The Remains Of The Dead Part 4

"You should've gone for it. One day you could invite him back here and give in to your urges. He'd probably love it. If not, you'd just end up slapped with a s.e.xual hara.s.sment suit." She paused. "And if you're going down, go down big. Have rock-and-rolling mind-blowing s.e.x. Don't just pinch his a.s.s."

"Hmmm." Sadie chuckled. "I'm not stupid. I'm not going to mess with the first reliable employee I've ever had around for longer than a month." Her face grew serious, and she blew out a long breath. "I'm not looking forward to doing that job on my own tomorrow."

Pam winced. "If you need to talk work, please leave out the gory bits."

"I'm worried about ghost stuff, or the lack thereof, not gruesome stuff."

"Oh goody," Pam gushed, rubbing her hands together. "I love to hear your ghost stories."

That made her the only one. Pam, Zack, and Dawn were the only people who knew about Sadie's so-called talent-not counting the dead, of course. While Zack barely tolerated it and Dawn mostly ignored it, Pam was a tad overenthusiastic. As a matter of fact, she was convinced Sadie should tell the world so she could end up making the talk-show circuit.

Sadie told Pam about Kent Lasko's appearance at the Toth house earlier in the day and her subsequent realization that he wasn't a ghost.

"On one hand I think you should call the cops," Pam said. "But I guess it would trigger a ton of questions you're not prepared to answer. Unless you think now's finally the time to let the rest of the world know about your talents?"

"I'm still holding firm against the whole freak-sideshow thing." She waved her hand in the air and shouted to the room, "Come one, come all! See the woman who mops up blood and talks to the dead!"

Pam giggled.

"I just wish I knew why the guy was in the house. Then I could put it behind me," Sadie said.

"So call him."

"Excuse me?"

"Give the guy a call. How many Kent Laskos can there be in Seattle?"

Sadie went and got her white pages, thumbed through the listings, and determined that there were in fact three listings for K. Lasko.

"That's not so bad," Pam said. "You're lucky the guy's name isn't John Smith. It's a little late now, but try those numbers in the morning and you'll have your answer soon enough."

"What do I say to him?"

"Just say, 'Hi, my name's Sadie and we met yesterday and I was just wondering what the h.e.l.l you were doing mucking around inside a murder scene.'"

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

Sadie thought about it for a moment, then slowly nodded her head.

"You're right."

First thing the next morning Sadie jotted the Lasko telephone numbers down on a slip of paper. She called each of the three listings from her cell phone on her way to the Toth house. The first number turned out to be Kelly Lasko, and the woman claimed to have no relation named Kent. The second listing was for a Kirk Lasko. Sadie had a nice chat with the man, but he was at least eighty, claimed to have no familial relations with the name Kent, and ended their call by making a lewd suggestion.

By the time she was dialing the third and last K. Lasko she was in the Toths' driveway. That number turned out to be not in service. As a final attempt, she dialed Information and asked if there were any new listings under the Lasko name, but nope. Nada. Zilch.

"Well, I tried," she said to herself.

It was time to get her mind into the mode of detachment necessary for work. She slipped through the back door of the Toth house and began to suit up. She was prepared to spend a full day there, because they hadn't made nearly as much progress yesterday as she'd hoped.

Sadie considered starting upstairs, but, truthfully, she knew that if Trudy was hanging out doing her bedroom zombie routine, it would disrupt the rest of her day. Instead, she set to work on the living room, where she'd left off. She managed to cover most of the circ.u.mference before she needed a break.

A square red candle on the fireplace mantel caught her eye, and she saw a sharp bone fragment protruding menacingly from it. She snagged the candle and two-pointed it into the rubber waste bin.

Her shoulders ached from crouching to clean the lower bookshelves for such a long time. Now that she was on her feet, she used the opportunity to bend and stretch a bit while she scanned the wall in front of her for more fragments.

She debated going to the van to retrieve the m.u.f.fin she'd brought from home. She wasn't particularly hungry, but the acid in her stomach was building because she'd had only coffee before leaving home. She turned around and took a step-and went right through Trudy Toth.

"Eww, yuck!" Sadie shuddered and goose b.u.mps popped out on her arms. "I hate when that happens!" She wagged a finger at Trudy. "Don't sneak up on me!"

Trudy's dark eyes were sad and filled with a pleading insistence that Sadie wanted no part of. Still, she felt her anger dissipate.

