Pennies for the Ferryman - 01 (28 page)

“I’ve already spoken to Silas and he was going to call your grandmother and recommend that she avoid leaving the house. We’re going to lay a protective barrier around his gravesite after the funeral. He’s getting buried tomorrow right? So, we can do it in the evening or Saturday morning. Either way, if his body is his focus and he tries to go back to recharge, old Charlie will be trapped and unable to get out. We can send Kevin in with the sword to finish him off. I’m guessing you’d be up for it, right?”

Only one of Kevin’s eyes was able to open at the moment.

“Damn straight,”
he growled

Elsbeth wasn’t satisfied and her fear of the man was getting the better of her.

“He’s too strong! You should get more help!”

I fought my urge to shout at her. Mom was out watching her shows, enjoying a rare evening off from her second job at Pizza Hut. I kept music playing to mask the sound of my side of the conversation. Our relationship was on enough thin ice without mom getting wind of this. “Calm down right now! This is no reason to panic! Your ex probably looks a helluva lot worse than Kevin does right now. Look. He’s a big strong bastard, but that’s it. I doubt he knows any of the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of being a ghost. Unless he has someone coaching him, he hasn’t been dead long enough to really get a grip on what he can and can’t do.”

“You don’t know him like I do…”

It’s kind of unnerving to see a ghost trembling.

“Elsbeth, look at me. Look at me! He lost the element of surprise. This was his best shot at me and he blew it.”

Kevin speaks up,
“Where do you think he is now?”

“Who knows? My guess is somewhere licking his wounds. Elsbeth, you keep saying how well you know him, so your job is to think of anything he might use for a focus, if he isn’t using his gravesite. Go on back to Megan’s house; you can’t do any more here.”

“But I should stay, for Kevin…”
she trailed off. Either she was really being lovey-dovey or she was begging not to go and I knew Kevin wasn’t going anywhere.

“Fine, stay if you want, but when my mom goes to bed, you two go out and stay on the couch. I need to get some sleep.”

Until then, my combat experience, though limited, took over. We didn’t have a lot, but I was certain we had more than our enemy did. The three of us just needed to act smart…

Sadly, my name and the words “act smart” weren’t often used in the same sentence.

“Can you see him,” I ask the blind man. One of my many problems is that from a distance, ghosts look like regular people to me. It was all pretty much a blur beyond thirty yards. Sometimes I can spot a little haze around them, but most times not. Granted that my vision is still a bit suspect, but my last check up showed a decided improvement.

Brother Silas Parker was completely blind, except he could see ghosts, when they’re out in the open. If they’re obscured by a solid object, he can’t. “Other than our friends, there are two of them over that direction, neither of them look to be big enough to match your description, Mike.”

I wondered whether some of the living funeral goers were there simply to make certain Snowden was dead. Elsbeth pointed out who were his students and members of the faculty. She sneered when pointing out his new girlfriend, who, she said; he only dated because she had “big boobs”. Some things don’t change.

Silas and I were pretending to visit a grave; close enough to watch, but far enough to be out of the way. I spend a lot of time in graveyards these days – so I know how to act.

“Mike, don’t you think you ought to cancel your date with Candy?”
Elsbeth asks for the third time.

My answer was a bit on the snappish side. Outside of Jenny pulling her head out of her hiney, the last few days hadn’t been a resounding success – I was really looking forward to my often postponed date. “No, I don’t. She’s my girlfriend. She knows about…” I waved my hands around in slight futility, “all this. We’ve had one date so far and it didn’t go so great. I’m not afraid of him and I’m not going to let him run my life.”

From what little I know of people who’ve possessed this ability, they’ve all died early, in poverty, and were generally regarded as mentally ill. Frankly, that’s not a great career path, so I need to make an effort to buck the trend.

Brother Silas took a conciliatory position and addressed her. “I can assume from the tone of his reply, Elsbeth, that you question his desire to live as normal a life as possible. Michael walks a difficult path; we can only help him along the way as best we can, but only he can carry his burden. Ask yourself, if this were any other ghost, say, the elusive Colonel Vincent, would you be so concerned?”

Elsbeth had the sense to look rebuffed and Silas reached out to where she stood and made like he was resting his hand on her shoulder. His savvy approach was another reminder that ghosts were once people too and that I needed to remember to treat them like they’re still alive.

Of course, he wasn’t finished with me yet, “That said, I think it’s a questionable move on your part as well, Michael, but I was young too; a long time ago and you’re going to be moving around in her car so he’d be hard pressed to track you.” Silas paused like he was searching for something else to say, “Has everyone left?”

“Just about.”

“Good, there will be a stretch of time before the workers come back to put the earth back on top of the casket. We should be able to get in and sanctify the gravesite then. Watch the parking lot and tell me when the last car leaves.”

Minutes later, the group of us walked towards Snowden’s grave. Charlie floated out of his casket and glared at us. Elsbeth moved protectively behind Kevin, carried my sword. The pipe wrench was in my backpack, but I was starting to become rather fond of handfuls of iron dust. After all, Charlie’s ghostly face looked like he’d shoved it into a wasp’s nest.

“What’s it going to be, Charlie?”

