This Girl Who Was A Ghost, page 8
part #2 of Near Future Series
Sammy thought she’d decline and rush off, but she broke off a piece and took a bite. “I’m a sucker for chocolate.”
“In that case, you’re doomed.”
Maria glanced to each side of Sammy. “You take care of them?”
Sammy pulled them close to her. “They take care of me.”
“You do look familiar,” Maria said with a grin.
“I’ve only seen you on the jumbo screen. You look a lot smaller in person.”
“I cringe every time I see myself on those screens. Every blemish is magnified a hundred times.”
All the pretty ones worry about blemishes. Maybe when you’re that close to perfection, you demand that last bit.
Maria stepped back and gazed up at the house.”Something about this house or neighborhood looks familiar.”
“If you’ve seen one of these houses, you’ve seen a hundred,” Sammy said, standing. “Let’s get you two in and up to bed.”
Jenna pouted. “It’s still early, Sammy.”
“Momma Gladys lets us stay up later on Fridays,” Justin said.
Gladys’s name seemed to trigger something for News Lady. She queried her friendly bot and up popped the home invasion story. “Now I remember!”
Sammy glanced down at the laundry bag. Should she grab it and run?
“Power up, Cass,” Maria said, flipping through her tablet while the bot’s lighted arms unfurled, casting them in the glow of impending interrogation.
Chapter Nineteen
________________________________________
The news lady stepped in closer like a shark going in for the kill. “I’m speaking with Sam, who was accused of a home invasion with two other accomplices, one of which is dead.” She turned to Sammy. “Sam, why did you and the two others rain terror on your foster home?”
What Sammy wouldn’t give to have her old hands back so she could knock News Lady on her butt. “‘Home invasion’ sounds like aliens coming down in ships.”
“Was it revenge?”
“It was nothing like that at all.”
“Were there abuses at this home? Is that why you came here? To send a message?”
“Why are you asking me? Looks like you have your own story going.”
“Then tell us in your own words what happened.”
Sammy looked down at the twins standing beside her. “I tried to save them.”
Jenna’s beautiful face glowed in the light. “You did, Sammy.”
Justin tugged her arm, nodding. “Sammy jumped on that nasty lady’s back and knocked her down,” he said, swinging his arm. “‘Run, run,’ she yelled, and we ran.”
“I ran but she grabbed me.” Jenna looked away, dwelling on it. “Sammy jumped on her, pulled her away from me.”
Sammy pulled Jenna close to her.
“So was it a home invasion that went wrong?”
“You and your home invasion.”
“What would you call it, then?”
Sammy shrugged. “I don’t know, a psycho doing psycho things.”
“Are you referring to Jane Doe?”
The name didn’t quite fit Tatiana, but she nodded, hoping to get rid of her.
“Were you a hostage when she took you to your foster home?”
“She didn’t take me anywhere. Do you think I’d let that psycho near them?”
“So how did you get here?”
“I ran like I’d never run before,” Sammy said, still remembering the sting in her legs.
Maria’s grin was a little forced. “But how did you know to come here?”
“She called me using Gladys’s phone. She knew I wouldn’t answer if she called me from hers.”
“So you knew her prior to the home invasion?”
Sammy rolled her eyes. “She did it to get back at me. I called her a psycho.”
“Why didn’t you call the police?”
“Because she would’ve hurt them, more than hurt them if you know what I mean.”
“So you—”
“What’s going on here?” Mark asked, standing by the door and holding the tube pillow Justin dropped.
Sammy snickered. Mark looked as if he’d just woken up, hair stuck to one side, torn T-shirt rumpled, and his socks slipped down to his ankles.
“Hi, I’m Maria Santiago from Chasing News.”
Mark passed the pillow to the other hand and ran his fingers through his hair. “I watch you all the time.”
Yeah, with his pants down.
“I’m doing a follow-up on the home invasion. Were you here that night?”
He nodded, shifting his feet.
“Could you tell me who you are?”
A loser.
“I’m Mark. I live here.”
“I’ve been speaking with Sam about those events.”
“Don’t believe anything she says. She’s a liar, a thief, and a wanted criminal.”
Justin spun around. “She is not!”
“Don’t talk to me like that, you little runt.”
Sammy pulled Justin to her. “It’s okay, sweetie.”
“I hate him.”
Mark sneered. “She steals candy for them, so they’ll believe all her lies.”
“Mark, could you tell me what happened that night?” Maria asked.
“Her friend snuck into my house, broke my nose, and tied me up, torturing me and my mother. Why isn’t she in jail?”
“Was her friend by herself?”
“I didn’t see the lying thief until later when her friend made her put on a funny-looking wig and a glittery dress.”
“Yeah, she was such a good friend that she made me do it.”
He shrugged. “It was some kind of lesbian thing.”
“What did she make you do, Mark?” Sammy glared up at him. “Tell it straight, or I will.”
“Like you know how to tell it straight.”
“You saw me fighting her in the hallway, didn’t you?”
“I saw fighting.”
“Who cut you free?”
“I cut myself free.”
“Who gave you the knife?”
