Ghosts, Matt Rogers [reading the story of the .txt] 📗

cleaned his face and patched his wounds — especially the bullet hole in his thigh — so he didn’t look quite so injured and dishevelled anymore, but he sure as hell looked exhausted. After a day of such incredulous highs, the subsequent lows were inevitable. His face was pale and there were heavy bags under his eyes, signs of adrenal fatigue. He looked set to fall asleep in the chair unless he was prodded to speak.

Slater prodded. ‘Go on. Ask me anything.’

Ward blinked to keep himself awake. ‘What?’

‘You don’t know anything about us,’ Slater said. ‘If you’re going to trust us, that needs to change.’

Ward said, ‘I just want to get out of this mess alive, man. I don’t care who you are.’

‘I’m offering to help you when I don’t have to,’ Slater said. ‘So humour me.’

‘What — you want me to quiz you about your life?’

‘I want you to do the responsible thing,’ Slater said, ‘and get to know the man you’re about to go to war with.’

‘Or not.’

Slater raised an eyebrow.

Ward said, ‘You don’t have to string me along, man. I don’t have the energy for it. Just say it like it is. I’m expendable. When we get there, and you get your girlfriend back, I’m dead. You can’t afford to let me go knowing what I know.’

‘I won’t screw you around,’ Slater said. ‘I’ll tell you the truth. I was considering that exact option.’

‘So just shoot me here,’ Ward said. ‘Save yourself the trouble.’

‘I’m not shooting you anywhere.’

‘How am I supposed to believe that?’

‘Because I keep my word,’ Slater said. ‘No matter what. “Say what you do; do what you say.” I live my entire life by that motto.’

‘False platitudes,’ Ward said. ‘I’m not leaving that warehouse alive.’

‘You’ve let Keith Ray influence you,’ Slater said. ‘He’s a desperate man who says one thing and does the opposite. You think that’s normal.’

‘That’s what everyone does,’ Ward said. ‘That’s life.’

‘For most. Not for me. Not for my friends.’

‘So you’re the pure vigilante? And there’s a gang of you? Like something out of a comic book? That doesn’t work in the world I’ve seen. It just gets you killed.’

‘Not if you’re good enough,’ Slater said. ‘Not if you’re ready for people to try.’

‘So that’s it? You do the right thing every time, and it gets you into trouble like this?’

‘You’re catching on.’

‘So you have no personal connection to Ray, or Kerr, or Gates?’ Ward said. ‘You didn’t know about them before you started sniffing around?’

‘We didn’t know anything before yesterday morning,’ Slater said. ‘King met a woman in a park who Kerr manipulated into an eleven-year prison sentence. She was sentenced today. They planted drugs on her to silence her because she was digging around the outskirts of Ray’s illicit network. That’s when we got involved.’

‘How many times have you involved yourself in something that was none of your business?’

‘Too many times to count.’

It was the truth.

His recent history — and his long-term history — defied belief.

Ward said, ‘It’s going to get you killed. It’s inevitable.’

‘I welcome that day.’

‘No you don’t,’ Ward said. ‘You say you do, but you don’t. No one’s ready to die.’

‘Don’t put your own shortcomings on everyone else. We don’t all think like you.’

‘You calling me weak?’

‘No,’ Slater said. ‘You’re on the path. You’re entertaining the idea of helping us. That’s noble.’

‘Nobility just gets you killed,’ Ward said. ‘Like how you’re going to wind up dead. It might not be this time, but it’ll come.’

‘Will you help us?’

Ward shifted against the electrical tape. ‘What do you want me to say? You know what I have to say, because I’m here against my will.’

‘I want you to say yes,’ Slater said. ‘And I want you to mean it.’

‘I’ll help you,’ Ward said. ‘And I admire you.’

Slater said, ‘You don’t have to lie.’

‘I mean it. I’m sorry about Alexis. There’s no point blaming anyone but myself. I should have been stronger.’

Slater soaked it in. He absentmindedly picked at the arm of the chair with a nail. Then he smiled and got to his feet.

He said, ‘There’s a clear path out of this mess. Your involvement can go unnoticed if we create enough of a scene. When the dust settles we’ll look at the security footage from the warehouse. We can erase you showing up with Alexis. You can deny the rest. There won’t be heat on you for very long. Not in the aftermath of a dead ex-sheriff and a dead DA.’

Ward shook his head at the implication.

War was coming.

He said, ‘You really don’t let up, ever? You never take the easier path?’

Slater said, ‘Never.’

‘Hopefully I’ll get there someday.’

Slater said, ‘You’ll still make a damn fine cop.’

He fetched a box cutter out of the right-hand desk drawer and loomed over Ward with it. He slashed, tearing a jagged line down the cocoon of tape. Ward stood up and out of the tape, unharmed. Slater used the same short blade to slash the cable ties.

He said, ‘Stay in this room. Don’t go anywhere. I need to go over the game plan with the others for five minutes. Don’t do anything stupid.’

Ward rolled his eyes. ‘You think I’ll sneak out a window and run back to Ray? After everything that’s happened?’

‘Overthinking makes fools of us all,’ Slater said. ‘Don’t think the wrong thoughts.’

‘Wouldn’t dream of it. I’ll be here.’

Slater retracted the blade and slipped the box cutter into his pocket. He stepped out of the office, locking the door behind him for good measure. Because what he’d said was true. It only takes one stray thought, one tempting idea, to ruin a good thing.

When he made it to the kitchen he found King and Violetta in an embrace, their eyes closed, their foreheads pressed together.

Slater turned quietly to leave.

‘It’s okay,’ King said, stepping away as he heard the footfalls. ‘You’re not intruding.’

Slater hovered in the doorway. ‘You two okay?’

Violetta nodded. ‘Yeah. Just needed a minute.’

Slater sighed. ‘Don’t we all?’

She said, ‘How are you both? Physically, I mean. I almost