They Call It A Gift
“You don't talk to him much?”
“Well, I mail him sometimes and he usually comes back to me with the news as well. And if I manage to get home at Christmas, then he's there as well.”
“And when was the last time you made it home for Christmas?”
“Year before last.” Ted grinned suddenly. “My dad got me a new backpack and an e-reader. He's a mindreader.”
“That's where you get it from then.” Randy glanced around as Ted chuckled, checking out where they were. It wasn't a part of town he knew very well, they were in a more suburban area that he had no reason to ever visit. The buildings looked like they belonged to the lower-middle class, relatively well maintained but nothing fancy. There were the suggestions of children in several, a swing in the front yard or a temporarily abandoned toy of some kind. One in particular made him smile, the garage at the side of the house was open, revealing a 250 motorcycle that seemed to have more of the parts on the floor than in the machine, a radio on the floor beside it. He'd spent much of his own teenage spare time trying to doctor his own bike to be faster and more powerful, an experiment that ended in dismal failure.
In spite of the calm streets, the apparent normality, there was something about them being here that made him uneasy. He wasn't sure if it was because Ted had led them there, apparently without even thinking about it, or if there was some lingering unease about John working on the missing kids case with the hot psychic that was coming back to him with all the signs of kids living in the area. Whatever it was, he decided it might be an idea to divert Ted to a new route, somewhere they could distract themselves with shops at least. Whatever had led Ted to the state, he thought it was about time it gave the man a break. Ted had been relentlessly moving from place to place for too long and it was clearly wearing on him; it was about time he got some time off. Maybe he'd try to show Ted the night life. Perhaps they could take Cody along for the ride, since Ted had an obvious reaction to him.
“You feel like a sightseeing tour?” he asked casually. “I mean, we're in Nowheresville here. You should really let me show you something a bit more interesting than other peoples houses. No offence Teddy, but this is not exactly the high point of a trip. Luckily, as a local, I know all the good places.”
“It's okay,” replied Ted, almost dreamily. “If we go 'round this corner, we'll be pointing back toward the main hub.”
“We will?” Randy thought Ted might actually be right, it was the right direction if nothing else, but he didn't know how Ted would know. But then again... there had been that time when Ted was fourteen and randomly wandered off from the rest of them when their families had been eating lunch together. Randy had offered to go after him, since he hadn't replied to shouts and he was in danger of going out of sight. In hindsight Randy thought the DiBiase's had known why he was going and they seemed to trust him not to judge Ted harshly because of it. Ted had apparently told them that he believed that Ted could do what he said he could. He had followed Ted several streets until he found him on a corner, where up ahead were a sea of flashing blue lights, cops and paramedics. Ted was leaning against a wall, deep in conversation. Even though there was no one else there.
“I just got here, I don't know,” Ted was saying earnestly. “What happened?”
He listened for a few minutes, then nodded. “I can go see,” he'd said and then headed off to the activity, Randy rolling his eyes and going after him. “I wish that you people would give him some peace sometimes,” he'd snapped at the approximate area of air Ted had been talking to and then wondered if he was losing his mind as well. As it turned out he hadn't had to stop Ted doing anything crazy; he stopped at the police tape and stared at the scene. Randy had no idea what part he was eyeing but it was enough to turn his stomach. There was a figure beneath a blanket that was quite clearly dead, a few cops milling around, an ambulance waiting for permission to take the body and go. There was no life to be saved here, wasn't Ted talking to a ghost proof enough of that?
“Teddy, what--”
“Hush.” Ted cocked his head and Randy was quiet, although he wished that he knew what exactly they were supposed to be looking for. After a few minutes a cop walked close to them, talking into his radio.
“...Caught three blocks south,” said the voice on the radio. “Went straight to the pawn shop with what he got, the owner heard something was happening and contacted us.”
“Charge him with murder one,” said the cop into the radio. “This girl's not going anywhere but the morgue...” He trailed off and stared at Ted and Randy angrily. “You kids, don't you have better things to do? This isn't some show, this is a damned crime scene!”
Randy took Ted's arm and tried to pull him away, but Ted resisted. “Cathy's really glad you caught the guy so fast,” he said gravely and then allowed Randy to lead him away, the cop frowning after them. Randy had an idea that he was thinking about questioning them further and made sure they didn't hang around. But Ted stopped at the same corner. “They got him. I think your jewellery will be back to your family as well, they said he was trying to sell it.”
Randy remembered that day all too well, the first time he had tried to talk to a dead person and of course, he had heard and seen exactly nothing. But he'd had a rather creepy sensation, possibly because he knew they hadn't been alone and it was the same feeling he got sometimes when a landscape that should have been ordinary seemed for some reason completely alien. And Ted's behaviour that day had been strange in the moments before and during his leaving the group; he heard them calling to him but Randy thought he would have brushed off any attempt to return. There had been something guiding him and he had the bad feeling that something similar was happening now.
They turned the corner and Randy saw a school at the far end of the road they were now walking on. On the other side of the road were a couple of fields that looked like they were used as play areas, a skate park - he wasn't sure how well-used it was with the smaller children just over the road, it would be no place to go if one were thinking about skipping lessons. Ted headed for it and Randy's heart sank a little. He had hoped beyond hope that this time, there would be no reason for Ted to have been called here other than a chance for a break. A little peace after all the dead people he had brought closure to and the constant disruption of his own life.
Doesn't he deserve just a little peace? He thought to himself as he followed Ted in silence, realising that anything he said now would be like a voice on a radio, unimportant and ignorable. Isn't there someone else that can take over for a while, leave Ted to live his own life?
