Ghostcatcher Read online

  ‘It’s OK,’ said Lil. ‘It’s not a real hand.’

  ‘It’s very … lifelike,’ Starkey complimented Abe, still staring at the dismembered appendage. He was no longer wearing his glasses and his eyes were wide and feverish-looking.

  Margaret bounded up the steps and jumped playfully at Starkey just as he tried to stand. He fell back down again, laughing and ruffling her fur.

  Nedly watched enviously.

  ‘So,’ said Lil. ‘What is it you wanted to tell us?’

  ‘Ah yes.’ Starkey stumbled to his feet. His poncho was decorated in dead leaves. He took up a post by the railings. ‘Good morning, all of you.’ He looked terrified for a minute. ‘I’m not standing on him, am I?’

  Lil stuck out her chin. ‘Who says he’s here? It’s not exactly safe for him out in the open.’

  Starkey winced. ‘Quite right, of course. I must not endanger our friend. Not for a moment. I thought you would prefer to meet somewhere quiet, but you’re right.’ He looked at them soberly. ‘I’m not sure anywhere is really safe now.’

  ‘So, what gives?’ Abe planted his feet solidly in the centre of the bandstand.

  ‘I have some information,’ Starkey whispered, glancing over his shoulder. ‘I have discovered what Ghostcatcher are using the tourmaline for.’

  Lil and Nedly drew in.

  ‘They are feeding it to EGON.’

  Lil pulled a grim face and looked askance at Starkey and then Abe. ‘Who’s EGON?’

  ‘Not who, what,’ Starkey replied. ‘EGON is an Electromagnetic Geospatial Orientation Network.’

  ‘Sounds impressive,’ said Abe, cloaking his bewilderment in cynicism. ‘What does it actually do?’

  ‘It finds ghosts.’

  ‘Like those camera things Ghostcatcher have been using? The EMF readers?’ asked Lil.

  Starkey creased his brow slightly. ‘On a larger scale. Much larger. EGON finds ghosts in the city. Wherever they are.’

  Lil gulped. ‘The whole city?’

  ‘Every corner.’

  She tried to catch Nedly’s eye. His face was ice-white.

  ‘That’s why they needed so much tourmaline,’ Starkey continued, his breath billowing like mist in the suddenly freezing atmosphere of the bandstand. ‘They have spent the last few weeks calibrating it to the exact frequency emitted by the Final Ghost. They had a few false positives but now they’re confident that EGON can track the ghost wherever it is in Peligan City. They are primed for its capture and destruction.’

  The wind picked up and pulled the leaves off the ground and rolled them a few paces. The bare trees swayed, like seaweed being tugged by an underwater current. ‘I thought you should know what you’re up against.’

  Lil shuddered and then gave him the Squint. ‘How do you know so much about it?’

  ‘Because I’ve seen it!’ Starkey’s voice broke excitedly. ‘The night after we met. When another shipment came in I stowed away in the truck and was delivered into the Rorschach Laboratory Facility. Do you know it?’

  ‘We’ve heard of it,’ Abe and Lil said at the same time.

  ‘As soon as the truck parked I crawled out from beneath the tarpaulin.’

  ‘You broke in?’ The scowl Lil had been wearing softened slightly.

  ‘I did. The security round the perimeter is very high but inside the camp it’s just tents. Very thin walls,’ he chuckled. ‘I hid out for the best part of the evening listening to them scanning the city. I procured some branches from an overgrown shrubbery and with my green poncho I was completely camouflaged as a bush.’ He demonstrated by puffing out the poncho and crouching onto his knees. When he bowed his head his face disappeared and he became a strange canvas boulder. ‘I was planning to escape by secreting myself in the back of the Ghostcatcher van but unfortunately I was discovered.

  ‘A call came in on the Haunting Hotline and, in their hurry to answer it, the scientists stumbled upon me in my hiding place, quite literally. They called the police, and then one of them was kind enough to make small talk with me until the authorities arrived.’

  Abe narrowed his eyes. ‘That was very sociable, seeing as how you were trespassing.’

  ‘That way I had a good look at EGON.’ Starkey’s eyes glistened. ‘It’s an impressive machine. I even found out a little about how it works.’ He lowered his voice to a whisper again. ‘That’s when I realised the danger, though I didn’t have a chance to warn you until the next morning when the police allowed me to make a phone call.’

