I stepped out of the car as Jack finished parking his car next to mine again. "You should go back and do some more research. I don't know what we'll need to know but it'll be useful for you to be able to look things up right away as we need them," I said, causing Jack to pause as he moved to step out of the car.

"What do you mean go back? We're in this together! I told you, I'm not letting you do this alone," Jack berated me.

"That's not what I mean. You know how every superhero has that one guy that does all the smart stuff while the hero does the dirty work? I need you to be that guy," I reasoned.

"Fine then, call me and put an earbud in your ear. I'll be with you the entire time."

"Alright." I slipped one hand into my left pocked and rummaged around until I found my headphones. I opened the black case and put one of the small bobbles in my right ear and pulled out my phone, pressing on Jack's name on my phone. His phone went off and he picked it up, quickly ending the chipper tone.

I nodded and stepped towards the building with several cop cars still parked out front, although there were far less than the day before, likely because it was still so early.

"My boy! You're back! Tell me how you're doing, find anything new?" grandpa Sunny asked as I waited outside for officer Bailey.

"Not really. Everything is really just guesswork right now. We need more concrete information. Did you remember anything?"

"No, I'm sorry. I did ask around, but all anyone seems to know is that they were whistling. Do you need to talk about it?"

"No, sorry grandpa Sunny. I don't really have anything to talk about. All we know is that this ghost killed her, burned out her eyes, and took her soul. Somehow whistling was involved, I guess," I said.

"And what about work, my boy? You don't intend to let this consume your life," grandpa Sunny asked.

"Fuck." I pulled out my phone and started texting my boss telling him I wouldn't be in for the week and explaining the situation.

"I'll leave you to it then," grandpa Sunny chuckled as he turned and walked away.

"What's fuck? What's happening?" Jack asked.

"I forgot to tell anyone I wasn't going into work today," I explained to the earpiece.

"Oh yeah, you can't just not do your job for a while like me. I forget sometimes," Jack said with amusement coloring his words.

"Oh, look at me, I have freedom," I mocked.

"Conrad, you're back!" officer Bailey called from the door.

"You made your ch-" Jack started before I cut him off.

"Officer Bailey! What have you got for me? Actually, let's take this to my car, more private," I said quickly. I walked over to my beat to shit vehicle and opened the door. I heard Jack park his car and run into the hotel and frantically pushing the elevator. He wanted to be able to take notes, I was sure. I stepped into the car and closed the door, officer Bailey walking through the door on the other side and sitting in the passenger side. "Alright, now what have you got for me?"

"I've got some good information here. This is the third body found like this in three months. Apparently there is a series of unsolved cases from eighty years ago that was almost exactly the same. They think it's a copycat killer," officer Bailey said.

"Eighty years of inactivity only to kill three people in as many months now? Why? Does it have something to do with the souls? Maybe he needed to recharge before he could access the real world again?" I questioned.

"I wasn't able to find out where the killings were. I don't know what to do with this, I was never a detective, this was always above my paygrade," he said.

"Fucking hell. Anything else?" I asked.

"Not really. Forensics was saying that it looked like something formed near her naval, like a kidney stone, and then it got pulled out. They said nothing was missing, just kind of shredded. A detective, John Wayne, told me that if I wanted to do this sort of thing there was one question I had to answer. What did the killer do that he didn't have to do? I would say burn out the eyes, maybe pull something out? Assuming that he had to take her soul for some reason, why did he make such a mess of her physical body at all?" he asked. "I couldn't find an answer to any of this. Can you?"

"Well, I assume he had to kill her to separate her soul so that he could take it. But why that method? And why her? Also, there was apparently an odd phenomena, all the ghosts in half a mile were all whistling the same song as they walked in an almost straight line away from this building almost unconsciously. Can you make anything of it?"

"No, I can't. This is all too supernatural for this normal stuff to work right. You'll have to find a pattern in the killings, predict the next one, and be there to prevent it. That's all I've got for you."

"Okay, so we've got a month before the next killing. How specific was the date? Was it always the same day?" I asked. I heard Jack typing on his computer, jotting notes down as we talked.

"I don't know, they just said three in three months," officer Bailey responded.

I pulled my phone out and pressed the mute button so Jack wouldn't hear this next part. "I need more information, and I think I know how to get it. You might not like it though," I said.

"What do you mean?" he asked, his misty voice laced with reproach.

"I need to get into police systems and steal everything they have on this case. How viable is that?" I ventured.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"It's not. Not only is that very illegal, but you wouldn't even know how to get into the system in the first place!" he yelled. He was dead, so he didn't have to be concerned with people hearing him.

"But you would, right?" I asked.

"I was part of the Chicago police department, plus, even if my codes were still active they probably wouldn't work here in, where are we?"

"Missouri."

"Missouri. You'll never get in, and even if you did, you'd get caught!"

"Not if I have your help," I pushed.

"Damn kids. Okay, we'll try once. If it doesn't work we're done, alright?" he conceded.

"Perfect, I can go get my laptop and-" officer Bailey cut me off, holding his hand up to my face.

"That definitely wont work. We're going to have to use one of their computers," he explained.

"Well shit, that's going to be much harder," I remarked, my face falling.

"Clearly. The best way is going to have to be to get in their car and use the laptop there. You'll have to be fast because no one can see you. Also, their cars are locked, so you'll have to find a way in."

"I've got this," I said, pulling out my paperclip lockpicks and slipping my earbud into my other pocket with the other hand.

"Yeah, that wont work, at least not how those are shaped. Car locks are different. I don't know how to make those, but it's not going to work if you go at it like. . . whatever you used that for. I don't even want to know," officer Bailey said, frustrated with the position I had pushed him into. "You're fucking lucky I want this guy caught."

