To Kill a Ghost

Kirkland sat alone in his broad office space. Linox wanted to attend to some personal business, and Dedra needed time to adjust. She always needed time after a kill. Kirkland Reeves knew the woman for a long time now, hell, he practically raised her, but she was by no means a killer at heart. Yes, she was the best he’d ever seen, but she needed time to accept the things she had done, and the things she would do.

He stared at his translucent reflection in the grand office windows. Kirkland was an older gentleman with black hair graying at his temples. He was still in shape and filled out his suits well, but years passed since he worked in the field. Since he took a life.

Two of the large bay windows had seats attached to them. The other to windows had three rows of chairs with backs turned to the view as a sort of waiting area. No one used them though. The building disguised as a private investigator firm never left clients sitting for long, and Kirkland always covered their tracks.

He turned away from the windows, reading a file in front of him. The disguised privet eye business had to make a living somehow, so he took on tactical work. Researching and photographing cheating husbands and wives, following the occasional teenager accused of being on drugs. The business never changed, and the outcome stopped shocking him long ago.

The door chimed in the front entrance. A camera by his desk showed a woman standing before the door, tapping her high heeled shoe impatiently. He pressed a button under his desk and held it for a long moment before he spoke. “Do you have an appointment?” His voice was low and gravelly from lack of conversation in the past few hours. He released the button as she pressed the black ‘talk’ circle outside.

“No, but I…”

He shook his head and held the button again. “Sorry, no new clients until next month.” His eyes fell on the file again, but out of the corner of his vision he could see her stamping foot as her arms crossed over her chest.

“That’s funny,” she finally hissed into the talk button. “I have a real problem, and Mr. Smith said you might have a solution.”

Kirkland’s ears perked at the name. “Mr. Smith from…”

“Galveston’s Station.” She scoffed looking straight at the camera. “He said to tell you not all little birds sing.”

Damn, Kirkland thought. This was all he needed on top of the four investigations going on, and he was short staffed. “Come in, then.” He pushed another button and the door buzzed.

Her heels clicked rapidly as she looked over her shoulder. He moved out of his office until he was standing almost a foot from where she was walking. “Bartender thinks you’re husband is beating you.” Kirkland said. His hands moved to his pocket as he took out a nearly empty pen and a blank notepad. “What do you want done about it?”

“Ex boyfriend is stalking me,” she corrected him. “I need someone to…take care of him as they say. Mr. Smith said that was your department.”

Kirkland laughed. “Lady, I don’t know what you’re talking about. My team and I just do investigations.”

“Please! Help me! My ex is a military expert. He’s highly trained, and I’m fearing for my life!” Her voice rose a few octaves by the end of her speech.

“I’m sorry your life is so hectic, but…”

“I swear to God, I’m not a cop! Search me if you want.” She put her overly expensive bag on the floor while unbuttoning cream colored blouse. “There’s no wire.” Her fingers shook as she got to the third button. Kirkland saw a dark bruise on her collar bone.

“That’s enough.” He watched as tears filled her eyes. “Mr. Smith might have given you some good intell. Give me all the info on your guy and I’ll see what I can do.” He readied his pen and paper to take notes on names and addresses, but she picked up her bag.

“I can do better than telling you…” she trailed off digging through her things. A gold ring clattered to the floor unnoticed as she pulled out a manila envelope. “This is everything a military operative could give me on him. Please, just help me.”

Something in her watery, chocolate eyes made Kirkland feel something he hadn’t felt in a long time. Sympathy. He tucked the file under his arm and nodded his head. “I will see what I can do. Meet me tomorrow at the café by the public library around lunch time. I’ll let you know if there is anything my team can offer you.”

The dark haired woman nodded and stepped forward, almost as if she wanted to hug him but thought better of it. She turned on her heel without agreeing to meet him and scurried through the doors. Kirkland was dumbfounded.



Linox sat at his mother’s bedside. The heart monitor beeped in its monotonous way while a cacophony of hospital emergencies cascaded in the background. Doctors said she could wake up five minutes from now, or she might never open her eyes again. They couldn’t tell him exactly what happened to her. He remembered all too well going to visit and finding her body on the floor.

“Ma! You know it’s not cool to leave me hanging at the door.” He laughed remembering all the times his mother locked him out. The spare key was still under the fourth brick to the left of the door.

“I know you’re home! Carla Raye’s car is still in her yard. Least you could do is answer! Hello!” He walked through the living area into the short hallway. No one was there. He walked through the kitchen, turning off the nearly empty boiling pot. Something wasn’t right.

