Ghostcatcher Page 18

  Abe, Naomi, Babyface, Mr Kolchak, Minnie, Irving Starkey and Velma all took routes on top of the usual delivery crew. This time no flyers for the Black Pug Eatery were used. Yoshi took a bundle of papers to the Nite Jar and posted them all along Spooner Row.

  By 9 a.m. they had run out. Lil stumbled back to Angel Lane like a sleepwalker, fed Waldo some seeds, refilled his water, then crawled into bed and slept.

  Chapter 25

  The Definite Article

  Lil woke late. She wrestled on her dressing gown and padded down the attic stairs. She stopped on the landing outside the bathroom, but the airing cupboard was empty. She stared into the piles of sheets and towels as a train rattled past, joggling the slatted wooden shelves and making the folded flannels tremble. She held her breath without meaning to as the racing heartbeat of the locomotive engine passed, the wheels clattering urgently against the track, and then in the quiet that followed she whispered, ‘Nedly?’

  There was no answer.

  The morning’s edition of the Herald was lying face down on the mat where it had fallen, her mum’s coat was still hanging on the rack and Waldo was going hell for leather on his wheel as Lil walked down the hallway towards the kitchen, following the familiar smell of toast.

  Naomi looked up and grinned as Lil walked in. ‘Good morning, little love! You’re just in time. We’re making breakfast … together. Me and Nedly.’

  There he was, sitting on the counter. Nedly beamed at Lil and she beamed back.

  ‘You can see him?’ she said, puzzled and relieved in equal measure, and then with a smile breaking across her face, ‘You can see him!’

  ‘No, Lil,’ Naomi cut in quickly. ‘I can’t see him, I –’ She exhaled. ‘We’re muddling through.’ She gave Lil a kiss on the forehead and murmured, ‘He’s by the toaster, right?’

  Lil nodded.

  ‘I pushed the toast down,’ said Nedly proudly. ‘It’s just, you know, toasting.’ He shrugged casually.

  ‘Great.’ Lil’s eyes were glued to the impossible but completely normal-looking scene of Nedly making breakfast with her mother. After a couple of minutes the toasting smell darkened to something more potent.

  ‘I think it’s done,’ Naomi said brightly, looking at an empty spot in the kitchen. Nedly tried making it pop up, jabbing at it with a glowing finger until both slices were suddenly ejected and soared over his head, leaving a trail of smoke. Naomi caught one; the other hit the floor in an explosion of crumbs.

  ‘It’s all right,’ said Lil, swiping it off the lino. ‘Waldo can have that bit. So, what’s going on?’

  ‘Nedly and I have had a talk,’ Naomi said, filling the teapot and putting it on the table with a bottle of milk and some cutlery. ‘Well, I talked and he listened.’ She frowned. ‘I hope he listened.’

  ‘I listened,’ Nedly chipped in, expertly straightening up the knife so that it lay parallel to the butter dish. ‘Then I did some talking but your mum couldn’t actually hear me – she just stared at this cobweb on the other side of the room that was blowing about in the draught from the window, but it didn’t matter because I think she knew what I wanted to say because then she suggested we should make breakfast together.’

  ‘OK,’ said Lil, then she dropped her voice and murmured, ‘Do you want me to translate anything?’

  ‘No, I think it’s OK.’

  ‘So,’ said Naomi. ‘I have to head into the office; I should probably empty my desk before they take away my security clearance. I’ll leave you two to catch up. Oh –’ She paused and then added off-handedly, ‘By the way, I invited Abe round for dinner this evening.’

  ‘Great,’ said Lil.

  ‘Yep,’ said Naomi, rushing off into the hall to get her coat and then coming back to put it on. ‘So, he’s coming over. I’ll probably do spaghetti bolognese.’ She paused, one arm in the coat sleeve while her ears turned from pink to cherry red. ‘Do you think that’s the best one to do?’

  ‘It’s your speciality,’ Lil confirmed.

  Naomi nodded, pulled Lil into a lock and kissed the top of her head. ‘OK then. I’ll catch you, both, later.’

  She laid the morning’s edition of the Klaxon on the table with a significant look, and left.