"Yes I am," I said as I pulled up a YouTube video on how to pick a car lock. It was similar to a regular lock, but the top and bottom both had pins to depress. I made another straight pick before I sat and watched, hoping for a time where the police were going to be gone for a definite amount of time. "When do you think I can go give it a shot?"

". . . Now! Quickly, go go go!" officer Bailey said suddenly. I tried to be nonchalant as I quickly made my way to the cop car and put the picks in, jiggling them both wildly while keeping a turning pressure on both.

"Why just then?" I asked as I tried to open the pins.

"Because I just saw a few walk in, they'll have information to give or to receive, either way, everyone in there is pretty much stuck until they have everything they need," Bailey said in a low whisper so I don't loose my concentration.

"You better be right," I said. Soon there was a click as the lock turned. "Ha, this is coming in handy more often than it should."

I quickly jumped into the car and shut the door, doing everything I could to remain unseen as I then turned to officer Bailey who had stuck his head into the door in a puff of mist. "One nine eight six four," he said. I typed them in quickly as I could with shaking hands under pressure. "Password is capital c, lowercase vgabl, one, ampersand-"

"The fuck is an ampersand?" I whispered quietly but frantically.

"The little and symbol thing! Fast! Next is eighty two and enter!" I quickly entered the last few characters in for it to open up to a number of screens I couldn't read. Bailey quickly pointed at various points on the screen and I clicked them until I found the file that held everything related to Kaylyn's case. I made a copy and sent it to Jack, quickly following officer Bailey's instructions on deleting any trace of that sending from the computer. I logged out of officer Bailey's account and was about to step out of the car when I heard a voice.

"This is a fucking mess of a case. No leads and one of the most horrific deaths in the century. I hope we can catch this guy," said someone outside the door.

"Let me know when I can leave?" I whispered as quietly as I could to Bailey. He nodded and disappeared in a cloud of silver mist. I was crammed in the front seat between the seat and the pedals, my head resting on the seat, trying to get as small and low as possible.

"Yeah, it is what it is. If we can solve it though that would make our career, I'm telling you," said someone else, now right outside the door.

I said a prayer to whatever god would listen. "Don't catch me, don't catch me," played on repeat under my breath.

"Relax, Amy. Let's go get lunch, maybe I could do you like a crossword." I could practically hear his eyebrows raise comically.

"God Jake, stop doing that! I know you're joking, but much more of this and I'll have to take you to HR."

"Wait, Amy!" said the male cop. "Amy!" he shrieked, now comically high-pitched as he walked away. I heard the muffled sound of a car door shutting.

Suddenly there was a cloud of mist that formed into officer Bailey's head that almost caused me to scream out, instead biting my hand to cut off the sound. "You're clear! Go! You wont have much time!"

I quickly jumped out of the car and shut the door behind me, slowly walking over to the building and leaning against it, hands in my pockets to hide the shaking, though there was nothing to do about the sweating. Luckily it was a Missouri summer, so it didn't stand out that much. I took a moment to breathe deeply to settle the nerves. I think I got away with it, I thought.

"That shouldn't have worked," officer Bailey said. "That was the wrong department and I'm dead, my old credentials should not still be viable."

"But it worked. I don't know what kind of divine intervention we just had, but thank god it worked," I muttered.

I slipped my earbud out of my pocket and before it could even get to my ear I flinched away. "CONRAD! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?" I turned off mute on my phone and held the earbud away from my ear.

"I'm here, I'm fine, just calm down," I said loudly enough that the earbud could pick up the sound. I waited a moment to make sure the yelling was over before I stuck the device back into my ear.

"-Why you went quiet."

"Sorry, can you repeat that, I had the earbud away from my ear because of the yelling."

"You need to tell me why you went quiet!" Jack said louder.

"Just check your email. The JackOfAll one," I told him, a slight smile creasing my lips with pride.

"The fuck. . . Oh. Did you? Nope, don't need to know. Plausible deniability," Jack said with excitement clinging to his voice like a free climber on a ledge.

"Can you do anything with that? I didn't get a chance to look it over," I asked.

"Oh I'm sure we can. These notes are extensive and- Oh god, there's pictures." I had a sadistic chuckle before I could let the truth of what kind of pictures he could be talking about sink in.

"Alright, you start looking that over on your side while I talk to people, see what I can find."

"Yep, I'll take notes where ever relevant."

"Thank you, officer Bailey. We really needed that," I said as I turned to the ghost in police attire.

"I sure hope you needed it as bad as you say. I'll keep listening in, you do what you can for this investigation," he responded before walking right through the wall.

So I ventured out, asking any dead person I came across what they remembered about that night. Most either weren't in the area or didn't want to talk to anyone let alone a living person that couldn't possibly have anything important to say. The few that were both there that night and willing to talk had no new information for me.

"Looks like nothing as far as witnesses goes today," I said into my earpiece as I pulled out a small handful of trail mix from my bag along with a water bottle to drown my dehydration.

"It looks like a lot as far as past information goes. We can go over what I found when you get back. You were always better at recognizing patterns than me," Jack responded distractedly. It was just past two according to my watch so I did two more streets with results that weren't much better. I knew that the longer I took to complete my search the fewer ghosts that were there that night would still be in the area, so I did everything I could before it got dark. I got in my car as the sun was setting and drove back to the hotel, now a familiar path.

I walked in, past the desk where I had learned to pick locks, and to the elevator where I pressed the up button. The door opened a moment later to reveal the sound of orchestral music, a sad folksy series of notes leaving the doors as the music swelled with the moving lines. I got into the room and it looked like a bomb had gone off. Not in the same way it had for Kaylyn, but in the papers everywhere sense with Jack standing in the middle.

"Come on, we've got shit to do," he said when he heard the door open.