He had no idea, but whatever higher power had allowed Ted to see the dead wasn't doing the man any favours at all and he cursed within the confines of his head. Ted was a good friend of his, his best friend even though they went for long periods without seeing one another. Ted should be having his own life, a career, a house, a lover. Not spending all his time talking to the dead. Hell, half the time Ted didn't seem to know how to talk to the living.
Ted walked into the skateboard park, seeing it empty apart from one kid sitting on a grassy mound that seemed to be something of a resting point for the kids not using the facilities. She didn't belong there, that much he saw right away. She was too young to be up to tricks on a quarter-pipe, she didn't have a skateboard with her in any case. He could accept that she might have been there watching someone but there was nobody there to watch.
She looked over at him and his shoulders slumped a little. The kid wasn't there out of choice. The kid was dead. And if he had to pick the absolute worst thing about the gift he had, it was the rare occasions when he saw a child. It was rare, but it had happened and it always broke his heart a little. Even the best one he had seen, the one who had asked him to give a message to his parents that he wasn't in pain any more and didn't blame them, had devastated him. He'd done as he was asked, finding out that the child had died of a serious illness... or so he was told. He knew better. After that little incident he had gone out and gotten pissing-down-his-leg drunk and had to spend two days in bed puking up his own stomach lining. And it still never got better.
Randy was somewhere behind him but he barely even registered on Ted's radar. Instead he went over to the mound and sat down, the kid shuffling up to make room as if he particularly needed it. If people didn't see the dead it made sense that they would be able to walk right through them... but Ted had never gotten the nerve to make the experiment. Up close he could see that the kid was perhaps seven, a rather solemn-looking girl with her hair tied into an indifferent ponytail, jeans with a small rip in one knee, a slightly grubby shirt featuring My Little Pony. The shirt was bright yellow and such a little-kid thing to wear that it made the whole situation somehow worse.
“Hi,” he said casually.
“Hi,” she said, tugging at the threads in the hole at her knee. “I didn't think you'd ever turn up.”
“Me in particular?”
“Well no,” she said, giving him a rather odd look. “I don't know who you are. Someone who knows I'm here, I mean.”
“Right,” replied Ted with a smile. “My name's Ted. What's yours?”
“Dazzle,” she said defiantly. Ted doubted it somehow, but if she wanted to be called Dazzle then why not make her happy? There wasn't much else going for her right now.
“Dazzle,” he repeated. “Why are you here in the skate park?”
“I like it here,” she returned. “When I grow up, I'm gonna be a skateboarder too. I'm gonna do all the tricks that the big boys do and I won't fall off all the time like they do.” She smirked. “One boy, he got a scrape on his arm and he cried. I get scrapes all the time and I never cry like that.”
“I bet you don't.”
Dazzle sighed. “I wish they was here more though. It's so boring waiting for them and when there's school, they don't come 'til later on. And when it rains, sometimes they don't come at all.”
“I guess that must be boring,” said Ted. “You don't ever leave the skate park?”
Dazzle shook her head. “I tried, I really did, but it was like, like a big circle. I walked out of the gate over there and just walked back in through the gate over there. It made my head hurt, so in the end I stopped. My dad's been looking for me, but he doesn't see me and I yelled, I said that word he grounded me when he heard me saying and he didn't hear.” She looked at Ted curiously. “You hear me though.”
“I suppose I do.” Ted was almost certain that the girl knew what her condition was but he didn't see the harm in a little self-denial. She was dead and stuck, it seemed cruel to emphasise the point. “When you could leave the skate park, you remember that?”
She regarded him with some scorn. “Of course!”
Ted nodded. “So, what's the last time you remember being here when you didn't have to be? Did you come with your dad?”
“Nope.” The girl pointed. “I go to school over there. And I live with my dad, over there--” She pointed to the street they had just walked down. “I'm supposed to go straight home, but... daddy works at night and sometimes he's still sleeping when I get home. I'm supposed to go wake him up and then he has coffee and he makes dinner and we play something. Dad likes board games because he can sit down, but we play catch and things when I ask real nice and I'm being good. Only sometimes when there's someone skating, I stop and watch. Only for a minute, but I'm gonna be a skater when I'm big and I need to learn. So sometimes I watch for a while before I go wake daddy up.”
“Okay,” said Ted, although he was wondering about the wisdom of a child that young being allowed to walk even such a short distance alone. He supposed that when school let out there were a lot of people around and someone to cross the children over the road and it wasn't far, but even so it seemed like a big ask from a child for the sake of an extra twenty minutes sleep. Then again, who was he to judge? The kid hadn't mentioned a mother and it was hard work trying to earn enough money to keep a family going alone. Perhaps it made all the difference and clearly it had worked out well enough. Right up until something had gone badly wrong.
“So what happened the last time?”
“There was a boy skating,” said Dazzle. “He was good. Not as good as I'm gonna be, but good. I was watching him and sitting here and then a lady came over and watched him with me.”
“A lady?”
“Uh-huh. She said he was good too. Then she talked to me a bit. Then I was thirsty so she said I could have some of her drink. It was lemonade but I was real thirsty and I drank it anyway. And then I felt tired and kinda sick and the lady said she'd take me right home. The boy who was skating, he came over and asked if I was feeling okay and the lady said she was my mommy. She wasn't but I couldn't tell him. And then I was back here, so maybe she found out she couldn't take me out and left me here.”
Ted digested this in silence.
“Mister Ted?” The girl looked at him, slightly mistrustful but with wide eyes. “Could you tell my dad I'm here? He's not got anyone else except me and he'll be scared I've not come home.” She drew her knees to her chin and wrapped her arms around them. “I don't like to think he might be scared. He might cry and I don't like that either. I didn't mean to stop here so long, I didn't mean it at all. I don't mind if he's mad but I don't want him to be scared.”
