It had been 2 weeks since James had died. The police had ruled his death an accident.
Tes had been in his room watching Ghost Watchers ever since he got home from the hunt. Tes liked Ghost Watchers because they seemed like they knew what they were doing when they were hunting ghosts, where as other ghost shows like Ghoul Killers and Ecto-Inspecto were more for entertainment. Ghoul Killers was about two brothers running around the United States killing ghosts and stuff while also dealing with stupid family drama, and Ecto-Inspecto’s intended audience was kids who were still in elementary school. Ecto-Inspecto was Tes and James’ favorite show as kids, and looking back on it, it wasn't the best influence. Ecto-Inspecto and his sidekick Spooky Jones went 11 seasons and 264 episodes and neither of them ever died in a stupid old basement. They got close in Season 3 Episode 24 when they were at Ghastly High School and a row of lockers fell on Jones, but he was fine.
James, on the other hand, bled out and gave Tes his watch. Typically when people die, they leave you money in a will, or they tell you to tell their wife that they love her, but James gave Tes a watch. The watch was still on his desk from when he got home after James died. It was a pretty cool watch, but it made him uncomfortable. His dead friend gave him a watch. What was he supposed to do about it? James didn't clarify if he had to wear it, or burn it, or just let it collect dust.
The only thing he did say was that he had to keep hunting ghosts. Tes had been thinking about this request, and had decided that it was pretty stupid. Why would James want him to continue doing what got him killed? Did James secretly want Tes to die? No matter what the answer to those questions were, he couldn't bring himself to go against James’ wishes. He had put up a Brettslist ad asking if anyone had any ‘unexplainable events or apparitions’ in their house. He had asked any responders to email him at [email protected], so that he could follow through with not changing the name of the team like James had asked without actually having to tell anyone he was a team. It had been 3 days since he posted the ad, and he hadn't gotten any replies yet.
Tes decided that he was going to check his email one more time before he called it a night. He got up to walk over to his desk, but a bit of light had reflected off of the watch and caught his attention. He really liked the watch, and he wanted to try it on, but it just seemed wrong. Would James put on an accessory that I gave him as I was dying? I bet he would. He would probably put it on as I was dying. I'm going to put that watch on. After he had made up his mind, he picked up the watch and attempted to open it up. It took him awhile to figure out how to get it open, and once it was open he spent another three minutes trying to get it closed.
Tes looked in the mirror to see how it looked on him. He thought he looked pretty dashing; it complimented his features. It made him look so nice, that he wished he had just gotten over James’ death sooner and put on the watch.
“Are you just going to stand there and look at yourself all day?” said a voice.
Now that voice sounded very familiar, in fact, he was 98% sure that it belonged to his recently deceased friend, James Oswyn.
“No, you are supposed to be dead. I must be having some sort of hallucination. This is just my mind coping with loss or something.”
“I'm still dead, I'm just a ghost now. It's actually pretty damn cool.”
“Shut up. I will not indulge you, you hallucinatory piece of shit!”
“Whoa Tes! Calm down there! You’re hurting my feelings! What would you do if I killed myself?”
“If you are a ghost instead of a hallucination, prove it.”
“How the hell am I supposed to do that? You'll just assume that everything I do is part of the hallucination. Also I can't actually interact with anything physical. If I could have, your room would be a lot more like Poltergeist right now.”
“Of course you can't make anything move! That would mean something was going on outside of my head! I'm going to need you to go away. I can't just live my whole life with my dead friend following me around in my head.”
“I actually can't leave your house, either.”
“If you were a ghost, wouldn't you be confined to the cemetery where you were buried?
“I was cremated. Of course you wouldn't know because YOU SKIPPED MY FUNERAL TO WATCH GHOST WATCHERS!”
“I couldn't deal with it. Plus, Ghost Watchers is some quality entertainment, annnd I'm talking to the hallucination again! Great!”
“I. Am. A. Ghost!. How is that so hard for you to believe? I was literally killed by a ghost two weeks ago. It should be far within reason that I would turn into a ghost.”
Right as James finished talking, Tes’ mom walked into his room.
“Tes, who are you talking to?”
“No one mom, just myself. The episode of Ghost Watchers I just watched was pretty interesting, want to hear about it?”
“Not re-”
“So, some kid and his friend were playing at a park, and this park was pretty dangerous. Like it wasn't a certified park, and everything was very rusty. Well, these two kids had been playing at this park for their entire lives, but they had never gone down the slide, because they knew it was essentially tetanus waiting to happen. Now, for whatever reason, they decided to go down the slide after 16 years of not going down the slide. Both kids went down the slide, but one of the kids, Jim, got cut up really bad. Jim died within minutes, and his friend, Terrance, was all covered in blood. For whatever reason, Jim decided to give Terrance a wat- a wallet. What kind of person gives belongings to their friend as they die, right! Well, anyways, when Terrance puts this wallet in his pants, he sees Jim! Of course, Terrance thinks it's a hallucination, but Jim swears he is a ghost! The Ghost watchers couldn't prove anything, but they couldn't disprove anything either. So, what do you think?
“What do I think about what?”
“Do you think James is a ghost, or not?”
“James?”
“...Jim. You know what I mean.”
“I don't think I can really weigh in. I've never seen a ghost, so I don't even know if they are real.”
Right as she said that, the lights in his room began to flicker. Tes, of course knew this was a telltale sign of ghosts, and looked over at the light. as expected, there was Ghost James, sticking his ghost hand all up in Tes’ light bulb. Tes was pretty annoyed that James was touching his stuff, but it made it a lot worse that he was touching the inside of his stuff. Who does that to someone! I wouldn't touch all of James’ stuff if I died! What a punk! Well, if he's just a hallucination, I don't have to worry about it.
“Tes, how long has that light been acting up? If you had told me sooner, I could have gotten it fixed.
Tes just looked at his mom with a blank expression.
James chimed in, “Hah! Eat it! I'm a ghost!”
“Y-you can see the, uh, the lights f-flickering?
“Of course I can. I'm not blind. Are you ok? You look like you've seen a ghost.”
“Heh. You could say that, yeah. I'm fine.”
“Alright then, I guess I'll just leave you to talk to yourself then.”
“Thanks. The conversation was really picking up, so I'm going to get back to it.”
Tes’ mom left the room with a half-concerned, half-confused look on her face. He made a mental note to add his mom to the list of people who think he's crazy, which as of late, looked like it was going to need a second page.
“So. you're a ghost.”