“If you gave it to me sooner, I could’ve helped,” Mark said, staring out above the lights. “Could’ve helped.”
“Cut it there, Cass,” Maria said. The lights went out and the arms retracted.
Sammy bent down next to the twins. “Hugs?”
“You have to go now, Sammy?” Jenna asked.
Sammy hugged them. “Afraid so, sweetie.” She stood, ushering them up the steps. “That’ll keep me going for a while.”
Mark opened the door for them. “Get inside, runts.”
“I’m not a runt.” Justin stepped over the threshold. “I’m a little man.”
“My brave little man.”
Maria turned to Sammy. “Can I drop you off somewhere?”
Sammy hefted the bag over her shoulder. “No thanks.”
“A ride will save you from lugging that all the way home.”
“I lugged it here. I can lug it back.”
“I need to fill in some background material. No recording. You don’t have to answer anything you don’t want to.”
“Take me anywhere I want?”
Maria nodded. “As long as it’s in the city.”
“Damn. Wanted to see how cows are milked.”
Maria chuckled. “You have a sharp wit.”
Sammy followed her, the bot close behind. “Do I have to sit on Cass’s lap?”
“There’s plenty of room.” Maria swung open the door. “Sit up front with me.”
The last time she was driven, the psycho was doing the driving.
Maria waved her in. “I won’t bite.”
Sammy hated when people said creepy things like that. She sat and closed the door.
The bot slid into the back seat. Its body was a rectangular slab of metal with rounded edges. It had a screen in the middle and little appendages along the sides, looking like a horseshoe crab turned upside down.
“It’s not going to start doing my hair or anything like that?”
Maria smirked. “Cass, refrain from any urge to work on Sam’s hair unless you want to be turned into stone.”
“Hah, hah.”
They turned right on Cooper. “So was it really you in that first image?”
Sammy spotted McGreevy’s and wondered if they’d still remember her.
“Is that a ‘no comment’?”
“Why? Afraid I’ll squash that stupid story on the snake lady?”
“I’m just trying to shed light on some of the bizarre things that were reported. Not everything has a rational explanation. For instance, the police don’t have a firm idea of how Jane Doe was killed. Do you?”
“Yeah, snakes.”
Maria glanced over at her. “So what was Jane Doe’s real name?”
“Tatiana.”
“Where did you meet?”
“A club.”
“Does this club have a name?”
“The snake club.”
“Sam, this is strictly confidential. Your name won’t be linked to any of this.”
Sammy shifted the laundry bag on her lap.
Maria let out a breath and checked the mirrors. “Did you have a sexual relationship with her?”
“Let me out here!”
“I’m not trying to pry.” Her voice was slow and soft. “I’m just trying to find out the motivations for what she did.”
“She was a psycho.” Sammy tightened her grip on the laundry bag. “Trying to figure out what a psycho does will make you psycho.”
“I’m sure even she had her motivations.”
“Is that your next story? ‘Motivations of a psycho’? Instead of worrying about snake ladies and dead psychos, why don’t you go after the real killers?”
“If you know where the real killers are, I’m listening.”
Sammy pulled the laundry bag close to her. A soapy-floral scent bloomed out from the bag.
“Did you see anything, Sam?”
“Maybe.”
Maria pulled into a side street and slowed the car. “What did you see?”
“The girl, the girl the bastard killed.”
“What girl?”
“The girl on Twenty-Fifth Street near the park.”
The car jerked to a stop. “You saw who did it?”
Sammy nodded.
“I have to call my boss.” Maria fumbled for her phone. “Hello, Jack, I found a witness to the Twenty-Fifth Street murder.” She held the phone to her chest. “He wants to meet you.”
“I don’t want to meet him.”
“Sam, I know you want this bastard found. Keeping this information to yourself isn’t going to do that. Do you want that on your conscience?”
Sammy sighed. “Where is he?”
“At his office,” Maria said, turning the car around. “We’re on our way, Jack.”
Sammy wrapped her arms around the laundry bag, not liking this at all. She thought of jumping out of the car when it slowed to make the turn. The bot would probably try to hold her down if she made the attempt. Sammy turned back and checked the bot for any extended claws.
“Cass can give you a makeover if you’d like.”
“Why? You have to look pretty for Jack?”
“Jack’s not that way.” Maria glanced at her. “Sometimes a girl wants to look pretty for herself. I look truly hideous without my makeup.”
Sammy rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you must have to cover all the mirrors in your house in the morning.”
Maria grinned. “You’ve been to my apartment?”
The car pulled in front of a townhouse on Thirty-Second. “This doesn’t look like an office.”
Maria swung open the door. “He works out of his home. Come on.”
Sammy hoisted the laundry bag over her shoulder and looked down one end of the street, then the other.
Maria came around the car and grabbed her hand. “He doesn’t bite either.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel good?”
She dragged Sammy inside the house. “How will it make you feel putting this bastard away?”
They stood in a long hallway that ended in what looked like the kitchen. To the left was a stairway and to the right was a room that led to another room with a closed door. Maria stepped inside, calling out, “Jack?”