  Lil nodded, remembering the call she had taken at the Nite Jar. But she still wasn’t convinced. ‘Then they just let you go?’

  ‘I have a suspicion that they think I’m a bit nutty,’ he confessed. He raised his eyes to Lil. ‘I got away with a caution.’

  ‘Ghostcatcher thinks they have us cornered,’ said Lil, remembering Virgil’s ninety-nine per cent. She looked anxiously at Nedly.

  Abe clenched and unclenched his jaw and then punched his open rubber hand menacingly with his real one. ‘I’d like to bust that EGON’s swede.’

  Starkey nodded excitedly. ‘That’s the other thing I wanted to tell you. I think we could destroy it.’

  Abe hesitated mid-punch. ‘How?’

  Starkey looked down at Margaret and then followed her gaze to the empty space by the steps. ‘I believe the Final Ghost could do it, with a surge of electromagnetic energy.’

  ‘Lil?’ Nedly spoke for the first time since Starkey had arrived. ‘Will you tell him my name? I don’t want to be the Final Ghost.’ He held her uncertain gaze for a moment. ‘Please.’

  Reluctantly Lil turned to Starkey. ‘His name is Nedly, that’s what you should call him.’

  Starkey’s eyes brimmed as he repeated the word. ‘Nedly. You can communicate with him?’

  She nodded. Starkey raised his eyebrows at Abe, who shook his head.

  ‘As far as we know she’s the only one who can.’

  ‘Is it some kind of sixth sense or a natural sensitivity to ghosts?’

  ‘Nedly is the only ghost I can see.’ Lil shrugged.

  Starkey frowned. ‘Have you any idea why that is?’

  Lil chewed on her pencil and looked at Nedly, who looked at the floor. ‘Honestly, I haven’t got a clue.’

  Chapter 14

  Old Towels

  Lil sat alone in one of the booths that lined the far wall of the Nite Jar Cafe, eating her tea and reading that evening’s edition of the Klaxon, hidden inside yesterday’s edition of the Herald. A familiar shadow flooded the table and then slipped away as its owner lurched into the seat opposite.

  ‘Abe,’ Lil said with a grin.

  ‘Lil,’ he returned the greeting and then paused to let his eyes and ears read the atmosphere. ‘No Nedly?’

  Lil shook her head. ‘He’s trailing Starkey to see if he’s on the level.’

  ‘Is that a good idea?’ Abe frowned. ‘If he’s not, then he could be dangerous.’

  ‘That’s what I said.’ Lil stabbed a piece of cheese on toast. ‘But he’s gone anyway.’

  ‘You two had a bust-up?’

  She shrugged.

  ‘Don’t take it personally; the world is on his shoulders right now.’ He nodded at her plate. ‘What have you got there?’

  ‘It’s a signature dish that Yoshi has been working on.’

  ‘Any good?’

  Lil cut a corner and offered it to him. Abe accepted it and chewed a couple of times, then his face curdled. ‘What’s that on the cheese? Some kind of fruit?’

  ‘It’s pineapple,’ she grimaced. ‘Yoshi thought I would like it. I don’t want to hurt his feelings but it’s the most terrible combination I’ve ever tasted. Will you help me eat it?’

  They both looked at the counter where Yoshi was mashing up some leftover eggs and bacon for Margaret. He grinned back at them and gave them a thumbs up. Abe took the knife and cut the toasted cheese down the middle. ‘All right, kid. We’re in it together.’

  He tapped the Klaxon.
‘Anything in there we should know about?’

  Lil raised a Cryptic Eyebrow. ‘Ghostcatcher have opened a new line of enquiry.’

  Ghostcatcher Awarded New Powers to Search and Destroy ‘haunted objects’

  by Marsha Quake

  In a joint operation with City Hall, Ghostcatcher have been authorised to Search and Destroy suspicious items as they pursue a second line of enquiry: where is the object that the Final Ghost has been bound to and who is controlling it?

  In an exclusive interview with the Klaxon, lead scientist Magdalena Virgil explains: ‘Our investigations have concluded that all the ghosts haunting Peligan City were bound to objects, and this is the means by which they were controlled.

  ‘Without something to anchor them, the ghosts certainly wouldn’t be able to manifest to the extent that they could haunt anyone, and so we have deduced that if the object is destroyed then the associated ghost should also perish.’