“Actually, I don't know anymore. You had me pretty convinced I was a hallucination.”
“So how long have you been a ghost?”
“Well let me check my calender real quick… It looks like I turned into a ghost after I died, but before my brunch appointment with the afterlife.”
“Why are you so annoyed? You’re acting like someone impaled you with a piece of woo- oh right. If you’ve been a ghost for the whole time, where have you been until now.”
“I haven't been able to leave the house. for whatever reason, i think my soul is tied to the watch. It would explain me not being able to leave, and it would explain that you could only see me once you put it on.”
“I guess I’ll take it off and then we’ll see if you’re right or not.”
Tes removed the watch and scanned the room. There was not a single trace of James in the room, which was both relaxing and concerning. If there was any doubt about the legitimacy of James’ ghostliness, they were just blown away.
“I can't see you anymore.”
Tes put the watch back on.
“I should be dead. Like all the way dead. My body was cremated.”
“I guess your soul is partly in this watch. It's not unheard of. In one episode of Ghost Watchers a ghost was tied to a painting. The ghost couldn't do much, but it could knock down the painting, and it could change what was on the painting. Have you tried knocking anything over in my room?”
“I've been a ghost for two weeks, and I've been trapped in your house. There is not a single thing in this room that I haven't tried to knock down. I can't physically touch anything. The only thing I can do is flicker some lights.”
“So, you're a ghost, but you can't do anything except follow me around.”
“Yeah. pretty much.”
The room fell completely silent. In an instant, the silence was shattered by laughter. Both Tes and James thought it was hilarious. They laughed for what felt like an hour, which was actually more like a minute, until they were interrupted by a loud ding from Tes’ computer. Tes had received an email with the subject “Ghost. Please help”. He opened the email and read out:
“Hi! My name is Frederick Graints. I saw your Brettslist ad about ghost hunting, and am in need of your services. I can only offer you $25. If you want to take the job, meet me at Quartermaster tomorrow at 5pm. Thank you.”
“Looks like we have a ghost to hunt,” said James, who was a little bit too excited for a dead person.
“Where is Quartermaster? What even is that?” As Tes was talking, he was typing ‘Quartermaster’ into the search bar. He got a bunch of results about the military rank and police equipment, so he clicked over to the maps section. The closest result for ‘Quartermaster’ any where near them was a dry cleaner.
“A dry cleaner? Seems a little overboard to call a dry cleaner Quartermaster.”
“I don't know James. This dry cleaner boasts a strict 25 cents per garment policy.” Tes said sarcastically.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“I wish I was.”
“Well, bad puns aside, how are we going to get to the Quartermaster.”
“I'll just tell my mom I want to apply for a job there, and we’ll borrow the car.”
“Sounds like a solid plan. It’s pretty late though. I can't actually sleep, so I'm going to watch tv downstairs for the recommended 7 hours if you would be so kind as to turn it on for me.”
“You can't sleep? Doesn't that suck?”
“I don't get tired either, so I don't really mind.”
Tes went downstairs after his mom had fallen asleep and turned on the TV. For whatever reason, James really wanted to watch The Price Is Right, so he put it on the gameshow channel. After that, Tes went upstairs to get some sleep himself; the best sleep that he’d gotten in about two weeks.
The next day, Tes talked to his mom about Quartermasters, and she lent him her keys. While Tes and James waited for 5:00 to come around, they watched Ghost Watchers and managed to get in four episodes before it was time to head out.Tes got in the car, but James couldn't actually sit down in the seat without just going through it. Luckily enough for them, James becoming a ghost also gave him a significant speed boost, so he was able to keep up with the car for the most part. Even with those minor complications, they made it to Quartermaster without too much trouble.
The sight of the area they had just arrived at was, to put it lightly, an absolute dump. Next to Quartermaster on the left, there was an alley that looked like it could have been ripped straight off of the streets of Detroit. On the other side of the alley, there was a Bestwill that had clearly seen better days. Tes and James looked at eachother confused. Had they come to the right place? Did Frederick make a typo in his email? Was Tes going to be mugged? As they were both wondering these things, they were approached by a man. The man had a scraggly black beard and was wearing glasses and a black hoodie.
“Are you Tes?” The man said in a raspy voice.
“I am, and you must be Mr. Graints,” Tes replied with a hint of concern in his voice.
“Please, call me Frederick.”
“Alright Frederick, We’re going to need to see where you first saw the ghost.”
“We’re?”
“Sorry, I meant ‘I’, obviously.”
When Frederick turned around to go to where he saw the ghost, James started talking, but only Tes could hear him.
“This guy looks crazy. There's a huge chance there's no ghost here.”
Tes whispered, “We've got to give the guy a chance before we make that decision.”
“Whatever you say, but keep a mental note that everything this guy is saying could be 100% B.S.”
“Will do.”
Frederick walked into the alley and began explaining the situation.
“My friend Jack and I hang out here a lot. Its pretty cut off from the rest of the world, and we like that. The thing is, Jack has been missing for about a week now. Just up and disappearing without saying goodbye isn't like Jack at all. I was already pretty worried about the guy, but yesterday... yesterday really messed me up. When I woke up, I felt a cold breeze, and I found this.” Frederick walked up to a pile of newspapers. Someone had torn out a bunch of words from the papers and put them next to the pile. Upon further inspection, every single one of the words torn out of paper said ‘Help’.
“Jesus Christ.” Tes said under his breath.
“Yeah. I'm pretty sure he's dead, and he isn't happy about it.”
“You said you saw this when you woke up. Do you sleep here?”
“Yeah, I'm homeless. Kinda by choice though, so don't worry about the payment.”
“Alright. I need to start investigating the area. If you see anything or remember anything, just come find me, okay?”
“Gotcha.”
Tes walked back to the car so he could talk to James. Throughout the entire conversation with Frederick, James had been making weird sounds.
“Why won't you shut up when I’m trying to talk to the client?”
“It's not like he can hear me. I was trying to throw you off of your game.”
“I don't have a game! This is the first time we've ever done this. It would be extremely helpful if you would just be quiet when I’m doing the stuff you can't help with.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Anyways, what do you think of this guys story?”
“Its sounds plausible to me. If the ghost is ripping up papers, we know the body is somewhere close by, right?”
“Yeah, we should probably start out with asking the clerks of the two stores if they saw anything. That means more work that I can't help with. This ghost hunting stuff is a lot less fun when you are a ghost.”
“Maybe you should have tried harder to not get killed.”
