Goodlow's Ghosts Read Free Page B

toilet was flushing.
    The bathroom door opened.
    Jenny, her mouth open in surprise, stared at the woman who walked out. It was Sam's most recent girlfriend, Rebecca Meechum . What in the hell was she doing here?
    "You're not supposed to be here!" Jenny said.
    The woman lurched. She was exiting the bathroom sideways and closing the door behind her, so she hadn't noticed Jenny. Her hand fluttered to her chest.
    "Good Lord, you scared me!" she proclaimed.
    "You're not supposed to be here!" Jenny repeated.
    Rebecca let her hand fall. She was slender, dark-haired, large-eyed, and was usually full of a well-cultivated poise, mannerly and pleasant. It was all an act, Jenny knew. She had seen it in the woman's eyes from their first moments.
    "I don't see why I'm not supposed to be here," Rebecca said, and came forward so she was standing obstinately on the opposite side of Sam's desk, which was littered with playing cards, a few errant Cheerios, rubber bands, and unpaid bills. There were also several large coffee mugs; one contained coffee which, because of the cream in it, had turned bright green with age.
    Rebecca went on petulantly, hands on her hips now, "I have as much right to be here as you do."
    Jenny shook her head. "No you don't. Sam's dead, so you have absolutely no right to be here."
    Rebecca looked confused. "Nobody's proved that he's dead, Jenny. Besides, what's that got to do with it? I know he would have wanted me to take care of his stuff, so that's what I'm doing."
    "Why in the hell would he have wanted you to do anything for him?" Jenny protested. She knew she sounded foolish. Sam had been smitten hard by this beautiful phony, as difficult as it was for Jenny to believe.
    Rebecca smirked. "Apparently, you had a sick relationship with him, Jenny. Just because he was your step brother doesn't mean that it's not still incest !"
    "You bitch!"
    ~ * ~
    In the closet, Sam had figured out that it was him these two women were talking about. They seemed to know him quite well. One, the blond, was apparently related to him and the other was . . . someone else.
    He thought of calling out to them. Would they be able to hear him? He could hear them .
    Then he wondered if that would frighten them. He was supposed to be dead. Hell, he was dead—the blond had said as much. And whether he was or wasn't, the living simply weren't accustomed to talking to people they assumed were dead, so it was probably best to stay where he was.
    Or was it? Wouldn't his sister like to know if he was dead or not?
    He wasn't sure.
    He was very confused.
      "Shit!" he muttered.
    ~ * ~
    "What was that?" Rebecca said.
    Jenny glanced at the closet; the door was open. Inside, she saw little but darkness. "I don't know," she said. "It came from in there."
    "He had mice," Rebecca offered.
    "He had a mouse," Jenny corrected. "One little mouse, and he caught it and took it to the park and let it go."
    Rebecca shook her head, though Jenny was still looking at the dark closet. Rebecca said, "Nobody has just one mouse. That's stupid. If you see one mouse, you've got to assume…" Her voice was trembling. "You've got to assume that there are lots of mice, dozens of mice, a whole family of mice."
    Jenny said, "Mice don't curse."
    "I didn't hear a curse," Rebecca said.
    Jenny glanced quickly at her, then back at the closet. "I did." She said nothing for a moment, then she called, "Who's there? Who's in the closet?"
    Silence.
    "Dammit!" she whispered. She thought of stepping closer to the closet. She was a good ten feet from it and could see the forms of the mop and pail and broom in the darkness, but she needed a better angle.
    "It was next door," Rebecca said.
    " Shutup ," Jenny said.
    "Those people next door are very loud. I've heard them. It's a record producer's office, you know, and they play this awful music, this awful rap music, and they play it so loud you can hardly—"
    " Shutup , dammit!"
    Rebecca shut up.
    Jenny took a step to her right, so she had a