouble. Now she
wondered if she was the culprit, or was it just Dagger’s influence
on her.

She used her hawk vision to study the
opposite shoreline. Two young boys were fishing off of a pier.
Ducks paddled a safe distance from the boys. A no trespassing sign
was clearly posted to Sara’s right. A no swimming sign was nailed
below the trespassing sign. What to do.

The farmer’s house was less than a mile away
but she was not exactly dressed for walking much less for swimming
up to the boys to ask if they had a telephone. She gulped air and
sank back down to search the car. The license plate was hanging on
by one screw. Sara tried unscrewing it but it was rusted on. She
tugged, wrenching it from the bumper then swam back to the
surface.

The gray wolf emerged from the water, dropped
the license plate on the grass, shook the water from its body,
snatched the plate in its jaws, and tore off across the field,
through the woods. As it approached the farmer’s yard, it halted. A
police car was in the driveway. It tensed when it saw the gun in
the cop’s holster and the rifle in the farmer’s hand. It crept
closer.

“
I tell you, Sheriff, it was a
wolf.”

“
Woody, wolves want fresh meat, not
something cooked to order. It was a wild dog, that’s all. You
didn’t get harmed none. And I don’t want to hear of you tempting
wolves or coyotes here so you can earn a bounty.” Sunlight
reflected off the sheriff ’s mirrored sunglasses. The name Olsen
was on his shirt pocket. He worked a toothpick around his mouth as
he looked toward a pen of alpacas nearby. “If it had wanted to, it
could have gone after the alpacas, but it didn’t.”

“
Still don’t mean it won’t be back. I
got little ones. I can’t send them out to play if…” Woody saw the
toothpick drop from the sheriff ’s mouth. “What?” He turned to see
the wolf creeping toward them. Woody shouldered his rifle but the
sheriff clamped a hand on his arm.

“
Hold it up there. It don’t look
menacing. Look.” He motioned toward the pen with his chin. “The
alpacas aren’t even agitated that the wolf is near. Strangest damn
thing I ever saw.”

“
What’s it got in its
mouth?”

The gray wolf stopped, looked from one man to
the next. Cautiously it moved forward, then dropped the license
plate on the ground. It looked over its shoulder once, took several
steps back and waited.

“
What the hell?” Sheriff Olsen took
several cautious steps toward the license plate. The wolf
retreated, then approached, retreated again. “I think it wants us
to follow it.”

“
Right. Lead us right to the pack where
it will rip the skin off our bones.”

“
Woody, you been watchin’ too much
television.” Olsen picked up the license plate, swiped a hand
across the mud and muck. “It’s wet. Been in the water.”

“
Hey, does that say
Rosegard?”

“
Why…I think you’re right.” Olsen
pulled out his hankie and wiped the plate dry. “A lady who owned
that flower shop over in Mitchell County went missing over five
years ago. That plate number went through a statewide broadcast for
at least a year. Was real foggy that night from what the report
said.”

“
You don’t think she went way out of
her way and ended up in our county, do you?”

Olsen looked at the wolf and cocked his head.
“Unusual intelligence for a four-legged animal, if you ask me.”

“
Well, we’ll just see.” Woody grabbed
the license plate and called out to the wolf, “Hey, where’d you
find this?” He waved the plate in the air.

“
Set the rifle down so it sees you
don’t mean it no harm. Lord knows, I don’t need PETA parked on my
doorstep.”

Woody placed the rifle on the picnic table
and took a step toward the wolf. “Show us where you found it.” The
wolf took off across the field.

“
Climb in, Woody. We’ll take my
Blazer.”

They sped off across the field in pursuit of
the wolf. Woody said, “The only water close by is over on the
Bishop property. Got a ten acre pond. If someone were to take a
wrong turn off that cloverleaf and mistake that tractor road for a
street, they could very easily end up in a whole lotta
trouble.”

The pond came into view. The wolf was
standing at the edge looking at the water. It cocked its head as
the Blazer skidded to a stop. Sheriff Olsen stepped out of the
vehicle and stripped off his gun belt, hat, shirt, shoes, and
socks.

“
May as well get a little wet.” Olsen
approached the edge of the pond. The wolf was just ten feet away.
“That is a beautiful animal. Look at them eyes, Woody. Just
beautiful.” Olsen stepped in and gasped. “Feels good. Been so hot
lately.” The water crept up to his waist. “Get a rope out of the
back of my truck in case I need a pull out of this muck.” When
Woody returned with the rope, the sheriff tied it around his waist
and then dove into the water.

Woody stared apprehensively at the wolf.
“Hope you enjoyed that chicken of mine. If you’da stuck around you
coulda had some peach pie.”

The sheriff broke the surface, his hair
plastered to his head. He clambered out breathing heavily. “It’s
there. Gotta car and a body. I gotta call it in, get the state
officials out here. Let them drag the car out.”

“
Well, that closes a huge case thanks
to…” Woody turned. “Where’d the wolf go?”

CHAPTER 27

Padre found Cardinal Esrey pacing the walkway
between the fountains and garden, hands clasped behind his back. It
reminded him of his seminary days when he would catch John Wozniak
pacing the seminary grounds, contemplating his desire for the
priesthood and Renee Banasiak, his college sweetheart. Padre had
learned several months later that Renee’s pregnancy had a lot to do
with John leaving the seminary.

There could be a lot weighing heavily on
Cardinal Esrey, Padre tried to convince himself. After all, he
represented millions of people and a 2,000-year-old faith. The
child abuse scandal was just starting to subside. He had met with a
number of area priests concerned about school closings as well as
representatives of Catholic charities. Although careful to show
only his serious side to the press, how many people, Padre thought,
would be surprised to see the collection of books which accompanies
the cardinal on his travels? Besides poetry, the cardinal was a big
fan of science fiction.