Ted didn't quite know what to say. “Honey...”
Dazzle sighed. “I know what you're gonna say. I know you can't tell him. I know what I'm doing stuck here. I saw it on a movie. Beetlejuice. When you're stuck in one place, there's a reason you can't leave it. I haven't seen any monsters yet and shouting his name three times didn't work either. He'd probably be more scared if you told him I was here. But you could make sure he's doing okay, right?”
“That I can do.”
“And you'll come back and tell me?”
“I promise.” Ted smiled a little, hoping that he sounded more reassuring than he felt. He had no idea what the kids name even was really, or how long she'd been there. It could have been decades, although mentioning the skateboarders suggested it hadn't been that long. He wasn't sure he'd have anything positive to say, but he would try. He always did. “The lady, the one who gave you the drink? What did she look like?”
“Pretty,” said Dazzle immediately. “She had brown hair and she was wearing jeans, only black.”
“Do you remember anything else about her?”
“Um...” Dazzle screwed up her face, trying to recall. “She had sunglasses, only pushed into her hair. And a red shirt and black jacket.”
“That's good,” replied Ted, although that could describe a whole lot of people and in any case, she might have changed her hair colour or even been wearing a wig. As far as descriptions went, it was pretty much useless. “Did you know her?”
“No. I know I'm not supposed to talk to strangers but she was just there and watching the boy. Like me. And she was nice.”
“I know honey.”
“Your friend doesn't like me.”
“Huh?” Ted looked up to where Randy was standing, looking unhappy and slightly angry. Ted had an idea that Randy thought the dead he saw were somehow an imposition on him and that Ted should tell them to piss off. Sadly it didn't work like that. “He'd like you plenty, only he doesn't hear you so he doesn't know if he should like you or not.”
Dazzle looked interested. “So he can just see you, sitting here talking to yourself?”
“Yup,” confirmed Ted. “He thinks I'm cuckoo.” He made a gesture to emphasise the point and Dazzle giggled. Randy had obviously overheard and shook his head, a slight smile on his face that Ted thought was probably forced.
“There's someone coming!” Dazzle stood up, craning her head and shading her eyes although there was no sun. “With a skateboard. Good! 'Bout time! I've been waiting forever.”
“Then I'd better go,” Ted told her, standing up as well and stretching. “Or else they'll think I'm cuckoo as well.”
Dazzle nodded, slightly distracted. “I'll be fine. I've got something to do now.” She suddenly turned to Ted, looking worried. “You will find my dad?”
“I'll try.”
She paused. “My real name's Katie,” she said quickly. “Only don't call me that, I don't like it. Only if my dad's looking for me then you need to be able to find him, right?”
“That'll make it easier,” replied Ted. “Thanks, Dazzle.”
“See you real soon Ted.” Dazzle's attention returned to the boy approaching the quarter-pipe and wondered if it was the same one she had been watching that day. Probably not, or she would have said so. A look at Randy's face told him he'd pushed his luck for long enough and he went back over to his friend, sparing a look as the kid did a few tricks on his board before leading Randy out of the park.
“Perhaps we really ought to head back to the town,” he said as soon as they were clear.
Randy nodded, but he didn't look too happy. “Who was it this time, calling you a thousand miles to spill their story?”
“I don't think anyone calls me on purpose,” Ted told him absently. “But it was a kid. Katie, only she asked me to call her Dazzle. Seven maybe, perhaps eight but she struck me as being younger and tall for her age.”
Randy frowned. There was nothing much one could say about a small child who had met an untimely death that didn't come off sounding heartless, but he really wished that the dead would just go on to whatever awaited them and leave justice to the living. It was them who needed it after all. Worse, it was ringing a bell and he didn't want to examine just why.
“She doesn't remember being anywhere but the skate park,” said Ted with a frown. “Maybe she died there, but if she was she doesn't remember it. She thinks she's dead but doesn't remember dying. That's not usual.”
“And if a dead kid was found in a park, then we'd have heard about it, even if it was a few years ago. It's not a good place to hide a body where it can't be found either. Maybe she's there for another reason. You've said before, people don't necessarily linger where they die.”
“No, they don't. It's not often that I find one that's not compelled to stay in one place though. I mean, when I saw Peter in the back of the van...” Ted shot Randy a slightly apologetic glance, he knew Randy didn't much like to think about that day. “He was in the same place, but the place moved. But people tend to uh, go to somewhere they have an emotional attachment to. Often it's the place they remember dying in, but sometimes it's where an attack happened... or where they were taken from. The last thing she remembers of being alive is being there. She doesn't remember being killed.”
“She was taken from there?”
“Yeah. A woman did it, but she didn't really describe her too well. Could be pretty much anyone.”
“Right.” Randy checked his watch. “It's gone lunchtime and I think you need a drink. And I think that I need to call John.”
“Why?”
Randy sighed. “It's not that I don't take an interest in his cases, but I'm not always up on the details, if you know what I mean. Some stuff he can't share with me anyway, confidential. Sometimes there's too much to remember. I didn't put the pieces together 'til now, but one of the kids he's been looking for, she was on her way home from school, last seen going past a skate park. I didn't make the connection right away but while you were talking...” He shook his head.
Ted shoved his hands in his pockets, looking at the floor. “If he has a picture, I can tell you for sure. Not that it's admissible as evidence, you understand.”
“I know. But maybe this is what brought you here.” Randy rested a hand on Ted's shoulder. “It looks like you've ended up in the middle of John's investigation.”
