Elizabeth Basque - Medium Mysteries 01 - Echo Park (14 page)

“
Nope. CoCo cocked her head, trying to figure out this ghost with foam eternally dripping from his chin, only it was dripping upwards, since he was upside down now. She closed her eyes and shook her head to get a grip. When she opened them again, Marcus was waving his hands and fingers at her.”

“
Did he say anything to her?

“‘
GOTCHA!’ he shouted. Now, CoCo grabbed her weapon and fired two rounds, point blank. Of course, they went right through Marcus, and into the wall shared with the next apartment.”

“
Oh, my!” Julie said.

“
We didn’t know she was going to put other people in danger, so I tried to get her attention on me. CoCo was unsteady, stumbling. She turned and dashed for the front door, but I was there, smiling, and shaking a finger at her. That’s all, just a finger. Then Marcus floated down next to me, and gave her the stink eye. She went insane, for real. CoCo emptied the rest of the bullets through us, through the door and into the hallway outside. She was a complete freak with the gun. The neighbors were screaming and crying and of course, calling 9-1-1.”

Carla closed her eyes and gulped. “She was going to run and we wanted her to get arrested, so we hovered toward her and she backed up, ending up in her bedroom. Marcus and I couldn’t let her get away, so we gave the best ghost screams ever and kept her from leaving. I almost scared myself with the horrifible sounds that came out of my own mouth.”

“Oh, Carla. You and Marcus were so brave.”

“
She couldn’t hurt us. But she could hurt other people, so we made sure she got caught. When the police got there, they found CoCo’s apartment full of drugs, money and paraphernalia. Then they found CoCo curled in a corner, blankets over her head, muttering about heroin babies and ghosts.”

“
Because she was on parole, she’s probably going back to prison for a long, long time,” I said.

“
That’s what the cops said, too. One of them said, ‘Three strikes, you’re out!’”

I realized then that CoCo had likely violated the three strikes law in California.

Chapter Twenty-three

As Julie and I received updates from Mack, Carla and Michael, Julie kept track of these events as they unfolded. She had a notebook for each of them, and I was impressed with her organizational skills that bordered on OCD. She even numbered the events.

“
I forget things if I don’t write them down,” she told me.

Although it was quite interesting to hear their stories and progress over those couple of days, I also enjoyed the steady contact with another living person. Yes, I had my Medium business to talk with live people—although I’d cleared my schedule for this “adventure”—but my appointments were usually only a couple of hours long. The rest of the time, I was typically on my own and in the company of spirits. Mostly Mack.

Michael didn’t communicate with us as often as Carla or even Mack, but when he did, he gave a full and detailed account of his haunting.

Michael was seriously haunting the dealer who had threatened him, the sleazebag he’d killed Carla and her mother for. Perhaps this was why he communicated less often than Carla or Mack. There was much more at stake for him, or at least he hoped so. I could see desperation in his eyes, a longing that seemed to haunt me. He was dead serious about this because for him, his own very soul was at stake.

“Mack and Carla, can you go to the gathering at the stairs or wherever Michael is and round him up?”

“
Do you think he’s done?” Julie asked.

“
It’s been a couple of days. He should have been back by now from his haunting mission.”

“
Unless the light came for him,” Carla said.

“
Not yet, I’m pretty sure it’s soon, though,” I said.

“
Come on, Cahla, let’s find Michael and bring him back,” Mack said.

She nodded, her face serious.

After they left, Julie said, “It’s like Ghost Central Station in here.”

“
Welcome to my world,” I said.

It wasn’t long before Michael was in my living room and taking power boosts off the TV remote.

“
My plan was pretty simple,” he said modestly. “This dealer’s name is JJ. Probably not his real name, just as CoCo and Snake are nicknames.”

“
Drug dealers love nicknames,” Carla said.

“
They do! JJ lives in a semi-converted garage adjacent to an alley downtown off of Sunset Boulevard. The garage has a well-hidden side door for JJ and his customers. Easy access, and no one really cares who walks along those alleys, except for the cops. Since anyone could duck into a side gate or walkway, the cops don’t waste too much time patrolling the area.”

“
Tell us everything!” Mack said eagerly.

“
On the first evening that I began to haunt JJ, I started by knocking on the side door, using my personal code knock, the one nobody else used. Each dealer had their own distinctive knock.”

I nodded my encouragement.

Michael continued, “JJ had been watching a show about tricked-out cars when he heard the knock,
my
special knock, and he froze. I saw this because I was on the inside of the door when I knocked, so I could see his face.”

I smiled, unable to stop myself from judging them for what a good time the ghosts were having with these hauntings.

“I could hear his thoughts:
Couldn’t be.
It’s just my imagination
, JJ thought to himself as he hit the remote’s mute button and cocked his head, listening for any movement outside. Then JJ took a swig of his cola, leaning back in his old Eazy Boy lounge chair. It was tagged with graffiti and dirty, like he’d found it on the curb and dragged it inside. He went back to his show, but then he heard my knock, louder this time.

“
Jesus H,” JJ muttered to himself as he grabbed his gun and crossed to the door. He swung it open, but there was no one there. Of course not. He swung it right through me and caught a big cold draft. He shuddered and I know he felt me there.

“
I felt JJ’s paranoia. ‘
It’s just the drugs,’
he thought
. ‘I’ll cut back.’
As I floated above him in the dirty converted garage, JJ closed the door again, this time turning the deadbolt, just in case anyone was messing with him.”

Michael smiled. “No deadbolt could keep me in or out of JJ’s place.”

Mack laughed. “You’re loving this.”

