Strangehold took the kids to an early breakfast at a diner on the way to school. He bundled them out at the school, making sure they were ready to go. Then he drove home and retired to his meditation room at the top of his house.

He needed to take a minute to get ready for his day. He reached inside and charged up the ectoplasm he used to keep his longevity. He knew that it would eventually fade to being unuseful and he would start aging again. There was nothing he could do about that. He had to concentrate on helping others in the amount of time he had left.

He at least wanted to hang on to see his grandchildren reach adulthood and head out on their own without him.

Once he was recharged, he made sure he was presentable. He made himself a cup of coffee as he watched for Sergeant Burly to arrive. He hoped there wasn’t any problems at Crenshaw’s employer.

They needed some kind of lead to their killer, and his work might be the only way to get it. His home hadn’t provided any clue.

The only fact that helped them eliminate suspects was that he didn’t have visitors. So how had his killer found him. That put something of an onus on the people in the apartment building.

Either one of them knew enough to create the ectoplasmic disguise, or they didn’t. Once the visit to the printing service was over, he would have to go back to the apartment building and go over it again with an eye for that detail.

The other thing was that Crenshaw never stayed home. Where did he go night after night? If they knew that, that would give them a suspect pool while eliminating other people.

Strangehold would have to look into places around the building that catered to the night life. There was a chance that he was driving across town. People did that, but usually with a goal in mind.

He had a mental list of what they needed to know. He had no way to find any of that out unless he tried to use ectoplasm to trail Crenshaw around on his nightly wanderings.

That would be something if he could do it, but he doubted there would be enough traces in the air to give him a viable picture. Too many people would have already passed through where Crenshaw went and mixed their own traces in.

Ectoplasm was good for a lot of things as a manifestation of energy from inside a person’s body. Tracking people across the city was not one of them unless something was added to the mix.

Strangehold washed his cup out when he saw the unmarked sedan pull up in front of his house. He walked back through and stepped outside as Burly got out of the car. The sergeant nodded.

“I looked this place up on a city map,” said Burly. “It’s out in the sticks.”

“The faster we get this done, the better it will be,” said Strangehold. “I still have to pick up the kids after school.”

“I called Crenshaw’s bank before coming out here,” said Burly. He got back in the car and waited for Strangehold to get in. “They won’t let me have a thing without a warrant. I’m going to have to get one to see if he was spending money he wasn’t supposed to have.”

“I doubt this was a stranger killing,” said Strangehold. “The signs point to someone he knew. So someone at his building, his work, or wherever he went every night has to be the murderer. If we had some kind of motive, we could pinpoint who, but the only motive I can see is personal hate for the victim which seems odd.”

“Why odd?,” said Burly.

“According to the manager of his building, he was never home,” said Strangehold. “Who did he encounter in there that hated him so much when he never saw anyone? In my experience, neighbor issues are brought about by people rubbing against each other.”

“So his coworkers and anybody at his watering hole are his prime suspects,” said Burly.

“We’ll find out why when we have enough evidence to point at who,” said

Strangehold. “The real problem is will we be able to prove things in a court. I can prove ectoplasm is real, but I can’t make someone cough it up on demand.”

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“So we need something that will prove conclusive guilt without bringing in the giant disguise bit,” said Burly. “That’s going to be a hard sell for the D.A.”

“It’s worse than you think,” said Strangehold.

“How can it be worse than what I think?,” asked Burly.

“The person we are looking for will be physically unable to do the damage we saw,” said Strangehold. “The defense will want us to prove that the culprit could rip a man apart.”

“And that’s going to be impossible to do, isn’t it?,” said Burly.

“And dangerous to try,” said Strangehold. “The murderer can create his effect almost instantaneously which could be bad for us if we do uncover his real identity.”

Burly didn’t need that spelled out. He had seen enough to know he was being advised to shoot first if he ran into a giant thing, and just take retirement after he explained why he had been afraid of someone smaller than him.

The department might cover it up, but he would be done if he spouted off about a giant monster disguise that vanished when the wearer was dead.

He drove on in silence. Worrying about retirement meant little if he didn’t live to see it.

