Ghost of a Chance

He thought Iggy would rush to tell him he was off base, but his mentor just sat sipping his tea and thinking.

“No,” he said at last. “You haven’t been having any more problems you aren’t telling me about, though? Forgetting things or getting confused?”

“Not any more than usual,” Alex said.

“You sleeping all right?”

Alex picked up his dishes and moved to the sink.

“It’s been harder lately,” he admitted.

“Maybe you’re tired,” Iggy said.

“You ever have to work tired in the navy?”

Iggy chuckled at that.

“All the time,” he said. “Still, maybe you should turn in early tonight. A good night’s sleep wouldn’t go amiss in any case.”

Alex didn’t want to admit Iggy was right, but the moment the old man suggested bed, he felt bone weary. It was if the very idea made him tired.

“All right.” he agreed, filling the sink with soapy water. “I’ll go as soon as I’m done here.”

Iggy slapped him on the shoulder.

“Good lad.”

He looked like he wanted to say more, but was interrupted by the door bell. Iggy went to answer the door, but he was back in a moment.

“Lieutenant Callahan is back,” he said. “I left him in the library.”

Alex dried his hands and found the big lieutenant standing in front of the bookcase to the left of the fireplace. He was scanning titles on the books and Alex watched as his eyes slid over a green leather-bound book and the thin red volume next to it. Both books had powerful runes on them that caused people to overlook them. The green book possessed them because Alex had hollowed it out to keep his emergency stash of money, and the red book because it was the most powerful and dangerous rune book ever written — the Archimedean Monograph.

“Is this a social call, Lieutenant?” Alex asked as he entered the room, “or has our ghost struck again?”

Callahan turned from the shelf and he didn’t look happy.

“That was some stunt you pulled at Central Office,” he said.

Alex smirked and shrugged his shoulders.

“I figure it was that or let Detweiler throw me in the cooler,” he said.

“I don’t give a damn if you spend the night in the tank,” Callahan growled. “Don’t you ever use my name to get yourself out of a jam, you hear me? I have to work with Detweiler and now his beef with you is splashin’ on me.”

Alex held up his hand in a gesture of peace. He knew when he pitted Detweiler against Callahan’s reputation earlier that the Lieutenant wouldn’t be happy about it. Still, from his perspective it was better than testing the limits of how long Detweiler could hold him without charging him with a crime.

“I read you, Lieutenant,” Alex said.

Callahan considered that for a moment, then nodded his acceptance.

“Is that why you came by?” Alex asked.

“No,” Callahan growled. “Thanks to your little stunt, Detweiler’s been beefing to Captain Rooney. Now you’re officially persona-non-grata at the Central Office. Rooney ordered me to come down here and tell you to stay the hell away from this case.”

Alex shrugged at that.

“That’s okay, Callahan,” he said. “Detweiler may not be quick on the uptake but he’s just got to find out how your victims are connected. I’d just be in the way.”

Callahan gave Alex a long hard look but didn’t say anything.

“What?” Alex asked.

“I thought you were smarter than that, Lockerby,” Callahan said. “Sure, Detweiler’s going to get off the widow as a suspect soon, but how many more people are going to die before he gets on the right track? I didn’t become a cop for the glamour, scribbler, I did it to protect people.”

Alex hadn’t considered that. It wasn’t his job to keep maniacs from running amok in the streets, after all. People hired him, and he did what they paid him for. If he did his job right, no one usually got killed.

“Talk to the Captain if you feel that way about it,” Alex said. “Fifth Division is the best he’s got and he knows it. Have him give the ghost case to you.”

“I can’t,” Callahan growled. “Detweiler’s wife is Rooney’s favorite niece. The Captain gives him all the breaks.”

Alex nodded, starting to see Callahan’s problem.

“And while Detweiler is stumbling around in the dark, the ghost is free to go on killing.”

Callahan nodded.

“So, what can I do about it?” Alex asked. “According to the Captain, I’m off the case.”

“The Captain can’t stop you from helping David Watson’s widow.”

“She won’t be a suspect much longer,” Alex said. “She probably won’t want to pay me once the police are officially looking for her husband’s killer.”

“Persuade her,” Callahan said.

Alex sighed. This ghost killer business had already ruined his link to the police and made him look ridiculous in the tabloids. If he pursued it and didn’t catch the ghost, he’d have egg on his face in front of the whole city. The tabloids would make him a laughing stock.

On the other hand, if he got the guy, he’d be a hero. The tabloids would print his name in big letters and make him out to be the best detective since Sherlock Holmes. That would bring in business.

“All right, Lieutenant,” he said with a resigned sigh. “I’ll go see Anne Watson tomorrow and get going, assuming I can find her.”