“
Now
I am. When I was there, I did feel a wave of anger rush through what used to be my veins. I hadn’t been to JJ’s place since my death. At first, it was because it would have been too painful. And, over the past couple of months that I’ve been dead, I’ve been wandering around, wondering what I would do for eternity, a forgotten spirit who never saw the light come for him.”

I reached out and touched his shimmery shoulder, my hand sweeping through it.

“Thank you for this, Pauline,” he told me.  “I couldn’t do this without you.”

“
It’s all right. What happened next?”

“
Now that I was at JJ’s, I re-lived that fateful night. I remembered that I had been the one to bring JJ back to consciousness, with no thanks from him at all. Maybe JJ wouldn’t have OD’d, but he could have. I woke him up, you know? But one thing about drug users is that they don’t say thank you for anything except the drugs. They don’t care about anything else.”

Carla said, “I hear ya.”

We all looked at Michael, waiting for him to spew his guts.

“
I floated around the room for a while, choosing to remain unseen for the time being. The place was the same, nothing had changed. There were still a couple of dust mice in the corner, and trash bags filled with old fast food wrappers and empty cola cans. There was one sink that was so dirty that I didn’t know how JJ could bring himself to have the occasional sponge bath from it.”

He paused, having such a hard time telling us. “A buyer dropped by, but didn’t stay long, as JJ usually had his stuff pre-weighed and divvied up in little plastic Ziploc bags. He was alone again, soon enough and he did a little heroin and conked out into a light sleep. I could hear his thoughts, which were the same that mine had been. JJ meant it when he’d told himself he was going to cut back. He meant it every time he said it. So had I.” Michael paused, his face riddled with anxiety. “I knocked my special knock again on the old nightstand, just next to where JJ slept in the Eazy Boy. JJ jerked awake. It was dark now, except for the glow of the TV, which stayed on 24/7. I boosted myself with the remote. Snow appeared on the screen for a second until I turned off the TV. JJ sat straight up in his chair now, fumbling for his gun.”

I bit my lip.
Did all of the drug dealers have guns?

“
Yes,” Carla said, looking at me. “Sorry to interrupt, Michael.”

“
That’s cool. I can hear Pauline’s thoughts, too.” He continued, “I streamed directly into the extension cord that lay across the garage floor. It gave me enough power to fully show myself. When I materialized in front of JJ, glowing an eerie green in the utter darkness, JJ froze again, this time with pure panic.

“
I said to him, ‘Hello, old friend. Remember me?’ And I said it with sarcasm, not nicely, you know? Because I was talking to…my worst enemy.
After myself, that is
.”

I cringed at that self-loathing confession as Michael plowed on bravely. “JJ couldn’t answer me. He couldn’t even close his dropped jaw. ‘Don’t remember?’ I asked, making the color of the perma-vomit on my shirt glow brighter and the foam dripping from my mouth even whiter. I probably looked almost like a rabid dog to him. And then I pressed his buttons. ‘It wasn’t so long ago that we called each other friend. I trusted you with the money for my girlfriend’s engagement ring. You trusted me with dope and with your own petty fears and problems, even the big ones. But I guess in the end, we weren’t really friends at all. How’d that whole getting ripped-off by the homeless mom thing work out for you, anyway?’”

Michael gulped, gathering his courage. “JJ whispered, ‘
Michael?’
I answered, ‘In the flesh, or, no, wait, I guess not. I’m not in the flesh anymore,
pal
.’ I levitated up and down for a maximum scare effect, even using Mack’s trick of going upside down to pretty much terrify him. It did get his attention, especially when I threw in a ghost shriek I learned from a guy on the Echo Park stairs that sounds like a mean cat fight.”

“
Don’t make that sound in my apartment,” I said.

“
No, ma’am,” Michael said respectfully. “When I did that shrill shriek, JJ moved his head ever so slightly to look at the door. I wagged a finger in his face and shook my head. I said, ‘Uh-uh! Don’t even think it!’”

“
They always think they can escape from ghosts,” Mack said. “Don’t they watch horror movies and learn anything from them?”

I agreed. “There are three rules of horror movies and they are: Stay together. Don’t go in the spooky house. Don’t run from ghosts.”

Mack smiled at me and looked at Michael, motioning for him to continue.

He did. “I said, ‘JJ, running away won’t do you any good. You won’t lose me that way. I can follow you anywhere. No locks, no doors, no bank vault can stop me from getting right in your face and screaming in it.’ JJ shook his head and actually pinched himself to make sure he wasn’t having a nightmare.”

“They all do that,” Mack said.

“
I told him, ‘I’ll be back,’” Michael said. “Except I said it really dramatic, like Arnie in
The Terminator
.”

“
Shit’s about to get real,” Mack said, winking at Carla.

Chapter Twenty-four

Now, it was my turn. “It’s getting late. Everyone know what they’re supposed to do now?”

My three ghosts all nodded at me.

Carla, Mack and Michael had done their work; they’d scared the bejesus out of three drug dealers, those losers who were draining our society and community of productive, happy people. They were pleased, and Michael was especially grateful for their help.

Michael was a little nervous, though. I couldn’t imagine what it was like for him. First of all, he bore the guilt over the crimes he had committed. It had taken a lot of courage for him to face Carla. I wondered again what part Mack had played in bringing Michael, possibly dragging him—if a ghost could be dragged—to my home for that initial visit. Mack kept quiet about it, though, and I supposed I would never know the answer.

And, although Michael was a murderer, now that I knew his life story, I felt badly that he hadn’t been offered the chance to go Home. Out of all the spirits I’d worked with, there had been many who had committed horrendous crimes, including a ghost I had loved. But they’d always seen those beautiful stairs, and a shining, loving figure standing there to lead them into the real hereafter. Michael must have felt truly alone in that respect.