Burly pulled into the parking lot of the Frakes Printing Company and parked. The building was a gray cube with a rampart of red with the company name in giant white letters. The only windows were in the front, next to the glass front door.

“I hope this guy had some friends,” said Burly. “We could use something beyond what we got right now.”

“I hope he had someone who is an obvious enemy so we know who had the most reason to kill him,” said Strangehold.

“I doubt he will be wearing a sign,” said Burly. “I’m a murderer. Arrest me.”

“We can’t make the policeman’s job easier,” said Strangehold. He led the way to the front door. He hoped he didn’t have to fight a duel in the middle of a crowd of people. Someone was bound to be hurt.

“How you doing?,” said Burly to the front lady. He showed her his badge. “Is

your boss in? We have some questions about an employee.”

“I’ll have to call the office,” said the counter person. “He might be walking the floor.”

“Go ahead,” said Burly. “We’ll probably need to talk to someone in Personnel also.”

She called up from the desk. She talked to whomever was on the other end for a minute, then nodded to herself. She concluded with I’ll send them right up before hanging up the phone.

“Mildred said Mister Frakes is upstairs in his office,” said the counter lady. “She said she would tell him that you were coming up.”

“Thank you very much,” said Burly. He smiled, and they walked behind the counter, through the door separating the public area from the work space. The detective followed the signs to a set of concrete and metal stairs leading to a box above the machines and crews on the floor.

They spotted a woman behind a desk through a window that ran around the cube. She waved for them to step inside. They did, noticing how much quieter the office was compared to the floor below.

“Mister Frakes is waiting for you,” said the secretary. “Go inside.”

Burly pushed open the door and they stepped inside an office that had a great view of the floor below and the ceiling. Frakes looked like a pear on legs with half his hair gone, and the rest looking for a life boat. He stood behind his desk.

“Hello,” said Burly. “I’m Sergeant Burly. This is Doctor Strangehold. We’re here to talk to you about Allan Crenshaw. We were wondering what you could tell us about him.”

“Crenshaw worked in the design office on the other side of the facility,” said Frakes. “I don’t know a lot about him. I don’t really remember any complaints from his supervisor. What is this about?”

“Mister Crenshaw was killed at his home,” said Burly. “We’re trying to find out what we can about him. His neighbors appear to have never seen him more than a few minutes at a time.”

“Ed Dorsey is the design head,” said Frakes. “He would be Crenshaw’s direct

supervisor.”

“Can we talk to him?,” said Burly. He made a note in his pad. “Also we would like to look at Crenshaw’s file. We need to know if he had any relatives that need to be called.”

“I’ll have Mildred pull it,” said Frakes. He backed the words with a call to his

secretary. “How did Crenshaw die?”

“We’re still trying to find what the murder weapon was,” said Burly. “You’ve never seen the man?”

“Not since I went over his application with him,” said Frakes. “He came from HPU with a degree in design work. His only recommendation was his professor. Dorsey would have called to let me know if there was a problem, or if he was going to fire the guy.”

Mildred came in with the file. She handed it off to Frakes before leaving. He handed it to Burly. The detective did a quick scan. He handed it to Strangehold before pulling out his notebook and pen.

“You said his only recommendation was his professor’s?,” said Burly. “Do you

happen to remember the name?”

“It was Coley I think,” said Frakes. “I asked him why he didn’t have anyone else. He said this was his first try at a job in the field. His professor was the only one who would vouch for him.”

Strangehold scanned the thin file and frowned at the lack of information there. He and Burly had already uncovered most of this at the crime scene. There wasn’t even a next of kin listed in case something happened to him on the job.

“We would like to talk to Mister Dorsey, and see if he can tell us anything,” said Burly. “We might have more questions later. I’m not sure right now since we’re just starting our investigation.”

“I’ll be glad to help you any way I can,” said Frakes. “I’ll call down to let Ed know you’re on the way.”

“Thanks,” said Burly.

Strangehold handed the file back. He discarded Frakes as a suspect just on his appearance. They needed someone slimmer, and shorter.

A disguise might be possible, but he was sure he would sense the ectoplasm being urged to settle in place.