Chapter 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

HIRO

“Hiro, wake up!”

I jerk awake and proceed to punch Maddox during the process. “What? Huh?”

Keaton is looming over me as I open my eyes. “Come on. Get Maddox up. Let’s go.”

“Maddox, Keaton wants us. We have to go.”

“Where and why?” Maddox asks as he rolls off the futon and onto the floor. He looks prepared to crawl to his clothes.

“I don’t know. If it were Reggie, I would assume it’s a strip club. Since it’s Keaton, I have to assume he’s dragging us off to another serial killer…” I pause what I’m doing to look at Keaton. “Is Nakamura hurt?”

“No. He’s not hurt. Hurry up. I’ll explain as you go. Be quiet so you don’t wake anyone up. Don’t forget your phone, you need to ride the subway.”

“Okay,” I say as I stifle a yawn. Quickly, I get dressed and the two of us sneak after him. We’re quiet as we creep down the stairs, and when we reach the front door, we get our shoes on before Maddox slowly opens the door and slips out with me behind him. “Like do we run?”

“The quicker you are, the better chance you’ll get close to the crime scene,” Keaton says, which is what I tell Maddox.

“What happened?” Maddox asks.

“Nakamura got called in because a guy fell onto the tracks of an oncoming subway car. But surprise, surprise. I saw that Charlotte woman running from the scene,” he says, which I relay to Maddox.

“Was the person pushed?” Maddox asks as we make our way down the dark and quiet street.

“I don’t know. Nakamura was on a different platform when it happened. Someone hit the emergency alarm, and he came running. He was off duty and heading home after some drinks. But no one seemed to see the woman leave. The station hasn’t been shut down yet. The man ended up on the tracks of the eastbound train, but the westbound train is still running. I’m not sure if it will still be running by the time we get there. It’s the same station but not the same platform, so they might not shut it down.”

He ushers us down into the subway, and we quickly get on a very empty car since it’s quite late at night. The moment we’re off the train and start up toward the connected platforms, we can see the police making their way onto the scene. Maddox begins heading toward it with an air of “I belong here” but all too quickly, some officers stop us.

“Please exit the station,” a man says.

Maddox is prepared. He flips out his badge that I can’t fathom has any sway here, but the confidence Maddox is exuding does make the officer stop to look. “Homicide. Detective Booker. Officer Nakamura has been in contact with us because we might have some information on the woman who fled the scene.”

Someone listening in glances over at us. “There was an issue with the tracks. That is all.”

“I’m sure you’ll know that’s not all as soon as you watch the security tapes,” Maddox says.

The first officer is still staring at Maddox’s badge like he has no idea what to do with it, but the second pulls out his phone and a few minutes later, Officer Nakamura comes walking up.

“Now that is a sexy saunter,” Reggie says, and I notice Keaton glaring at him. “Not as sexy as you! I’m just saying…”

“I don’t give a shit who you look at,” Keaton retorts.

Reggie gasps because it’s quite clear he did it to try to get his attention. “Keaton, you still have the best saunter of them all.”

“Do I even say I’m surprised?” Nakamura asks as his ghosts crowd around him. Apparently, the death did nothing to deter them. He gives us a cocky smirk. “You two are drawn to trouble, aren’t you?”

“The man who ended up on the tracks, was he the husband of Charlotte? That woman you drove to the hospital?” I ask.

Nakamura looks startled enough that it wipes the smirk off his face. “Why do you believe it’s him?”

“Because Charlotte was fleeing the scene,” I say. The way he looks makes me wonder whether he even knows who the man is yet. Hell, depending on how the train hit him, he might not be recognizable.

“You saw her?”

“They just got off that platform there,” a woman says. “I directed them toward the exit.”

“So you couldn’t have seen her,” Nakamura states.

“You can’t tell me you don’t have cameras in place to tell you if we’re right or wrong,” Maddox says.

“We’re working on it,” he responds as he rocks back on his heels before shaking his head. “Fuck. Come along.”

“I don’t think…” the woman says.