Tes gave James a sarcastic look and began on his way to Quartermasters. The sign on the door said that they were open, but Tes couldn't see anyone inside. He went inside and scanned the room for anybody who he could talk to. There was definitely no one at around to help, but there was a small bell on the counter. Although there was no sign saying to ring the bell for service, Tes figured that was his only shot of talking to anyone, so he hit the bell a few times. Still no answer. Tes had started pacing. There wasn't much room in the front of the drycleaners, and he couldn't see the back of the store either. Extremely annoyed, Tes slammed the bell a few more times.
An older Chinese woman emerged from the back of the shop. Tes could see on her face that she was just as annoyed at his bell ringing that he was at having to wait.
“I can hear you! You don't need to ring so many time!”
“Well, clearly I did.”
“Watch your attitude! What you want!”
“Sorry, I was just wondering if you know about a guy named Jack.”
“Ah, Jack! He regular customer! He hasn't come here in a while though.”
“Alright. Did you ever have any, um, any kind of, ah, problems with him.”
“No, no! Jack is great customer! He always very kind, and he tip well.”
“Do you know anyone who would want to hurt Jack?”
“Bill who own BestWill next door does not like Jack. He does not think they should be sleeping in between store. I don't care where they sleeping.”
“Thank you for you help. I may be back to ask more questions later if that's okay.”
“As long as you only ring bell once.”
“Alright. Thanks again.”
“Have nice day!”
Tes left the small building having learned almost nothing. Luckily he did have somewhat of a lead, but he was already going to go to the BestWill, so it wasn't much. James had been silently listening to the conversation so there was no need for Tes to recap anything for him.
“You rang that bell way too many times. What did you think was going to happen? A person would just come out, only having heard one of the rings? She was clearly busy. I happened to go and check what she was doing, just out of curiosity, and she was in the back doing a load of laundry. You know, her job.”
“Look, I can't just float through a wall and check what she's doing. The only thing I can do is ring a bell, so I did. After she calmed down, she was a very nice lady. Did you see anything of interest while you were floating around?”
“Nope. Unless you find clothes interesting. Because she has a lot of clothes back there. Other than that, there wasn't really anything back there.”
“You continue to be absolutely useless. Hopefully we can get some leads from this BestWill guy.”
“Yeah! I've always been told people who own BestWills are always very happy to talk to strange kids asking questions! It should be super easy to get this guy to confess to murder!”
“I can hope, right?”
“Sure. Just remember there is still reasonable doubt to whether or not this ghost is even real. You can't let your judgement be clouded one way or the other.”
“Don't worry, I’m not even sure I want it to be a ghost. The only ghost I know is a total dick, and if this ghost is anything like him, I'd rather it turn up to be a hoax.”
“Well, your neighborhood ghost dick is going to look around the BestWill while you talk to the owner.”
Tes walked into the BestWill and was greeted with the smell of old clothes. He had never felt particularly comfortable with the idea of a BestWill. He felt there was too many variables involved with where the clothes and other items came from for him to feel clean. James had followed him in and had started browsing the music. Tes heard a distant ‘They have Smashmouth!’ as he approached the counter. A somewhat chubby middle aged man was at the cash register.
“Hello and welcome to BestWill. How may I help you?”
“Oh, uh, Hi! I'm actually just here to ask a few questions.”
“If you're not here to buy anything, get out.”
“If I buy something, will you answer a few questions?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
Before Bill even finished his sentence James was already shouting at Tes from across the room.
“SMASHMOUTH. Come on! Lets buy this Smashmouth CD. Its got allstar on it. It can be our ghost hunting jam CD. Its either this or Seal, so I guess it's up to you. I already checked for Quad City Djs, but I guess no one was willing to donate music of that quality.”
The entire time James was talking, Tes had to resist the urge to rip the watch off of his wrist and smash it. How can someone who is dead be so happy about a Smashmouth CD. Tes walked over to the music section, grabbed the Smashmouth CD and walked back to the counter. James let out a squeal of excitement. Over a Smashmouth CD. He is literally the lamest ghost ever.
Bill gave Tes a very shameful look when he saw the CD.
“That’ll be 3 dollars and 42 cents.”
Tes reached for his wallet and tried to see if he had exact change.
“Of all the music in this store, why this?”
Without even looking up from his wallet, Tes replied, “Who doesn't like Allstar?”
Tes put the money on the counter.
“Whatever man. What questions did you have for me?”
“Right! What do you know about a guy named Jack?”
“That bum? He sleeps outside my store and probably scares of my customers! Why?”
“He’s missing. Were looking for where he could have gone.”
“Frankly, I don't want you to find him. If he's missing, maybe his friend Frederick will get out of my hair as well. I'm pretty sure they smoke weed back there too. Two bums smoking weed next to my store is so bad for business.”
“I actually think that's all I need right now. Thanks, sir. You’ve been a huge help.”
Tes grabbed the Smashmouth CD and went back to the car to talk to James.
“Tes, why didn't you ask him anymore questions? He was very suspicious.”
“Come on James! It wasn't him. Think about it. If the only reason he wants them gone is because they ‘are probably bad for business’, why would he kill them. I’m sure a murder is a lot worse than a couple of bums.”
“Alright, I guess that makes sense, but we could have asked him more. He gave us no leads.”
“Weed.”
“Stop being so cryptic. You’re making me feel stupid on top of being dead.”
“If they smoke, they might have a dealer, which would be another person to talk to.”
“Right, you just need to talk to Fredrick again to see if he’ll tell you his dealer. Sounds good to me.”
Tes could see Frederick sitting in the alley looking at the newspaper scraps. He walked up to him and Frederick looked up.
“Hey man. Any info?”
“Not yet, but I have a question for you. I've been told that you guys smoke weed out here. I need to know who your dealer is so I can talk to them. You never know who could have the piece of the puzzle that will make everything come together.”
“Alright, our dealer is Mrs. Chen’s son. I think you met Mrs. Chen earlier at Quartermasters.”
“Yeah, I did. She's… charming.”
“That’s Mrs. Chen alright. Her son should be somewhere in Quartermasters. Just ask Mrs. Chen and she should call him down. Their store doubles as a living space, so they live there.”
“Thanks.”
Tes could see James giving him a thumbs up. When they were out of earshot Tes had some questions for him.
“So, it wasn't interesting enough to tell me that she had a son? Or that they lived there?”
“It wasn't pertinent to the case yet, I didn't want to invade her privacy too much.”
