Chasing Ghosts (3 page)

Simon pinched Skizzy’s bony elbow and nodded
at the piece of metal that had hit the tree. Stepping closer with a
bit more caution, they noticed the metal was the size of a nickel
with pieces of bloody flesh attached.

A red light flashed the number zero.

CHAPTER 3

The gray hawk rested on a cottonwood tree
near the limestone quarry, its talons wrapped firmly around the
branch. It cocked its head and scanned the area for visitors. It
wasn’t looking for food since this particular hawk didn’t feast.
Two-legged mammals were the only ones who should fear this
hawk.

A crow diving into the quarry caught the
hawk’s attention. Sunlight reflected off of the strange color of
the hawk’s eyes. Although the hawk possessed a visual acuity eight
times that of a human’s, the color was unusual—a brilliant
turquoise, like Caribbean waters.

The hawk pushed off the branch and swooped
down into the quarry. With a wingspan of four feet, it circled
slowly, letting the wind currents fill its underwing coverts. As it
closed in on what remained of the body, the crow scurried away with
frantic wing beats. The hawk landed on a boulder several feet from
what remained of Paul Demko. Dagger hadn’t believed Skizzy and
Simon that Demko had a bomb in him. Although Skizzy was on a
different planet some days, Simon on the other hand did not
contradict Skizzy which made Dagger suspicious.

He was right,
Sara said.
There are only bits and
pieces of Demko left. Most of the clothing was burned away and what
little is left looks singed.

Whenever Sara shifted, she and Dagger could
communicate telepathically. This was something she and her
grandmother could do. After her grandmother died, Sara realized she
and Dagger could communicate the same way.

Doesn’t make any sense. I know he didn’t have
a bomb on him so it had to be in him. But that should only have
separated the head from the body.

It’s almost as though Demko
were vaporized,
Sara said.
There’s a spray of blood on the wall. Maybe whatever was
triggered in his head released something into the blood stream that
was volatile. When the bomb went off, it was like a match touched
to a wick and…boom.

You know, you are hanging
around with Skizzy way too much,
Dagger
replied.

How is Skizzy? I would think something like
this would have him building another bunker.

He’s too busy with new projects. He can’t
wait to study the jacket Demko was wearing and he wants to design a
new toy to detect microchips. Demko only confirms Skizzy’s belief
that the government is secretly embedding computer chips in all
newborns and every adult who goes in for surgery.

Well, you can assure Simon that what he saw
really happened.

He should be here in about fifteen. He’s
curious about what I might have found on Demko’s computer.

Little late for showering, isn’t it?” Simon
asked, training one eye on the clock above the stove.

Sara’s wet hair was pulled to one side and
French-braided. Dagger was the only one who knew of her shifting
abilities. Shapeshifting was part of Native American mythology.
They believed their elders could shift into various animal forms to
spy on their enemies. Sara had learned of her abilities at the age
of six. According to tradition, there can be no witnesses to her
shifting. To avoid exposure, anyone who dares to view her shifting
is killed by the wolf. Dagger had saved the wolf ’s life which is
what protects him since he had witnessed Sara’s shifting. But he
also secretly believed the black leather cord necklace with the
silver pendant in the shape of a wolf ’s head Sara’s grandmother
had given him also had something to do with protection.

“
I was gardening.” Sara pulled a
pitcher from the refrigerator. “Iced tea, Simon?”

Simon raised his cup. “I need some
caffeine.”

Dagger stood at the kitchen counter, Demko’s
laptop computer in front of him. He wasn’t as computer savvy as
Skizzy and knew the computer would eventually be given to the
squirrelly guy.

“
Find anything yet?” Sara
asked.

“
Yeah. A bunch of religious crap that
doesn’t fit Demko’s profile. Skizzy thinks the files might be
encrypted so he gave me a decryption program.”

Simon rubbed a beefy hand across his face.
“You know, I used to think that guy was screwy, but after this
morning.” He shrugged and shook his head. “Skizzy’s beginning to
look like the sane one here. What does that say about the rest of
us?”