“Ma… There’s water boiling out? Where are…” he stopped talking and fingered the hilt of the pistol in the back of his jeans. Linox knew better than to put his finger on the trigger, but he kept his hand wrapped around the cool metal.

He snuck down the hall. His old bedroom was clear, and exactly as he left it when he moved out at seventeen. “MOM,” he said into the darkness. He continued to her bedroom at the end of the hall, but stopped short. The bathroom light was flickering. He opened the door.

“Oh God, Ma!” Linox cried as he released the gun and scrambled for his cell phone. His mother lay sprawled out on the bathroom tile, a pool of blood around her head. He knew… “I think my mom is dead.”

The on call doctor who pulled her off the ambulance said the blood was normal, all head wounds bled badly. She needed a quick transfusion, and she’d be fine. That doctor hadn’t come back since he said the word fine. No one helped them.

“I got a good job, making good money now. Don’t worry, Ma. You stay here as long as you need. I got the bill.” He whispered. Kissing her on the cheek. He opened her favorite book, some trashy romance novel that she’d read so many times the author’s name peeled off the cover. He began reading the next chapter to her, and he’d be back next week to read another.



Dedra glanced around the large church. She never came to this one before. The cathedral down the street was her usual haunt, but they were busy with a funeral. Instead, she walked a little further and found this quaint, empty church.

The stained glass windows reflected all sorts of colors into the room. Eerie reds and oranges, yellows and greens, cast an ethereal glow over the world. This is a good place, she thought. She glanced around again, seeing no ghost of a person, and decided to take a seat.

The third row, end of the pew, has a good view of the Jesus statue above the pulpit. She felt like the son of God looked straight at her as she contemplated talking out loud, but quickly changed her mind. Dedra looked Jesus Christ in the eye before she began her silent speech.

]i]“God, Jesus, I’m pretty sure you’re familiar with my work now. I don’t do this for fun, even though I try to make it seem that way. Yesterday I killed two people. They deserved it… Sorry, that’s your territory, but they did deserve to be judged.” She sighed heavily, deciding she didn’t like talking in her head.

“I think I need help. It’s been a while since I asked for anything, but there’s a point where you have to let go and ask, right?” She nodded, feeling more assured of this way of talking to Jesus. “I feel like I’m judging people too harshly, and I need help to know who is right and who is wrong.”

She ran her hands through her long chestnut locks. Her black fingernails blended in with her black jeans. She pushed her burgundy sleeves up to her elbows. “What am I supposed to do?” She asked aloud.

“I think you have the right path,” a tall man wearing all black except the white collar at his throat said. His hair was the color of fresh morning sand and his eyes were as green as the Amazon. Dedra didn’t trust his smile.

“Asking never hurt, I guess, but being spied on might hurt a little bit,” she joked. His eyes widened. She tried to smile. “Sorry, Preacher, Pastor…whatever it is they call you. I better get going. There’s an appointment with my name on it.”

The minister offered his hand with a slight nod. “They call me Lucas, and the church doors are open to all.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said with a smile. “Thanks, Lucas.” She bolted for the door.

Dedra didn’t like churches, but she went because they felt like home. She remembered sitting there, usually on the third row, listening to the choir sing. Her mother…her real mother often hummed along. Then one day at church, her mother left. She never saw her again.

Dedra broke into a run. If she moved fast enough she didn’t have to think about her mother or the bullet piercing the cheating bastard’s and his whore’s heads. She could out run the pain, the loneliness. If she ran fast enough, maybe the world would go away.

Her feet pounded against the pavement. She weaved past people moving through the busy streets. Most of them cursed her for bumping into them anyway. Her lungs burned, but she needed more. She ran harder, faster.

Please, God, just make the memories go away…

She paused for a moment. Her breath coming in heaves as she leaned over with her hands on her knees. After all these years she still found herself running away from ‘home’. She gasped a few more times before she forced herself into a standing position. Three people asked if she was alright out of the fifty people that passed her on the street. “I’m fine,” she lied to each of them.

Dedra began walking down the street. She needed to get back to the office before it got too dark. Night time was worse than being alone. As she walked on the edge of the sidewalk, dodging trash cans, a black Honda pulled alongside her. The tinted window rolled down slowly, and as her curiosity leaned in through the window she recognized her new partner.

“Need a ride?” Linox asked. Without a word, Dedra got into the warmth of the car and didn’t look back.