The Grim Spectre (9 page)

“Ohhhh…” The Grim Spectre moaned. His vision began to clear and he scrambled to his feet.

‘I’m bleeding, and my jaw feels like it was kicked in by a mule.’
He looked at the nearby floor and saw a metal stool lying there, where it was discarded, then it all came flooding back to him.

The Grim Spectre turned suddenly, his cape flowing about him as he looked around the room.

‘Gone,’
he thought,
‘Both of them. Dr. Simian must have escaped while I was unconscious. Why he didn’t kill me I’ll never know. Perhaps he was too hurt from our battle, or maybe he feared I’d awaken and kill him. Either way there is nothing I can do about it now. But Tammy…’
he rubbed his jaw tenderly.

‘Time to get out of here,’
he thought to himself. He quickly retrieved his discarded throwing knives and with one last look around he thought
‘Invisibility, immateriality, flight.’

He hovered upward and faded from view, passing through the structure of the building and into the evening sky.

He floated across the city, heading to his apartment once again, his thoughts a chaotic mess.

‘The magic belt will heal me overnight, but what do I do about Tammy now? I guess I’ll fly by her apartment and make sure she’s safe. I’ll have to wait before tracking down Simian. I’ll need at least a nights rest and healing before I can take him on again. Plus, that crazy priest is still out there, somewhere.’

Floating across the city invisibly The Grim Spectre came upon Tammy’s building and hovered invisibly up to her floor.

‘I hate doing this, I really do, but I have to make sure she’s okay.’

He hovered outside her apartment a moment, then stepped through the wall. He stared around until he found Tammy huddled in a corner of the room on the floor, hugging a picture of herself and his alter ego, ‘Bobby Terrano’ close to her heart and sobbing.

He stared momentarily and then turned away from the sad scene and walked once more through the wall, floating away into the night.

***

“So who’s this ugly mug?” Phylo Zeus asked. Two of his big thugs had just deposited Dr. Simian on the floor at his feet. Zeus sat in a big, throne-like chair, eating grapes.

“He calls himself ‘Doc Simian,’ Boss.” One of the thugs who had just dropped the man-ape in front of Zeus said, “We found him runnin’ down near that botanical place.”

Zeus laughed slightly and said, “Well, I can see why. Go on, you mugs get outta here. I’m gonna have a talk with my new guest.”

“Okay, Boss, whatever you say,” the lead thug answered and then turned and led his partner out the door, which they pulled shut behind them. This left two bodyguards standing behind Zeus’ chair.

Zeus got up and walked around the kneeling man ape who was almost cowering upon the floor.

“So what’s your deal?” he asked.

Dr. Simian looked up at Phylo Zeus, not quite understanding why he wasn’t just shot to death.

“I-I am a scientist. I was trying to create a mate for myself, but that ghost, that Grim Spectre interrupted my experiments.”

Zeus spun and grabbed Dr. Simian by the lapels of his lab coat and dragged him upward until they were nose to nose.

“The Ghost did this to you? You were fightin’ the Ghost?” Zeus roared.

“Y-yes, I was. There was a girl; I had been following her for some time. I am quite infatuated with her you see. My plan was to mirror the treatments I had done to myself to make her more…receptive to becoming my mate. But just as I was about to begin the phase of the procedure that would have turned her into my perfect companion that ghoul, that Grim Spectre arrived and interfered with my treatment’ of Miss Thomas.”

“Thomas?” asked Zeus. He let Simian go and walked around him in a circle upon the floor, “You don’t mean that reporter dame, Tammy Thomas, with the curly red hair, do you?”

“W-why yes, I do.” Simian replied hesitantly.

“Okay ape-man, get this right, you stay away from Tammy Thomas. She ain’t yours to have. I got long term plans for that dame, an’ they don’t concern you. Just so’s we understand each other, you go near her again, you won’t gotta worry about The Grim Spectre anymore because what I’ll do to ya, well, you’ll be wishin’ the ghost got ya, you understand, King Kong?”

Dr. Simian gulped hard and nodded slowly, never removing his eyes from Zeus’s pacing form.

Zeus stared back at the ape-like man and narrowed his eyes: then he said, “Yeah, I think you do get it. Okay, Marco,” Zeus motioned to one of his bodyguards who stood along the wall warily watching the ape-like man, “take this ape-man down to the basement. Show him around, but don’t hurt him”

“You got it, Boss.” Marco replied.

Simian eyed Phylo Zeus cautiously then turned and followed Marco.

“This city gets crazier an’ crazier every day,” Zeus said. Then he sat back down in his throne and began eating grapes once more, his dark thoughts all his own.