Sara took out a package of cut vegetables and
placed them in a colander to rinse. Einstein’s squawking was loud
and insistent. Just like a two-year-old, he needed new toys to keep
him occupied and a variety of foods to satiate him. Brazil nuts and
cheese curls were also favorites of his. A grateful client who had
been short on funds had given Einstein to Dagger as payment. Dagger
wasn’t a dog or cat person, much less a bird lover. But Einstein
proved to have a photographic memory which came in handy when
Dagger was too lazy to look up phone numbers or to write them
down.

Sara carried the bowl of vegetables to the
aviary. “Hungry, Einstein?” The macaw bobbed its head up and down.
“How about outside? Want to go outside?”

Sara opened a second door that led to a
screened enclosure. It had several perches at different heights and
braided rope toys. They didn’t let Einstein out into the open
unless either she or Dagger was there to keep an eye on him. His
wings were not clipped and there were too many plants in the
surrounding acres which were poisonous to macaws. She opened the
door to the screened enclosure and rattled the bowl of vegetables.
“Come on, Einstein.” The scarlet macaw flew to one of the perches
and flapped his wings. Sara poured the vegetables into a bowl by
the perch. “You be good, okay?”

Einstein belted out another loud screech and
settled down on the perch. He trained one yellow-ringed eye on her,
then took a stab at her braided hair.

“
No!” She shook the rope braid near his
perch. “That is your braid, not my hair.”

She left him in the screened enclosure and
walked back through the aviary, closing both the grated door and
the soundproof door.

“
You spoil him,” Dagger
said.

“
Someone has to.”

“
When is that program supposed to kick
in?” Simon asked. “We gotta find out about this guy. People just
don’t blow up. And what was he doing here? Was he supposed to put
you in a bear hug and take you with him? How many people have you
pissed off?”

Dagger turned from the computer and glared at
Simon. “In my estimation? Not enough.”

“
Simon’s right,” Sara said. “What if he
was meant to explode here in this house? Are you sure you don’t
recognize him?”

“
Never seen him before and I have a
pretty good memory for faces.”

A square box appeared on the computer screen
announcing that the decryption was complete. Dagger clicked OPEN
and a dossier appeared on the screen.

Sara asked, “Who’s that?”

Simon hobbled over to where they stood. The
screen revealed a man in his fifties, light brown hair abundantly
sprinkled with gray. Hazel eyes appeared lively and his smile was
warm and genuine. The man wore a priest’s collar and scarlet sash.
The dossier identified him as Cardinal Michael Esrey. He was
recently appointed to a position at the Vatican.

“
Cardinal Michael Esrey is scheduled to
give a speech this Saturday at a conference of Northwest Indiana
priests at the Ritz Carlton.” Dagger took a step back and folded
his arms across his chest. He studied the dossier for several
minutes then shook his head. “That can’t be right. This guy is
dead.”

Sara asked, “Is it a current bio?”

“
From last week. Maybe Demko was in
town to assassinate the cardinal but believe me, Esrey is
dead.”

“
You see his picture right there,”
Simon argued. “How can you be so sure he’s dead?”

“
Because.” Dagger pressed the heels of
his hands to his eyes. Some days he felt like his entire life was a
nightmare. “I killed him five years ago.”

Simon lifted his cup of coffee. “Got anything
to put in this, Sara? Dagger just told me he killed the Pope. I
need something a lot stronger than coffee.

“
He isn’t the Pope,” Dagger said. “He
wasn’t even a priest when I killed him.” Dagger braced his arms
against the counter and studied the monitor. “At least, I don’t
think he was.”

Sara and Simon exchanged knowing looks across
the table. It was Simon who asked the obvious.

“
Thought you said you have a great
memory. Maybe he just looks like someone you know.” Simon took the
bottle of whiskey from Sara and added a healthy dose to his coffee.
“They say everyone has a double.”

“
I’m still on the part where you killed
him five years ago.” Sara’s remark hung in the air like an
accusation. With Sara there had to always be a good reason for his
actions. Her way again of being his conscience. He had always
thought her grandmother entrusted him to protect her granddaughter
but Sara once commented, “Did you ever stop to think that maybe
Grandmother meant for me to protect you?” Those words had proven
true on more than one occasion.