  Acting Mayor Gordian has advised that anyone found in possession of a haunted object could face criminal charges and they are asking the public to be vigilant of people acting suspiciously around material goods.

  Peligan City Police Department reserves the right to destroy any object viewed as haunted.

  But if this theory is well founded, then why are we only hearing about it now? Or is this an attempt to reinvigorate a crusade that the public interest and city purse are growing weary of?

  ‘They’ve got it all wrong,’ said Lil, chewing and grimacing in turn. ‘Nedly’s not like the other spooks. He wasn’t bound to anything.’

  ‘Suits us.’ Abe rubbed his chin. ‘If they’re looking for something that isn’t there, it will keep them busy anyway.’ He took a bite of the toasted cheese and pineapple and winced. ‘Quake got exclusive action on this – didn’t she ask you along?’

  ‘She did,’ Lil admitted. ‘There was something else I had to do, to try to fix things. I thought if I could persuade Sam Tangiers …’ Abe’s jaw dropped but before he could speak Lil cut him off: ‘It was a terrible idea, I know that now.’ She sighed miserably. ‘It’s beginning to feel like we’re running out of options.’

  Abe ate another two mouthfuls of toasted cheese without balking. He had something even more bad-tasting in his mouth and it was past time to spit it out. He looked at Lil for a moment and then started playing with the lever on the napkin dispenser. ‘You know, with EGON on the scene, it might be time for Nedly to … move on.’

  ‘What!’ Lil choked.

  ‘Somewhere people don’t know him,’ Abe continued carefully. ‘Not for ever, just until they get tired of looking.’

  ‘Nedly leave Peligan City?’ The magnitude of the suggestion bowled Lil over. ‘But this is his home.’

  ‘I know it’s not what you want to hear but you have to face up to it; this has just got too big for us to handle. We can’t protect him, not against the whole city and all that science. Lil … you’ve got to think about your future. The rest of your life.’

  Lil gave him a look. ‘What about Nedly’s life? I’m not just going to throw in the towel when he needs me.’ There was an accusing look in her eye.

  Abe took that on the chin. ‘Take it from someone who’s knee-deep in old towels.’ He looked at Lil steadily. ‘Look where it got me. I was chasing Le Teef for ten years, going round in circles. Don’t be stubborn like me.’

  ‘You got him in the end.’

  They both chewed on doggedly and in silence, and then finally Lil said: ‘I’m not ready to give up and I’ve got another idea now anyway. Do you know what Mum thinks about the Final Ghost? She doesn’t believe he exists.’

  ‘So I’ve heard.’ Abe poured them both a glass of water from the jug and drank his in two glugs. ‘She makes a good case for it too.’

  Lil pulled her jumper sleeves down over her hands; it felt chilly in the Nite Jar – she glanced at the door, but it was closed. ‘So, I was thinking, if I worked on her a bit, maybe the Klaxon could run a story about the Final Ghost not being real. Quake would confirm that Ghostcatcher haven’t seen any verifiable action over the last few weeks. Mum could get hold of the records from the Police Department to confirm the serious crime rate has fallen. I think it would hang together.’ Lil pulled the pencil out of her hair and chewed on it pensively.

  Abe creased his brow. ‘But you know it isn’t true.’

  ‘Yeah, I know, but if people buy it, they’ll leave Nedly alone. He’ll be safe.’

  ‘Yeah but nothing,’ Abe growled. ‘That’s a road you do not want to walk down. If you’re going to start making up stories when it suits you, maybe you should go and work for the Herald.’

  His words caught Lil like a stinger. ‘That’s not what I meant,’ she bristled, and then muttered angrily, ‘You don’t know anything about it. You’re just an old gumshoe.’

  Abe stared down at his rubber hand and busied himself with squeezing the end of each of the fingers in turn. ‘I know a little something about how it feels to not be able to look yourself in the eye.’

  Lil took the last bite of cheese and pineapple. It was hard to swallow.

  ‘It’s got really cold in here,’ she grumbled, scowling at the radiator. Goose pimples bloomed on her skin and then her stomach turned to ice. She stood up on the seat and looked over into the next booth.

  ‘Nedly!’ Lil’s ears burned red. ‘How long have you been there?’

  ‘Long enough.’ His skin looked like the surface of a frozen lake.

  ‘Were you spying on me?’ Lil gave him the Squint, full blast.