He hissed back at me,
“I’m not going to the other side until you’re dead, Ross. This is all your fault!”

“Sure, blame the guy who stopped you from murdering an elderly woman for her money, not the guy who actually killed you. You’re nothing but a punk, Snowden.”

“Charlie, for the love of God, give it up!”
Elsbeth pleaded.

“You’ll get yours, you stupid bitch! After I’m done with shithead here, I’m coming for you and you’re little boyfriend. You thought you could get away from me! I own your ass, bitch, and I always will!”

Elsbeth shrieked and I started moving towards him. “Well come on big shot! You want some of this? No time like the present. Let’s see how tough you really are.”

He wagged a finger at me and put on his best menacing face.
“Not today, but soon. I’ll be coming for you very soon. Enjoy your last days…”

With that he dived into the ground and disappeared, while my voice trailed him. “How long have you been practicing that speech, asshole? Kevin, keep an eye out for him. C’mon Silas, let’s get this over with.” The holy man laid gave his blessing around the gravesite, a blessing that I reinforced it with three tubes of iron dust. Snowden’s grave was as good as sealed. If he doesn’t have an external focus, he’ll stay put.

Meanwhile, Kevin convinced a couple of local ghosts to keep an eye out for “big and stupid”.
 
Naturally, this cost me a promise to help those two find their way to pass on – which made this another one of those times when it really did seem like I was running a charity outfit for misfit ghosts.

Candace McKenna was a sight for sore eyes and let me tell you, my eyes were positively suffering! It was good to be wanted. A woman driving hours just to see me when I offered little except my company was a real shot in the arm. Mom insisted that she wanted to say hello to the deputy. It made me feel a bit like I was still a teenager, but it was nice to see that they were getting along.

Climbing into her car, she smiled. “Your mom’s very nice.”

I chuckled at her diplomacy, “She tries. You’re the first girlfriend I think she’s really gotten along with. Frankly, it worries me.”

“Well, I am notoriously hard to dislike. It’s an old joke, but who doesn’t like Candy?” Her southern belle accent was tinged with amusement.

I patted my jacket. Several bottles of filings and a nice little iron chisel that I’d found in Megan Rosemont’s garage were there. Both the sword and the pipe wrench would have been too awkward to carry in good clothes.

Catching me looking around as her car pulled out of the driveway, she chided me slightly and firmly squeezed my thigh, “Ya oughta calm down there, sugar. I don’t reckon, that ghost of yours is gonna be able to follow us.”

I noted the UPS driver stopping at my house as it retreated into the distance. “I’m sure I can take him, but I just don’t want him finding out about the other ghosts that want me dead. Everything I know about him says that he’s the impatient type, so I don’t think I’ll have to wait long.”

We spent a few minutes catching up on the few odds and ends that didn’t come up in our emails or telephone conversations and sensing that I needed the distraction, she went into a lengthy story from her past featuring the antics of a fifteen year old hellraiser and a nine year old tagalong named Jenny. Pulling into the restaurant, she was just finishing up the rather amusing tale including citing what penal codes the two of them violated.

“That’s probably why Jenny was so surprised to see me in a uniform. Everyone always ‘spected that I’d end up spending a lot of time around cops, I figured that I might as well get paid for it.”

There was a pleasant interlude of maybe five or ten seconds of silence which abruptly ended with our lips mashing together like a couple of school kids on their first date. I suppose it would have been funny if I’d thought about it, but I was otherwise occupied at the time.

Several wet, sloppy kisses later and an instance involving my hand finding a particularly ticklish spot on her body, we separated. Candy flashed me a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin and said, “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m starving and I need to get some fuel for the dance club. Oh don’t give me that face; ya know there’s more where that came from – much more.”

Damn all women who tease. Damn them to hell!

I was more than a bit uncomfortable during our meal. Originally, I’d wanted a table booth in the corner, but considering, old Charlie could come through either the floor or the wall itself, that wasn’t a great plan. After giving the hostess at Red Lobster a fit, we ended up along the window at a table.

Added to my discomfort was the physical presence of Ms. McKenna. Once her nice leather jacket was removed, the dreaded little black dress made another appearance. Ignoring, or perhaps savoring my appraisal, she proceeded to nibble and make small talk with me, all while playing a bit of “footsie” under the table.

Damn all women who can tease – especially when they can multitask!

I did my level best to ignore her cruel game. Hell, I’d been dancing with her before. It was only going to get worse at the club. Still, I kept the presence of mind to occasionally look for Charlie, who hadn’t made an appearance so far.

“Mike, I wanted to wait until I was face to face with you, but my supervisor was wondering if ya might wanna come down and check out some of the other cemeteries and crime scenes. He’s got one or two cold cases that he’d be pleased as I don’t know what to solve. I don’t think they’d foot the bill for you to stay in a hotel, but I reckon that I can find a place to put you up for a few days.” She smiled sweetly before continuing. “Both have the standard reward, but one has a nice little chunk of change attached to it.”

Okay, so Candy was teasing me, offering me a mini-vacation at her place, and a chance to pick up some cash! It was way too early to say I loved this girl, but I could definitely say there was
a lot
to like.