“And he's got two psychics on the case.” Ted laughed without amusement. “Let the circus begin.”
~::~
The sudden sound of the phone on John’s desk ringing startled Cody to the degree where he dropped the cheery, cartoon-embossed lunchbox that John had given to him. A little girl’s, he had said, only child and with no mother, only a father who busted his ass on three jobs to take care of her. Man was blaming himself, John had said, he’d never considered it would be dangerous to let her go it alone, what with school being so close and all, and he just needed the extra bit of sleep…
“Sorry,” John looked apologetic, answering the phone, “Cena.” When his brows rose Cody wondered who could be calling him; he couldn’t imagine that the in-house phones of police-men were easily accessible to just anybody. “You know I’m always pleased to hear from you, you just rarely ring me unless you know I’m on lunch and you don’t ring me on this number ever.”
Given the affection in his tone Cody surmised that it had to be his boyfriend, Randy.
“What? Are you serious?” the way John bolted upright in his chair almost caused Cody to drop the lunchbox again, “Can you get him to come in? Oh for--- yeah, Ok. No, actually, I think a break could do us good-“Cody’s head lifted then, cocking in puzzlement at the inclusive term; was John referring to him too? “We can meet you at Bryan’s place for lunch if you like? Yeah, Ok, you too, see you soon.”
When John put the phone down Cody started to stand, “I’ll be seeing you after lunch then?” although he didn’t know what more he could do; despite it seeming like he didn’t expend energy or effort doing what he did that wasn’t true, it tired him out immensely after a time, and this was the third child’s item he’d been asked to work on in an hour.
A surprised look crossed John’s face, “I thought you’d be coming to eat with us.”
A shiver ran through him at the thought of seeing the blonde again, but almost immediately he reflected on the strangeness of the tension between them outside of the undetermined awareness between them and immediately thought that that would probably be a bad idea. And since the blonde (Ted, he thought he recalled his name being) seemed to be a legitimate friend who was staying with them Cody didn’t feel right intruding. Besides--- he was pretty good at recognising people who had obviously heard of what he did and thought he was a complete phony even so.
“I appreciate the offer but I’d feel like I’m getting in the way.”
John suddenly looked uncomfortable though Cody couldn’t say why; he wouldn’t take offence is John agreed, actually he was pretty much expecting that he would do so. John fiddled with his blue shirt collar a moment and then said, “Well, actually, it’s related to the case.”
“Oh…” Cody said, still none the wiser, “Surely it wouldn’t matter too much if I didn’t come right? I mean, the less I know probably the better…” even as the words left his mouth he was aware of how redundant they were since he had already learnt a good deal more about this case then he would have ever liked to know.
“Actually… I think maybe hearing might help. Or you could help him fill in the blanks.”
“Him?”
“Ah,” again there was that weird look on John’s face, the man rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, “There’s a few things I didn’t mention to you… nothing sinister,” he hastened to assure when Cody looked uneasy, “But just… things that I didn’t know about to talk about and that I’m not entirely sure even now that I should be talking about.”
Blinking slowly Cody smiled ruefully, “I think I got that.”
John looked sheepish, “Please just… will you come? If you think there’s nothing you can do or it gets too weird-“Cody couldn’t help but snort; he was the definition of weird, “Then you can leave no problem and we can pick up here again tomorrow if that would be OK?”
“Well, I’m not exactly in a hurry to get back,” Cody admitted, scratching his cheek slightly, “But I don’t see what more I can help you with.” They didn’t have that much physical evidence and some of the things he had been confronted with hadn’t enough of an actual connection to the child in question to give him anything, which was disappointing and also embarrassing; he was sure people just thought it confirmed him a fake because he couldn’t pick and choose what he felt or how much he felt.
“You’ve been a great help so far,” and he sounded so sincere that Cody was taken aback, “And I’d appreciate if you’d help me out some more.”
“I… Well, if you insist,” he flustered slightly, not having been expecting someone as impassioned as John Cena when he had first arrived.
Certainly he’d dealt with emotional cops before, those ones who poured everything they had into the case and suffered when defeat was forced upon them on occasion, but John… there was something different about him. Even being stood next to him… his signature was like sunlight, not overpowering, but noticeable, comfortable, Cody had felt it when he had picked up the watch that John had removed and laid on his desk, it being knocked off when John had been going through papers. He was a good man, of that much Cody was certain.
“Thanks,” John said emphatically, clapping Cody on the shoulder heartily. Cody wondered if his shoulders would ever return to equal level afterwards. “It’ll be my treat of course, lunch, I mean, you’re already spending a good deal of money on my account as it is.”
“If you insist,” Cody said, though there was a somewhat rueful expression on his face once more, “But it’s not as though one meal is going to force me destitute.”
“You don’t find it easy to accept favours do you?”
The abrupt question as they were leaving the office almost made Cody trip over his own feet but he managed to catch himself before he did an embarrassing face-plant before the rest of the station. A flush covered his cheeks and he ducked his head, almost looking like a chastised little boy. Something about the sudden defeated air around Cody made John want to hug him, like he would hug his younger brothers when they had been kids and had been upset about something. Yet, as soon as it crossed his mind to apologise, to assure Cody that he really had only been kidding, the air was gone as quickly as it had come and his posture straightened out, a smile on his face once more.
“You’re right, I do… I’d appreciate lunch thank you.”
“N-No problem,” John murmured a little numbly, surprised by the change as he followed Cody out of the station. It wasn’t until they were approaching Brian’s that John realised that Cody had the same emotional fluctuations as Ted did.
