20. Jack

CHAPTER 20

JACK

I don't know how I never made the link between the property deeds and Paper Trail. True, I didn't know he existed before I met Seojun, but one would think as soon as I found out his power, I'd have connected the dots.

It's no surprise we haven't been able to get anything from the murder scenes. Of course that doesn't mean Paper Trail killed these people. It simply could mean he owns the buildings they happen in. But isn't that strange?

I'm sure there's more to the story, but for the first time in months, it feels like we're finally on the right track.

Seojun storms into his apartment but stops short when he finds it empty and, more importantly, spotless. The flowers are gone, the champagne and chocolate fountains too, and everything appears as if it's not been subjected to a party and a fight mere hours ago.

"Wow. Zeke wasn't kidding!" I whistle.

Seojun grimaces.

"He made this happen?" I nod. "Then wow. He must be a very good teacher."

"The best. He taught me the harmonica once. I can still play that one song like a pro."

"Huh. Maybe I should ask him to teach me the stock market. I still can't wrap my head around it, and a good supervi— A good businessperson should know how to invest."

"Awww," I coo and take a couple of steps forward, grabbing his hand.

"Don't start again. I didn't say it."

"I know. I noticed. That's why I cooed."

Seojun raises an eyebrow. "What? Me not saying supervillain makes you coo? You might be sorely disappointed in the future."

I chuckle and bring his hands to my lips.

"I very much doubt it."

His gaze stays on me, hot and intense, for a few seconds. A few seconds when his cheeks and nose go red and Adam's apple goes stiff.

"What?"

He shakes his head and tries to pull away. "Nothing."

"Tell me." I pull him back.

He starts to shake his head, but when his eyes land on me, he inhales deeply.

"I just…you have high expectations of me, and I'm afraid I'll let you down."

I release his hands only so I can hold his face and look into his big brown eyes and he can look at mine.

"That's not possible, Seojun."

He sighs.

"I know. I know. Your power makes it im?—"

"Oh, I can be disappointed in people. I'm just saying I'll never be disappointed in you. And that's a fact."

If anything he's done up till now hasn't tarnished my idea of him, nothing ever could.

"But you always see the good in people. Of course you'd say that."

I shrug. "I do. But not always. And when they're bad people, I most certainly don't think they are good. I can find the good aspect in any situation. It doesn't mean I can't see red flags."

He looks down at my chest and pushes his lips to one side.

"I must be a hot blazing red flag."

I shake his head gently to refocus his attention on my face and smirk.

"You're the furthest from a red flag I've ever seen. You might not be a green flag, but you're definitely in the viridescent family. Okay?"

"Viri-what?" He frowns.

I laugh and tap his cheek a couple of times. "Don't you worry your pretty little head about it."

His frown intensifies.

"Did you just call me dumb?"

"I would never." I burst into laughter.

Seojun slaps my chest, but all that achieves is getting him back in my arms and my lips against his.

I may have never pictured myself with a guy before, but I couldn't imagine myself with anyone else now. He's the whole package. Beauty, brawn, personality, and a kind heart. Buried under heaps of pink designer clothes and insecurities masked as confidence.

I simply can't wait to get to know him better when all this is over.

"We need to find Kevin." If there's any chance of that happening, I need to find out if Paper Trail is a danger to Seojun. To us all.

"Right." Seojun nods and combs the apartment for his phone. "Damn it, where did I?—"

He opens the guest bedroom door where he finds his phone. And also Kevin, curled up in a fetal position on the bed on top of the comforter.

"Kevin! Get up." Seojun walks up to him and tugs at his sweater.

He doesn't stop shouting his name until the old-looking young man stirs and blinks at us.

"Mr. Sinister?" he croaks.

"Drop the act, Paper Trail. I know who you are."

I step behind Seojun and touch his shoulder.

"What do you mean, Mr. Sinister? You know who I am. I'm Kevin."

"Oh yeah. And who else?"

Kevin grimaces.

"I don't understand."

"That's okay. I understand. I understand you're a murderer."

"Me? A murderer? I would never!"

"Then how do you explain every location the Pulverizer has struck being wrapped in red tape? How do you explain the towers of paperwork that make it impossible to find out who owns them?"

Kevin opens his mouth and then closes it.

"Nothing to say, huh? After all the people you killed, you have nothing?—"

"I didn't kill anyone. Have you seen me? I can barely lift my legs."

