Christopher Moore - Secondhand Souls

“Yeah, apparently that’s true.”

She put her fingers to her lips as if she were holding in a laugh and bounced on her toes in a circle like an overjoyed little girl.

“You’re going to need to stop that.”

“Right,” she said, stopping that. “Sorry.”

“Now you’re going to have to figure out what to tell your mom that I just told you that made you do that.”

“No problem. I’ll tell her that you said the last thing he said to you was that he only regretted never telling me that I was right about everything.”

“He would never say that.”

“She never met him.”

“Fine. Now look sadder and get your mom to take you to work. You’re our only contact with the ghosts on the bridge. You need to be on the crisis line. And we need her out of here so I can tell the others. I’ll call your cell when I know more.”

“Okay, I’m going to hug you now, Asher.”

“Okay.”

“It’s not a real hug, it’s theater. I’m faking it.”

“Right. Me, too,” said Charlie.

Lily and her mother had only been gone seconds when Charlie’s phone buzzed: Jane . He answered.

“He took Sophie,” Cassie said. “He just came in the door and took her. We couldn’t do anything. We tried.”

An electric chill surged through his body. “Who?”

“The black guy in yellow—the one she talked about hurting Mrs. Korjev.”

“Where’s Jane?”

“She’s right here. He did something to her. She ran at him and he just put out his hand and she dropped. She’s coming to, woozy, but she seems okay.”

“You called the police?”

“Yes, they’re on their way. I’m still on the other phone with 911.”

Charlie heard her talking to someone, describing the man in yellow.

“Was he driving? On foot?”

“I don’t know, Charlie. I couldn’t move. He just looked at me and I couldn’t move. Sophie kept yelling for him to put her down. Called him Dookie Face. She wasn’t screaming, afraid screaming. She was yelling, angry yelling. I’m so sorry. We should have been gone by now.”

“Tell the police everything,” Charlie said. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Ten minutes, maybe.”

Rivera and Audrey stood behind him, waiting for instructions, having read the situation from his end of the conversation. “We have to go,” he said to Rivera. “Audrey, can you stay with Minty Fresh’s body? Don’t leave him for even a second. You have to be there when he comes back.” He held out her car keys.

“What?” Audrey asked, taking the car keys by reflex.

“He’s coming back, I don’t know when, but stay with him. Tell them whatever you have to. I would do it, but I have to go.”

“Go,” she said, “Go, go, go.” She kissed him and pushed him toward the door. She pushed Rivera after Charlie. “Call me when you know anything.”

“You, too,” said Rivera. “And if they give you any trouble—”

“Go. I’ve got this. Go.”

Rivera ran after Charlie.

Crisis Center, this is Lily. What’s your name?” Her screen showed the call was coming from one of the hardwired lines on the bridge. Her heart leapt.

“Lily, it’s Mike.”

“Holy fuck, do you have any idea what’s going on?”

And once again, everyone in the call center turned to look at her.

“I mean, hello, Mike, how can I help? This call may be recorded,” she said, letting him know why she was being formal, “but only my side, so you should feel safe to say whatever you’d like.”

“Okay,” said Mike. “I thought you should know. There’s someone here, at the bridge, and all the ghosts are riled up. It’s like a storm here. Not that you could see, but here in my world.”

“I was going to tell you that I think we found that thief you were looking for.” Lily was trying to figure out how her side of the conversation might sound on the recording. Incoherent was fine. She could claim she was responding to someone who was suffering from delusions. “So, it looks like the suspect is a large African American man who is dressed all in yellow. I see. And his name is Lemon Fresh, maybe, possibly Yama?”

“I don’t know about that last part, but he’s here, and he has a little girl with him. He’s why everyone is riled up.”

“On the bridge?”

“No, not on the bridge, he’s right under the bridge. In Fort Point.”

“Fort Point,” Lily repeated. “I see. Shall I send someone to you?”

“If you think they can help,” said Mike.

“Well, they’ll certainly try. Can you hold on a minute while I contact those people to help you?”

“Sure,” said Mike. “Lily, I can’t find Concepción, either. It’s like she’s lost in this storm.”

“Let me see what I can do, Mike.”

Lily pushed the hold button, looked around the center. Mercifully, Sage wasn’t working tonight, but a couple of the other counselors were glancing her way every few seconds. Leonidas was standing in the doorway of his office, his finger to the earpiece of a wireless headset. The fucker was listening in on her live . Fine, he’d only hear her side and think her terminal was out of order. Pretending to scroll through contact numbers on her screen, she pulled her phone out of her purse and texted Charlie Asher: HE’S AT FORT POINT. UNDER THE BRIDGE.

She looked over her shoulder. Leonidas was frowning. He would have expected to hear her call to emergency services, even if he couldn’t hear Mike’s end of the conversation. She clicked off the hold button.

“Hi Mike, I’m back. Sorry about that, something seems to be wrong with my terminal. I texted the bridge authority and they are on their way to you. I’ll stay on the line with you until they reach you.”

“I know you’re covering, Lily. You need to know, I think I’m starting to get the point of all the stories the ghosts have been telling me, but I need to find Concepción. She just evaporated, right in front of me.”

“I’m sure she’ll be back any minute, Mike. I just had a similar experience and I know how distressing that can be, but just stay calm and—”

The line clicked. The screen showed disconnected. She had the ability to call back each of the hard lines on the bridge and she hit the button.

“Hello?” A male voice, but different. She could hear wind, traffic, not the ghostly static that she heard when Mike called.

“Mike?”

“No, this is Jeremy. Who is this?”

“This is the Crisis Center for the bridge.”

“Well, you guys should have blankets up here or something. It’s really cold. I thought it was supposed to be warm in California.”

“Well, you’re standing over the mouth of a bay, at night, in the winter, you fucktard, of course it’s cold.” She disconnected. When she looked back, Leonidas was heading for her desk.

Her phone buzzed with a return message from Asher: HE HAS SOPHIE.

Fuck! The little girl Mike mentioned.

She stood up, turned to Leonidas, did a traffic-cop signal for him to stop right where he was. “Get the fuck back in your office. This is my thing, and I need to be here. It’s not my fault that this terminal isn’t working right, but you didn’t hear the other side of the conversation. If that guy calls back and I’m not here, someone is going to die, so get back in your office and chew my ass or fire me at the end of shift, but right now I need to be here.”

Leonidas, paused, seemed to be thinking, then said, “End of shift.” He turned and headed back to his office.

Lily texted Charlie: MIKE SAW SOPHIE WITH LEMON AT FORT POINT.

* Coyote Blue.

Audrey dug her wallet out of her purse as she approached the nurses’ desk. For the first time since she’d returned from Asia, she wished