Being gifted must really fuck you up emotionally.
“Well, I mail him sometimes and he usually comes back to me with the news as well. And if I manage to get home at Christmas, then he's there as well.”
“And when was the last time you made it home for Christmas?”
“Year before last.” Ted grinned suddenly. “My dad got me a new backpack and an e-reader. He's a mindreader.”
“That's where you get it from then.” Randy glanced around as Ted chuckled, checking out where they were. It wasn't a part of town he knew very well, they were in a more suburban area that he had no reason to ever visit. The buildings looked like they belonged to the lower-middle class, relatively well maintained but nothing fancy. There were the suggestions of children in several, a swing in the front yard or a temporarily abandoned toy of some kind. One in particular made him smile, the garage at the side of the house was open, revealing a 250 motorcycle that seemed to have more of the parts on the floor than in the machine, a radio on the floor beside it. He'd spent much of his own teenage spare time trying to doctor his own bike to be faster and more powerful, an experiment that ended in dismal failure.
In spite of the calm streets, the apparent normality, there was something about them being here that made him uneasy. He wasn't sure if it was because Ted had led them there, apparently without even thinking about it, or if there was some lingering unease about John working on the missing kids case with the hot psychic that was coming back to him with all the signs of kids living in the area. Whatever it was, he decided it might be an idea to divert Ted to a new route, somewhere they could distract themselves with shops at least. Whatever had led Ted to the state, he thought it was about time it gave the man a break. Ted had been relentlessly moving from place to place for too long and it was clearly wearing on him; it was about time he got some time off. Maybe he'd try to show Ted the night life. Perhaps they could take Cody along for the ride, since Ted had an obvious reaction to him.
“You feel like a sightseeing tour?” he asked casually. “I mean, we're in Nowheresville here. You should really let me show you something a bit more interesting than other peoples houses. No offence Teddy, but this is not exactly the high point of a trip. Luckily, as a local, I know all the good places.”
“It's okay,” replied Ted, almost dreamily. “If we go 'round this corner, we'll be pointing back toward the main hub.”
“We will?” Randy thought Ted might actually be right, it was the right direction if nothing else, but he didn't know how Ted would know. But then again... there had been that time when Ted was fourteen and randomly wandered off from the rest of them when their families had been eating lunch together. Randy had offered to go after him, since he hadn't replied to shouts and he was in danger of going out of sight. In hindsight Randy thought the DiBiase's had known why he was going and they seemed to trust him not to judge Ted harshly because of it. Ted had apparently told them that he believed that Ted could do what he said he could. He had followed Ted several streets until he found him on a corner, where up ahead were a sea of flashing blue lights, cops and paramedics. Ted was leaning against a wall, deep in conversation. Even though there was no one else there.
“I just got here, I don't know,” Ted was saying earnestly. “What happened?”
He listened for a few minutes, then nodded. “I can go see,” he'd said and then headed off to the activity, Randy rolling his eyes and going after him. “I wish that you people would give him some peace sometimes,” he'd snapped at the approximate area of air Ted had been talking to and then wondered if he was losing his mind as well. As it turned out he hadn't had to stop Ted doing anything crazy; he stopped at the police tape and stared at the scene. Randy had no idea what part he was eyeing but it was enough to turn his stomach. There was a figure beneath a blanket that was quite clearly dead, a few cops milling around, an ambulance waiting for permission to take the body and go. There was no life to be saved here, wasn't Ted talking to a ghost proof enough of that?
“Teddy, what--”
“Hush.” Ted cocked his head and Randy was quiet, although he wished that he knew what exactly they were supposed to be looking for. After a few minutes a cop walked close to them, talking into his radio.
“...Caught three blocks south,” said the voice on the radio. “Went straight to the pawn shop with what he got, the owner heard something was happening and contacted us.”
“Charge him with murder one,” said the cop into the radio. “This girl's not going anywhere but the morgue...” He trailed off and stared at Ted and Randy angrily. “You kids, don't you have better things to do? This isn't some show, this is a damned crime scene!”
Randy took Ted's arm and tried to pull him away, but Ted resisted. “Cathy's really glad you caught the guy so fast,” he said gravely and then allowed Randy to lead him away, the cop frowning after them. Randy had an idea that he was thinking about questioning them further and made sure they didn't hang around. But Ted stopped at the same corner. “They got him. I think your jewellery will be back to your family as well, they said he was trying to sell it.”
Randy remembered that day all too well, the first time he had tried to talk to a dead person and of course, he had heard and seen exactly nothing. But he'd had a rather creepy sensation, possibly because he knew they hadn't been alone and it was the same feeling he got sometimes when a landscape that should have been ordinary seemed for some reason completely alien. And Ted's behaviour that day had been strange in the moments before and during his leaving the group; he heard them calling to him but Randy thought he would have brushed off any attempt to return. There had been something guiding him and he had the bad feeling that something similar was happening now.
They turned the corner and Randy saw a school at the far end of the road they were now walking on. On the other side of the road were a couple of fields that looked like they were used as play areas, a skate park - he wasn't sure how well-used it was with the smaller children just over the road, it would be no place to go if one were thinking about skipping lessons. Ted headed for it and Randy's heart sank a little. He had hoped beyond hope that this time, there would be no reason for Ted to have been called here other than a chance for a break. A little peace after all the dead people he had brought closure to and the constant disruption of his own life.
Doesn't he deserve just a little peace? He thought to himself as he followed Ted in silence, realising that anything he said now would be like a voice on a radio, unimportant and ignorable. Isn't there someone else that can take over for a while, leave Ted to live his own life?
