Ghost Hunter

Chapter 28

"THE SON OF A BITCH HAD A LAB GOING IN THAT chamber." Cooper eased open the rear door of Griggs's shop and stepped out into the alley. "The question is, what in green hell happened to it?"

He listened with all of his senses. Fog still swirled in the alley, limiting visibility. A glance at Rose, perched on Elly's shoulder, assured him that there was no immediate threat.

"I can't get over the notion of Stuart Griggs as a big-time drug dealer," Elly whispered. "It boggles the mind. He must have made a fortune. Wonder what he did with the cash."

Cooper thought about the two journals he was carrying and the herbal that Elly clutched as though it were a box of amber diamonds.

"Looks like he may have used some of it to buy these books," he said. "But a few rare volumes wouldn't have put much of a dent in the kind of profits Griggs must have been pulling in with the chant. Looks like I'm going to have to do some follow-the-money research on him tomorrow."

"Maybe that's what the intruder was looking for tonight, Griggs's drug money."

"Or a stash of chant."

"Well, we know where a lot of that wound up," she reminded him. "In the basement of The Road to the Ruins."

"Yes."

"I'll bet he dismantled the lab and moved the drugs after he realized that Bertha had escaped his vortex."

"That theory assumes that Griggs was the blue freak I'm chasing," he said.

"You've got doubts about that?"

"It occurs to me that the odds of Griggs just happening to collapse and die from a heart attack shortly after Bertha Newell discovered his underground lab seem a little long."

She turned her head quickly to look at him in the shadows. "Are you saying that you think there's someone else involved in this?"

"It crossed my mind. Death by a strong blast of intense blue ghost energy can look a lot like death by heart attack. But if someone murdered Griggs that way, he would have had to do it underground. I told you, blue energy is very weak outside the tunnels, too weak to kill."

"I suppose the killer could have murdered Griggs down in the catacombs and then dragged his body up the stairs into the back room of the shop," she said slowly. "It would probably require an autopsy to determine the truth. I doubt if one will be ordered in this case. Neither the medics nor the cop had any reason to think they were dealing with a crime scene today."

"I'll call Mercer Wyatt first thing in the morning," Cooper said. "This is his town. He shouldn't have any problem pulling whatever strings it takes to get an autopsy performed."

She cleared her throat. "Generally speaking, the mainstream media here in Cadence takes a dim view of the quaint practice of referring to the city as a particular Guild boss's town. It invites unfortunate comparisons to mob boss rule."

"Damn. Done in by semantics again."

They were almost back to the mouth of the alley. The green-tinged mist roiled in the empty street. On the other side of the pavement he could just barely make out the haloed lamps over the back doors of the next row of shops.

Rose rumbled softly. A warning this time.

"Cooper," Elly said, voice tight with urgency.

He felt the spectral fingers of awareness on the nape of his neck and reacted instinctively. He pushed Elly into the dense, dark shadow cast by a large metal trash container.

Rose, nearly invisible except for her four glowing eyes, started to tumble toward the ground.

"No, Rose," Elly whispered. "You mustn't." She caught the dust bunny in one hand and tucked her safely into the crook of her arm.

Two figures moved into the alley opening, silhouetted against the acid-hued fog light. The features of both men were covered by stocking masks. Flickers of green ghost-energy snapped and crackled in the mist around them.

At least one of them was a hunter, Cooper thought. When the adrenaline started flowing, a lot of them unconsciously summoned bits of whatever stray ghost light happened to be in the vicinity.

Unlike a lot of dissonance-energy para-rezzes who generally chose to stick with UDEM energy as the weapon of choice when they went into this kind of work, these two were armed. One carried a gun. Light glinted on the edge of the wicked-looking blade in the other man's hand.

The man on the right rezzed a pocket flash. He was the one with the gun. His stocking cap had a tassel on top.

"Don't move," Tassel Top ordered. "Either one of you even breathes hard, and you're both dead. You," he said to Cooper. "You're dressed like a hunter. You the real thing or just a wannabe?"

"It's a fashion statement," Cooper said.

The other man snickered. "Hey, Joe, the guy thinks he's a stand-up comic."

"Skip the jokes," Joe snarled. "Unless you want to feel what it's like to take a bullet."

"Anyone who knows me well knows I never joke," Cooper said quietly. "What do you want?"

"Whatever you found back there in Griggs's shop," Joe said.

"You went in ahead of us, didn't you?" Cooper asked. "That means you know there wasn't anything of value left inside. Unless you count the books." He held up the one he carried. "But somehow I don't see either of you as big readers."

"Why'd you take those old books?" the other one demanded. His mask was trimmed with two white circles around the eyes, giving him a rather startling resemblance to a moon-rat. "Somethin' special about 'em?"