The Grim Spectre invisibly walked into his apartment through the wall. Quickly he looked around and made sure he was alone. Once he had verified that, he slowly faded into view and sat down tiredly upon his couch. He pushed his hood back, revealing his skull mask and removed it an instant later.

Bobby Terrano slumped on the couch, gingerly touching his jaw, “Ouch. I’ve been hit by some tough guys the last few months, but I don’t think any of them can touch Tammy right about now. This really hurts.”

Bobby looked around and then saw the clock ticking away on his wall.

“It’s almost midnight, I’m going to bed. I’ve had enough of this craziness for tonight. Maybe forever. Getting beaten up by my own girlfriend is the final straw; especially after I saved her life.”

Slowly, painfully, Bobby peeled off the shirt and slipped out of the pants. He grimaced as he did,
‘I’m in so much pain right now I don’t want to go back out there, ever,’
he thought,
‘this is just nuts anyway. Someone remind me, why am I doing this again? Yeah, the magic belt heals me and gives me abilities to do all sorts of things, but this is nuts. How many more of these freaks am I going to face before one of them kills me?’
Bobby stood up and walked over to his closet in his bedroom. He pulled out a pair of shorts and slipped into them and then thought,
‘I have a gig tomorrow night at the Stadium Bar; so no more patrolling for me tomorrow. Maybe this will give me a chance to really think about what the heck I’m doing. I mean can I really keep this up? This is just crazy stuff. I already have a mad Priest after me and now I have a gorilla that thinks he’s a man somewhere out there chasing me down too.’

Bobby slipped under the covers of his bed, but only after he had wrapped the metallic belt around his waist once more.

‘I hope this thing heals me up by the morning, God only knows, I could use it. The bigger question is what do I do about Tammy?’

Tiredly he closed his eyes and almost immediately he passed out.

***

Across town at the Mayors mansion, William Winston sat at his desk while writing in a ledger when there was a knock at his door. He looked up and squinted his eyes in annoyance and then said, “Who is it?”

“It’s Captain Carson,” the voice on the other side of the door replied.

Winston sighed and closed his ledger. Quickly he put it into his desk and slid the drawer containing it closed.

“Enter,” he said.

Carson walked in. He was a big shouldered man who stood about six feet three inches tall with a ruddy face.

“What is it, Carson?”

“I got some news for you about that supposed ghost that’s harassing Zeus.”

Winston leaned forward in his seat, his ponderous weight made the desk chair creak beneath him.

“Well? What is it man, spit it out,” he ordered with little patience.

“There was a sighting of the ghost, the so-called ‘Grim Spectre’ tonight. It sounds like he was fighting some mad ape-man, according to a couple of Zeus’ boys. The story is he was trying to save a girl’s life-Tammy Thomas of the Gazette.”

Now Winston leaned back in his chair, steepled his fingers and asked, “And how do you know this, Carson?”

The cop was silent but he pulled out a folded newspaper from his back pocket and dropped it on the desk before Winston. The front page had scrawled across it ‘Reporter survives death battle between monstrous ape-man and vengeful, horrific ghost.’

“What the hell is this?” Winston muttered as he began to read the article.

A minute and a half later he looked up at Carson with wide, blood shot eyes and said, “She escaped them both? And supposedly this broad knocked out a ghost? How’s that even possible?”

The chief of Police shrugged then replied, “I don’t know that this guy is a ghost; but that doesn’t mean he isn’t. He claims to be some undead spirit sent here to clean up the city. A few days ago he was spotted on a rooftop after an arsonist plunged to his death from the same roof. Is he the guy who pushed the arsonist? Maybe.

“But a lot of people were killed in that bombing, and just as many injured. So maybe he really is some otherworldly vengeance seeker sent to clean up the city.”

Winston was rubbing the bridge of his nose as if he had a sinus headache. After a moment in silence he looked up at Carson and said, “You put out an APB on this guy, or ghost or whatever he is. I want him brought in. If he resists, shoot to kill. If you can capture him then do so. From what I’m hearing Phylo Zeus is importing every damned hired gun in the entire north east to get this guy or ghoul or whatever the hell he really is. If the crap going on in this city has attracted the attention of the underworld, and make no mistake about it, Carson, I’m not talking about gangsters and thugs, I’m talking about ghosts and devils, then I’m getting out of here and I suggest you do too.”

“Relax Mayor; this can’t be a ghost or some deadly spiritual avenger on the side of the angels. It’s got to be some clown in a costume. I mean really, do you believe in ghosts and all that nonsense? I don’t.”

