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Emergency vehicles lined the streets, their red and blue strobe lights casting an unnatural glow into the fading light of day. It had taken longer to wind up the mountain than she anticipated.
The journalist inside her demanded that she stop, even before she saw the police officer. He waved her down, stepping up to the side of her vehicle with his yellow flashing wand.
“Sorry, but I need to ask you to wait for a few minutes while crews work the scene.”
“What happened, Officer?”
“Tending to a bit of business, Miss,” he said evasively.
Working a hunch, Gera flashed her press badge. “I’m with the press.”
The officer looked surprised. “How did you guys already get wind of this? We just found the body, not twenty minutes ago.” He waved his wand to the car behind her, halting their progress. “Only reason the coroner is here is ‘cause he was already on the mountain. This is Tuesday night poker with the boys.”
He didn’t question which media she was affiliated with, so Gera took it as a sign. Here was her chance to work a real story, not some fluff piece about a ghost. “Where do I park?” she asked quickly, taking advantage of the moment.
“Uh, just pull down there in the parking lot and walk up the hill,” he decided. “Show them your badge and tell them Royce cleared you.”
“Thanks, Royce!”
Gera whipped the car into the empty parking area to her left. Grabbing her camera and her recorder, she looped her badge lanyard over her head as she made her way up the hillside. Emergency vehicles blocked off the street directly in front of her, leaving her pathway clear.
The building facing her was but a skeleton. At least two stories of brick, stone, and metal railings. Intriguing arches and empty chambers. Gera could only see the side profile of the gutted structure. The front of the building faced Main Street, parallel to the one she arrived upon. A growing crowd assembled there, cast in the strobing shadows of blue and red.
A uniformed man stepped from the gathering shadows and blocked her progress. “Sorry, Miss, this entire block is quarantined.”
“It’s okay, I’m with the press.” She flashed her badge with breezy confidence. “Royce already cleared me.” She turned and waved down the hill, pretending the other man could see.
The officer squinted his eyes, studying her as if he noticed vines sprouting from her ears. “Who called you?” he demanded. “I’ve never seen you before.”
Gera countered with, “Does it really matter?” She looked beyond him, to the stretcher lifted from the lower levels of the ruins. “What happened?”
The officer turned to watch the progress of his fellow first responders. “Looks like Abe Cunningham fell to his death.”
Gera eyed the ornate iron railings across the front of the missing wall, thinking they were reminiscent of a jail cell. Too tall to go over, too narrow to slip between, the bars created an effective barrier between the sidewalk and the exposed stone floor below. She edged closer, trying to judge the distance of the fall. From the sidewalk, it would be an easy fifteen feet. Her eyes scanned the brick walls on two sides of the skeletal structure, imagining how a person might scale the excessive height in order to plummet to their death. The buildings were from another era, when twelve and fifteen-foot ceilings were standard. At one time, this had been a two-story building with a sub-level, even though the sky was now its only ceiling.
“How did he get through?” She had the recorder whirring, awaiting his reply.
“Best as we can tell, Mac pushed him.”
Gera tried, but she couldn’t temper the astonishment that bled into her voice. “Mac? You’re blaming a ghost for this death?”
The officer pushed the hat up from his forehead and scratched at the crease it left behind. “Folks reported seeing ole Mac right here on the corner, minutes before Abe came along. No one else was on the sidewalk. Seems to be the only explanation so far.”
“Assuming I believed the ghost was responsible—and that is a huge assumption, by the way—how do you explain Abe getting from this sidewalk to that lower level?” Gera gestured with her hands to mark each spot. “Even if this ‘ghost’ could slip between the bars, how do you explain a full-grown man getting past them?”
She raised a valid argument, but the officer wasn’t impressed. Instead, he looked her over again. His gaze was skeptical. “Who did you say you were?”
She thrust out her hand for a firm handshake. “Gera Stapleton, When It Happens Magazine. And you are?”
“Officer Mike Cooper.”
“So, Officer Cooper, who discovered Mr. Cunningham’s body?”
“That would be Grant Young,” he said. He nodded to the man speaking to another officer in low, confidential tones. “He noticed Abe lying on the floor below and immediately called for help, but it was too late. Abe was already gone.”
“Do you have any idea how long he had been down there?”
“Witnesses saw him pass along the street less than an hour ago, so not long.”
“And you don’t think it was a suicide?”
The policeman gave her a sharp look. “Why would Abe want to kill himself?”
“I have no idea. You tell me.”
“Now, look. If you’re talking about that misunderstanding with the bank, he got all that cleared up...”
Using an old reporter trick, Gera looked non-convinced, even as she shrugged. “If you say so.”
On the defensive for his late friend, the officer unwittingly stepped into her trap. “What? You think there really was something to him owing all that money in back taxes?”
