Secret Hollows (10 page)

“In the meantime, would you be willing to introduce me to your new friend?” Ian asked. “I have to assume this is Maggie’s Timmy.”

Bradley put his arm around Mary’s shoulders so he could see the little boy sitting on the edge of Mary’s bed.

“Yes, this is Timmy,” Mary said. “Timmy this is my friend, Ian.”

“Maggie said you were nice,” Timmy said. “I didn’t tell her, ‘
cause
she’s still a kid, but I got killed. And I can’t find my way home.”

Ian squatted down in front of the little boy. “Aye, that was nice of you. We wouldn’t want to frighten Maggie,” he said. “The good news is you have the very best people possible helping you find your way home.”

Timmy looked around. “Where’s
Mikey
? You said
Mikey
lived here.”

Ian looked up at Mary and Bradley. “
Mikey
?” he asked.

Mary nodded. “Mike,” she called. “Mike, if you can hear me, I really need to talk with you.”

“Calling me to your bedroom, I knew you’d get tired of the Police Chief,” Mike said, as he appeared before them and then he looked around. “Whoa, party in Mary’s room.”

Then his eyes rested on Timmy. “Who’s…
”

“Mr. Richards?” Timmy said, standing up. “Do you know where
Mikey
is?”

“Timmy?” Mike said slowly, shocked to his core, “Timmy Beck.”

Timmy nodded. “Yeah, it’s me, Mr. Richards.”

It took Mike a moment to realize what Timmy meant.

“Timmy, I’m not my dad,” Mike said. “I’m me…
Mikey
.”

Timmy walked over and looked him in the eye. “You can’t be
Mikey
, you’re too old.”

“I grew up,” Mike said.

“But you’re a ghost too,” Timmy replied.

“So, I grew up and died,” he said. “Stuff like that happens to people.”

“You’re really
Mikey
?” he asked.

Mike nodded. “Yeah, I’m really
Mikey
.”

Timmy’s eyes filled with tears. “I got killed,
Mikey
. I went to the lake. I was going to start fishing. I was waiting for you. But then, a man came and hurt me.”

“No, Timmy,” Mike said. “You never made it to the lake. Emil picked you up on the road and brought you back to his place. You were killed at Emil’s.”

Timmy wiped an arm across his eyes, mopping up most of the tears and shook his head. “No,
Mikey
, it was the lake,” he said.
“Right by our secret spot.
I remember. Emil didn’t kill me,
Mikey
.”

“But, he did,” Mike insisted. “He killed you.”

Timmy shook his head. “I just want to go home,
Mikey
, okay?” he said. “Will you help me find my way home?”

Mike nodded. “Yeah, I promise,” he said. “We’ll get you home.”

“So, what do we do next?” Mike asked as he hovered around the group seated at the dining room table.

Rosie and Stanley had volunteered to walk Maggie and Andy home and they had all left about ten minutes earlier. Timmy was in front of Mary’s television watching the movie “Batman Returns,” which was the last movie he had seen when he was alive. He was totally engrossed in the action and was not paying attention to the adults sitting in the next room.

“What do you remember about the murders?” Bradley asked.

Mike paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts. “There were five of them.
Five boys, all about the same age.
They had all been molested and strangled. My parents really didn’t want me to know about the details, but sometimes people forgot I was in the room and sometimes, I stood just outside the room so I could hear the details.”

He took a deep shaky breath that caused his form to shimmer for a moment.

“He was brutal to them,” he continued. “They didn’t know if they were strangled first and then...”

“Timmy said the man hurt him,” Mary said softly when Mike paused.

Mike’s jaw tightened and he nodded. “Yeah, so then he strangled them and buried them in a shallow grave at the edge of his property. Someone happened by his place and found some of the boys’ belongings in a shed and they brought out the whole town to search his acreage. It didn’t take them long to find the bodies.”

“Did you know him? Emil?” Mary asked.

“Yeah, he was our school bus driver,” Mike said. “He was in his thirties and still lived with his mom. I don’t know if he was supporting her or if she was kind of helping him. He was a little slow.”

He floated across the dining room and looked into the living room to check on Timmy. A half-smile flitted over his lips as he watched the young ghost mimic the actions of Batman as he sped through the sewers of Gotham City on the back of the BatSki-boat.
Timmy, his hands in front of him holding on to an imaginary steering wheel, twisted and swayed to the action on the television.

I guess you’re still the same whether you’re dead or alive
, Mike thought.

Ian walked over and stood next to him, watching the boy. “I loved that movie,” Ian said. “Actually, I loved Catwoman.”

Mike turned to him and smiled. “Yeah, I put out extra food for our barn cats for months, hoping they’d pass the word and she’d show up at our place.”

Laughing, Ian nodded. “Brilliant idea, that.”

Reassured that Timmy was content, they both went back to the table.

“How’s he doing?” Mary asked.

“Better than me,” Mike responded.

“Tell me about Emil,” Bradley said. “What did you think when you found out he was the killer?”

Shaking his head, Mike shrugged slightly. “I couldn’t believe it was him. Emil was our friend. Emil had always worried about us – sometimes even driving the bus up our driveways in bad weather. He....”

He sighed deeply. “I guess some people are better at fooling you.”