"My friend, here, is a librarian," Elly offered helpfully. "He likes books."

"Shut up," Joe snapped. "I don't like mouthy babes."

"Elly," Cooper said without inflection.

She went silent, but he could have sworn he heard the simmering. He could almost feel the steam.

He did a quick survey of his options. Neither of the two thugs had noticed Rose. Elly was holding her just out of sight behind the corner of the big trash container. The position blocked the men's view of the dust bunny's four eyes.

Rose, too, had gone quiet, he noticed. He didn't know much about dust bunnies, but he knew a lot about hunting strategy. Some things remained the same across species lines. When a predator, large or small, stopped growling a warning and went very quiet, it was time for the prey to start worrying.

"We grabbed the books because they looked valuable," he said aloud, putting a shrug into the words. "Didn't seem to be anything else left that was worth taking. What were you guys looking for? Drugs? Cash?"

"There wasn't any," Moon-Rat blurted. "We know he must have had plenty of both around somewhere. He always paid us with the chant."

"Shit, Benny, keep your dumb mouth shut," his companion rasped.

"Okay, take it easy." Cooper slowly unfastened his jacket. "I'll show you what we found."

The small section of the glowing fog in the street behind Benny and Joe started to change color, shifting subtly from green to blue. Neither of the two men noticed.

Cooper probed hard for the blue psi energy he needed. Fortunately, this close to the Dead City there was enough of it around to serve his purpose.

"Hurry up," Joe said hoarsely. "We ain't got all night."

Blue flames leaped out of the open trash container.

"What the hell?" Benny jolted backward a couple of startled steps and swung around to stare at the blaze. "There's a fire in the garbage."

"Shit." Joe retreated a couple of paces. "We've got to get out of here. Someone is going to see the flames and call the fire department."

Cooper moved.

"Stay where you are," Joe snapped. He whipped back around to face the spot where Cooper had been standing a couple of seconds earlier.

But Cooper was already on him, using the momentum of his body to slam him into the side of the heavy metal container. The gun clattered on the stones.

"What the hell?" Belatedly realizing that things were getting out of control, Benny swung around, knife in hand.

Cooper kicked out with one booted foot, catching him high on the thigh.

Benny staggered backward, trying to keep his balance.

Elly came out of the shadows, swinging the heavy herbal. The weighty tome slammed against the side of Benny's skull.

Benny shrieked in pain and sank to his knees. He lost his grip on the blade.

There was a sudden scampering noise on the ground. Four eyes glowed in the night, rushing toward Benny's leg.

Benny screamed. "Get it away from me. Get it away."

"Rose, no," Elly said quickly. "You mustn't bite anyone else, sweetie. Someone may call the pound."

To Cooper's surprise, the dust bunny halted, albeit reluctantly, and dashed back to Elly, who grabbed her with both hands and tucked her close.

"Are you all right?" Cooper said, bending down to scoop up the gun.

"Yes." Elly took a deep breath. "I'm okay."

Joe was on the ground, moaning. Cooper yanked off Benny's ski mask and discovered that the disguise had been an apt one. The guy actually did resemble a moon-rat.

"Now, why don't you tell me exactly how you came to be acquainted with the deceased," Cooper said.

Benny's faced scrunched up in confusion. "Huh?"

"What was your connection to the florist?"

"I'm not tellin' you nothin'," Benny stated.

"Let me put it this way," Cooper said. "You can talk to me, or you can talk to Mercer Wyatt."

Benny looked horrified. "Hey, all we did was a little off-the-books work for Griggs. This isn't Guild business."

"It is now," Cooper said quietly. "Talk to me, Benny."

"Me and Joe are a team," Benny whined. "Freelance. The florist hired us to take him down into the catacombs. Paid us with chant. We knew he was making the stuff, but we never found his stash, y'know? Anyhow, it was a good deal. We resold the chant and turned a nice profit. But this afternoon, word went around that Griggs was dead."

"So you and Joe conducted another search in hopes of finding his supply of the drug?"

"Figured it was worth a shot," Benny muttered. "But we couldn't find the drugs or the money. There's a rumor going around that the florist had started working with someone else to sell the chant. We decided to hang around and keep watch tonight to see if anyone showed up. When you went inside, we thought maybe you were the new partner. That's all, man, you gotta believe me."

"Oddly enough, I do, Benny."

The small green ghost Cooper had summoned floated up behind Benny and touched him lightly on the back of his head.

Benny crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Cooper maneuvered the ghost toward Joe. Joe moaned one last time and passed out.

"Now what?" Elly asked.

"This is Mercer Wyatt's town. We'll turn these two over to his people for questioning."

Elly cleared her throat. "I think I mentioned that it is not considered appropriate to refer to Cadence as Mercer Wyatt's town."

"I'll try to remember that the next time the subject arises."