  When they heard the front door slam Nedly slumped down on the kitchen chair. ‘Phew! That was A-MAZING! I’m going to have to work on some kind of code for the future but what a morning! You should have seen it; she totally caught me by surprise – we were just sitting there listening to the radio and I must have caused a bit of interference or something because it went to static for a second and she suddenly just said, ‘Nedly? Are you there?’

  His excitement was contagious. Lil drew up a chair of her own. ‘What did you say back?’

  Nedly shrugged expansively. ‘Nothing, well nothing she could hear. I just knocked over a cereal box. It’s all I could think of. But it worked! We communicated like that for a while; knocking it over was “yes”, not knocking it over was “no”. It’s not perfect but it’s definitely the basis of something.’

  He let his shoulders relax, contentment gleaming in his eyes. ‘How did you convince her that I was real?’

  ‘I had help,’ Lil admitted.

  She pulled out a chair for Nedly to take a seat and then pushed the morning edition of the Klaxon across the table and swivelled it to face him. ‘Check this out. It’s a big scoop.’

  The Truth about the Final Ghost

  by Lil Potkin and Naomi Potkin

  It was front-page news, and the first time a Klaxon reporter had put their own name to a big story since the death of McNair. He glanced up at Lil, and she saw that there was fear in his round, dark eyes.

  ‘It’s OK,’ she said. ‘Just read it.’

  For weeks Peligan City has lived in fear, fear of the Final Ghost. Described by the Herald as a terrifying spectre ‘too powerful to be allowed to roam freely’, and hunted relentlessly by Ghostcatcher, the Final Ghost has evaded capture for months. But what do we really know about him, and what does he want with us?

  The Klaxon has gained unique and exclusive access to the Final Ghost and in the following pages we will lay before you information about his past, his death and his afterlife, including interviews with eyewitnesses, experts and those who know him best, his friends.

  But the first thing you should know is his name. The Final Ghost is Ned ‘Nedly’ Stubbs, he’s eleven years old and he was a victim of crime, not a perpetrator.

  Nedly looked up at Lil, his eyes glistening. ‘Go on,’ she said, and he continued reading.

  Early Life

  Ned Stubbs was born right here in Peligan City. He never knew his parents: he was left at the Hawks Memorial Orphanage on Bun Hill when he was only a baby, and he lived there for all of his young life.

  Orphanage caretaker Mr Emil Kolchak described young Ned as ‘a quiet and good-natured boy, who was kind and helpful, and always looking out for the smaller kids.’

  One of the orphans in question, seven-year-old Clark Kennedy, was a particular friend of Stubbs’. ‘Ned would share whatever sweets he had with me. He knew toffees were my favourite and sometimes he would save up and get those ones, even though he didn’t really like them. He was my hero.’

  Nedly’s eyes filled with tears. He had to blink them away before he could read on.

  Death

  So how did this kind young orphan become a ghost in the first place? Who killed him, and why?

  Ned Stubbs was murdered by the evil genius and ex-Lucan Road mobster Cornelius Gallows in the ruins of Rorschach Asylum over one year ago.

  The old asylum lies less than a mile away from the orphanage. Once a refuge for those suffering torments of the mind, it had been burned down ten years earlier in a mysterious fire that claimed the lives of several staff and inmates, including, it was believed, Cornelius Gallows and his young acolyte, the teenage arsonist, Leonard Owl.

  In fact, both had survived the blaze and had been hiding out in the asylum ever since while Ga
llows perfected his experimental procedure to weaponise a ghost.

  Gallows had set his mind on conquering Peligan City. He stayed under the radar for the next ten years, as a man who officially did not exist, a situation he would exploit time and again, beavering away in the shadows until finally he was ready to turn Leonard Owl into his first experimental subject: Mr Glimmer.

  It was on that fateful night that Nedly Stubbs crossed their paths.

  Stubbs had strayed into the asylum on the lookout for a lost toy. Clark Kennedy remembers: ‘I lost my best toy, Wool. I didn’t think I could sleep without it. But Ned went over to fetch it back from the asylum even though it was dark and haunted and we’re never supposed to go there. Just to help me out.’

  It was there in the asylum that Stubbs came across Gallows’ gruesome experiment and attempt to murder Leonard Owl. Stubbs tried to stop him, but little did he know that the procedure was already underway. So it was that the very night Gallows transformed Leonard Owl into Mr Glimmer, who became known to us all as the Firebug Killer, a second ghost was created: that of Nedly Stubbs.