  Nedly glared back at her. ‘When were you actually going to tell me about your big plan to pretend that I don’t even exist, or don’t I get a say in it?’

  Lil could feel her heartbeat thumping in her chest. She started to get some serious creeps but she couldn’t make herself back down – in fact, the creepier she felt, the angrier she got. ‘Don’t try and creep me out!’ she yelled.

  ‘Don’t tell me what to do!’ Nedly yelled back.

  ‘Shhh!’ Abe hissed between gritted teeth while smiling awkwardly to the people sitting at the counter who had turned round to stare at Lil. ‘Sit down, will you?’

  The tension in the air was thick enough to slice. ‘All right, kids,’ he whispered hoarsely, cold sweat beading on his brow. ‘We’re all on the same side here.’ He held his hands out open-palmed. ‘Let’s sit down together, have something to drink to take away the memory of that … cheese and fruit, and work it out.’

  Nedly circled round to take the seat opposite Lil, his eyes blazing. Lil glowered back at him. Abe shivered violently and took out his crumpled handkerchief and mopped his face with it. ‘That’s better. Now, it so happens I have a plan of my own.’

  ‘You do?’ Lil was so surprised that she broke her unblinking staring contest with Nedly. As she looked away Nedly’s expression relaxed and by the time she looked back at him she saw what she had missed before: she had hurt his feelings. She gave him a small tentative smile, a peace offering.

  ‘We’ll do it together, with a bit of this.’ Abe tapped the side of his head. ‘Brains.’ He explained: ‘For starters we’re going to eliminate the immediate threat by taking EGON out of the game, which should buy us some thinking time at least.’

  Nedly looked doubtful. ‘But EGON is behind the security fence at Rorschach; how will we even get in there?’

  Lil told him firmly, ‘We’ll find a way.’

  ‘We already tried.’ Nedly wilted with a sigh. ‘There isn’t a way.’

  Lil thumped her fist on the table, making Abe jump. ‘Nedly, look at me.’ He bored his eyes into the floor and then reluctantly his gaze slid across to Lil’s empty plate. ‘In the eye,’ she insisted. Nedly rolled his eyes up. ‘Have you ever known me to give up on something I believe in?’

  Nedly looked down at the plate again and shrugged.

  Lil pushed it aside. ‘Well, have you?’

  He sighed. ‘No.’

  ‘That’s right,’ she said. ‘And I’m
not about to start now.’

  A smile twitched at his lips. He looked from Abe to Lil and then back again. ‘So, what is the plan?’

  Lil glanced at Abe with a trace of desperation in her eyes.

  ‘It’s a classic,’ he told them. ‘They use it in all the pictures, and, let me tell you, it works every time.’ He puffed himself up and turned to face the spot Lil had been talking to with confidence. ‘The plan is that we’re going to assemble a crack team, specialists in their field, and with their expertise we’re going to out-think those eggheads, infiltrate the facility and locate the target … and –’ he shrugged – ‘bust EGON’s swede.’

  Lil nodded her head with caution. ‘Right …’ Nedly was watching her hopefully. ‘That could work,’ she added, sounding like she was warming to the idea. She had no idea how that was going to work, but at that moment they just needed something. ‘First we need some plans, of the alarm system and the layout of the facility.’ She paused. ‘Where are we going to find something like that at this short notice?’

  Abe rubbed his grizzled chin thoughtfully and then grinned. ‘I suppose we’d have to know the sort of person who knows things.’

  At the corner of Fig Street, Minnie’s cart was bathed in the light of a street lamp. The steam from the grill billowed out like mist, carrying with it the smell of warm bread, onions and sausages as it drifted through the rain.

  Minnie’s face broke into a crooked smile when she saw them. ‘Nearly every day, detective! This is becoming like old times. What can I get you – a couple of dogs?’

  ‘No time for any food. What I’m looking for …’ Abe tugged down the brim of his trilby and then glanced over his shoulder. ‘… are some plans to the grounds of the old asylum out at Rorschach.’

  Minnie’s smile dropped. ‘What, no small talk?’

  ‘No time.’ Abe fixed her with his steely eye. ‘Can you help?’

  Minnie crossed her arms. ‘Try the library.’

  ‘The sort of plans we’re looking for aren’t on public record. We’re particularly interested in the design plans for the security system around the perimeter wall. And anyway, the library’s shut.’