“Next time, let's just skip this step and you can tell me everything you fi-”
Tes was interrupted by Ray Parker Jr saying ‘I ain't afraid of no ghost’, which was Tes’ ring tone. The call was from his mother so he picked it up.
“Tes, it’s getting late. Are you done with the application?”
“Yeah, I was actually just about to call you. I ran into some friends from school and I was wondering if I could grab some dinner with them.”
“Friends? Yeah sure. Just be home before twelve, and I'm fine with that.”
“Thanks Mom, you're the best.”
It was about 9 o’clock and getting pretty dark, so that gave them three hours to investigate. James started to go over the gameplan.
“I guess we should go talk to Mrs. Chen. Her shop closes at 11, so we have some time for you to get food if you are hungry.”
“I'm good. There's nothing to eat around here anyways. Let's just get this talk with the dealer over with.”
“Sounds good to me. Looks like you'll be taking care of this one as we-”
James froze mid-sentence. Tes was looking around for anything but there was nothing there.
“What's wrong James.”
“Behind you.”
Now that Tes looked closer, he could see a faint glow, but it wasn't much. It looked like there was an invisible LED lightbulb was giving off light from about 4 feet of the ground.
What James saw was completely different. Directly behind Tes was a full blown person, albeit a little bit transparent. James tried to find the words to explain what was going on to Tes but he couldn't seem to go about it subtly.
“Jack’s ghost is here; I’ll take care of it.”
James walked directly through Tes and faced the ghost. Tes made some sort of inarticulate sound when James went through him, but James hardly heard it in his state of adrenaline. He was face to face with the ghost they had been trying to help.
“Are you Jack?’
The only response was a wispy gust of air that bordered on a whine. James was confused until he noticed Jack's throat. It was cleanly slit. His vocal cords were useless. The only sound he could make was that whine.
“You can't speak because your throat is slit.”
Jack nodded.
“Thats pretty fucking awesome.”
Jack shook his head in a way that said ‘No it isn’t. Are you insane?’
“Right, sorry. Do you know who did this to you?”
Jack shook his head ‘No’.
“Do you know where your body is?”
Jack nodded.
“That's good. Really good. I need you to take me there. Tes, you are going to want to follow me.”
Jack turned and entered the BestWill. James and Tes quickly followed him. When they entered they saw Jack pointing at an old wooden trunk that was hidden behind a pile of books. Tes spoke up to get the shopkeeper's attention.
“How much for this trunk?”
“I've had it for a long time, so I'll give it to you for ten dollars.”
“Done.”
Tes went over to give Bill the money. Bill looked extremely confused as to why Tes, some weird kid who had bought a Smashmouth CD in exchange for a few questions, wanted to buy an old trunk but didn’t say anything.
“Do you need any help moving it to your car?”
“No. Uh, No Thank you.”
“You are a weird kid. Have a nice night.”
Tes picked up the trunk being careful to use his sleeves and not leave fingerprints and carried it out of the store. There was definitely something in the box, as it was heavy. When he got to the car, he opened it up.
It was a body alright. Someone had crammed Jack's body into a small trunk. They had done a good job of cleaning the blood, but there was still some on the inside. It didn't take long for the smell to fill the air either. But something was wrong. The smell wasn't what you would expect from a body, but it was what you would expect from laundry detergent. Someone had covered jack's body in detergent to mask the smell, and it worked.
“James, it’s detergent. I guess we know where this came from.”
“Mrs. Chen!?! She was such a nice old lady! How could she have killed Jack!”
Jack was furiously shaking his head ‘No’.
“I don't think it was Mrs.Chen, James. Think about the dealer. There are hundreds of reasons a dealer would want to kill a person. It was probably about money or something.”
Jack was now giving a thumbs up and nodding his head.
“Alright, James. I'll get Mrs. Chen to call her son down, and you two search his room for something that you would murder a person with.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Tes entered the dry cleaners and rang the bell one time. The lighting in the room was terrible at this time of day. Mrs. Chen was much faster at responding this time.
“Hello again. You have more question?”
“Actually I was wondering if I could talk to your son.”
“Craig? Sure. I call him down now.”
She shouted up at the ceiling, presumably where her son’s room was.
“Craig, come down! You have visitor!”
“One second Mom!”
It didn't take long for Craig to come down stairs, and it didn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out what he had just been doing. Craig's eyes were extremely bloodshot, but his beanie would hide that from anyone with bad eyesight, like his mother, especially in this light. Where normally, a person who had just smoked would smell like pot, Craig smelled heavily of detergent.
“Craig, I have a few questions about a guy named Jack.”
“Yeah he lives around here. Haven't seen him in a few days though.”
“Did you ever do any business with him?”
“Yeah, he owed me money.”
“Owed?”
“Yeah, he owes me money. What's it to you?”
Tes could see James behind Craig giving him the thumbs up to end the conversation.
“Sorry to waste your time, have a nice night.”
Craig turned and left without saying a word. James and the floating ball of light that was Jack left the store with Tes.
As they left, Mrs. Chen said goodbye. Tes felt bad that they were going to have to report her son to the police.
“Tes, We found the knife in his room. It was in a box under his bed with gloves. He wiped the blood off of the knife, but i'm sure DNA is still on it.”
“Nice. Now we just need to report in to Frederick and were done! Hunting ghosts isn't that hard!”
“We didn't really hunt a ghost though, did we. We solved a murder, sure, but the ghost is still here.”
“We don't need to dive into specifics. Ghost hunted, problem solved.”
“Alright. You talk to Frederick, I'll stay back with Jack.”
Tes walked up to Frederick’s spot and explained the whole situation to him. It didn't take very long to get the story out, as it was pretty straight forward. Jack had been killed over a debt. Frederick took everything pretty well considering.
“I have to leave the body here with you. Were going to call in an anonymous tip about the body and Craig. Your only job is to make sure his body is cremated after the investigation.”
“I can do that, and thanks for the help. As promised, here's your payment. I'll make sure to put a good word out there for you.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it. If you need anything else, you know how to reach me.”
“Yeah. Good night, man.”
“Good night.”
Tes went over and sat in the driver's seat of the car while James stood where the passenger seat is.
“James, We did it.”
“Yeah, and this time, neither of us died!”
“That is true.”
“We are probably the only people ever to hunt ghost with one of us as a ghost. We also ended up helping the ghost.”
“Well, only shooting stars break the mold, right?”
“Right.”
Tes turned on the car and drove away, with the dulcet tones of Smashmouth blasting, and James sprinting along side him.