  Unlike Owl, Stubbs was not bound to Gallows’ will and so he escaped from the doctor’s clutches and tried to find help. It took him a while but eventually he succeeded. It was Nedly Stubbs working in collaboration with local detective agency Mandrel Investigations, who were responsible for ending the escapades of the Firebug Killer. When all attempts to solve the crimes evaded police, Stubbs provided the vital information needed to solve the case, not to mention aiding the exposure and eventual capture of our disgraced former mayor and ex-mobster Ramon Le Teef.

  Absolom ‘Abe’ Mandrel, who worked with Nedly on the Gallows/Le Teef case, had this to say: ‘I’ve worked with Stubbs on several cases. He’s got a keen eye and a big heart and he’s saved my neck a couple of times. Sure, the kid is different, but he’s got guts. He puts himself out for people, even though he’s had a tough time of it. He doesn’t let that hold him back.’

  But Gallows wasn’t done with Peligan City yet. No sooner was Le Teef arrested than the ‘evil genius’ vanished again, only to turn up masquerading as prison doctor Alector Lankin, and safely locked away in Fellgate Prison. Was it a coincidence that prisoners began to die in a mysterious epidemic shortly after, and then that a series of bizarre murders and strange deaths swept the city? A crime wave that was for the most part ignored by the authorities until they had the means to end it.

  When amateur ghost hunter Irving Starkey gave the Klaxon the scoop to break the Haunting of Peligan City story he was concerned that the public were being kept in the dark about the spooks on the loose.

  ‘I had always wanted to make contact with visitors from the afterlife but the grade 1 spectral manifestations that were plaguing Peligan City were another kettle of fish. People were dying, I only saw the harm that was being done, not the good. It wasn’t until later that I saw that not all the spooks were the same. When I met Nedly Stubbs, the Final Ghost, I was most struck by his kindness and his decency to forgive a foolish man who could not see the wood for the trees.’

  Long before Ghostcatcher turned up on the scene it was Ned Stubbs working with Mandrel Investigations who dispatched all but one of Gallows’ deadly spooks to end the reign of terror.

  Mandrel recalls, ‘Young Ned went hand to hand with some of the most dangerous criminals this city has ever known. He showed more courage than anyone I know. I trust this kid and I’m proud to know him.’

  Nedly gulped hard. His whole body was glowing softly, filling the kitchen with a warm pearly light. He looked up at Lil and she gave him an encouraging grin.

  Twice Nedly Stubbs has helped to save Peligan City from the spectral forces that have plagued it, but still he has been hunted while the Herald stoked up fear and anger towards him, and although the story sold lots of papers, the truth is that no malevolent action by any spectre has taken place since the capture of Gallows’ last weaponised ghost, Mr Grip. Since Gallows himself was found dead on that very night and all his equipment seized it’s likely that no further spooks were created. So why are Ghostcatcher still chasing the Final Ghost?

  Magdalena Virgil, lead scientist of Ghostcatcher made this statement: ‘It is true that we have been tracking the Final Ghost for weeks and we have come very close to capturing him, but our research into who he was and his nature has caused us to call off our pursuit. We have confirmed the identity of the Final Ghost as that of Ned Stubbs and have found no evidence that his spirit is any threat to the public. If our research suggests anything, it is that we should be thanking Stubbs, not fighting him.’

  Acting Mayor Pam Gordian refused to confirm or deny that the Final Ghost was still of interest to City Hall but was unable to produce any records to prove that either the crime rate or the death rate had remained high following the entrapment of Mr Grip at the doll hospital in the Old Town – in fact, the Klaxon has seen evidence from their source at the Police Department that the serious crime level has actually gone down over the last few weeks. Peligan City P.D. also reported that their alleged investigation into the so-called Fright File had been closed.

  So what now for this unusual young hero? We managed to make contact with Nedly Stubbs and he had this to say: ‘‘I wish that people could see the real me; not just a spook that gives everyone the creeps. I just wanted the chance to be someone good, like everyone else has. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.’

  Citizens of Peligan City, it’s over to you.