“I never said that.”
“But you insinuated it,” he accused. His lips curled in derision. “All you reporters are the same. You get one whiff of controversy, and you blow it all out of proportion. So Abe got a little behind in his taxes. So what? He paid them in full before the state started proceedings. There’s no way he would’ve offed himself over that, so don’t even go there.”
Somewhat amused at the officer’s angry retort to her fishing expedition, Gera made nice and backed off. “You know what? I think you’re right. But tell me. Why would your friendly ghost Mac want to kill Abe?”
“Because lately, Mac hasn’t been so friendly.”
“Why do you think that is?” She cocked her head to one side, pretending not to be asking about the personality quirks of a ghost, of all things. Had her journalism degree come down to this?
She worked long and hard to get that degree. She started college later in life than most of her classmates, at least six years older than the incoming freshman class. Even after working two jobs all that time to pay tuition, she only had enough saved up for one year. During her eighteen-month hiatus from school, she worked four part-time jobs. There had been times when she met herself coming and going, juggling the different schedules as she worked herself to a frazzle and enrolled in online classes. The grueling pace almost landed her in the hospital. When she scored a position at the newspaper, doing grunge work for the assistant editor’s assistant, she allowed herself the luxury of quitting one of her jobs. Her stint as a night janitor was the first to go, even though it paid slightly more than her gig at Crispy Chicken Delight. If she ever saw a mop bucket or a deep fryer again in this lifetime, it would be too soon for her. It took her longer than expected, but last year, at the ripe old age of thirty-one, Gera trotted across the stage and accepted her diploma.
It was the single greatest accomplishment in her life.
And here she squandered that degree, inquiring about a ghost who supposedly killed a man.
Officer Cooper never knew how difficult it was for Gera to ask that question, how hard it was for her to keep the look of interest upon her face. He thought it perfectly normal to discuss a ghost.
He actually looked worried. “We haven’t figured that out yet. For almost eighty years, ole Mac has been roaming this town, friendly as can be. Been known to help out more than a few times, stepping in to guide someone out of the way of traffic, finding lost items, keeping watch over the town when times were hard. One time, back when I was just a kid, little Dewey Miles fell down in one of the old mine shafts. Mac was the one to lead searchers right to the boy. So, you can see why we’re all stumped, wondering what the heck has gotten into him after all this time. I hate to say it, but Mac has been downright ornery these past few months.” He looked over his shoulder, to the closing doors on the coroner’s vehicle. “And now this.”
No, Gera didn’t see. She didn’t see how an entire town could be so naive. An abandoned mineshaft was the obvious place to look for a missing child. Lost items turned up every day, even without the benefit of a ghost. Why did they credit a dead man for these everyday deeds? And why did they blame him now for a death?
Jillian briefed her on the town’s history—brief being the operative word—before Gera boarded the plane, but the details were still sparse. Perhaps Officer Cooper could fill in some of the gaps.
“So, Mac has been roaming these streets for almost eighty years, huh?” She tried her best to sound conversational. In her wildest imaginations, this was never a conversation she saw herself in.
The policeman nodded. “That’s right. Jerome was a big mining town, back in the day. Pulled over thirty-three million tons of copper, gold, silver, and more from the depths of these mountains; over a billion dollars’ worth, even way back then. Old Horace McGruder—Mac to his friends—was killed in a blasting accident back in ‘38, the same one that sent our jail over there sliding down the hill.” He nodded toward the oddly slanted structure Gera noticed on the way into town. “He’s been seen roaming around town ever since. When they pulled his body from the blast site, he was missing an ear. Some folks say he’s been searching for it all these years, not willing to cross over until he was a whole man again.”
Not just a ghost, but a one-eared ghost. Now that was a new one.
“Hey, Mike!”
The officer turned to see who called his name. Gera knew her time was slipping away.
“Just one more thing before you go,” she pressed. “Does Abe Cunningham have a family?”
His face was suitably mournful. “He did,” he said, sadly emphasizing the past tense. “He and Ruth have been married forever. They must have at least a dozen grandchildren. This will hit them hard.”
“Where did Mr. Cunningham live?”
Irritation crossed the policeman’s face. “Now look, don’t you go snooping around Ruth, stirring up troubles where none exist.”
Gera shook her head in denial. “For identification purposes,” she was quick to assure him.
An odd look replaced the irritation. His nose flared, as if he had gotten wind of a foul smell. “Do you feel that?” His voice was lower than before.
A slight breeze stirred the evening air. After the heat of the day, it was a welcomed respite. “The breeze? Yes, it’s nice.”
He shook his head. “Not the breeze. The chill. One of them is here.”
Gera looked around. “One of whom? One of Abe’s family?”
“No. One of the ghosts.”
***
WITH THAT VERY ODD statement, the officer turned away to see to his duties, leaving Gera there alone on the sidewalk.