“I’m not letting them near the scene. I just want them around if we have questions,” he explains. He begins walking down the steps leading to the platform. “You two weren’t here, so… you’re claiming that your ghosts saw it?”

“I’ve had a ghost trail you all day. He said you were out for a couple of drinks, but when you saw the alert that the subway had been stopped, you rushed over, and that’s when Charlotte slipped out,” I say.

“So you’ve been stalking me?”

“I was at my aunt’s sleeping. Did I have a ghost stalk you? Maybe, but I’m more than positive that won’t stand up in court.”

“You don’t say,” he responds with a dash of sarcasm. “The issue is, what you’re claiming also won’t stand up in court. And let me just toss in the fact that my boss would be enraged if I started claiming that I’m letting you get involved because of ghosts. Now wait right here.”

He goes into an employee-only room as I eye the opening that leads out onto the platform. Maddox stays put as I inch forward just enough to see the crowd of people. There are plenty of people packed around the edge, including emergency services and paramedics.

“You listen real well,” Nakamura says as he walks up behind me.

“Is the man not dead?” I ask as I shift a bit, hoping to see around the crowd.

“What makes you say that?”

“His ghost isn’t there… unless he was dead before he hit the tracks. How much did her husband weigh? Could Charlotte have dragged his body over here? Say he was killed elsewhere and then she thought to dispose of the body by pushing it onto the tracks. It’s so late at night, there probably wasn’t anyone on the platform, so she could have pushed his body in front of the oncoming train.”

“When people have adrenaline running through them, you’d be surprised what they can accomplish,” Maddox says. “Does this station have any alerts that indicate whether a body or anything has fallen onto the tracks?”

Nakamura is standing there staring at us like he has absolutely no idea what to do with either of us. “I’m sorry, I don’t think either of you work for the police here in Japan. I understand you have a badge, but that badge isn’t valid over here.”

“Something’s slowing you down with accessing the cameras. I can see one camera from here, so you should have the data soon. Maybe the time of night is the issue? Understaffed?” Maddox asks.

Nakamura sighs. “So hypothetically, let’s say the train didn’t kill the guy. Then where did he die? If this was the man you’re claiming it is, he wasn’t a small guy. And while his wife isn’t either, she couldn’t have carried him far.”

“Are there any doors down here?” I ask. “Bathrooms?”

“No. You’re telling me she carried him down the stairs? I think it makes more sense that he fell or she pushed him,” Nakamura says.

I nod. “Can I walk over there and see? Maybe his ghost is crouched down so I can’t see him.”

“No,” Nakamura says.

“What if you’re looking the other way?” I ask.

“It’s still no.”

“Maddox can stay here. No one will notice a single person quietly walking to the other end.”

“It’s their job to notice,” Nakamura says.

Keaton shakes his head. “The ghost isn’t on the tracks but maybe you’d see something better, so try to get closer. Tell him I know he’s keeping a secret hamster in his no-pets-allowed apartment,” he says, like that’s a big threat, but hey… when I have nothing else to work with, I’m willing to hold a hamster over him.

“A hamster?” I ask.

Nakamura looks over at me. “What was that?”

“My ghost friend was telling me about your hamster.”

“You’re now stalking me in my house?” he asks. “Are you threatening me?”

“Are you being obstinate for any reason?”

He sighs. “The only thing over there is the elevator. Which I will only show you if there’s a valid reason you can’t use the stairs.”

“I’m quite allergic to stairs,” I say.

“Wow. Such a valid reason,” he responds with thick sarcasm as he starts walking and I follow him. It doesn’t take long before someone begins walking over to us to see what’s going on. “These two saw a woman running from the scene. We’re still waiting for the security feed. But I’m taking these two to the elevator since he can’t climb the stairs and will keep them around for questioning after we’ve gotten the video.”

“I see,” the man says, letting us go.

Nakamura leads us over to the elevator and presses a button for it, and the moment the door opens up, I look right into the eyes of a dead man.

“She killed him in the elevator,” I say.

Nakamura looks over at me. “You didn’t even look around.”

“I… didn’t have to. The ghost is standing right there. Caucasian with brown hair buzzed short. Tattoo of something on his neck. Hard to see with the way his shirt is lying. He’s wearing a blue button-down with khaki pants.”

