Trucks sputtered. “M-m-me?”
“You!” She screeched again. “I’m coming for you!”
He turned white as marble—not the kind that had veins of another color in it, the kind that was mostly white.
I threw the lasso around Susan again. “Your days of scaring innocent folks are over, ghost!”
She struggled and spat. I yanked and pulled. I turned to Ruth and Alice. “Now, ladies!”
They tossed two water balloons at her. Granted, they sailed straight through the ghost and splattered against the wall, but I don’t think anyone noticed. By that time I had dropped Susan close to the box.
She zipped down into the balloons. Ruth rushed over and slammed the cardboard top shut. Alice sealed it with good old duct tape.
Everyone in the room stared. I wiped a line of sweat from my brow. “You can thank the Ghost Catchers for stopping this spirit. Tonight, we humans won. Xavier would be proud.”
There was a short pause, and then the entire crowd exploded in cheers and applause. I saluted them for good measure. Ruth and Alice bowed.
I waved to get the line moving again. “Keep doing what you were doing. There’s nothing to see here.” I turned to Ruth and Alice. “Y’all got the box?”
Ruth nodded.
“Great. I’ll grab Truck.”
“Where’re we going now?” Alice said.
I dropped the lasso in my backpack. “To his house. He’s driving.”
I threaded my way through the throng of people to the corner. Truck looked like he was in shock. Slick had a hand on him and was talking.
“Excuse me,” Truck said when I approached. He moved away, but I caught him.
“Listen, Truck, what that spirit said, we need to make sure it isn’t true.”
He shrugged out of my hand. “What do you mean?”
“She threatened you. We’ve got her contained. But I need to make sure that you’re clean. That she won’t hurt you.”
He stopped, smoothed his palm over his dark hair. “Who are you? I know who you are, but I don’t understand.”
“Listen, I’m an investigator. I stop bad ghosts. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before, but that’s what I do. This was a bad ghost. Back home, when a ghost threatens a person, I go to the house, do a cleansing.”
He shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
I grabbed his arm and towed him toward the front door. “We need to get to your house. Now. Time is of the essence. Like I said, I’ve trapped her, but at any moment she could break out.”
Truck stopped. He grabbed his mouth. “Do you think she’ll hurt me? Kill my cat?”
I yanked him back toward the car. “I wouldn’t give yourself that much credit. Come on, let’s get to your home and see what we can do.”
Ruth and Alice were already standing beside the Ghost Wranglers van when we arrived.
“You drive this?” I said, pointing to the vehicle.
“Yeah, I drove it.”
“You got the keys?”
Truck screeched when he saw the box. “Is that…? Is that thing inside there?”