He had no idea, but whatever higher power had allowed Ted to see the dead wasn't doing the man any favours at all and he cursed within the confines of his head. Ted was a good friend of his, his best friend even though they went for long periods without seeing one another. Ted should be having his own life, a career, a house, a lover. Not spending all his time talking to the dead. Hell, half the time Ted didn't seem to know how to talk to the living.
Ted walked into the skateboard park, seeing it empty apart from one kid sitting on a grassy mound that seemed to be something of a resting point for the kids not using the facilities. She didn't belong there, that much he saw right away. She was too young to be up to tricks on a quarter-pipe, she didn't have a skateboard with her in any case. He could accept that she might have been there watching someone but there was nobody there to watch.
She looked over at him and his shoulders slumped a little. The kid wasn't there out of choice. The kid was dead. And if he had to pick the absolute worst thing about the gift he had, it was the rare occasions when he saw a child. It was rare, but it had happened and it always broke his heart a little. Even the best one he had seen, the one who had asked him to give a message to his parents that he wasn't in pain any more and didn't blame them, had devastated him. He'd done as he was asked, finding out that the child had died of a serious illness... or so he was told. He knew better. After that little incident he had gone out and gotten pissing-down-his-leg drunk and had to spend two days in bed puking up his own stomach lining. And it still never got better.
Randy was somewhere behind him but he barely even registered on Ted's radar. Instead he went over to the mound and sat down, the kid shuffling up to make room as if he particularly needed it. If people didn't see the dead it made sense that they would be able to walk right through them... but Ted had never gotten the nerve to make the experiment. Up close he could see that the kid was perhaps seven, a rather solemn-looking girl with her hair tied into an indifferent ponytail, jeans with a small rip in one knee, a slightly grubby shirt featuring My Little Pony. The shirt was bright yellow and such a little-kid thing to wear that it made the whole situation somehow worse.
“Hi,” he said casually.
“Hi,” she said, tugging at the threads in the hole at her knee. “I didn't think you'd ever turn up.”
“Me in particular?”
“Well no,” she said, giving him a rather odd look. “I don't know who you are. Someone who knows I'm here, I mean.”
“Right,” replied Ted with a smile. “My name's Ted. What's yours?”
“Dazzle,” she said defiantly. Ted doubted it somehow, but if she wanted to be called Dazzle then why not make her happy? There wasn't much else going for her right now.
“Dazzle,” he repeated. “Why are you here in the skate park?”
“I like it here,” she returned. “When I grow up, I'm gonna be a skateboarder too. I'm gonna do all the tricks that the big boys do and I won't fall off all the time like they do.” She smirked. “One boy, he got a scrape on his arm and he cried. I get scrapes all the time and I never cry like that.”
“I bet you don't.”
Dazzle sighed. “I wish they was here more though. It's so boring waiting for them and when there's school, they don't come 'til later on. And when it rains, sometimes they don't come at all.”
“I guess that must be boring,” said Ted. “You don't ever leave the skate park?”
Dazzle shook her head. “I tried, I really did, but it was like, like a big circle. I walked out of the gate over there and just walked back in through the gate over there. It made my head hurt, so in the end I stopped. My dad's been looking for me, but he doesn't see me and I yelled, I said that word he grounded me when he heard me saying and he didn't hear.” She looked at Ted curiously. “You hear me though.”
“I suppose I do.” Ted was almost certain that the girl knew what her condition was but he didn't see the harm in a little self-denial. She was dead and stuck, it seemed cruel to emphasise the point. “When you could leave the skate park, you remember that?”
She regarded him with some scorn. “Of course!”
Ted nodded. “So, what's the last time you remember being here when you didn't have to be? Did you come with your dad?”
“Nope.” The girl pointed. “I go to school over there. And I live with my dad, over there--” She pointed to the street they had just walked down. “I'm supposed to go straight home, but... daddy works at night and sometimes he's still sleeping when I get home. I'm supposed to go wake him up and then he has coffee and he makes dinner and we play something. Dad likes board games because he can sit down, but we play catch and things when I ask real nice and I'm being good. Only sometimes when there's someone skating, I stop and watch. Only for a minute, but I'm gonna be a skater when I'm big and I need to learn. So sometimes I watch for a while before I go wake daddy up.”
“Okay,” said Ted, although he was wondering about the wisdom of a child that young being allowed to walk even such a short distance alone. He supposed that when school let out there were a lot of people around and someone to cross the children over the road and it wasn't far, but even so it seemed like a big ask from a child for the sake of an extra twenty minutes sleep. Then again, who was he to judge? The kid hadn't mentioned a mother and it was hard work trying to earn enough money to keep a family going alone. Perhaps it made all the difference and clearly it had worked out well enough. Right up until something had gone badly wrong.
“So what happened the last time?”
“There was a boy skating,” said Dazzle. “He was good. Not as good as I'm gonna be, but good. I was watching him and sitting here and then a lady came over and watched him with me.”
“A lady?”
“Uh-huh. She said he was good too. Then she talked to me a bit. Then I was thirsty so she said I could have some of her drink. It was lemonade but I was real thirsty and I drank it anyway. And then I felt tired and kinda sick and the lady said she'd take me right home. The boy who was skating, he came over and asked if I was feeling okay and the lady said she was my mommy. She wasn't but I couldn't tell him. And then I was back here, so maybe she found out she couldn't take me out and left me here.”
Ted digested this in silence.
“Mister Ted?” The girl looked at him, slightly mistrustful but with wide eyes. “Could you tell my dad I'm here? He's not got anyone else except me and he'll be scared I've not come home.” She drew her knees to her chin and wrapped her arms around them. “I don't like to think he might be scared. He might cry and I don't like that either. I didn't mean to stop here so long, I didn't mean it at all. I don't mind if he's mad but I don't want him to be scared.”