Tes had been in his room watching Ghost Watchers ever since he got home from the hunt. Tes liked Ghost Watchers because they seemed like they knew what they were doing when they were hunting ghosts, where as other ghost shows like Ghoul Killers and Ecto-Inspecto were more for entertainment. Ghoul Killers was about two brothers running around the United States killing ghosts and stuff while also dealing with stupid family drama, and Ecto-Inspecto’s intended audience was kids who were still in elementary school. Ecto-Inspecto was Tes and James’ favorite show as kids, and looking back on it, it wasn't the best influence. Ecto-Inspecto and his sidekick Spooky Jones went 11 seasons and 264 episodes and neither of them ever died in a stupid old basement. They got close in Season 3 Episode 24 when they were at Ghastly High School and a row of lockers fell on Jones, but he was fine.
James, on the other hand, bled out and gave Tes his watch. Typically when people die, they leave you money in a will, or they tell you to tell their wife that they love her, but James gave Tes a watch. The watch was still on his desk from when he got home after James died. It was a pretty cool watch, but it made him uncomfortable. His dead friend gave him a watch. What was he supposed to do about it? James didn't clarify if he had to wear it, or burn it, or just let it collect dust.
The only thing he did say was that he had to keep hunting ghosts. Tes had been thinking about this request, and had decided that it was pretty stupid. Why would James want him to continue doing what got him killed? Did James secretly want Tes to die? No matter what the answer to those questions were, he couldn't bring himself to go against James’ wishes. He had put up a Brettslist ad asking if anyone had any ‘unexplainable events or apparitions’ in their house. He had asked any responders to email him at [email protected], so that he could follow through with not changing the name of the team like James had asked without actually having to tell anyone he was a team. It had been 3 days since he posted the ad, and he hadn't gotten any replies yet.
Tes decided that he was going to check his email one more time before he called it a night. He got up to walk over to his desk, but a bit of light had reflected off of the watch and caught his attention. He really liked the watch, and he wanted to try it on, but it just seemed wrong. Would James put on an accessory that I gave him as I was dying? I bet he would. He would probably put it on as I was dying. I'm going to put that watch on. After he had made up his mind, he picked up the watch and attempted to open it up. It took him awhile to figure out how to get it open, and once it was open he spent another three minutes trying to get it closed.
Tes looked in the mirror to see how it looked on him. He thought he looked pretty dashing; it complimented his features. It made him look so nice, that he wished he had just gotten over James’ death sooner and put on the watch.
“Are you just going to stand there and look at yourself all day?” said a voice.
Now that voice sounded very familiar, in fact, he was 98% sure that it belonged to his recently deceased friend, James Oswyn.
“No, you are supposed to be dead. I must be having some sort of hallucination. This is just my mind coping with loss or something.”
“I'm still dead, I'm just a ghost now. It's actually pretty damn cool.”
“Shut up. I will not indulge you, you hallucinatory piece of shit!”
“Whoa Tes! Calm down there! You’re hurting my feelings! What would you do if I killed myself?”
“If you are a ghost instead of a hallucination, prove it.”
“How the hell am I supposed to do that? You'll just assume that everything I do is part of the hallucination. Also I can't actually interact with anything physical. If I could have, your room would be a lot more like Poltergeist right now.”
“Of course you can't make anything move! That would mean something was going on outside of my head! I'm going to need you to go away. I can't just live my whole life with my dead friend following me around in my head.”
“I actually can't leave your house, either.”
“If you were a ghost, wouldn't you be confined to the cemetery where you were buried?
“I was cremated. Of course you wouldn't know because YOU SKIPPED MY FUNERAL TO WATCH GHOST WATCHERS!”
“I couldn't deal with it. Plus, Ghost Watchers is some quality entertainment, annnd I'm talking to the hallucination again! Great!”
“I. Am. A. Ghost!. How is that so hard for you to believe? I was literally killed by a ghost two weeks ago. It should be far within reason that I would turn into a ghost.”
Right as James finished talking, Tes’ mom walked into his room.
“Tes, who are you talking to?”
“No one mom, just myself. The episode of Ghost Watchers I just watched was pretty interesting, want to hear about it?”
“Not re-”
“So, some kid and his friend were playing at a park, and this park was pretty dangerous. Like it wasn't a certified park, and everything was very rusty. Well, these two kids had been playing at this park for their entire lives, but they had never gone down the slide, because they knew it was essentially tetanus waiting to happen. Now, for whatever reason, they decided to go down the slide after 16 years of not going down the slide. Both kids went down the slide, but one of the kids, Jim, got cut up really bad. Jim died within minutes, and his friend, Terrance, was all covered in blood. For whatever reason, Jim decided to give Terrance a wat- a wallet. What kind of person gives belongings to their friend as they die, right! Well, anyways, when Terrance puts this wallet in his pants, he sees Jim! Of course, Terrance thinks it's a hallucination, but Jim swears he is a ghost! The Ghost watchers couldn't prove anything, but they couldn't disprove anything either. So, what do you think?
“What do I think about what?”
“Do you think James is a ghost, or not?”
“James?”
“...Jim. You know what I mean.”
“I don't think I can really weigh in. I've never seen a ghost, so I don't even know if they are real.”
Right as she said that, the lights in his room began to flicker. Tes, of course knew this was a telltale sign of ghosts, and looked over at the light. as expected, there was Ghost James, sticking his ghost hand all up in Tes’ light bulb. Tes was pretty annoyed that James was touching his stuff, but it made it a lot worse that he was touching the inside of his stuff. Who does that to someone! I wouldn't touch all of James’ stuff if I died! What a punk! Well, if he's just a hallucination, I don't have to worry about it.
“Tes, how long has that light been acting up? If you had told me sooner, I could have gotten it fixed.
Tes just looked at his mom with a blank expression.
James chimed in, “Hah! Eat it! I'm a ghost!”
“Y-you can see the, uh, the lights f-flickering?
“Of course I can. I'm not blind. Are you ok? You look like you've seen a ghost.”
“Heh. You could say that, yeah. I'm fine.”
“Alright then, I guess I'll just leave you to talk to yourself then.”
“Thanks. The conversation was really picking up, so I'm going to get back to it.”
Tes’ mom left the room with a half-concerned, half-confused look on her face. He made a mental note to add his mom to the list of people who think he's crazy, which as of late, looked like it was going to need a second page.
“So. you're a ghost.”
