The Silent Ghost (9 page)

Tanisha stopped talking as her face exploded with surprise. “I saw her! Kelly, I really saw her this time. And she looked just like the picture you drew.”

Kelly jumped to her feet. “Could you hear her, too?”

“No. But her lips weren’t moving so I don’t think she was talking.” Tanisha clenched her hands in frustration, as she slowly paced, trying to remember more. “But she was gesturing to me. She hadn’t done that before.”

“I’ll bet,” Granny said, pacing along with Tanisha, “the reason that woman couldn’t keep this place rented was because the ghost bothered her tenants.”

“I think you’re right, Granny,” answered Kelly. She passed along Granny’s theory to Tanisha. “And I’ll bet even if none of them could see the ghost, she made them feel as bad as she did Rhoda and Tanisha here.”

Tanisha stopped moving. “You mean, they didn’t stay here because the place gave them bad vibes?”

“Yes,” Kelly confirmed. “You can see her, so you had an idea of what was troubling you, but if you couldn’t see the spirit, you’d just think you were depressed all the time. Or even sick, like poor Rhoda.”

“You’re right, Kelly. If I couldn’t see her, I’d think I was going crazy.”

“You said the ghost was making gestures. Like what kind?”

“Like she wanted me to follow her. Like this.” Tanisha demonstrated with a hand movement. “She started drifting away, but kept moving her hand, indicating for me to follow.” Tanisha started across the floor, taking small, slow steps. Granny kept up with her while Kelly watched, taking notice of everything. “She was moving in this direction, beckoning me, and I followed.”

When Tanisha was near one of the exposed brick walls, the one just off the kitchen, she stopped and spun around to Kelly and Granny. “That’s how I scraped my face! I was following her, in some sort of daze, and smacked right into the wall. I’m sure of it.”

Kelly moved over to the wall, placing a hand on the solid surface. “Did the ghost go through the wall?”

“I think so. And I think in my daze I tried to follow her and smacked into it.” Tanisha paused to
think it through, but couldn’t come up with any more. “That’s the last I remember until you and Granny showed up.”

“What’s on the other side of this wall?”

“The laundry room.” Tanisha pointed towards a closed door on the side wall just before the closet doors. “You get to it through there. It’s brick on this side, drywall on the other. The brick wall is thick and directly behind it they created a space for the washer and dryer.”

Their thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a cell phone ringing.

“That’s mine,” said Tanisha. When it rang again, she followed the sound to her bag on the kitchen counter. Pulling it out, she answered it.

“Hold on a minute, Rhoda, Kelly’s here, too. I want her to hear this.” Tanisha put the call on speaker as Kelly walked over to the counter. “Now what did you say again?”

“I think I remember that girl in the drawing. I think I know who she is.”

“Was she a tenant or owner?” Tanisha asked.

“No, I don’t think so.” Rhoda paused. “I could be wrong, but I think that’s Russell Savage’s sister.”

Tanisha leaned back against the counter, letting it support her. “Are you sure? Did you ever meet her?”

“No, I never met her, so I’m not positive. She ran off before I moved into the building. But that drawing looks a lot like a photo Russ keeps in his apartment.”

After the call, Tanisha plopped down on a counter stool, nearly missing it and falling to the floor. At the last moment, she corrected the action. Digging through her bag, she pulled out the drawing and stared at it. “She’s right. This does resemble the picture Russ keeps of his sister.”

Kelly looked at the drawing over Tanisha’s shoulder. “But didn’t Rhoda also say tons of girls wore their hair this way?”

“Yes, but I’ve seen that photo, too. I’ve seen it lots of times when I was in his apartment.” She glanced back at Kelly. “Remember, at first I thought this drawing looked familiar.”

“Okay,” said Kelly, trying to connect the dots of information, “say this is Alice, Russ’s sister. We know from the hair and clothes that the girl in this drawing died in the late 90’s or a few years later. But Rhoda said Alice disappeared about the time the building was converted, so that narrows her death to the late 90s.”

Tanisha nodded. Her eyes went back to the drawing, then to the brick wall. “You don’t think…you know.”

“Maybe she didn’t run off like her brother thinks,” Kelly added, understanding what Tanisha was thinking. “Maybe that lowlife she was dating killed her and she’s trying to tell someone.”

“Maybe she’s trying to let Russ know.”

Granny wasn’t so sure. “Then why isn’t she haunting his apartment?”