Ted didn't quite know what to say. “Honey...”
Dazzle sighed. “I know what you're gonna say. I know you can't tell him. I know what I'm doing stuck here. I saw it on a movie. Beetlejuice. When you're stuck in one place, there's a reason you can't leave it. I haven't seen any monsters yet and shouting his name three times didn't work either. He'd probably be more scared if you told him I was here. But you could make sure he's doing okay, right?”
“That I can do.”
“And you'll come back and tell me?”
“I promise.” Ted smiled a little, hoping that he sounded more reassuring than he felt. He had no idea what the kids name even was really, or how long she'd been there. It could have been decades, although mentioning the skateboarders suggested it hadn't been that long. He wasn't sure he'd have anything positive to say, but he would try. He always did. “The lady, the one who gave you the drink? What did she look like?”
“Pretty,” said Dazzle immediately. “She had brown hair and she was wearing jeans, only black.”
“Do you remember anything else about her?”
“Um...” Dazzle screwed up her face, trying to recall. “She had sunglasses, only pushed into her hair. And a red shirt and black jacket.”
“That's good,” replied Ted, although that could describe a whole lot of people and in any case, she might have changed her hair colour or even been wearing a wig. As far as descriptions went, it was pretty much useless. “Did you know her?”
“No. I know I'm not supposed to talk to strangers but she was just there and watching the boy. Like me. And she was nice.”
“I know honey.”
“Your friend doesn't like me.”
“Huh?” Ted looked up to where Randy was standing, looking unhappy and slightly angry. Ted had an idea that Randy thought the dead he saw were somehow an imposition on him and that Ted should tell them to piss off. Sadly it didn't work like that. “He'd like you plenty, only he doesn't hear you so he doesn't know if he should like you or not.”
Dazzle looked interested. “So he can just see you, sitting here talking to yourself?”
“Yup,” confirmed Ted. “He thinks I'm cuckoo.” He made a gesture to emphasise the point and Dazzle giggled. Randy had obviously overheard and shook his head, a slight smile on his face that Ted thought was probably forced.
“There's someone coming!” Dazzle stood up, craning her head and shading her eyes although there was no sun. “With a skateboard. Good! 'Bout time! I've been waiting forever.”
“Then I'd better go,” Ted told her, standing up as well and stretching. “Or else they'll think I'm cuckoo as well.”
Dazzle nodded, slightly distracted. “I'll be fine. I've got something to do now.” She suddenly turned to Ted, looking worried. “You will find my dad?”
“I'll try.”
She paused. “My real name's Katie,” she said quickly. “Only don't call me that, I don't like it. Only if my dad's looking for me then you need to be able to find him, right?”
“That'll make it easier,” replied Ted. “Thanks, Dazzle.”
“See you real soon Ted.” Dazzle's attention returned to the boy approaching the quarter-pipe and wondered if it was the same one she had been watching that day. Probably not, or she would have said so. A look at Randy's face told him he'd pushed his luck for long enough and he went back over to his friend, sparing a look as the kid did a few tricks on his board before leading Randy out of the park.
“Perhaps we really ought to head back to the town,” he said as soon as they were clear.
Randy nodded, but he didn't look too happy. “Who was it this time, calling you a thousand miles to spill their story?”
“I don't think anyone calls me on purpose,” Ted told him absently. “But it was a kid. Katie, only she asked me to call her Dazzle. Seven maybe, perhaps eight but she struck me as being younger and tall for her age.”
Randy frowned. There was nothing much one could say about a small child who had met an untimely death that didn't come off sounding heartless, but he really wished that the dead would just go on to whatever awaited them and leave justice to the living. It was them who needed it after all. Worse, it was ringing a bell and he didn't want to examine just why.
“She doesn't remember being anywhere but the skate park,” said Ted with a frown. “Maybe she died there, but if she was she doesn't remember it. She thinks she's dead but doesn't remember dying. That's not usual.”
“And if a dead kid was found in a park, then we'd have heard about it, even if it was a few years ago. It's not a good place to hide a body where it can't be found either. Maybe she's there for another reason. You've said before, people don't necessarily linger where they die.”
“No, they don't. It's not often that I find one that's not compelled to stay in one place though. I mean, when I saw Peter in the back of the van...” Ted shot Randy a slightly apologetic glance, he knew Randy didn't much like to think about that day. “He was in the same place, but the place moved. But people tend to uh, go to somewhere they have an emotional attachment to. Often it's the place they remember dying in, but sometimes it's where an attack happened... or where they were taken from. The last thing she remembers of being alive is being there. She doesn't remember being killed.”
“She was taken from there?”
“Yeah. A woman did it, but she didn't really describe her too well. Could be pretty much anyone.”
“Right.” Randy checked his watch. “It's gone lunchtime and I think you need a drink. And I think that I need to call John.”
“Why?”
Randy sighed. “It's not that I don't take an interest in his cases, but I'm not always up on the details, if you know what I mean. Some stuff he can't share with me anyway, confidential. Sometimes there's too much to remember. I didn't put the pieces together 'til now, but one of the kids he's been looking for, she was on her way home from school, last seen going past a skate park. I didn't make the connection right away but while you were talking...” He shook his head.
Ted shoved his hands in his pockets, looking at the floor. “If he has a picture, I can tell you for sure. Not that it's admissible as evidence, you understand.”
“I know. But maybe this is what brought you here.” Randy rested a hand on Ted's shoulder. “It looks like you've ended up in the middle of John's investigation.”