“Actually, I don't know anymore. You had me pretty convinced I was a hallucination.”
“So how long have you been a ghost?”
“Well let me check my calender real quick… It looks like I turned into a ghost after I died, but before my brunch appointment with the afterlife.”
“Why are you so annoyed? You’re acting like someone impaled you with a piece of woo- oh right. If you’ve been a ghost for the whole time, where have you been until now.”
“I haven't been able to leave the house. for whatever reason, i think my soul is tied to the watch. It would explain me not being able to leave, and it would explain that you could only see me once you put it on.”
“I guess I’ll take it off and then we’ll see if you’re right or not.”
Tes removed the watch and scanned the room. There was not a single trace of James in the room, which was both relaxing and concerning. If there was any doubt about the legitimacy of James’ ghostliness, they were just blown away.
“I can't see you anymore.”
Tes put the watch back on.
“I should be dead. Like all the way dead. My body was cremated.”
“I guess your soul is partly in this watch. It's not unheard of. In one episode of Ghost Watchers a ghost was tied to a painting. The ghost couldn't do much, but it could knock down the painting, and it could change what was on the painting. Have you tried knocking anything over in my room?”
“I've been a ghost for two weeks, and I've been trapped in your house. There is not a single thing in this room that I haven't tried to knock down. I can't physically touch anything. The only thing I can do is flicker some lights.”
“So, you're a ghost, but you can't do anything except follow me around.”
“Yeah. pretty much.”
The room fell completely silent. In an instant, the silence was shattered by laughter. Both Tes and James thought it was hilarious. They laughed for what felt like an hour, which was actually more like a minute, until they were interrupted by a loud ding from Tes’ computer. Tes had received an email with the subject “Ghost. Please help”. He opened the email and read out:
“Hi! My name is Frederick Graints. I saw your Brettslist ad about ghost hunting, and am in need of your services. I can only offer you $25. If you want to take the job, meet me at Quartermaster tomorrow at 5pm. Thank you.”
“Looks like we have a ghost to hunt,” said James, who was a little bit too excited for a dead person.
“Where is Quartermaster? What even is that?” As Tes was talking, he was typing ‘Quartermaster’ into the search bar. He got a bunch of results about the military rank and police equipment, so he clicked over to the maps section. The closest result for ‘Quartermaster’ any where near them was a dry cleaner.
“A dry cleaner? Seems a little overboard to call a dry cleaner Quartermaster.”
“I don't know James. This dry cleaner boasts a strict 25 cents per garment policy.” Tes said sarcastically.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“I wish I was.”
“Well, bad puns aside, how are we going to get to the Quartermaster.”
“I'll just tell my mom I want to apply for a job there, and we’ll borrow the car.”
“Sounds like a solid plan. It’s pretty late though. I can't actually sleep, so I'm going to watch tv downstairs for the recommended 7 hours if you would be so kind as to turn it on for me.”
“You can't sleep? Doesn't that suck?”
“I don't get tired either, so I don't really mind.”
Tes went downstairs after his mom had fallen asleep and turned on the TV. For whatever reason, James really wanted to watch The Price Is Right, so he put it on the gameshow channel. After that, Tes went upstairs to get some sleep himself; the best sleep that he’d gotten in about two weeks.
The next day, Tes talked to his mom about Quartermasters, and she lent him her keys. While Tes and James waited for 5:00 to come around, they watched Ghost Watchers and managed to get in four episodes before it was time to head out.Tes got in the car, but James couldn't actually sit down in the seat without just going through it. Luckily enough for them, James becoming a ghost also gave him a significant speed boost, so he was able to keep up with the car for the most part. Even with those minor complications, they made it to Quartermaster without too much trouble.
The sight of the area they had just arrived at was, to put it lightly, an absolute dump. Next to Quartermaster on the left, there was an alley that looked like it could have been ripped straight off of the streets of Detroit. On the other side of the alley, there was a Bestwill that had clearly seen better days. Tes and James looked at eachother confused. Had they come to the right place? Did Frederick make a typo in his email? Was Tes going to be mugged? As they were both wondering these things, they were approached by a man. The man had a scraggly black beard and was wearing glasses and a black hoodie.
“Are you Tes?” The man said in a raspy voice.
“I am, and you must be Mr. Graints,” Tes replied with a hint of concern in his voice.
“Please, call me Frederick.”
“Alright Frederick, We’re going to need to see where you first saw the ghost.”
“We’re?”
“Sorry, I meant ‘I’, obviously.”
When Frederick turned around to go to where he saw the ghost, James started talking, but only Tes could hear him.
“This guy looks crazy. There's a huge chance there's no ghost here.”
Tes whispered, “We've got to give the guy a chance before we make that decision.”
“Whatever you say, but keep a mental note that everything this guy is saying could be 100% B.S.”
“Will do.”
Frederick walked into the alley and began explaining the situation.
“My friend Jack and I hang out here a lot. Its pretty cut off from the rest of the world, and we like that. The thing is, Jack has been missing for about a week now. Just up and disappearing without saying goodbye isn't like Jack at all. I was already pretty worried about the guy, but yesterday... yesterday really messed me up. When I woke up, I felt a cold breeze, and I found this.” Frederick walked up to a pile of newspapers. Someone had torn out a bunch of words from the papers and put them next to the pile. Upon further inspection, every single one of the words torn out of paper said ‘Help’.
“Jesus Christ.” Tes said under his breath.
“Yeah. I'm pretty sure he's dead, and he isn't happy about it.”
“You said you saw this when you woke up. Do you sleep here?”
“Yeah, I'm homeless. Kinda by choice though, so don't worry about the payment.”
“Alright. I need to start investigating the area. If you see anything or remember anything, just come find me, okay?”
“Gotcha.”
Tes walked back to the car so he could talk to James. Throughout the entire conversation with Frederick, James had been making weird sounds.
“Why won't you shut up when I’m trying to talk to the client?”
“It's not like he can hear me. I was trying to throw you off of your game.”
“I don't have a game! This is the first time we've ever done this. It would be extremely helpful if you would just be quiet when I’m doing the stuff you can't help with.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Anyways, what do you think of this guys story?”
“Its sounds plausible to me. If the ghost is ripping up papers, we know the body is somewhere close by, right?”
“Yeah, we should probably start out with asking the clerks of the two stores if they saw anything. That means more work that I can't help with. This ghost hunting stuff is a lot less fun when you are a ghost.”
“Maybe you should have tried harder to not get killed.”