“Yes, yes I do believe in ‘all that nonsense’ Captain Carson. I grew up as a church going Catholic. I was an altar boy, for God’s sake. Of course I believe in heaven and hell as well as angels and other tools of God who might be sent to deliver his wrath, and yes, I’m a little scared of this guy, whoever, or whatever he is. He’s supposed to be able to walk through walls!”

“Maybe so, Mayor, but I still don’t believe this guys really a ghost, but I know I can turn him into one, that’s a certainty.” Carson fingered his service revolver almost reverently. “But let me ask you something, Sir, if you grew up as a good Catholic boy, how’d you end up doing all the rotten things you do all the time?”

Winston stood in stunned disbelief at what his subordinate had just said. He worked his jaw wordlessly for a moment looking for the right words to say and finally found them, “I don’t like your tone of voice or your question, Captain Carson, but I can tell you that I’m a man and all men make mistakes that they regret and have to ask forgiveness for. Now mind your business about me and put out the APB on this guy, then try to bring him in. If he ain’t a ghost, and he resists, than yeah, turn him into one. Now if you fail, and this Grim Spectre gets away, or makes a fool out of you and your men, then you better go look for another job in some other city, am I clear?”

Carson nodded and smiled, “As crystal, Mayor. Don’t worry about this, I got it.”

Captain Carson turned and walked away, exiting the office and pulling the door shut behind him.

Winston stared at the closed door and sighed, finally slumping back into his chair he said, “This used to be such a quiet city.”

He closed his eyes a moment and then picked up the phone on his desk. He dialed the number for the Riverburgh Gazette and waited silently while the phone rang. After a few minutes an operator picked up and Winston began, “Yes this is Mayor Winston I-no, I am not kidding you, I-yes, this phone call is ‘for real’ I wish to speak with Miss Tammy Thomas, and yes, I realize she will be gone for the night, but you can leave a message for her that I need to speak to her and that I expect to hear from her in the morning, thank you.” Winston hung the phone up quickly before the woman on the other end could interrupt him once again.

Nervous fingers reached over and opened a cigar box on his desk. He extracted a fresh stogie and began the process of lighting it up. A moment later he leaned back in his chair once again and uneasily wondered what his next move would be.

Bobby Terrano awoke at three in the afternoon, showered and practiced his trumpet for an hour, as was his routine on days he played local bars.

At four he closed up his trumpet case, put on his playing clothes, a dapper white shirt and tie under a snake skin suit jacket, and made his way out with the trumpet in hand.

’I have gotta keep my head in the game tonight. None of The Grim Spectre stuff, just Bobby Terrano an’ his trumpet.’

He walked the few blocks to McKinley’s steak house, which was where he was playing in tonight. He waved at Sammy, the bartender, and made his way to his usual table at the back, where he always ate before playing at McKinley’s. He picked up a discarded paper from an empty table and plopped it down before him, “I wonder what the Yanks did last night?” he said absentmindedly.

He continued reading the back cover and then turned the paper around and began reading its front. Instantly his eyes widened in surprised recognition.

“Oh no, that stupid girl,” he mumbled.

Immediately he was up and charging across the room to the bar. He leaned quickly across the bar, grabbed the phone that was behind it and said, “Sammy, I need to use the phone, it’s an emergency.”

Sammy the bartender was a squat, wide man who looked at Bobby for a moment and shrugged. By that time Bobby had already started ringing the offices of the Gazette.

George’s familiar voice immediately answered on the other end of the line, “Riverburgh Gazette,” was all he got out before Bobby cut him off.

“George, it’s Bobby, where’s Tammy?” he blurted out.

“Bobby? I-she got a call from city hall this morning, a message from the mayor, would ya believe it? And she high tailed it out of here. She hasn’t been back yet. To be honest with you I’m starting to get worried about her.”

“Well you should be, George. She could be in terrible danger.”

“What? But it’s the Mayor’s office what kind of trouble could she be in there?”

“The same kind any person with a good conscience and an honest soul can be in within the office of a corrupt politician without morals. Think about it, George, she had an encounter with a ghost or some kind of vengeful spirit that saved her from some kind of monkey-man. Now both this Dr. Simian and the ghost, The Grim Spectre have disappeared and remember this, George, The Grim Spectre has shaken up the city’s underworld and everyone, I mean everyone on both sides of the law are looking for him. Now suddenly Tammy gets called into the Mayor’s office? Before this she couldn’t get an interview with his shoe shine boy.”

“Okay I’m gonna send over a photographer and I’m going with him. I still know how to shake some trees.”

“Okay I have a gig tonight, but I’m going to meet you over there now. I hope I’m wrong George, but I don’t think I am. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“I feel like an idiot, Bobby. What kind of reporter am I? How could I think this was nothing?”