"It's okay to talk to me," she said gently. She realized that it was probably difficult for Trudy to hear her through the respirator, so she spoke up. "I can hear you, so go ahead and say whatever's on your mind. Just let it out. I promise that you'll feel much better if you do."

Trudy looked around the room; then her eyes fixed on the huge red stain on the sofa. Sadie realized that since Grant had shot himself after he killed Trudy, there was a good chance the woman hadn't even known until now that her husband was dead. Sadie watched as Trudy walked around and around the room, clearly mystified.

"This is great," Sadie groaned. "I've got a ghost in shock."

Working a double scene alone was difficult enough. She didn't need this kind of paranormal distraction.

Since Trudy did not look at all like she planned on talking, Sadie decided to go with the direct approach.

"Okay, listen up," she began. She cleared her throat and spoke loudly. "Trudy, I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but you're dead. Your spirit is stuck here because, well, I don't know exactly why. For some reason it just happens this way sometimes. I guess you didn't walk toward the light, or maybe you didn't even know there was a d.a.m.ned light. Anyway, Grant is gone too, but I don't see him. I guess suicides don't hesitate. They're prepared for the light." Sadie shook her head to stop her rambling. "Look, you just need to let go. Your time here is over and-"

Trudy wasn't even acknowledging that she heard Sadie speak. Instead, the woman walked to the sofa, which Grant had chosen as his final stop. She rubbed her finger into the stain.

"What the h.e.l.l are you doing?" Sadie asked.

Trudy walked to the wall and began to print, using the blood on her finger. Astonished, Sadie watched as the spirit repeatedly dipped her finger into the grotesque inkwell to create letters. When she was done, the macabre message on the wall said Not Grant.

4.

After scrawling the message, Trudy simply vanished into thin air.

Sadie followed the spirit's lead, except instead of following Trudy into another dimension, she chose to ignore the m.u.f.fin waiting for her in the van and drive to the closest Starbucks for a large latte with an extra jolt.

While downing her latte, Sadie called her sister, Dawn. She needed someone to dump on about the situation.

"I'm not exactly up on ghost stuff, but if you look at the bright side, I guess it's good that this ghost is finally talking to you, right?" Dawn said around a mouthful of her lunch.

"Yeah, but technically she's not talking. She only wrote me a message." Sadie let out a breath. "Sorry for taking up your lunch hour with this."

"Hey, what are sisters for if not to talk to their sisters about conversations they have with ghosts?" She giggled. "So what's your next step with this woman? Do you believe her message that it wasn't Grant who killed her?"

Sadie contemplated the question while swallowing a mouthful of coffee. "I don't even know for certain that's what she meant."

"About this Kent thing-let's say he never showed up inside the house and scared the bejesus out of you. How would you handle a ghost like Trudy?"

"I guess I'd just go about my work and ignore her until she was ready."

"What's the difference now?"

"You've got a real knack for pointing out the obvious. Thanks."

"Okay, while we're on the topic of the obvious, you're the only person on the planet who hasn't congratulated me on my engagement."

Sadie winced.

"I heard you're only supposed to congratulate the groom and offer best wishes to the bride."

"And you've done neither."

Sadie knew now was the time to make her point about Noel but she chickened out.

"Wow, I didn't realize the time. Can we talk about this later? We've both got to get back to work."

She hung up and finished her coffee on the drive back to the Toth house, all the time dreading having to deal with Trudy. But when she reentered the house, Trudy was still gone, doing whatever it was that spirits do when they're not looking for attention from the living.

Sadie focused on the task at hand and continued working. By close to eight o'clock, she was considering wrapping things up. Her back ached, and she seriously hoped that Zack would be back by the morning to help with the rest.

It was hard to believe she'd run this business completely on her own for the first couple of years. After that, there'd been a series of unreliable, queasy contestants for the job who'd lasted anywhere from one day to six months. Zack had made himself invaluable for the last year. Later this month, she thought, she would crunch the numbers and see if she could afford to give him a raise.

Sadie could hear the wind howling and the rain coming down harder outside. She didn't mind the dark, drizzling winter months in Seattle-more often than not, that weather spoke to her mood. But not everyone handled the gloom the same. The Emerald City was breaking rain records this winter, and she knew that as the rains continued, some Seattleites were going to get depressed. Some would take their own lives or lash out violently toward others, and Scene-2-Clean would be called to sweep up what was left of the dead.

Sadie had scrubbed most of the spatter off the heavy granite coffee table but had been unable to lift it so she could clean where blood had oozed under its base. That would have to wait for Zack.