Just her and the ghost.
She scoffed at the idea and moved back to the hollowed-out building, the one where Abe Cunningham’s body had been found. Try as she might, she still couldn’t imagine how a grown man, no matter how thin or how tall, could possibly penetrate the bars surrounding the entire structure. Not even a child could press between the narrowly spaced spindles. A cat, yes. A person, impossible.
She snapped off several photographs before a different lawman approached her.
“This is a crime scene. I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
“It’s okay, Officer. I’m a—” The words died on her lips as she turned and saw the man who spoke.
He was a western character straight from the movies, come to life from those old movies her father liked so well. Rawboned features and a tough attitude, with a thick shock of rusty brown hair, drooping handlebar mustache, and sharp, piercing eyes.
A smirk lifted one side of his mouth. “You were saying?”
Snapping out of her trance, Gera grabbed her press badge and wiggled it in front of his face. “I’m a reporter.”
His lips thinned into a narrow ribbon of disapproval. “I’m the chief of police. And we didn’t call the press.”
Gera offered a bright smile. Her father always insisted it was her best feature. She had a smile like her mother, he said. Then his eyes would grow troubled, and he would fall into one of his strange moods. More often than not, he would shuffle off to the den and plop down in his easy chair, losing his cares in the dependable plot of a shoot-em-up western and a can of beer.
“A happy coincidence, I suppose,” Gera said now, flashing her mother’s smile. “I’m booked at The Dove Hotel for the entire week.”
“In that case, you can come back tomorrow and take all the pictures you like. Right now, you’re standing in my crime scene.” His tone brooked no argument. Neither did his steady glare.
“Two questions before I go.” Gera ignored the steely look in his eyes and barged ahead. “One, do you have any suspects or persons of interest? And a ghost doesn’t count.”
Something flashed in his gaze. She thought it was most likely surprise. “No comment.”
She had expected as much. “Okay, question two. Where is The Dove?”
He pointed to the mountain behind them. “Up there. Follow this road, turn beside the church, and watch for signs. You can’t miss it.”
“Thanks, Officer—” She stopped abruptly, realizing they had foregone introductions. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”
“Miles Anderson.”
She thrust her hand forward. “Gera Stapleton, When It Happens Magazine.”
He shook her hand, the automatic action terse and forced.
“Thanks for the directions. And I will see you tomorrow morning.”
He made no reply, but as he turned away, she thought she heard him mutter, “Not if I see you first.”
Gera was slow to move away. She took more photos, documenting the milling crowd and the street beyond. She snapped candid shots of the people’s faces, tight with shock and wrung with worry. Some of their faces were filled with revulsion. These people’s eyes skittered away from the crime scene, not yet willing to accept that one of their own had been murdered. Other faces held horrified fascination, their eyes shimmering with unadulterated greed. No matter how appalling or how close to home this death hit, some of the townspeople were hungry for more. They craved a glimpse of horror.
Without a word, Gera slipped quietly among the people, listening to snatches of conversation and the murmur of low, shocked voices.
“—couldn’t see a face, but it looked like Abe Cunningham’s red shirt and boots.”
“Poor Ruth. This might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. I don’t know how much more that poor woman can take.”
“Things like this just don’t happen here.”
“...Ever since Mac turned on us, strange things have been happening. Haven’t you noticed?”
“Mac’s always been so friendly. Why would he turn on us now?”
“Leroy says it’s the moon. A black moon, he called it.”
“...did a body get down there and through those bars?”
“I heard Mac picked him up and threw him over the top. Came crashing down like a sack of potatoes.”
“...Someone said it was Abe. Tell me it wasn’t. He finally got all that settled with the bank and now this! Poor Ruth.”
“...Terri Perkins saw Mac, plain as day. Came floating down the street, not minutes before Abe sauntered by. Next thing we knew, Grant Young was calling for help. He was the one to find Abe, you know.”
“...over at the hardware store just this morning. He was buying paint for their new fence.”
“A shame, that’s what this is. No matter who they just loaded into the wagon, it’s a pure shame.”
Officer Cooper tried to corral the crowd’s attention. “Folks, there’s nothing more to see here. You might as well go on home.”
“What happened, Mike?” someone called from the back. “Who was it?”
“We can’t release the details just yet, Bobby. You know that. Now you go on home, and see what Ginger cooked you for supper.”
“Hell, Mike, Ginger don’t cook. You know that.”
A chuckle passed through the crowd and a few of the onlookers began to disperse. Tourists lost interest in the scene and drifted on, unconcerned with matters that didn’t involve them. Gera attempted to question a few of the first responders, but they brushed her aside as they tended their duties of securing and surveying the scene.
With nothing more to see tonight, Gera soon gave up and headed toward the hotel.