  Nedly kept his eye on the last page, elbows propped on the table with the heels of his hands resting against his cheekbones. Lil watched him expectantly.

  Finally he whispered in a husky voice, ‘It’s a good story.’ He glanced shyly up at her. ‘Do you think anyone will read it?’

  ‘A copy has gone into every home in Old Town.’

  ‘I can’t believe everyone said all that nice stuff about me.’ His pale cheeks blushed a pinkish grey.

  Lil gave the pot a stir and then poured out the tea. ‘People think a lot of you.’

  Nedly sat on his hands and jigged his legs under the table. ‘Is it safe, though, publishing it under your own names?’

  ‘I just thought, maybe it was time we all stopped hiding. Gordian said she was going to make this city better – someone needs to hold her accountable.’

  Nedly grinned. ‘And that’s you?’

  ‘Me, Mum, Marsha, Abe, Logan, Minnie, Irving Starkey. I bet there are other people who think it’s time things got changed and are prepared to try to change them.’ She looked up hopefully, a piece of blackened toast halfway to her mouth. ‘You?’

  Nedly rubbed his chin thoughtfully. ‘Well, I’m a hero of Peligan City now, so … I’m going to have to check my diary.’

  Lil rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t let it go to your head.’

  Nedly wrapped his glowing fingers round the glass milk bottle and then, staring at it very intently, lifted it three inches off the table, tilted it so that a thin line of white liquid trickled out and into Lil’s tea and shakily returned it to the table. He let out a sigh of relief and said, ‘Things might actually work out in the end.’

  ‘They might,’ Lil agreed, taking a bite out of the toast.

  Nedly thought for a moment, cleared his throat momentously and said in a deeper voice than normal, ‘After all, it’s not who I am but what I do that matters.’

  Lil gave him a pitying look. ‘I’m not going to quote everything you say now. That story was just a one-off.’

  Nedly sagged. ‘I thought it sounded pretty good.’

  Lil shoved the last bit of toast in her mouth and shook her head as she chewed. ‘It sounded exactly like a line from one of your comic books.’

  Nedly shrugged one shoulder. ‘I’m still going to use it.’

  ‘S’up to you.’ Lil brushed the crumbs off her fingers, carefully placed the knife across the plate and then asked, ‘So what now?’

  Nedly interlaced his fingers and gave his arms a stretch. ‘Right now?’

&n
bsp; ‘Yeah.’ Lil felt the tips of her ears growing warm. ‘What you were saying on the roof of City Hall, about going away for a while. About leaving?’

  Nedly looked at her gravely. ‘I could really never leave you.’ Lil returned the look with a bashful smile. ‘No, I mean,’ he continued, ‘even if I wanted to.’ Lil’s smile slipped. ‘That’s what Yossarian was saying. But I think I do need to spend some time alone.’ He tried to say the next bit as quickly as he could. ‘To find myself or something, just for a little while.’

  Lil kept her eyes on the table and nodded. ‘Of course.’ She paused and then added, ‘I suppose I just got used to having you around.’

  ‘You’ll be OK?’ Nedly said anxiously.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Lil. ‘Of course. It’s no big deal. And maybe if I needed your help, with something serious or I missed you a lot, I could call and you would come back – right?’

  ‘Whenever you needed me.’ Nedly grinned.

  Lil grinned back. ‘Same here.’

  ‘Hang on – it doesn’t work like that.’

  ‘Yeah, it does.’ Lil took a big gulp of tea. ‘We just need to work it out. You might have to actually call, maybe learn how to haunt the telephone line or something like that.’

  Nedly shrugged happily. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’

  Epilogue

  One Month Later

  On the corner of Spooner Row, newsagent Julius Oliver pulled down the grey metal shutter on his kiosk and padlocked it to the ground. He paused for a second, listening. It was long past dark and the streets had a lonely feel, but not an empty one. Grey steam rose from the drains and floated thinly over the wet pavement like rafts of mist in a graveyard.

  Julius pulled his woollen hat down low and shoved his hands deep into his pockets where they could rest protectively on the thin bundle of notes zipped into the money belt round his belly under his patched jacket. Head down and eyes on his feet, he started walking.

  A streetlight overhead buzzed and the light dimmed. An empty can rolled into the gutter on a breeze he couldn’t feel.