A side table sat to the right of the sofa, and Sadie decided that she'd call it a day after she removed the debris that marred its cherry wood. The gore had worked its way into the creases outlining a small drawer, so in order to get at it best, Sadie pulled the drawer out and dumped the contents onto a clear area of the floor. She sprayed cleansers on the table and then carefully worked a bristled brush into the cracks. Her gaze casually fell on the items she'd removed: a notepad, a couple of pens, and an address book.

The temptation was overwhelming. As soon as she was sure that the drawer and side table were spick-and-span, she s.n.a.t.c.hed up the address book and flipped through the pages. The movement was awkward because she was still wearing gloves, but eventually she found the listing for Kent Lasko. The phone number penned neatly in the margin was the same disconnected one that Sadie had tried earlier and the address given was only a couple of blocks away.

Sadie looked up and gasped as Trudy suddenly reappeared, sitting cross-legged on the floor only a few inches away.

"Well, if it isn't the great scribe," Sadie said sarcastically. "I'm the one who has to clean up the mess, so I'd appreciate it if you'd use a pen and paper next time."

Trudy didn't reply, but her fingers worked nervously in her lap.

There are no defensive wounds, Sadie noticed sadly. Nothing that showed she tried to protect herself.

Sadie could visualize the woman running in terror from her husband as he angrily wielded the knife, but she couldn't wrap her mind around someone just standing there and letting it happen. She pushed the disquieting thought aside.

"So you're just hanging with me, then?" Sadie asked. "Just going to watch me work? I don't usually like an audience."

To her surprise Trudy reached out, as if to cup Sadie's face or lift her chin. Sadie flinched and pulled away. When the dead touched her it was like fingernails on a blackboard.

Trudy shook her head, then made a strange gesture. She made a thumbs-up movement but lifted the gesturing hand with the other. She seemed to be struggling.

Maybe her hands had been cut, but Sadie couldn't see a wound. She felt sorry for her. "Don't worry. It isn't necessary to enter the next dimension intact."

Trudy covered her face with her hands and began to weep, her entire body shuddering with sobs. The sounds, the first Sadie had heard leave this woman's lips, were heart-wrenching. Trudy disappeared from view again, and it was a full minute before the sound of her cries subsided.

"There are days I just don't get paid enough to handle this c.r.a.p," Sadie grumbled.

For once, Sadie didn't push herself to get the job done. A knot of tension had formed in her stomach, and she decided it was best to call it a day.

She left the majority of the supplies at the Toth house to use when she returned to finish the clean and jogged through the heavy rain to her van. She'd left her cell phone in the vehicle, and she quickly checked for messages while simultaneously turning the key in the ignition. She was hoping there'd been a call from Zack, but Dawn was the only one who'd left her a message. Sadie put the vehicle in reverse and dialed her sister's number.

"Just wanted to let you know that Maureen called," Dawn told her. "She found new tenants for the house on Hawkins Avenue. A nice couple. They'll be moving in next week. Unless, of course, you've changed your mind and want to sell the place?"

"There's no rush to sell," Sadie said. "Maureen does a great job as a property manager, and the place has gone up at least a hundred grand in the last few years. Nothing wrong with us banking more equity."

"Sure, but we both know that's not why you want to hang on to it," Dawn said dryly. "We've been renting out Brian's house for five years now. I've talked to Mom and Dad, and they're fine with selling it, but if you're still not ready, just say so."

"I'm saying so," Sadie snapped.

"Fine," Dawn said in her own clipped tone.

"Remember how proud Brian was of that house?" Sadie said. "All I could see was a dump, but he saw it had potential."

"Yeah, his idea of potential meant you and I spent a dozen weekends there patching and painting."

"But he was right. It looked great."

"Yeah."

After a minute, Dawn broke the quiet.

"By the way, Chloe is throwing us an engagement party on March first. She said you haven't replied to her messages asking whether that date works for you."

"You've only been engaged a couple of days. I don't understand why you need to have a party right away."

"Because it'll be fun."

"Well, some of us have to work and don't have time for constant fun. Besides, I was hoping..." That you'd come to your senses and cancel your engagement, so there'd be no party. "Never mind."

"Hoping what?"

"That you'd take things slower."

There was a pause, and Sadie thought Dawn seemed to actually think about it, but then she realized the pause happened because the call had been dropped. When Dawn called back, she was fuming.