“Maybe she is, Granny,” Kelly told her after interpreting for Tanisha. “Maybe he’s not as sensitive to her presence as T and the others.” She looked at Tanisha. “Did you ever experience any ghost sightings when you were with Russ in his place?”

Tanisha got off the stool and walked towards the brick wall in question. “No.” She placed a hand on the wall. “But I remember now when I first started seeing her. It wasn’t until around the end of March or April, about the same time I started dating Russ.”

“Tanisha.” Kelly spoke slowly as she approached her. “What’s wrong? You’re absolutely ashen.” She put her hands on Tanisha’s shoulders. They were trembling. “T, are you going to faint?”

Tanisha shook her head but said nothing. Her eyes were fixed on the wall and partially glazed. With several slow, deliberate strokes, she patted the bricks in front of her.

Kelly immediately understood and turned to Granny, “Can you go through the wall?”

“Sure, but it’s just a wall,” answered Granny. “The ghost probably went through it and disappeared to the other side. Like I do when I disappear.”

“Probably, but it wouldn’t hurt to check it out.” Keeping one hand on Tanisha’s shoulder for support, Kelly ran her other hand up and down the brick surface. “Do you know, T, if this is an original
wall, or part of the renovation?”

Tanisha shook her head, trying to clear it. “We were told the walls with the exposed brick are all original and part of the support. That’s why they’re so thick. The drywall on the laundry room side was part of the renovation.”

Granny scowled at the inanimate bricks. “Don’t say another word, I’m on it.”

Granny passed through the bricks. A second later she was back. “Call the cops,” she told Kelly. “We got a stiff.”

“Are you telling me there’s really a dead body behind that wall?” Tanisha scooted back several feet from the wall. Kelly was already in the middle of the living area, hugging herself against an inner chill. Both of them realizing that a theory about a body was not quite as terrifying as the reality.

“Does it look like the girl in the picture?” Tanisha asked Granny.

“Once maybe, but not now.” Kelly passed along Granny’s comment.

Tanisha picked up her cell phone.

“What are you doing?” asked Kelly with alarm.

“Granny’s right, we have to call the police.”

“And tell them what?” Kelly’s voice climbed with each word. “Um, a ghost told us there’s a body behind this wall?”

Tanisha sucked in and blew out a long burst of air. “I’m a reporter. I’ll tell them I can’t reveal my source.”

“Would that work in this case?”

Tanisha had the phone in a death grip. “It’s the best I’ve got, Whitecastle.”

“And what about Russ?” pushed Kelly. “Shouldn’t we tell him we think we found his sister before the police get involved?”

“No,” Tanisha said with conviction. “I’m pretty sure calling the police first would be protocol. Let them tell him.”

Granny went back through the wall to confirm what she’d seen. When she returned, the other ghost
was with her. Kelly and Tanisha stared at the apparition in shock, as if seeing her for the first time. She wasn’t the spirit of a dead woman any longer; she was the spirit of a murdered woman.

Without taking her eyes from the ghost, Kelly asked, “Can you see her, T?”

“Yeah, very clearly.”

“Let me know immediately if she tries to mess with you, okay?”

“You got it.”

Kelly studied the ghost, who stayed by the wall. “Are you Alice Savage?”

The ghost answered with a slow and deliberate single nod.

“Do you know who killed you?”

Another affirmative nod.

Tanisha fidgeted. “Are you going to play twenty questions with her all night?”

“I’ve watched my mother talk to ghosts,” Kelly explained, not taking her eyes from Alice. “If they can’t or won’t communicate verbally, sometimes she’ll ask them simple yes and no questions.”

Kelly started to move closer to the ghost, then grabbed Tanisha’s sleeve, tugging her along for support. “Were you killed by your boyfriend?”

The spirit’s head went back and forth like a slow pendulum.

Granny shook an index finger at the ghost of Alice Savage. “I’m betting that skunk of a brother killed you I’ve got an itchy feeling about him, and it’s not a good one.”

The ghost didn’t offer an answer one way or the other.

Kelly rephrased Granny’s question, “Did your brother, Russell Savage, kill you?”

As the ghost’s head went slowly up and down, Tanisha’s legs buckled, causing her bottom to hit the hardwood floor with a thud. “Oh, God,” she moaned, covering her face with her hands. “I slept with a killer!”

