Killer Karma

Razor sighed. “Now why couldn’t that have happened to me? Okay, okay,” he said when Cole glared at him. “I understand why you wouldn’t want to mention that to Sherrie, but you should have told her something…given her your version of the story in case she heard any others.”

Cole shook his head. “She’d have known I wasn’t telling her everything.” And imagined worse than the truth. Like she was right now. “Yeah, I should have just come clean and trusted that my cold sweat would convince her I was being truthful and regretting my stupidity. Her father never sweated, and never regretted, either.”

“Ain’t hindsight wonderful.” Razor halted for a stoplight. “Anyway, it’s going to take more than my word to make your case.”

The thought brought a wash of despair. Cole fought it. He would think of something to do. Meanwhile, the idea of making cases reminded him… “I started to take another look at the security tape to check whether it showed Irah leaving for the night.”

Razor blinked. “How did you manage that?”

“By materializing as Lamper, only- ”

“Materializing as Lamper?” Razor’s brows went up. “You can do that? Sweet. There’s your answer for Sherrie. Show up as Benay and have a girl to girl chat.”

Cole considered it for about a second. “No. Even if she can see me materialized, that’s like lying to her.” Sherrie deserved better than being conned, even when everything he told her was true. “Now listen about the security tape.”

Listening, Razor grimaced, then shrugged. “Well, it does make Irah look guiltier when we’re able to put together a case against her.”

If they could do so with evidence destroyed.

A parking space close to where his car had been was too much to hope for, but at least they found one on the same level. Before climbing out, Razor sat with his hand on the door handle. “If I spend the rest of my life seeing dead people, I’m blaming you, old buddy. How much of the garage do you want checked?”

“Just the area where I felt the terror.”

Razor sucked in a breath and pushed open the door. “Let’s do it.”

Cole led the way back through the garage.

Razor said, “By the way, when Hamada and I got to the Hall, we ran into Leach in the elevator.”

Shit. “And…?”

Razor gave a wry shrug. “He looked at me for a couple of seconds, then told Hamada, ‘I trust you’ll make sure Benay doesn’t “resist arrest.”’”

Almost a blessing. Who would have thought.

They turned down the row where he parked to meet Sara. The terror washed over him again. “This is the place.”

Razor glanced to both sides from the corners of his eyes. Halfway toward the other end he said, “I’m not seeing anything. Are you sure you remember where you parked?”

“Yes. Right down there.” He pointed. “Where that VW is now.” With his longer legs, Cole reached it first. “Do you see anything down here?”

“Not so far.” Razor came toward the VW. “Still no. No.” He started past, then abruptly halted. “Wait.” He grimaced. “Damn.”

A mixture of excitement and dread rose in Cole. “You see something?”

“I thought so, but now it’s gone.” He walked beyond the next vehicle, turned around, and came back. Behind the VW he halted again…glanced quickly sideways…shook his head. “Shit. There’s something near you, but I can’t get a good look at it.”

Cole turned the direction Razor pointed. He saw nothing. Moving into the space did not change the strength of the fear he sensed. “You can look straight at me. Why not other ghosts?”

Razor shrugged. “Hell, I don’t know. This one is jerking around and hard to keep in sight but beyond that…you tell me. It’s one of your people.”

Cole backed over beside the neighboring vehicle, eyeing the space behind VW. They had something…but was it the source of the terror? And was it Sara? What could they do to see it better? “Keep your eyes straight ahead and walk past the car until the thing comes into sight, then try to look at it without moving your eyes.”

Razor started behind the next vehicle…only to move hurriedly aside at the honk of a horn.

“Get out of the road!” A PT Cruiser rolled past, the blue-haired driver glaring out her window at Razor.

Cole flipped her off.

Razor moved over behind the vehicle on the other side of the VW, where he faced approaching cars. Gaze fixed ahead, he eased forward. Halfway past the VW’s parking space he halted for a couple of seconds, backed up, frowned, eased forward again and halted once more. After a good portion of a minute, he reached up under his glasses to rub his eyes, then joined Cole beside the neighboring vehicle just as another car passed.

“Well?” Cole said.

Razor smiled wryly. “I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone. I can’t really be standing in a parking garage talking to one ghost and looking for another.”

“Did you see Sara?”

The smile vanished. “Maybe.”

Cold spread through Cole. “What did you see?”

Razor jammed his hands in his pockets and hunched his shoulders. “A female-ish shape, with arms behind her like their tied but these other even ghostlier hands clawing at her mouth area. I say area because the only detail was the eyes. They were huge, and bulging like they were going to pop out. And there’s this muffled scream that’s pure terror. ‘No, no, please don’t.’” He shuddered.

So was it Sara? Cole stared at the space behind the VW, corresponding to where the trunk of his car had been. It had to be Sara. How could it be anyone else in this location. Certainly of it reverberated in him. Despite no blood being found in his trunk-

Cole felt a click in his head. No blood but bulging, terrified eyes; muffled scream; clawing at the mouth. Now the fear around him seemed to intensify. The cold bit deeper into him. “Could the lower face be blank because something covered the nose and mouth?”

Razor sucked in a breath. “You’re thinking suffocation? Why go that route? Irah had a gun.”

A much faster way to kill Sara. Unless Irah wanted her to suffer and was willing to risk someone hearing Sara thrash as she fought to breathe. Cole imagined Sara experiencing the terror he felt that night, only multiplied by the interminable minutes it took to deplete the oxygen in her blood and her brain finally shut down. Horror and rage flooded him. “Sara, I’m so sorry! I promise you Irah’s going to pay for this!”

“If you can prove she did it,” Razor said. “I still don’t see a motive for killing either of you.”

Cole did not, either. He set his jaw. “We’ll ask her when we nail her. Now that I can appear as anything I want, I’ll come up with the proof.”

Razor eyed him warily. “You’re not thinking of some ghost stunt like confession by impersonation, I hope.”

Cole stared at him, inspired. “I was thinking of haunting them as Sara’s and my dead bodies until they cracked, but you’ve given me a better idea.”

Razor went even more leery. “Like what?”

“How about a whole new level of create-mutual-suspicion-by-telling-each-suspect-the-other-has-rolled- over.”

Razor’s eyes lighted. “Cute. You think it can work?”

“Piece of cake.” Cole snapped his fingers.

Razor snorted. “Bull. There’s a million things that can go wrong. Is there anything you’d like me to do?”

Nothing that Cole could think of. “I’ll let you know. Until then, cross your fingers.”

They both glanced toward the space imprinted with Sara’s dying terror. Razor said, “On both my hands.”