“George, just shut up and get over there, I’ll see you soon.” Bobby hung up the phone and turned toward Sammy, “Sammy, I have to run to the Mayor’s office, my girl might be in some deep stuff. I gotta go but I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“Okay Bobby, I’ll cover for ya, just try to get back quick, okay?”

“You’re one of the good ones, Sammy, thanks.”

Bobby ran out the door and flagged a cab down immediately, jumping into the back seat he said, “The Mayors offices, make it fast and there’s an extra fin in it for you.”

The cabbie pulled his cap down low and said, “You got it, Pally.”

The cab raced away from the curb and headed toward city hall.

Ten minutes later it pulled up in front of the center of government in Riverburgh and after quickly paying the cabbie Bobby pushed the door open and hopped out of the cab, running up the stone steps. He had arrived a minute after George Kowalski and his photographer. George had just ascended the steps as Bobby got out of the cab and was waiting for him before the doors to city hall.

“Are you okay?” George asked as Bobby bounded up the steps.

“I’ll be better when Tammy leaves this place with us.”

George nodded and said, “I agree, let’s go inside.”

The three men entered the revolving door. Once inside George said, “This is Jack Burns, my best photographer.”

Bobby turned to the man who met his gaze. He nodded once and extended his hand toward Bobby, who took it in a firm grip and shook it quickly.

“Don’t worry about it, Bobby, We’ll find her and get her out of here,” Burns said.

“I know we will, thanks Jack,” Bobby replied.

The three men all walked together through the echoing lobby, where every footfall, every simple step, sounded far larger and more ominous. They came to a lone guard seated behind a desk. Kowalski flashed his press badge and said, “George Kowalski, Riverburgh Gazette. Is Mayor Winston in?”

The overweight man behind the counter with the half eaten donut in his greasy fingers looked up at George, obviously annoyed at the interruption and then said, “Yes, he’s with someone right now in an all-day meeting. If you want, I can check to see when he’ll be available.”

Bobby pushed past George and Jack, then said, “Is he with a girl? One with a head of flaming red hair?”

The cop narrowed his eyes and said, “Yeah that sounds like the dame I saw going in with him. Who’s asking?”

“The name’s Terrano, Bobby Terrano, and that’s my girl in there. Any idea why they’re in a meeting all day long?”

“You’re that horn player right?” the cop asked.

“Trumpet, yeah,” Bobby corrected.

“Hey I saw you once; you were pretty nifty, man.”

“Thanks,” Bobby said while nodding his head.

“No problem,”

“Now about my girl, what’s goin’ on here anyway?”

“I’ll answer that, Mr. Terrano,” A voice boomed from above. Everyone’s head turned toward the top of the marble staircase where Mayor Winston stood, gripping the railing and staring down at the group within city hall’s confines.

Bobby puffed his chest out and stared upward at the Mayor. “Where’s Tammy?” Bobby repeated.

“She’s being held for questioning. She made some outlandish claims in this morning’s paper, and I want them substantiated.”

“What? You can’t do that. What gives you the right to hold my reporter at all?” George exploded with rage.

“I can hold her overnight without charging her as under suspicion, which is exactly what I’m doing right now,” The Mayor replied.

“Suspicion of what?” Bobby yelled, he could barely contain his rage at the moment.

“Of aiding and abetting a threat to the city. She claims to have had contact with this ‘Grim Spectre’ maniac and yet she won’t divulge any information about him to me.”

“C’mon William, you know that’s a lie. This girl has nothing to do with this monster or whatever he is. In fact from her story he saved her life,” George countered.

“Maybe so, George, but she refuses to divulge any information about this Spectre guy.

“But why?” Bobby asked in surprise.

“That’s what I’m trying to get out of her. Right now this ghost is a threat to Riverburgh. My police force and I are here to make the streets of this city safe for everyone living within it.”

“
Now
you want to take that oath seriously?” Bobby asked, “Why the sudden change of heart?”

“Don’t be a wise guy, Terrano; I get enough of that around here. Do you want to see her? I’ll take you to the cell she’s in.”

Bobby looked at the Mayor in disbelief, “Are you kidding me? You have Tammy in a cell?”

“She’s in a safe cell, apart from anyone who could pose a threat to her, but she’s going to remain there at least until morning when I’ll see if she changed her mind and wants to talk about what she saw.”

Bobby and George both looked at the Mayor in stunned silence.

“Relax gentlemen, she’s fine and in good hands. Nothing’s going to happen to her. But the sooner she talks about what she saw and who she suspects The Grim Spectre really is, the sooner she gets to go home. Right now she needs to be shaken up a bit by a night spent behind bars.”

