Simon Green - Ghost of a Dream

JC raised an eyebrow. “‘We,’ dear lady?”

“You want to know what’s behind the haunting in this theatre,” said Lissa, with an artless toss of her head. “And it’s my belief that all these spooky manifestations are directly connected to the missing Alistair Gravel.”

“Seems likely,” said JC, in his best I’m giving away nothing at this time voice. “Every haunting, every bad place, has its starting point—its beginning, in some dramatic moment. And its power source. Ghosts…are all about unfinished business.” He looked steadily at Lissa. “Do you think your missing uncle Alistair is the ghost here? That he’s behind everything that’s happening?”

“Seems likely,” said Lissa. “Robbed of his chance for fame and glory at the very last moment? Struck down on the brink of stardom? Has to be.”

“Do you think Benjamin and Elizabeth killed him?” said JC.

“Now why would they do that?” said Lissa. “He was their friend. Their very good friend.”

“People have sacrificed good friends before, for success,” said JC.

“But there was no success,” said Lissa. “The play that was supposed to do so much for everyone, ruined the lives of everyone associated with it. Still, I’ll bet you good money that Benjamin and Elizabeth know the truth. Whatever it is.”

She turned to JC, stopping before him just that little bit short of uncomfortably close, and smiled dazzlingly.

“Why did you ask me to stay with you, then send all the others away?”

“Because,” said JC, staring into her eyes, “I wanted to talk to you, alone. And see how well we’re doing…Getting right to the heart of the matter, without interruptions. I don’t trust Benjamin and Elizabeth any more than you do. It’s obvious they’re hiding secrets, things they won’t talk about except with each other. That’s why I sent them off with Happy.”

“Because he’s a telepath?” murmured Lissa, her face so close to JC’s now that he could feel her warm breath on her face. Her perfume, rich and flowery, filled his head.

“If only it were that easy,” said JC, steadily. “No, Happy doesn’t read the minds of the living if he can help it. He has enough trouble keeping other people’s thoughts outside his head so he can hear himself think. No, that’s not it. He’s…surprisingly easy to talk to, and confide in. You’d be surprised how many people will let their guard down and open up when faced with someone clearly so much more battered and broken than they.”

“Well then,” said Lissa, the brief puffs of air in the two syllables hitting him right in the mouth. “No ulterior motives? No other reason for wanting to be here alone, with me?”

JC took a single step backwards, separating them. “Don’t you point those bosoms at me, sweetie. I have a girl-friend.”

“I won’t tell if you won’t.”

“She’d know,” said JC. “And so would I. It took me a long time to find the love of my life, my Kim; and I won’t do anything that might risk losing her again.”

“I don’t see her around anywhere,” said Lissa. “Is she a part of your team? Why isn’t she here now?”

“How do you know she isn’t?” said JC. “Kim’s dead.”

Lissa’s smile disappeared. “Okay; that’s quite spooky.”

“Yes,” said JC. “It is.”

Lissa looked at him steadily. “Why do you always wear sunglasses? It’s not a style thing, is it?”

“No,” said JC.

“There’s something not quite right about your eyes,” said Lissa. “I could tell that from the first moment I met you. Take off your shades, JC. Let me look into your eyes.”

“Really not a good idea, Lissa…”

“Please. I need to see, to be sure…Do it for me, JC.”

And without quite knowing why, JC reached up and removed his sunglasses. He expected Lissa to cry out and turn away. Everyone else did. His eyes weren’t human eyes any more. But Lissa stood there, very still, staring back into his fiercely blazing eyes, apparently unaffected by a Gorgon gaze that had sent other people running for their lives and their sanity.

“Oh, wow…” said Lissa, very quietly. “I had no idea…”

The golden light from JC’s altered eyes bathed her face in sunshine, and she wasn’t in the least dazed or distressed. She looked more…dazzled. Her face soaked up the light, and she didn’t once blink or wince or look aside. She bathed in the golden glow, smiling happily, her eyes full of a simple, unaffected wonder.

“What do you see, Lissa?” said JC.

“It’s like looking into Heaven,” said Lissa, softly. And then she turned her head away, but not before JC caught a glimpse of a terrible sadness in her eyes. She walked away, her arms tightly crossed, hugging herself, then stopped abruptly and looked out over the auditorium.

“This is why actors love the stage,” she said, without looking around. “Because it’s always here for us when we need it.”

JC put his sunglasses back on. He wasn’t sure what had just happened. He could have gone after Lissa, but he didn’t. Because you don’t have to be a telepath to know when people need their space. Still, there was a lot more to this eager young actress than met the eye.

“There’s something different about you, Lissa,” he said.

“Got that right,” said Lissa, still not looking around. “Really. You have no idea.”

“You haven’t told me the whole truth about why you’re here, have you?”

Lissa laughed, briefly. “A girl has to have some secrets, sweetie.”

“What do you think really happened to your uncle Alistair?” JC asked bluntly.

Lissa looked out over the empty rows of seats, and when she finally spoke, her voice was unaccountably weary. “Oh, I’m pretty sure he’s dead. Like dear Benjamin and Elizabeth said. And I think they’re probably the only ones left now who know the whole story. What really happened. I’m here…because I want the truth to come out. All of it.”

JC considered the matter for a moment. “Why would Benjamin and Elizabeth tell us Alistair was dead, that he died in a tragic accident all those years ago…when they must have known everyone else believes he’s missing?”

“Maybe they didn’t mean to say it,” said Lissa, turning around, at last, to smile at JC. “Maybe there’s something about this place that makes people speak the truth. Whether they mean to or not.”

“You haven’t been scared by anything that’s happened here, have you?” said JC. “I saw you, when that dead thing was dragging itself across the stage…You didn’t blink an eye. It didn’t bother you one bit.”

Lissa shrugged easily. “Oh, I’ve always loved ghost-train rides, sweetie. You couldn’t keep me off them when I was younger. Takes a lot to spook me…”

JC heard a familiar voice say his name. He looked off stage, and there she was, standing in the wings—Kim. Smiling at him. JC smiled back at her, and a great wave of warmth and relief washed through him. It felt like he’d put down a great weight. And that he hadn’t realised how heavy it was until he could put it down at last. She was here again, here with him; and that had to mean something. Lissa looked at JC, looked to where he was looking, then back at him. She frowned, slightly.

“JC, what are you looking at?”

“This is my girl-friend Kim,” said JC. “I told you she was keeping an eye on me.”

Lissa took a few steps forward, so she could stare right into the wings, then turned back to JC. “I don’t see anything…”

“Kim is a ghost,” JC said calmly. “That’s how we met. She’s the only real ghost in the Ghost Finders. My team-mate, my soul-mate, and my one true love. I thought I’d lost her, but she came back to me. Apparently to be my guardian angel in times of peril.”