I watch as the dead man grabs his throat, clawing at it, like he’s still in the middle of being choked.

“If I had to take a wild guess, which isn’t so wild from the way he’s miming his own death, he was choked inside the elevator. He’s like… clawing at something up against his throat. The way his hands are moving, it doesn’t seem like he’s trying to pry fingers off.”

“Probably something thin, then, instead of hands,” Maddox suggests. “Maybe a purse strap? There are traces of blood on the wall there, see where it’s smudged?”

“Oh yeah, I didn’t see that,” I say. “What’s his name?”

Nakamura hesitates before answering, “Tom.”

“Tom, can you hear me?”

He jumps when he hears his name but doesn’t look over at me.

“Tom? What happened to you?” I ask.

Tom slowly looks over at me. “She killed me.”

“Who killed you?”

“She killed me. She killed me. She—” He starts choking as he reaches for his throat.

“He just keeps repeating ‘She killed me.’”

Nakamura is staring at me, clearly still fighting the idea of believing me.

“Tom, who killed you?”

“She’s a monster. She killed me. She’s a monster.”

I tell them what he says, but Tom isn’t giving us anything more.

Nakamura looks a bit on edge, unsure of what to do. Then he seems to cave as he sighs. “Fuck. Follow me.”

He leads us over to some others, but it’s hard for me to follow him when the ghosts fill in around him. He speaks to a man in Japanese before the man looks at the two of us, examining us closely. After a moment, Nakamura comes back over.

“This is… tricky. Beyond tricky. I don’t know what the hell to do with either of you. I can’t very well start spouting that we should listen to you because you talk to ghosts. Back at the hospital, you said to be wary of that woman, and now we have reason to believe she was involved in this. I’m not going to take what you say lightly… unless you’re lying and all of this is a setup for some reason? Not that you’d be inclined to tell me if it was.”

Maddox nods, obviously understanding what Nakamura is dealing with. “I thought it was a setup the first time I dealt with Hiro as well. I even questioned if he was the killer. But since then, he’s helped me close numerous cases as well as cold cases because he can speak to the dead and ask what happened.”

Nakamura looks back at the elevator. “So you’re claiming there’s a dead guy in the elevator that you can speak to.”

“I mean, I tried, but when they’re first dead, they struggle to communicate. They often are so fixated on their own deaths, just like how he’s reenacting his death, that they can’t communicate. But within a few days, he should be able to.”

“That’s awfully convenient that you can’t speak to him now.”

“I didn’t say I couldn’t try. It seems like more and more ghosts are able to move on quicker because of me,” I say. “Can you take me back to the elevator? I can sit with him for a bit and see if I can get him to say something more than what he’s told us so far.”

“When they’re done with it,” he responds since a group of people are heading over to check it out. “Oh joy, this is exactly what I wanted to avoid,” he mutters as a man comes over. I can’t tell what he’s saying, but from the tone of his voice, it becomes quite clear that Nakamura is being chewed out and we are the very reason why.

Nakamura bows to him while saying something before he nods at us. “Let’s go.”

We follow him toward the stairs as I try not to feel guilty that we’d gotten him in trouble with a higher-up. “I’m really sorry that we’ve caused trouble for you.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m not on duty right now anyway. They’ll have this whole scene cleared up by morning. If they can’t figure it out on their own by then, we’ll stop by in the morning and figure it out.”

“If we’re even allowed to get involved,” Maddox says. “If we’re not, we’re headed to Tokyo in the morning.”

Nakamura sighs. “You have to understand the issue here.”

“Of course we do,” I say. “While I know things are different here because Maddox’s badge holds no power, we still face many issues even in the US. Do you know how hard it is to know who killed someone, to have their ghost look me in the eyes and tell me exactly what happened to them, but be unable to do anything about their killer walking around because I don’t have proof that will stand up in court? We both very much understand the issue. I wish there was something more that we could do, but if we can’t… we’ve told you who we suspect was involved. And hopefully you can find some use in that.”

