I explored the depth of my mind, trying to find where I had heard that tune. Involuntary whistling had to mean something in such a supernatural case. It was burning in my mind as the most important thing he had said but I couldn't fathom what.

I walked back to Jack's car and took a doughnut and a bottle of water out to wash the vomit from between my teeth. Jack pulled the entire box out to carry around while we questioned people so we wouldn't have to come back. I slipped a water bottle in each pocket, pulling my loose basketball shorts down slightly. With that we locked the car as we wouldn't be returning anytime soon and walked around the busy street to find more ghosts.

"Hey, can I ask you some questions?" I asked as we came towards an intersection to see a ghost gazing up into the clear sky. She didn't say anything, didn't even react until I blocked her view of the sky.

"Stupid livings, always getting in the way and staring at me. . . Are you staring at me?" she asked as realization that yes, I could see her.

"Yes, I am. I have some questions about yesterday morning, could you help me out here?" I asked.

"Yesterday morning? Yeah I recall. That sunrise was more vibrant than it usually is. There's more colors everyday because you livings can't recognize the things you're doing to the world. It is pretty though," she remarked. "You should join me. It's not as easy to see the stars as it used to be, and it's near impossible during the day, but the sky is beautiful no matter how you destroy yourselves."

"Alright," I said as I got on my back in the middle of the sidewalk. They sky was a deep blue, nary a cloud in the sky. "My friend was murdered yesterday morning, but she didn't leave a ghost. I think someone who was already dead killed her and destroyed her ghost somehow. Do you remember anything odd about that morning?"

"Yeah, I do. I left my building," she said, her eyes still staring into the deep blue.

"You left your building?" I prompted.

"I sat for eighty years on top of the same building and studied the stars, never once leaving. I was just there," she said as she finally tore her eyes away to point at a tall building across the street from my apartment.

"Where did you go?" I asked.

"Down the street. It was odd though. Not only did I leave, but I was whistling while I did. I never liked music, and I hate whistling more than anything. I didn't think anything of it though, I barely walked but a mile before I decided that I was right to come back. But I got as far as here and the sun started rising, so I stopped to watch and never got started again."

"Did you see any ghosts going into that building or did you see any leaving that morning?"

"No, I was otherwise occupied." She was one of the few that had found piece in doing the same thing until the end of eternity. Unfortunately, ghosts that got like that weren't much help in anything other than their respective mastery.

"I see. Can you remember what you whistled?" I asked her.

She puckered her lips and a haunting sound escaped her lips. It was the same tune, the tune that tickled my brain with recognition.

"I leave you to your stargazing then. Thank you for the help," I said as I made my way awkwardly to my feet.

"That's two ghosts that left for no discernable reason while whistling a song they don't know. Let's make sure everyone around here at the time felt the same thing before we just assume we'll get nothing out of asking these ghosts."

"Okay. What do we do after that?" Jack asked, pulling a doughnut out of the box and taking a bite.

"I guess. . . Investigate other murders that seem the same. Comb through unsolved crimes so we can know how active this guy has been and for how long. It might help us to predict the next target and stop him or something. I don't know," I said slowly, forming the plan out loud rather than planning my words like I usually did.

"Makes sense. How much can we look for though? I hadn't heard of murders like this anywhere nearby and that's the kind of thing that gets around. The police must be trying to keep this quiet so people don't panic," Jack reasoned, crumbs falling from his full face as the words fell with a slightly muffled noise.

"Shit, you're probably right."

"And, we can't stop until we've talked to everyone who was in the area at the time. We can't rule out that one of them didn't see something off."

"Damn it," I swore. "We're gonna be here all day and then some." I walked down the street a little bit farther. I wasn't sure how far was too far to walk, but after five minutes I turned and crossed the street to go back, Jack trailing quietly behind.

I systematically walked down each street like this, talking to any ghost I could find. Over time I managed to map out where everyone went before turning back and resuming their normal activities. They never went farther than half a mile before they managed to shake off the odd feeling. Each and every one of them was whistling the same song, something no one had ever heard of. Most ghosts I talked to were just wandering around and hadn't been around at the time. I was sure there were many that had wandered off and would never return.

I had walked two streets, talking to every ghost I could before I looked to my simple watch to see that it was almost three. I finished the street I was on, finding no new information and got in Jack's car.

"You don't want to take your car?" he asked.

"I don't know that it matters. This way we can share anything we find with each other right away, and maybe we can solve this faster that way," I answered.

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"You hungry?" Jack inquired.

"Kind of. More just hopeless. We were out for hours and we found nothing. Nothing Jack. Almost a hundred dead people and not a single one of them saw something the others didn't. No one of note, only walking and whistling. That same fucking tune. Do you recognize it?" I asked, puckering my lips and producing the song that played the morning of the murder.

"No, I don't. It's too damn common to just be a coincidence, it has to be important."

"I've heard it somewhere, I just don't know where."

"Let's go to the store and pick up some protein bars or something we can eat as we work so we don't have to stop, then we go back to the hotel and try to make some connections, look up that song, get some rest and come back at it tomorrow," Jack reasoned.

"Yeah, that's fine," I said. I was sour but we did have way more information than we started with. "I guess any information is a win."

"It is. I'm pissed off that we still don't have a clue what's going on, but we have something we might be able to use to find out." Jack was gripping the steering wheel so hard I thought it might break, his knuckles facing traffic with a white fervor.

"I know, we both are. I'm sorry there wasn't really anything you could do. I hate that this all rests on me when you're so much better at it than me," I told him, looking down and wishing not for the first time that I wasn't the one born with these powers. It's always been more a curse than a blessing, and now that it was a blessing I was one of the most useless people to have it.