Tes gave James a sarcastic look and began on his way to Quartermasters. The sign on the door said that they were open, but Tes couldn't see anyone inside. He went inside and scanned the room for anybody who he could talk to. There was definitely no one at around to help, but there was a small bell on the counter. Although there was no sign saying to ring the bell for service, Tes figured that was his only shot of talking to anyone, so he hit the bell a few times. Still no answer. Tes had started pacing. There wasn't much room in the front of the drycleaners, and he couldn't see the back of the store either. Extremely annoyed, Tes slammed the bell a few more times.
An older Chinese woman emerged from the back of the shop. Tes could see on her face that she was just as annoyed at his bell ringing that he was at having to wait.
“I can hear you! You don't need to ring so many time!”
“Well, clearly I did.”
“Watch your attitude! What you want!”
“Sorry, I was just wondering if you know about a guy named Jack.”
“Ah, Jack! He regular customer! He hasn't come here in a while though.”
“Alright. Did you ever have any, um, any kind of, ah, problems with him.”
“No, no! Jack is great customer! He always very kind, and he tip well.”
“Do you know anyone who would want to hurt Jack?”
“Bill who own BestWill next door does not like Jack. He does not think they should be sleeping in between store. I don't care where they sleeping.”
“Thank you for you help. I may be back to ask more questions later if that's okay.”
“As long as you only ring bell once.”
“Alright. Thanks again.”
“Have nice day!”
Tes left the small building having learned almost nothing. Luckily he did have somewhat of a lead, but he was already going to go to the BestWill, so it wasn't much. James had been silently listening to the conversation so there was no need for Tes to recap anything for him.
“You rang that bell way too many times. What did you think was going to happen? A person would just come out, only having heard one of the rings? She was clearly busy. I happened to go and check what she was doing, just out of curiosity, and she was in the back doing a load of laundry. You know, her job.”
“Look, I can't just float through a wall and check what she's doing. The only thing I can do is ring a bell, so I did. After she calmed down, she was a very nice lady. Did you see anything of interest while you were floating around?”
“Nope. Unless you find clothes interesting. Because she has a lot of clothes back there. Other than that, there wasn't really anything back there.”
“You continue to be absolutely useless. Hopefully we can get some leads from this BestWill guy.”
“Yeah! I've always been told people who own BestWills are always very happy to talk to strange kids asking questions! It should be super easy to get this guy to confess to murder!”
“I can hope, right?”
“Sure. Just remember there is still reasonable doubt to whether or not this ghost is even real. You can't let your judgement be clouded one way or the other.”
“Don't worry, I’m not even sure I want it to be a ghost. The only ghost I know is a total dick, and if this ghost is anything like him, I'd rather it turn up to be a hoax.”
“Well, your neighborhood ghost dick is going to look around the BestWill while you talk to the owner.”
Tes walked into the BestWill and was greeted with the smell of old clothes. He had never felt particularly comfortable with the idea of a BestWill. He felt there was too many variables involved with where the clothes and other items came from for him to feel clean. James had followed him in and had started browsing the music. Tes heard a distant ‘They have Smashmouth!’ as he approached the counter. A somewhat chubby middle aged man was at the cash register.
“Hello and welcome to BestWill. How may I help you?”
“Oh, uh, Hi! I'm actually just here to ask a few questions.”
“If you're not here to buy anything, get out.”
“If I buy something, will you answer a few questions?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
Before Bill even finished his sentence James was already shouting at Tes from across the room.
“SMASHMOUTH. Come on! Lets buy this Smashmouth CD. Its got allstar on it. It can be our ghost hunting jam CD. Its either this or Seal, so I guess it's up to you. I already checked for Quad City Djs, but I guess no one was willing to donate music of that quality.”
The entire time James was talking, Tes had to resist the urge to rip the watch off of his wrist and smash it. How can someone who is dead be so happy about a Smashmouth CD. Tes walked over to the music section, grabbed the Smashmouth CD and walked back to the counter. James let out a squeal of excitement. Over a Smashmouth CD. He is literally the lamest ghost ever.
Bill gave Tes a very shameful look when he saw the CD.
“That’ll be 3 dollars and 42 cents.”
Tes reached for his wallet and tried to see if he had exact change.
“Of all the music in this store, why this?”
Without even looking up from his wallet, Tes replied, “Who doesn't like Allstar?”
Tes put the money on the counter.
“Whatever man. What questions did you have for me?”
“Right! What do you know about a guy named Jack?”
“That bum? He sleeps outside my store and probably scares of my customers! Why?”
“He’s missing. Were looking for where he could have gone.”
“Frankly, I don't want you to find him. If he's missing, maybe his friend Frederick will get out of my hair as well. I'm pretty sure they smoke weed back there too. Two bums smoking weed next to my store is so bad for business.”
“I actually think that's all I need right now. Thanks, sir. You’ve been a huge help.”
Tes grabbed the Smashmouth CD and went back to the car to talk to James.
“Tes, why didn't you ask him anymore questions? He was very suspicious.”
“Come on James! It wasn't him. Think about it. If the only reason he wants them gone is because they ‘are probably bad for business’, why would he kill them. I’m sure a murder is a lot worse than a couple of bums.”
“Alright, I guess that makes sense, but we could have asked him more. He gave us no leads.”
“Weed.”
“Stop being so cryptic. You’re making me feel stupid on top of being dead.”
“If they smoke, they might have a dealer, which would be another person to talk to.”
“Right, you just need to talk to Fredrick again to see if he’ll tell you his dealer. Sounds good to me.”
Tes could see Frederick sitting in the alley looking at the newspaper scraps. He walked up to him and Frederick looked up.
“Hey man. Any info?”
“Not yet, but I have a question for you. I've been told that you guys smoke weed out here. I need to know who your dealer is so I can talk to them. You never know who could have the piece of the puzzle that will make everything come together.”
“Alright, our dealer is Mrs. Chen’s son. I think you met Mrs. Chen earlier at Quartermasters.”
“Yeah, I did. She's… charming.”
“That’s Mrs. Chen alright. Her son should be somewhere in Quartermasters. Just ask Mrs. Chen and she should call him down. Their store doubles as a living space, so they live there.”
“Thanks.”
Tes could see James giving him a thumbs up. When they were out of earshot Tes had some questions for him.
“So, it wasn't interesting enough to tell me that she had a son? Or that they lived there?”
“It wasn't pertinent to the case yet, I didn't want to invade her privacy too much.”
