The Ogre's Wife by Richard Parks

Author:Richard Parks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ghosts, fantasy, paranormal, short stories, collection
Publisher: Richard Parks

***

A Respectful Silence

Eli Mothersbaugh glanced at the case log scrolling by on the screen of his handheld. Three new ones so far this week alone, and there had already been a two-month backlog. Eli activated the voc recorder and made himself a note: “Either the Bureau hires more investigators next fiscal or I'm taking early retirement. There are only so many ghosts a man can hunt.”

He wasn't sure if he meant it or not, but it felt good to say. Even so, there were some interesting cases waiting for him, and he still felt some of the old eagerness remaining despite it all. That didn't explain why he was driving through miles of scrubby desert to the middle of nowhere, for a case that had been added to his load by the Director just that morning. Highest priority, meaning “now.”

Eli groaned. Doubtless some Congressman owed a constituent a favor. Eli pulled over for a moment and a huge cloud of dust rolled past his windows. He took the time to take a closer look at the travel map on his dashboard, comparing what the location indicator told him with the information on the last signpost. Two military jets roared high overhead, chasing each other through a pale blue sky like a pair of black dragonflies.

Only about three more miles.

Eli checked the time and the height of the sun over the nearby mountains. There were still about two hours of daylight left. He smiled.

Good.

Hunting ghosts was a task for the light of day. Eli hated working at night.

●

The file said Sayer's Field was abandoned, but that was a lame word compared to the stark reality. Eli got out and made one round of the cracked, weedy tarmac and rusting hangers, checking the calibration of his sensory integrator and compilation device not so affectionately known as sensic—when he came across the old man sweeping the concrete floor of an abandoned hangar. Maintaining an abandoned airfield, just as the file had said.

Well, at least that explains how this case got high priority.

Eli hadn't made the connection with the urgency and the name in his file until he saw the old man — Conrad Stallings. He tapped a few keys on the sensic to request a confirmation, but he didn't really need it. The profile was unmistakable.

“You're Senator Nathaniel Stallings' father, aren't you?”

The man nodded. “I don't suppose it would do any good to deny it. So. My son sent you, did he?”

Stallings leaned on his broom for a moment, studying Eli without expression as Eli in turn studied him. He was old, of course. There was a pinkness to his cheeks and a shine on his skin that suggested telomere therapy, and perhaps other treatments as well. Physically he looked about sixty. Just a little older than his son, and the resemblance was unmistakable.

Eli broke the silence. “Why would you think your son sent me?”

“There's no reason for anyone else to come here, except me, or because of me. My son thinks I'm crazy.

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