"I probably wouldn't be much better in your shoes. We're both doing the best that we can, we just have to tell ourselves that." Jack was not doing well.

"You don't have to just accept it. Talk to me, you're clearly struggling. You said it yourself, we can't get through this alone."

"Don't worry about it. After this is over I can get the help I need, but this is too vital for me to break down," Jack said as he pulled into the parking lot of a chain store. The things there had less potential for greatness, but they made up for it in reliability.

"You'll think clearer once you get it out," I remarked.

"Just leave it alone, Conrad," Jack said warningly. I fell silent, packing the conversation away to start another time.

The parking lot was busy but we found a spot close to the store and got out of the car. The store was almost as busy as the parking lot outside. We walked over to the shelf stable section where we could pick up food we could eat on the go, jerky, granola bars, that sort of thing. The pickings were pretty slim. I turned to a ghost who sat in the isle drumming the floor with his hands.

"Why is everything so empty here? Do you know if they have anywhere else they have this stuff?" I asked him. This had grown pretty common and he knew me by then.

"Oh, brosky, it's like, hiking season and stuff. A big group cleaned the thing about saying they were going to like, hike the Appalachian trail and stuff," said the hipster ghost without breaking rhythm.

"Damn. Got any ideas for food if we're going to be pulling a lot of all nighters? This was what we were going to eat, but it looks like there's not a lot," I asked him. He seemed like the kind of guy that would know.

"Brosky, energy drinks, hot pockets, spicy chips, and weed is like, your best friend brosky," he said. I ignored the weed suggestion, but those things were good at keeping you awake whether you like it or not.

"How about for like, walking around asking people questions all day?" I asked.

"You'll want fruits and nuts brosky. They'll like, fill you up and stuff." The hipster did give good advice, that sounded like the kind of thing that would be easy to carry.

"Thanks," I said just before quickly relaying the conversation to Jack.

"Why not just ask me? I've been pulling all nighters since the fifth grade!" he exclaimed quietly.

"I just got used to asking ghosts questions, alright?" I whispered back. Jack rolled his eyes. "I'm going to get a better bag to hold all of this stuff in while we walk."

"Alright, pick up anything else you think would be useful on your way back, we'll meet at the car."

I walked around the hipster on the ground and made my way over to the isles without food. All sorts of things adorned these shelves, from blenders to chairs to. . . I found something else I needed for this investigation. It was vital in every good investigation in the movies. I picked it up and carried it with me over to another isle before going to go get a bag. There weren't any great options, this isle looked pretty picked over too. I picked up a backpack that looked smaller than it was. The inside was quite spacious considering it barely took up any room on the back. It was weird that we didn't have any bags at home, but neither of us had needed them for years and Kaylyn's. . . Well it was probably covered in blood.

I walked to the check out lines, using self checkout for only five items and paid. It wasn't as cheap as I had hoped, inflation had really gotten to the average citizen. The automatic doors slid smoothly open as I awkwardly waved to someone coming in as I carried my load across my entire left side.

"Really? A cork board? Will that even fit in my car?" My smile dropped when I reconsidered my decisions.

"I just thought. . . The movies always had these. . ." I trailed off. I sighed. "I'll go return it."

"No point, we'll make it fit," Jack assured me. We managed to get it into the back seat while still leaving the rearview mirror usable.

"Sorry, I just thought it'd be useful."

"I think you had the right idea. I would have just used parchment paper and a marker, much easier and it takes up less space," Jack said. "We'll need something to keep track of our findings."

"Thanks. I just had this notion that if I could just see it all laid out it would kind of just resolve into something that makes sense, you know?"

"Yeah, I know."

When we got back to the hotel we unpacked, filling the bag I had gotten with whatever Jack had deemed necessary for tomorrow's escapade with plenty left over for a few more days of similar activity. The hot pockets and energy drinks went into the small fridge the hotel provided while everything else pretty much just sat on the counter. We propped the cork board up against a wall and took some printer paper I had bought and wrote everything we could think of that has to do with the case on a separate sheet. We pinned each part of the crime on the board and looked at it for a long moment.

"I think it's safe to say that the whistling and forced voluntary evacuation are linked," I started.

"I think those fit under method. A way to clear the area before he does the dirty work," Jack said as he took some red string and stretched it between the three signs.

"Gut and charred eyes fit there too, but I don't think they're connected to the music," I continued. Jack stretched more string around those pins, nodding. "Destroyed soul under motive I think. Even if a ghost did manage to kill someone, destroying their soul would be a lot of effort to go to if that wasn't the purpose. Everything else under that is a mystery." Jack stretched out the string.

"No evidence except for the crime itself. I don't know how we catch this guy," Jack said.

"I'll tell you how, we find a pattern. Something like this is probably going to happen again, we just need to be aware of it. Find a witness if we can in the meantime, but I'd guess within the next month we're going to hear something," I said.

"And how do we do that? Ghosts might be listening in for us, but that's not going to be enough," Jack asked as he stepped back to see just how little we had to work with.

"You try to find that song, I'll figure the rest out," I assured him.

"Alright. Wanna pass me an energy drink before I go back to my room and search the web?" Jack asked as he made his way to the door.

I grabbed one from the fridge and passed it to him as he passed by and out the door, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

"How am I gonna find a pattern in the killings when the cops aren't going to tell us anything? I'm going to hack into their system. We'll get to the bottom of this if I have to go to jail to do it."