"Then how do you explain?—"

"Ca-can I see the locations? I've not been keeping up with the news."

I nod and step in front of Seojun to hand him my phone, where there's a list. I don't know what to believe. Is he that good of a liar? Or has he got no clue what we're talking about? And who else could possibly be behind this.

"Oh," he says.

"I knew it! You admit it!" Seojun snatches the phone away and points his finger at him.

"No. Of course not. But I recognize these places. They're all places I secured for my previous boss."

"Your boss?" Seojun asks. "The Phantom?"

Kevin nods.

"Isn't he a medium?"

"He is. But he's an entrepreneur. He dips his fingers into many pies. Real estate is one of them."

Seojun glances at me, and I can tell he's as confused as I am.

"Where can we find your ex-boss?" I ask.

"Oh, I don't think I could?—"

"Isn't he who ditched you because you needed time off to rest your aging body?"

Kevin turns to Seojun and stares at him hard for a few moments.

"Fuck that bastard. I'll tell you where to find him."

He writes down an address, and soon enough, we're back on our way out.

I message Bob on the way and we catch a ride to Tribeca, where The Phantom's condo is. "Pfft. Is that it?" Seojun asks when he realizes the building only has five floors.

I turn to him and furrow my brow to the best of my ability.

"You do know villainy isn't measured in wealth, right?"

He shrugs and looks at his nails instead of me.

"I don't know. Have you seen what I do and where I live?"

"Yeah, you've signed your way to the top and stolen from rich dicks."

I was so pleased when April's search did turn up that Seojun had been telling the truth since day one. He has managed to wipe out a few filthy-rich bastards who shouldn't have breath, let alone money and power.

And to me, anyone who would touch these kinds of people and help regular folks isn't a supervillain. More like a superhero. But since I don't want to get lynched alive, I doubt I'll ever tell Seojun that.

"Correction!" he screeches. "Second to top. Not the top. Yet."

"Are you still bitter you haven't gotten the penthouse?"

"And I will be until I get it. It's perfectly achievable. I just need to pull a big heist, and with Paper Trail by my side, it's so within reach I can almost touch it." He stretches his hand toward the sky and holds it there for a moment.

"You know you'll have to apologize for accusing him of murder, right?"

He pulls his hand back down and shakes his head.

"Until we figure out what's going on, I don't need to do anything of the sort." Then he takes a breath and his shoulders sag. "Yeah. I know."

A car swerves around the block and comes to a screeching halt by our feet. Bob gets out and shakes Seojun's hand.

"What have we got?" he asks.

"We found the serial killer," Seojun says.

"No, we have not. We don't know what we've found. For all we know, The Phantom is innocent in all this, and it just happens that all our victims were found in his buildings."

"What buildings? I thought we didn't know who they belonged to."

"Oh, but we do." Seojun smirks and I give my partner the rundown on what happened. Keeping out incriminating information about Kevin.

"So what are we waiting for? Let's go find out what this guy is all about." Bob crosses the street and walks to the concierge. Just as he's about to flash him his badge, Seojun steps forward and signs us in, and the concierge naturally lets us through without informing The Phantom we're coming.

Seojun is all smug about it until the elevator takes us up to the top floor, and the doors slide open to reveal a penthouse with floor-to-ceiling windows leading out to a patio with its own swimming pool.

"Fucker," he mutters under his breath, and I choke down a laugh because, of course, only he'd be upset by things like that when he lives in a literal palace. Sans the pool.

As we step into the living room, we hear a flush, and moments later, a tall white man with huge round glasses, bushy eyebrows, and a thick Super Mario-level mustache walks out, holding a newspaper.

"Who are you?" he asks and sounds so Italian American that I can't help but feel as if I'm staring at a caricature rather than a real person.

"We're your worst enemies, mister," Seojun snaps.

I raise an eyebrow, but Bob pulls out his badge and shows it to The Phantom.

"We're with CREEP," he says.

Seojun snorts. "You guys seriously need to change that name."

"Not now," I mumble beside him, and he mimes zipping his mouth and throwing away the key.

"I'm afraid I don't know who is a creep and what that badge means," The Phantom says.

"Cut the bullshit, Phantom!" Seojun shouts.

I clear my throat. "I thought you threw away the key."

"Well, I found it." He shrugs.

I shush him and look at Bob, who raises an eyebrow before he turns to The Phantom.