“Yes, and sometimes investigations are wrong,” Mary said. “Timmy told you it wasn’t Emil.”

“Yeah, but it’s been a long time,” Mike replied. “He could have forgotten.”

Ian shook his head. “Ghosts do forget things, but as odd as this may sound, they remember when they forget.”

“Come again?” Mike asked.

“Ghosts will be able to tell you when they forget something,” he explained. “They will know they don’t have the information. For Timmy to so adamantly state it wasn’t Emil leads me to believe Emil didn’t do it.”

“Okay, but he could have been disguised,” Mike said. “He could have not looked like Emil.”

Mary stood and walked over to the refrigerator, pulling out another round of Diet Pepsi. “That’s true,” she replied slowly. “But he didn’t say the man was masked or his face was hidden. He said he couldn’t remember the man’s face. But perhaps he’d be able to remember the man’s voice. Did Emil have a unique voice?”

Nodding, Mike paused, considering her question. “Yeah, he was a little slow, so his speech was, you know, a little staggered.”

“So, he’d know if it were Emil because of his voice,” Ian said.

“Sounds to me that Emil might have been framed,” Bradley said.

“I can’t believe this,” Mike said, shaking his head again.
“All these years in prison and he’s innocent?”

Bradley took a quick drink of his soda. “Well, we don’t know if he’s innocent yet,” he said. “But, it certainly seems that we should be looking into the details of the murders.”

“It also means that there could be someone out there who has gotten away with murder for more than twenty years,” Mary said. “So, we need to be discreet until we can gather enough information to convict him.”

“Yeah, we don’t want him to get wind of another investigation and decide to leave town,” Bradley agreed.

Mike looked up suddenly. “Hey, no problem,” Mike said. “My uncle, Chuck, is now the Chief of Police in Lena.”

“You’re kidding?” Mary said.

“No, he joined the force right after the murders,” he explained, “said he wanted to protect the kids in the community. I just figured he was tired of working the farm with my dad. But, he said he was determined to keep kids safe.”

“That’s good to know. When the time is right, I’ll give him a call,” Bradley said, “and see what kind of information he can share with me.”

“I’ll go talk with Linda at the Courthouse tomorrow morning,” Mary added. “Since it was tried in Stephenson County, they should have some information about the case, too.”

Mike nodded. “So, are we going to talk to Emil?” he asked.
“Seems like he could shed some light on the circumstances.”

“Yeah, I’ve got some contacts at the prison in Dixon,” Bradley agreed. “I’ll call them and set something up.”

Ian leaned forward and put his elbows on the table. “I’d like to interview Timmy,” he said. “See if I can get him to remember anything else about the murder.”

“No!” Mike exclaimed as he quickly floated around the table to be next to Ian. “He shouldn’t have to remember what happened to him. He shouldn’t have to relive the pain.”

“But if he doesn’t remember it, we can’t find the guy who did it,” Ian argued.

“There are other ways we can find out the truth,” Mike insisted. “We’ve got to explore those other options first, Ian.”

“Listen, Mike, I know he was your friend,” Ian said.

“Damn it, he was more than my friend,” Mike said. “He was like the brother I didn’t have. And I didn’t go with him that day.”

Mike took a deep breath. “I wasn’t there,” he said, “and he died. I didn’t protect him then, but I sure as hell can protect him now.”

He floated away from the table towards the front room.

“Mike, wait,” Mary said, jumping up from the table. “Ian didn’t mean…”

Mike turned back to her and nodded. “Yeah, I know,” he said. “But I just got to figure this out, okay?”

She nodded. “Yes, of course.”
He floated over to Timmy. “Hey, want to hang out?” he asked.

Timmy looked up at him and smiled. “Sure!”

Mary parked in front of the abandoned gym and looked up and down the street before she got out of her Roadster. The snow from the day before had been cleared from the streets and many of the sidewalks, but in front of the gym, the snowplow had left a foot and a half tall pile next to the curb and the walkway still had six inches of snow on it.

Grabbing her workout duffel, she climbed over the mound on the curb and slushed through the snow on the walk. The door opened for her and she entered the dimly lit space once again. “You know, you could have shoveled,” she called out.

“Yeah, sister, my snow shoveling days are over,” Ernie said, as he appeared next to her. “Besides, you’re the one in training. You
wanna
get a little warm-up time with a shovel?”

Shaking her head, she dropped her duffel on a bench and sat down next to it, removing her boots and putting on her gym shoes. “Thanks, but no thanks,” she said. “I already did that warm up this morning on my driveway.”

“You mean Scotty didn’t get his butt out of bed and help you out?” he asked.

Mary chuckled. “Well, actually, he shoveled most of the snow from yesterday,” she admitted. “I just had to do the little bit that blew onto the drive overnight. Besides, he was up late doing some research.”

“You got a case?” Ernie asked, walking over to the punching bags.

Following him over, Mary nodded. “Yeah, back about twenty years ago there was a series of murders, little boys,” she said.
“Looks like they might have caught the wrong guy.”

He stopped suddenly and turned, anger flaming in his eyes. “Guys like that ought to be handed over to the kids’ parents,” he said. “Let them get a little revenge for what he did to their kid.”

Mary shrugged. “Still wouldn’t bring their child back.”