“You didn’t know that at the time, T,” Kelly reminded her, then shivered, remembering how Russ had invited her up to his place.

“What’s worse,” Tanisha ranted, “is that he used Alice to get women. Playing the distraught brother whose baby sister had run off. Whining about how he’d been looking for her for years. It makes me want to puke.” Before Kelly could say anything, she added, “And what about me? I’m a journalist. I’m supposed to be able to read people and tell when they’re lying. I’m just as big of a fraud as he is.”

Kelly knelt beside Tanisha and put an arm around her shaking shoulders. “You’re no such thing, T. You’re a good person who believed an evil liar. He’s a skilled sociopath and they can fool most people.”

They both remained quiet until Tanisha looked at Kelly and said with the bluntness of a blow, “I think you should go, Kelly.”

Both Kelly and Granny looked at her with surprise.

“I’m serious,” Tanisha continued. “I have to call the police, but I don’t want you mixed up in this. I’ll handle the police on my own.”

“You still going to say an anonymous source told you about the body in the wall?”

“I really don’t know, but that body has to come out of there somehow and Russ needs to pay for Alice’s death.”

Kelly stood up and held out a hand. “If we’re going to sound like lunatics, we’re going to do it together.” Tanisha took her hand and Kelly pulled her up from the floor. “You asked for my help. I’m not going to abandon you now.”

“This will make the news, you know?”

“I know.”

“Your mother won’t be happy about your skills being made public, should it come out.”

“No, she won’t,” Kelly agreed. “And it will be quite a shock to my dad since he doesn’t know about them yet.” Kelly gave the matter more thought. “As much as possible, I think we need to downplay the ghost stuff. And under no circumstances should Granny be mentioned. Keep her totally out of it, even if I’m involved.”

“That can be done,” Tanisha assured her.

Kelly turned to Alice, but she was nowhere to be found. Only the hazy figure of Granny Apples drifted nearby. “Granny, where’s Alice?”

“Gone,” the ghost answered. “And I’m thinking she won’t be back now that the truth is out.” Granny came closer. “Any idea how we’re gonna pin this on that Russell guy?”

“That’s not our job, Granny. Hopefully, the police will find some incriminating evidence inside the wall.”

Kelly looked at Tanisha, who was lost in her own thoughts. “You want to stay in my dorm room tonight? My roommate is gone for the weekend. You know, once you make that call to the police, this place will be crawling with them. You won’t be able to stay here for quite a while.”

“Are you nuts?” Tanisha snapped. “I’m never sleeping here again.”

“But the ghost is gone.”

“Uh-uh. A body in the wall. A murderer above me. Who knows if Russ killed other women and stashed their bodies in other walls. This is the sort of crap my father thrives on, not me.” Tanisha stopped short. She looked down at the phone in her hand a moment, then up at Kelly as a half smile developed. “We’re going about this all wrong. At least I am.”

After pacing the loft a few times and taking several deep breaths, Tanisha placed the call.

“Dad, it’s me. I think I found the plot for your next book.”

Kelly waited downstairs on the stoop for Tanisha to buzz her up. In her hands was a pizza box. “Come on, T,” she said at the locked door. “It’s getting cold out here.”

“Does she know you’re coming?” asked Granny.

“Yes, Granny.” Kelly rolled her eyes. “I even called ahead, like a well-mannered young lady.”

A buzzing sound signaled the door was unlocked. Kelly entered the building and made her way up the stairs to Tanisha’s apartment. It was her first visit to Tanisha’s new place.

“Hey, this is really nice,” she said, coming through the front door. Kelly put the pizza down on the kitchen table and took a look around while Tanisha fixed a salad. The new apartment wasn’t a trendy loft but a spacious traditional flat with two separate bedrooms and a full kitchen. Tanisha’s furniture looked right at home. The living room windows looked out over a park. After looking the place over, Kelly took a seat at the table and dished pizza slices onto plates for each of them.

“So you like it here?” she asked as Tanisha placed the salad on the table.

“Yeah, it’s great so far, although it’s only been a few weeks. It’s going to be nice having an extra room to use as an office and for visitors. Dad said he plans on coming out again soon for a visit.”

“He’s not sending Leroy?”

Tanisha laughed. “No. I think that body business scared the tar out him. He may write about murder and mayhem, but this was too close to home for his comfort. He actually campaigned for me to move to Chicago, but I told him I was staying put.”