“And he's got two psychics on the case.” Ted laughed without amusement. “Let the circus begin.”
~::~
The sudden sound of the phone on John’s desk ringing startled Cody to the degree where he dropped the cheery, cartoon-embossed lunchbox that John had given to him. A little girl’s, he had said, only child and with no mother, only a father who busted his ass on three jobs to take care of her. Man was blaming himself, John had said, he’d never considered it would be dangerous to let her go it alone, what with school being so close and all, and he just needed the extra bit of sleep…
“Sorry,” John looked apologetic, answering the phone, “Cena.” When his brows rose Cody wondered who could be calling him; he couldn’t imagine that the in-house phones of police-men were easily accessible to just anybody. “You know I’m always pleased to hear from you, you just rarely ring me unless you know I’m on lunch and you don’t ring me on this number ever.”
Given the affection in his tone Cody surmised that it had to be his boyfriend, Randy.
“What? Are you serious?” the way John bolted upright in his chair almost caused Cody to drop the lunchbox again, “Can you get him to come in? Oh for--- yeah, Ok. No, actually, I think a break could do us good-“Cody’s head lifted then, cocking in puzzlement at the inclusive term; was John referring to him too? “We can meet you at Bryan’s place for lunch if you like? Yeah, Ok, you too, see you soon.”
When John put the phone down Cody started to stand, “I’ll be seeing you after lunch then?” although he didn’t know what more he could do; despite it seeming like he didn’t expend energy or effort doing what he did that wasn’t true, it tired him out immensely after a time, and this was the third child’s item he’d been asked to work on in an hour.
A surprised look crossed John’s face, “I thought you’d be coming to eat with us.”
A shiver ran through him at the thought of seeing the blonde again, but almost immediately he reflected on the strangeness of the tension between them outside of the undetermined awareness between them and immediately thought that that would probably be a bad idea. And since the blonde (Ted, he thought he recalled his name being) seemed to be a legitimate friend who was staying with them Cody didn’t feel right intruding. Besides--- he was pretty good at recognising people who had obviously heard of what he did and thought he was a complete phony even so.
“I appreciate the offer but I’d feel like I’m getting in the way.”
John suddenly looked uncomfortable though Cody couldn’t say why; he wouldn’t take offence is John agreed, actually he was pretty much expecting that he would do so. John fiddled with his blue shirt collar a moment and then said, “Well, actually, it’s related to the case.”
“Oh…” Cody said, still none the wiser, “Surely it wouldn’t matter too much if I didn’t come right? I mean, the less I know probably the better…” even as the words left his mouth he was aware of how redundant they were since he had already learnt a good deal more about this case then he would have ever liked to know.
“Actually… I think maybe hearing might help. Or you could help him fill in the blanks.”
“Him?”
“Ah,” again there was that weird look on John’s face, the man rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, “There’s a few things I didn’t mention to you… nothing sinister,” he hastened to assure when Cody looked uneasy, “But just… things that I didn’t know about to talk about and that I’m not entirely sure even now that I should be talking about.”
Blinking slowly Cody smiled ruefully, “I think I got that.”
John looked sheepish, “Please just… will you come? If you think there’s nothing you can do or it gets too weird-“Cody couldn’t help but snort; he was the definition of weird, “Then you can leave no problem and we can pick up here again tomorrow if that would be OK?”
“Well, I’m not exactly in a hurry to get back,” Cody admitted, scratching his cheek slightly, “But I don’t see what more I can help you with.” They didn’t have that much physical evidence and some of the things he had been confronted with hadn’t enough of an actual connection to the child in question to give him anything, which was disappointing and also embarrassing; he was sure people just thought it confirmed him a fake because he couldn’t pick and choose what he felt or how much he felt.
“You’ve been a great help so far,” and he sounded so sincere that Cody was taken aback, “And I’d appreciate if you’d help me out some more.”
“I… Well, if you insist,” he flustered slightly, not having been expecting someone as impassioned as John Cena when he had first arrived.
Certainly he’d dealt with emotional cops before, those ones who poured everything they had into the case and suffered when defeat was forced upon them on occasion, but John… there was something different about him. Even being stood next to him… his signature was like sunlight, not overpowering, but noticeable, comfortable, Cody had felt it when he had picked up the watch that John had removed and laid on his desk, it being knocked off when John had been going through papers. He was a good man, of that much Cody was certain.
“Thanks,” John said emphatically, clapping Cody on the shoulder heartily. Cody wondered if his shoulders would ever return to equal level afterwards. “It’ll be my treat of course, lunch, I mean, you’re already spending a good deal of money on my account as it is.”
“If you insist,” Cody said, though there was a somewhat rueful expression on his face once more, “But it’s not as though one meal is going to force me destitute.”
“You don’t find it easy to accept favours do you?”
The abrupt question as they were leaving the office almost made Cody trip over his own feet but he managed to catch himself before he did an embarrassing face-plant before the rest of the station. A flush covered his cheeks and he ducked his head, almost looking like a chastised little boy. Something about the sudden defeated air around Cody made John want to hug him, like he would hug his younger brothers when they had been kids and had been upset about something. Yet, as soon as it crossed his mind to apologise, to assure Cody that he really had only been kidding, the air was gone as quickly as it had come and his posture straightened out, a smile on his face once more.
“You’re right, I do… I’d appreciate lunch thank you.”
“N-No problem,” John murmured a little numbly, surprised by the change as he followed Cody out of the station. It wasn’t until they were approaching Brian’s that John realised that Cody had the same emotional fluctuations as Ted did.
Being gifted must really fuck you up emotionally.