Dagger closed his eyes and tried to picture
the man, details about his life, where they were when Dagger had
killed him. He opened his eyes and studied the picture. “I’m
drawing a blank here.”

“
There been that many that they all
blend together?” Simon asked.

Dagger shot his friend a look of irritation.
He hated to admit it but maybe there were too many fuzzy areas in
his brain. He had memories of his childhood, school, college,
military. He could describe places he had visited, people he had
met. But if he were pressed to give dates and names, he wasn’t sure
he could do it. And why was he so convinced he had killed the
cardinal but knew so little about why and when?

CHAPTER 4

Dagger was up early the next morning. Tai Chi
out on the deck at six, then a round with the punching bag in the
garage until seven. He shaved but it was useless because he always
had a five o’clock shadow. With his dark hair, dark eyes, and
danger oozing from every pore in his body, it was no wonder he was
pulled aside at airports.

In his eyes the world was black and white and
the only gray areas you could find were in his bedroom. Gray and
black were the colors he lived in and dressed in. Not only did Sara
add beauty to his life but she also added color. It was her house
so she could pink it up anyway she wanted. There was pink and mauve
in the living room, the Florida room, her bedroom. But his bedroom
was his domain and it bled chrome, black, and gray.

One wall in his bedroom was mirrored and
directly in back of the gym equipment. But the wall was deceiving.
Dagger flipped open the lid on a fake thermostat and punched in a
code. A door in the wall popped open. Dagger entered a sizeable
vault which housed his arsenal, a printing machine that had been
known to spit out counterfeit checks on more than one occasion, and
a filing cabinet containing paper for such counterfeit purposes.
There were also bundles of cash, not counterfeit.

Across from the filing cabinet was a table.
Above the table a map lit up with blue lights indicating major
towns. But it was the two blinking red lights orbiting the globe
that Dagger was interested in. Every day he checked to see if the
satellites had shifted their locations. Five years ago there had
been just one satellite, one that Dagger had been instrumental in
helping plummet from the sky. But within five years BettaTec had
managed to install two satellites. These were state of the art.

The government thought they were
communication satellites. Dagger knew better. One red light stayed
on a trajectory over the Northern Hemisphere. The second red light
covered the Southern Hemisphere.

Ever since he saw his name handwritten in the
margin of the phone book at the Embassy Suites the first thought
that came to Dagger’s mind was BettaTec. Had they finally located
him? But they couldn’t have. Looking at it logically, he had
covered his tracks too well. Demko had wanted to hire him, not kill
him…at first. Why did it change? He tried to think back to
something Dagger had said or did that made Demko snap. Or was Demko
just trying to confirm his identity? Dagger’s first inclination was
to pick up and run. If he stayed on the move, he could keep one
step ahead of them. But he was so damn tired of running.

“
Dagger?” Sara poked her head in the
doorway. “Padre’s here.”

Sara plied Padre with coffee and cake while
Dagger tried to mentally tick through the list of reasons why Cedar
Point’s top detective decided to pay him a visit. Yes, Padre was a
friend but Padre only came to chat or meet him for a beer after
working hours. And usually it was because Padre needed his help.
Had someone witnessed Simon and Skizzy dumping the body in the
quarry.

It was his early years in the seminary that
gave Sergeant Jerry Martinez the nickname of Padre. He had felt his
time could be better spent in law enforcement making sure people
followed the Ten Commandments and received their just punishment
rather than simply preaching them. Padre had what he called a high
forehead. He would never say he had a receding hairline. Just shy
of five foot ten, Padre was one sonofabitch you never dared to
cross. Criminals had learned that the hard way. His quick, friendly
smile gave suspects the impression he was their friend. Then he
swept in for the kill. Padre could smell a lie like bottle flies
could smell rotting flesh. He also believed in keeping his friends
close and his enemies closer which is why Dagger felt Padre asked
for his assistance in certain cases. Dagger not only looked
dangerous but he also looked like someone who operated just below
the radar. Padre had zeroed in on him not long after Dagger arrived
in town.