“Next time, let's just skip this step and you can tell me everything you fi-”
Tes was interrupted by Ray Parker Jr saying ‘I ain't afraid of no ghost’, which was Tes’ ring tone. The call was from his mother so he picked it up.
“Tes, it’s getting late. Are you done with the application?”
“Yeah, I was actually just about to call you. I ran into some friends from school and I was wondering if I could grab some dinner with them.”
“Friends? Yeah sure. Just be home before twelve, and I'm fine with that.”
“Thanks Mom, you're the best.”
It was about 9 o’clock and getting pretty dark, so that gave them three hours to investigate. James started to go over the gameplan.
“I guess we should go talk to Mrs. Chen. Her shop closes at 11, so we have some time for you to get food if you are hungry.”
“I'm good. There's nothing to eat around here anyways. Let's just get this talk with the dealer over with.”
“Sounds good to me. Looks like you'll be taking care of this one as we-”
James froze mid-sentence. Tes was looking around for anything but there was nothing there.
“What's wrong James.”
“Behind you.”
Now that Tes looked closer, he could see a faint glow, but it wasn't much. It looked like there was an invisible LED lightbulb was giving off light from about 4 feet of the ground.
What James saw was completely different. Directly behind Tes was a full blown person, albeit a little bit transparent. James tried to find the words to explain what was going on to Tes but he couldn't seem to go about it subtly.
“Jack’s ghost is here; I’ll take care of it.”
James walked directly through Tes and faced the ghost. Tes made some sort of inarticulate sound when James went through him, but James hardly heard it in his state of adrenaline. He was face to face with the ghost they had been trying to help.
“Are you Jack?’
The only response was a wispy gust of air that bordered on a whine. James was confused until he noticed Jack's throat. It was cleanly slit. His vocal cords were useless. The only sound he could make was that whine.
“You can't speak because your throat is slit.”
Jack nodded.
“Thats pretty fucking awesome.”
Jack shook his head in a way that said ‘No it isn’t. Are you insane?’
“Right, sorry. Do you know who did this to you?”
Jack shook his head ‘No’.
“Do you know where your body is?”
Jack nodded.
“That's good. Really good. I need you to take me there. Tes, you are going to want to follow me.”
Jack turned and entered the BestWill. James and Tes quickly followed him. When they entered they saw Jack pointing at an old wooden trunk that was hidden behind a pile of books. Tes spoke up to get the shopkeeper's attention.
“How much for this trunk?”
“I've had it for a long time, so I'll give it to you for ten dollars.”
“Done.”
Tes went over to give Bill the money. Bill looked extremely confused as to why Tes, some weird kid who had bought a Smashmouth CD in exchange for a few questions, wanted to buy an old trunk but didn’t say anything.
“Do you need any help moving it to your car?”
“No. Uh, No Thank you.”
“You are a weird kid. Have a nice night.”
Tes picked up the trunk being careful to use his sleeves and not leave fingerprints and carried it out of the store. There was definitely something in the box, as it was heavy. When he got to the car, he opened it up.
It was a body alright. Someone had crammed Jack's body into a small trunk. They had done a good job of cleaning the blood, but there was still some on the inside. It didn't take long for the smell to fill the air either. But something was wrong. The smell wasn't what you would expect from a body, but it was what you would expect from laundry detergent. Someone had covered jack's body in detergent to mask the smell, and it worked.
“James, it’s detergent. I guess we know where this came from.”
“Mrs. Chen!?! She was such a nice old lady! How could she have killed Jack!”
Jack was furiously shaking his head ‘No’.
“I don't think it was Mrs.Chen, James. Think about the dealer. There are hundreds of reasons a dealer would want to kill a person. It was probably about money or something.”
Jack was now giving a thumbs up and nodding his head.
“Alright, James. I'll get Mrs. Chen to call her son down, and you two search his room for something that you would murder a person with.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Tes entered the dry cleaners and rang the bell one time. The lighting in the room was terrible at this time of day. Mrs. Chen was much faster at responding this time.
“Hello again. You have more question?”
“Actually I was wondering if I could talk to your son.”
“Craig? Sure. I call him down now.”
She shouted up at the ceiling, presumably where her son’s room was.
“Craig, come down! You have visitor!”
“One second Mom!”
It didn't take long for Craig to come down stairs, and it didn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out what he had just been doing. Craig's eyes were extremely bloodshot, but his beanie would hide that from anyone with bad eyesight, like his mother, especially in this light. Where normally, a person who had just smoked would smell like pot, Craig smelled heavily of detergent.
“Craig, I have a few questions about a guy named Jack.”
“Yeah he lives around here. Haven't seen him in a few days though.”
“Did you ever do any business with him?”
“Yeah, he owed me money.”
“Owed?”
“Yeah, he owes me money. What's it to you?”
Tes could see James behind Craig giving him the thumbs up to end the conversation.
“Sorry to waste your time, have a nice night.”
Craig turned and left without saying a word. James and the floating ball of light that was Jack left the store with Tes.
As they left, Mrs. Chen said goodbye. Tes felt bad that they were going to have to report her son to the police.
“Tes, We found the knife in his room. It was in a box under his bed with gloves. He wiped the blood off of the knife, but i'm sure DNA is still on it.”
“Nice. Now we just need to report in to Frederick and were done! Hunting ghosts isn't that hard!”
“We didn't really hunt a ghost though, did we. We solved a murder, sure, but the ghost is still here.”
“We don't need to dive into specifics. Ghost hunted, problem solved.”
“Alright. You talk to Frederick, I'll stay back with Jack.”
Tes walked up to Frederick’s spot and explained the whole situation to him. It didn't take very long to get the story out, as it was pretty straight forward. Jack had been killed over a debt. Frederick took everything pretty well considering.
“I have to leave the body here with you. Were going to call in an anonymous tip about the body and Craig. Your only job is to make sure his body is cremated after the investigation.”
“I can do that, and thanks for the help. As promised, here's your payment. I'll make sure to put a good word out there for you.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it. If you need anything else, you know how to reach me.”
“Yeah. Good night, man.”
“Good night.”
Tes went over and sat in the driver's seat of the car while James stood where the passenger seat is.
“James, We did it.”
“Yeah, and this time, neither of us died!”
“That is true.”
“We are probably the only people ever to hunt ghost with one of us as a ghost. We also ended up helping the ghost.”
“Well, only shooting stars break the mold, right?”
“Right.”
Tes turned on the car and drove away, with the dulcet tones of Smashmouth blasting, and James sprinting along side him.