Cardinal Esrey stopped in front of a stone
bench and sat down slowly. Padre didn’t have to be a cop to know
that something was wrong, more than school closings and child abuse
allegations. The cardinal leaned forward, elbows on his knees,
hands clasped, but not in prayer.

Padre approached slowly, then stood for
several seconds waiting. The cardinal finally looked up and pointed
toward the bench. “Please,” the cardinal said.

“
Forgive me for the intrusion, Your
Eminence,” Padre said, taking a seat next to the cardinal. “But you
look like a man in need of confessing.”

“
Don’t look so depressed,” Simon said.
Skizzy had made a point to place each guest’s napkin on his lap,
allowing the bug monitor to pass behind the guests’ necks but not
one person set off the monitor.

“
Don’t seem right. Thought for sure the
cardinal woulda set this thing to beeping and humming, but nope.”
They stood in an alcove watching the caterers refilling platters of
food. The cardinal had given a short speech of gratitude for Robert
Tyler’s hospitality but all in all the event had been stiff and
boring.

The cardinal’s secretary had refused to join
the guests and taken a tray to his room. Even Skizzy had found the
guy squirrelly, which was strange coming from Skizzy. Now Father
Thomas was back, showing papers to the cardinal and talking about
flights.

“
The cardinal has the patience of a
saint,” Simon whispered. “Trouble don’t follow a man like
that.”

“
Except for the break-in at his suite,
the dead security guard, and the clone jumper,” Skizzy reminded
him.

“
Good point.”

Father Thomas had his hands full of papers as
he headed for the alcove. Not watching where he was going, he
bumped into Skizzy sending papers flying.

“
Father Thomas, are you okay?” Simon
said as he bent down to help pick up the papers. Simon looked up to
see Skizzy’s eyes growing in size. He half expected them to pop out
of his head at any moment. Without any warning, he saw Skizzy pass
his hand across the back of the priest’s neck. The monitor started
buzzing and beeping.

Skizzy jerked his hand up and clasped his ear
just as the priest straightened, papers clutched to his chest.

“
Sorry, it’s my hearing aid,” Skizzy
blurted.

The normally congenial priest glared with
righteous indignation at Skizzy, then stalked off

“
What kinda hair-brained idea is
rolling around in that head of yours?” Simon asked.

Skizzy pounded away on the keyboard, his face
a combination of anger, fear, and maniacal devilishness. After
excusing themselves from waiter duty, Skizzy had rushed back to the
shop to check further into the videotapes from the airport. An hour
before departing for their terminal, Father Thomas had confronted
the man on the videotape while the cardinal made a stop in the
restroom. It had been a heated discussion with Father Thomas
blocking his way. The two men appeared to jockey for position. That
was when Father Thomas slipped his hand into the man’s pocket.

“
Crap. Did you see that?” Skizzy said.
“Yeah. He stole something from him.”

“
The flash drive. It was in the man’s
pocket.”

Simon stood back and studied the man for
several seconds. “Zoom in on the tall guy. See if he’s got one of
them scars.”

Skizzy said, “Already checked. He’s clean.
Obviously a big honcho.”

“
A dead honcho,” Simon said. “If that
flash drive was important and he lost it on his watch, he’s good as
dead.”

“
Maybe Father Thomas wanted more money
for whatever it is he was hired to do.”

“
What money? If Thomas has the scar
then he’s a genetically engineered soldier. He does what he’s
told.”

“
Unless he went rogue. That’s what I
think happened to Dagger. Maybe he went rogue and the powers that
be can’t have that.”

Simon didn’t have an answer to that. It all
made sense. “So what are you doing with the cardinal’s IP
address?”

“
Mr.Tyler said the cardinal isn’t up on
all these new electronics, that only Father Thomas has access to
the computer.”

Simon looked over Skizzy’s shoulder as he
accessed a number of porn sites. “What the hell? The church has
enough trouble with child abuse,” Simon argued.

“
No children. These are lovely ladies,
escort services, and anything else I can find. This should keep the
assassin out of Rome.”

CHAPTER 28

Dagger had been sitting on the bench for what
seemed like hours trying to make sense out of everything. Buildings
were tethered together, all doors and windows and the same marble
running up the faces of the one-story structures. He inhaled deeply
and closed his eyes. The aroma from the flowers was strong. Dagger
reached over and fingered the petals of one of the plants. They
weren’t real. They were silk. Another sound made him spin around.
Children laughing, dogs barking. Dagger dashed from pillar to
pillar, making his way toward the noise. His eyes scanned the
windows for images as he moved. He made his way down the street,
then turned a corner. A block away there was a park but there
weren’t any children. He heard dogs barking but didn’t see any
dogs. Swings moved back and forth yet no one was on them.

“
What the hell?” Dagger didn’t believe
in ghosts but this was like an underground city whose residents
refused to leave. He checked the door to one of the buildings,
tried the knob but it was locked. He pressed his face to the window
and saw office furniture, computer equipment, what looked like a
lab coat across the back of a chair. Using the pick gun, he
unlocked the door just as a new stream of noise from the park
erupted. Dagger turned to see the park filled with
people.

“
Shit!” He slipped into the office,
locked the door, and watched the park from the window. Assured no
one had seen him, he turned away from the window and studied the
office. There was a flat screen monitor on the desk but no
keyboard. There wasn’t a desk calendar or a scrap of paper
anywhere. A stained coffee cup was once full of something that had
long since produced its own penicillin. The occupant didn’t even
have time to finish his coffee before vacating the premises. Dagger
studied the park again. People were jogging, children were swinging
on the swings, mothers were sitting on benches talking.