Page 47 of Ghost Town Boogie

Emily sat up in bed, her head bandaged, while her aunt straightened the covers and fussed over her the way a good aunt should. Jack was present but he stood back several feet, a guilty expression on his ghostly face.

Jack looked Colt’s way. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. It’s all my fault, isn’t it?”

Colt wouldn’t lie. He nodded his head. He had questions, so many questions, but… not here. Not now.

Jack was connected to his mother, but he had a bit of range to comfortably work with. Colt had spoken to the ghost in his old room while Nina was in the kitchen downstairs, and he’d first seen Jack on the porch. Nina hadn’t been close by then, either.

Anna joined the women at the bed and Colt said, eyes on Jack, “I’m going to wait in the hall.”

Anna nodded her head in his direction. The other women ignored him.

Colt stepped into the hallway. Two seconds later, Jack joined him.

It was late enough at night that not many living people were about. Colt did his best to ignore the spirits, hoping if he didn’t acknowledge them they wouldn’t hang too close. A hospital employee entered a room four doors down; a nurse at a station the same distance in the other direction was playing a game on her phone, or texting. Whatever the night nurse was doing, after a quick glance at Colt she dismissed him. She’d seen him come in; he was not a concern.

Colt whispered, “What happened?”

“He attacked Emily. I think…”

“Not tonight,” Colt interrupted. “Then, five years ago. What did you get into?”

Jack didn’t answer for a while. He faded a little, as if he were trying to escape, as if he intended to disappear. But he came back, appeared solid again as he said, “It was my last job, at least the last one around here. Crystal and I were going to take the money and start over. Miami, maybe, or New York. We made such plans. Where we’d live, if we’d settle down or travel. She even wanted kids. I wasn’t sure about that, but the possibility wasn’t entirely out of the question. Then they killed her and it all went away.” With that, Jack’s form faded and shimmered again. “I liked Crystal. I can’t say I loved her, that I wanted everything she did, but she didn’t deserve that.”

They killed her, not he. Did that mean anything?

“You were there that night, you took pictures.”

It was unspoken… You took pictures instead of trying to save Crystal.

“I knew she was going to meet Walter, but I didn’t think he’d hurt her. He was like another father to us, Sawyer’s Dad. Walter was at baseball games, and read us the riot act when we were acting out. He’d buy us ice cream and candy, like he did all the little kids in town. Walter was also involved with some shady guys from Biloxi and New Orleans. He introduced me to some of them and I… I did what I did.”

“You conned them.”

“I did. They had money, lots of it. I didn’t think they’d care so much if I took a little of it. They had plenty to spare. That night I took pictures in case Walter tried to cause trouble or back out or tell his friends he suspected I wasn’t on the up and up. I went home and printed the photos out on dad’s old printer and then I hid them. Just in case.”

Colt didn’t know what to say. Jack had taken such a wrong path; there was no justification.

Jack faded in and out, glowed green for a moment, then continued. “When I heard that Crystal had disappeared, I realized what had happened. She wouldn’t leave without me. I knew she was dead, and that Walter was with her that night. What was I supposed to do?”

“Go to the police?”

“And tell them one of the men I’d conned probably killed my accomplice? How was that going to end for me?”

Not well.

“She was already dead, I had no doubt. So I let Walter know I had pictures proving he was there that night, I told him he’d never find them. If he didn’t kill Crystal himself he knew who did. He paid me for a while, for a couple of months, then…”

“Did Walter try to kill Emily?”

Jack shook his head.

“Then who?”

Jack ignored the question. “I didn’t want Crystal to die. If I’d known I never would’ve… I would’ve done things differently.”

“Walter killed you because you were blackmailing him, didn’t he?”

“Not Walter,” Jack whispered. “I don’t remember much, but it wasn’t Walter. Colt, I got greedy and it cost me everything.”