“The husband… he cut his hand, right?” Maddox asks. “Do you believe he really did it by accident?”

“You’re saying that the wife could have done it?” Nakamura asks.

“I honestly don’t know, I’m just curious if there’s any relation to the events,” Maddox says.

“I’ll look into it.”

We head up the stairs and into the main part of the station. It’s pretty dead at this time of night, although Nakamura’s ghosts make up for it by jostling around him and distracting me. He reaches the escalator that will lead out of the station and waves me up first. I step on as Maddox follows close behind.

“I’m not saying that I don’t believe you. I’m just…” Nakamura hesitates. “I’m just skeptical.”

“That’s fine. You have my number if…”

The ghosts surrounding Nakamura whip around to face forward, making me turn to look. I can’t see what’s up the escalator, but they sure feel that something is off.

“Maddox, something’s wrong,” I say.

“What?”

“Something’s not right. There’s something up the escalator,” I warn a moment before the lights begin to flicker like they had in the airplane.

“What the—?” Nakamura asks right before the lights go out. The escalator stops so suddenly that I’m flung forward since my body hadn’t been expecting the sudden cessation of motion. Maddox, who’s right behind me, slams into me, sending me down onto my hands and knees.

The ghosts start screaming, they’re so panicked, and one tries shoving me down the escalator. If I hadn’t already been on my hands and knees, I’m confident I would have fallen down the steps.

It’s dark, so I can’t see them, but I can feel them grabbing on to me, dragging me back like they want to keep me from nearing the entrance of the station. Maddox clutches me, holding me tightly as the hands of the ghosts wrap around me.

“Let me go!” Nakamura yells before saying something in Japanese.

I look back but I can’t see anything in the darkness, though it sounds like someone’s grabbed him. Could it be the person the ghosts are convinced is after him? I want to help him, but right now the ghosts are adamant about not letting me up.

“Get the fuck off him!” Natalie yells as she tries to push them off me.

“Natalie, see who’s at the top. What are they afraid of?”

“Got it,” she says, leaving with Reggie.

And then suddenly, the lights flicker back on. I realize that no one had been grabbing Nakamura. Well… no one living, that is. No… it’s the ghosts who are trying to drag him back down the escalator in a desperate attempt to keep him from going anywhere near the entrance of the station.

Nakamura’s color drains from his face when he realizes that what he’s trying to kick off himself isn’t there at all. “What the fuck?”

“Get off him,” I urge as I hurry down the escalator. Maddox grabs Nakamura’s arm while I shove the ghosts off him. They look perplexed and a bit pissed that I would dare stop them from what they’re doing. Back in the plane, I’d been concerned they were trying to hurt me, but now… now I think they’re trying to save us. They don’t understand. All they know is that there’s someone up there who is a killer… and they want us as far away from them as we can get.

“What the fuck was that?” Nakamura demands.

“Maddox, I think someone bad is here. I don’t know if it’s Charlotte or what, but the ghosts are scared of someone up there.”

“There’s no one up there,” Natalie says as she comes back. “I mean there might have been… but they’re not there anymore. I’ll go scout out the area. Reggie is still looking.”

“What the fuck was that?” Nakamura repeats. “What was that—some trick? What the fuck was that?”

“Are you hurt?” I ask.

“Someone was grabbing me but when the lights came on… no one was there.”

“It was the ghosts who are following you. For some reason, being around me makes them tangible. I’m sorry. I think… they were spooked by something. Are you hurt?”

“Your arms… that’s what was wrong with your arms,” he says as he looks at the fresh scratches I bear. “What the fuck is going on?”

I glance down at my arms littered with new scratches. Of course after the other ones had finally started to disappear.

Reggie pops up in front of me and I jerk back, startled. “I found Charlotte.”

“Where?” I ask.

“Come, come,” he calls as he takes off.

“Reggie found Charlotte,” I say as I begin running.

Someone shouts to Nakamura, who looks back at them.

“Hiro, don’t run headfirst into something dangerous, dammit,” Maddox yells as he chases after me. But what the hell am I going to do? Just stand there? He can’t see Reggie!