"My name's Bob White. This is Jack Lewis, and we've been investigating a series of gruesome murders that we believe are linked to?—"

The Phantom screams with both hands on his mouth, turns around, and runs away from us. We all chase after him onto the patio and watch The Phantom jump into the bushes surrounding it, only for him to fall back and into the pool.

Seojun approaches the water's edge and crouches to glare at his previous idol as he comes up for air.

"Seriously?"

The Phantom shrugs, wiping the lenses of his glasses with his fingers as if they're wipers.

"I had to try."

"And how did that go?"

The Phantom shakes his head. "Not great."

"Was the scream necessary?"

"I'm ashamed."

"You should be!" Seojun stands and offers The Phantom his hand.

Moments later, he's out of the pool with a towel wrapped around his back.

"What's your name?" I ask.

"Come on. He's The Phantom. We know that."

The Phantom nods.

"Do you have an actual name, The Phantom?"

"Mario Romano."

It's literal hell to keep from bursting into laughter, but somehow, I keep it together. It's as if this guy is a comic book character come to life. No way is he real.

"Wh-why did you run?" I have to cover my mouth and fake cough to not embarrass myself.

Mario sighs.

"Because you caught me."

"We did?" Bob asks.

Mario nods.

"So…you're the Pulverizer?"

Mario winces in disgust but nods.

"But you're a medium," Seojun says.

"I am. And it's gross. It's so gross, guys. I…I'm so glad you caught me. Hopefully, I'll never see an entrail in my life ever again."

He shivers, but it's not from being wet and sitting outside. It's utter disgust. At himself.

"I'm not sure I follow. What does your mediumship have to do with anything?"

Mario looks up and bites his lip.

"It's what makes them go kaboom!"

I narrow my eyes in confusion.

"I can talk to the spirits of dead people. But in order to talk to them, I need to conjure them into a body."

"A dead body?"

Mario nods again.

"Oh…kay."

"Well, when my time is up, the spirit leaves this plane, and…well…it makes the body explode."

So that means the people we found, the Pulverizer's victims, were already dead. That's a relief, somewhat, although I'm not entirely sure what the laws are for killing already dead people. I guess it's not really killing? How the heck did our medical examiner not know the victims weren't really victims?

"Your power is gross, my man." Bob gags as if he's looking at a dead body right now.

"Don't you think I know that?" Mario cries into his hands, and Seojun looks from him to Bob to me.

"Why would you use it then?" he asks Mario.

"Because…" he sniffs. "My nonna. I miss her. It's the only way I can stay in touch with her. To let her know how much money I've made. How many dates I've been on. Which is zero, by the way. Always zero."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Seojun crosses his arms and mumbles.

"That's fair." Mario sighs. "But I only get sixty seconds when I use my power. And we were so tight, I can't help but conjure her at least once a week."

Seojun grimaces.

"That's a little deranged. How long ago did she pass away?"

"Twenty years ago. But she meant a lot to me."

"My God, dude! Move on already. I can't believe you'd do that to people?—"

"Dead people," I correct him. Not sure why.

"Even so. They're supposed to be resting in peace, and you what? Steal their bodies and use them for a coffee chat with Nonna? That's…that's fucking weird."

"She's family."

"Yeah, but that's extreme, isn't it? Defiling dead people for family? You're a little obsessed."

"I know." Mario drops his head and cries into his hands again. "I tried to stop, but…I'm addicted. I can't. That's why I kept reporting the crimes to the police."

"That was you?" Bob asks.

"Yeah. I was hoping you'd get me sooner. But better late than never, I suppose."

He puts both hands in front of Bob, who hesitantly cuffs him. I turn away and call for backup to pick Mario up. Someone else can deal with the wrongness of The Phantom's actions. I've got a whole stack of paperwork to fill in on the case.

"That went…so not the way I thought it would," Seojun says, standing next to me, watching Mario get taken away from his apartment.

"Me neither." I put my arm around him and hold him close as my SPAM colleagues work around us.

We sit there in silence, but I've never been more at peace.

Seojun sighs.

"What's up?" I search his eyes.

He glances at the floor next to him and pouts.

"Nothing. I was just thinking…"

"Thinking what?"

I wonder if Mario's story has made him a little more introspective about his life of "crime."

"I was just thinking…I want a fucking pool!"

I laugh. I've been holding it in for too long, so I laugh. And it feels good.

"Have at it," I tell him and push him in. Before he can complain, I jump in right after him. Because signed or not, we go together now.