The door opened to the next room. A middle-aged guy stepped out, waving them in. He was average height and average build; everything was average about him except for how much money he had.
Maria slipped behind her and pushed her forward. “Jack, this is Sam.”
He stuck out his hand as if they’d settled on the purchase of an expensive painting. “Nice to meet you, Sam. I’m glad you agreed to do this.”
Sammy shook his hand. It was warm and soft, not much of a grip either.
Jack pushed open the door. It was a decent-sized room, dimly lit with a stately mahogany desk in the middle. Maria kept behind Sammy in case she came to her senses and ran out.
A guy stood at the other side of the door. She thought it was Johnny at first, tall with a similar build, but the beady eyes and the face of stone told her it was a cop.
Sammy spun around for the door.
The cop plastered his hand against the door and slammed it shut. “Sit.”
Chapter Twenty
________________________________________
Two hardwood chairs with leather backing sat opposite the mahogany desk. Sammy sat on the one closest to the door. The cop loomed over her, smelling of cheap cologne.
Maria glared at Jack, the guy with the expensive cologne. “How could you?”
“Keep your panties on, Santiago,” the cop said, circling around to the other chair. “If it wasn’t for me, you’d be preparing a court date for that Shantou B and E.”
“I didn’t break in, Russo. I knocked, and I thought she said come in.”
“She wasn’t there.”
“I heard hissing noises. She has this snake thing going. I thought it was her.”
The cop chuckled. “You were in the apartment for sixteen minutes before Shantou returned.”
“Is that what this is about, Jack?”
Jack smiled uneasily. “This is a murder investigation, Maria. We have to involve the police in this.”
Maria turned to Sammy. “I didn’t know anything about this, Sam, I swear.”
Sammy looked away, her arms wrapped around the laundry bag on her lap.
The cop pulled the chair sideways and sat down, facing her. “So what did you see, Sam?”
“Am I under arrest?”
“Did you have a hand in killing her?”
Sammy’s face contorted. “I didn’t kill her. The creep did.”
“You want to tell me what happened?”
Sammy gripped the bag, looking over her shoulder at the door.
“You know this creep? Trying to protect him?”
Sammy shook her head.
“If you don’t start talking, kid, I’m going to hold you as an accessory after the fact.”
Maria stormed him. “Russo!”
“I’m tired, and I don’t need this pouting bullshit.”
“Sergeant, we’re all a little tired,” Jack said. “A little restraint would go a long way.”
The cop sighed, leaning back in his chair.
“I’ll get some drinks,” Maria said. “What would you like, Sam?”
Sammy ignored her.
The cop’s beady eyes were on Sammy. “Why don’t you help her, Jack?”
Great, now it was just her and the cop. What was he going to do? Beat the information out of her?
He pulled a flask out of his coat pocket and took a swig. “I get it. You don’t like cops. Most of my friends are cops, and I’m not too crazy about them either.” He chuckled and put the flask back in his pocket.
“You’re a regular conversationalist.” He stood and circled around back. He knocked on the desk. “I bet this cost a few bucks.”
Sammy looked back. They’d left the door open.
“You want to run out of here?”
“Why? You want to use me for target practice?”
“We use little kids for that. It’s more challenging that way.”
Sammy scowled. “I bet.”
He sat on the edge of the desk. “Why did you tell Maria about this murder?”
“Because I’m stupid.”
“So if you weren’t stupid, who would you have told?”
Sammy shrugged.
“Let’s pretend I’m that person.”
“Yeah, let’s both close our eyes and pretend.”
The cop grinned, pushing off the desk. “What’s in the bag?”
“Laundry. Do you want to check?”
“I don’t want to check your bag; I don’t want to play a hundred questions; I just want you to tell me what you know, so I can get the hell out of here and go home.”
“You’re not going to arrest me?”
“Sam, if you’re involved in this murder somehow, it’s best to come clean now.”
“If I just went down Twenty-Fifth instead of Broad, I might’ve saved her.”
“Let’s start at the beginning.”
“I saw him at the park.”
“Saw who?”
“The creep with a mask.”
“What kind of mask?”
“A rubber mask with black wavy hair and rosy cheeks.”
“He was walking around with a mask?”
“He had his hood up so you couldn’t tell.”
“When did you first see him?”
Sammy thought it was best to leave out the part of collecting money for the play. “I was in the park and spotted a crowd of people. So I checked it out. It was a play with all girls. There was a guy on the other side of the crowd, bothering this lady. It got so bad that the play stopped.”
“Other people saw this guy?”
Sammy nodded. “Thought they were going to lynch him.”
“Madison Park?”
“I guess. It’s the park that’s right there.”
“Okay, so then what?”
“I chased after him but there were a hundred transporters driving down Fifth, and I lost him.”
“By yourself?”
Sammy nodded. “I got to Twenty-Fifth and Broad. He wasn’t on Twenty-Fifth, so I figured he was on Broad. I hit Twenty-Sixth and still didn’t see him. I went around the block and came back down Twenty-Fifth toward the park. He was coming out of an alley. I chased after him. He turned right on Fifth. I saw the girl cut up and strangled.”