“You don’t have the right,” George began, but Winston silenced him with a wave of his hand, cutting him of in mid-sentence.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, George, I do. I can hold her legally, without charging her, for observation overnight, which is exactly what I am going to do. Come and get her in the morning; she’ll be free to go then, and perhaps she’ll learn to be a little more respectful of the law.”

“Or more respectful of you? Isn’t that what you really meant?” Bobby asked.

Winston looked at Bobby through squinted eyes and said, “No, Mr. Terrano, and yes, I do know who you are, I mean what I said. This city is in a war right now with some mad ghost who is causing all kinds of trouble. This Grim Spectre is terrifying innocent citizens all over this town. I want all the information I can find to stop him and end his reign of terror. Your girlfriend is holding back information I can use to trap this madman and put him away for good.”

“He’s a ghost, how can you put a ghost away?” Bobby snapped.

“Most people, myself included, do not believe this is some otherworldly avenger but instead believe him to be just a man in a costume.”

“Really?” Bobby barked, “You think this is just a man in a costume? A man who disappears and walks through walls, and oh yeah, he floats and flies too. I’ve never heard of a ‘man’ being able to do any of that, have you?”

“Perhaps not,” Winston conceded, “but that does not mean it is not a man, perhaps a stage magician, using simple sleight of hand tricks to fool the weak minded into believing him a ghost or avenging spirit of some kind.”

“Are you serious? Have you opened your eyes?” Bobby shouted, “Also, everything this so-called ‘Grim Spectre’ has done has been what I’d call heroic. He’s been going after criminals, thugs and gangsters. In fact, you said ‘he’s terrifying innocent citizens,’ and you couldn’t be further from the truth on that remark. The only people The Grim Spectre is terrifying are those same thugs and villains. You’d see that if you weren’t so worried about how your public image looked.”

Winston narrowed his eyes and his face turned red with anger. Then he replied, “Not another word, Mr. Terrano, not another word, or you’ll spend the night in jail as well, and I guarantee you won’t have as easy a time in there as your little girlfriend will have tonight. You need some cooling off time, Mr. Terrano, so you can forget about visiting Miss Thomas tonight. Go home and cool off.”

Bobby opened his mouth to answer when both George and Jack grabbed his arms and began to drag him away.

“Not another word, Bobby, you heard the man,” George whispered in his ear, “Not another word.”

Bobby looked at George and he was fuming.

They all left city hall and descended the steps toward the road.

Once on the sidewalk George turned back to Bobby and said, “Are you nuts, Bobby? You can’t take him on by yourself. That guys the Mayor. He could throw you in jail just as easily as he threw Tammy in there.”

Bobby fidgeted a moment then relaxed angrily, “Aaahh, you’re right George. I’ll just stay out of the mooks way. Anyway, I have to go play a gig before I lose another job. That doesn’t mean I won’t be thinking of Tammy the whole night.”

“Bobby, just go back to whatever bar you’re playing in and try to have a good night. Tammy will be all right. I’ll be here when she’s released in the morning. But right now I have to go write a scathing article on the Riverburgh mayor’s office and it’s overstepping of its own authority for the late edition,” George commented.

“Okay, okay I get it, George. I’ll stay out of this guy’s hair, for tonight at least.”

“Bobby, stay away from him, period,” George reiterated, “Let me handle it.”

“All right, I got it,” Bobby promised, “I gotta get to work. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Bobby pushed away and hailed a passing cab. An instant later the cab disappeared into the sea of cars heading away from city hall.

George watched with neutral eyes and finally said, “Damned fool, he’s not going to listen to me, he’s going to get himself killed. How happy will Tammy be when she gets out of there in the morning and finds out her boyfriend did something idiotic and ended up in jail, or worse?”

Jack shrugged his shoulders non-committedly.

***

Several blocks away, Bobby exited the cab in front of McKinley’s. He threw the cabbie a few extra dollars for getting him back there quickly and then entered the bar and played his trumpet with a fiery vengeance.

***

Hours later, and long before daylight, Bobby exited McKinley’s and thought,
‘Winston wants the Grim Spectre? Well he’s gonna get him, and it’s gonna be something he’s gonna regret wishing for. It’s time to see how scared this tough guy mayor can get.’

Minutes later, Bobby entered his apartment and put down his trumpet case. He stood in the center of his apartment and said, “Costume.” Instantly his clothes changed into his Grim Spectre outfit. The belt at his waist widened and changed to a metallic gold color from the simple leather belt he wore and his clothes stretched and grew into the glowing white outfit and cape he wore as the Grim Spectre. He reached back and pulled the hood up over his skull-like face mask.