The Ghost Files

Chapter Sixteen

"Mattie, what are you doing?"

I ignore Dan and concentrate instead on Mary. I realize after a minute that her face isn't shredded like Mirror Boy's. It's just bloody from a head wound. She's bleeding from more places than I can count. She still has a blindfold over her eyes. 

"Mary?"

Nothing. I'm not sure she can hear me, but I try again. "Mary, it's Mattie."

She whimpers and thumps her hand against the floor again. I wince at the sound. It's so tired and forlorn.

"Mary, I swear we are trying to find you," I tell her softly. "Please don't give up. I promise I'll find you. I swear it."

"Tired," she whispers at last. "Just want to sleep."

"Mattie, who are you talking to?"

"Dan, be quiet. I'm talking to Mary."

"The girl that's missing?" he asks curiously. I hear his feet shuffle and then he's peering under the other side of the bed. He frowns at me. I roll my eyes at him.

"Mary, I know you're tired, but you have to keep trying. Stay with me, please. We're looking for you. Everyone is."

"I hurt."

"I know you do." My voice catches on a sob. She can't die. She just can't. "Just hang in there. I will find you."

"Please make it stop hurting," she begs me before giving a last whimper and disappears. She's there and then she's just gone. The sheer depth of the pain in her voice is too much even for me and I can feel the tears start their path down my cheeks. Then Dan is there and picking me up off the floor. He sits on the bed and just holds me while I cry. It's been so long since I've cried. Maybe that's why I'm sobbing so hard. I hear the door crack open and then Dan is saying something and the door closes.

He doesn't say anything, just lets me cry and strokes my hair while I do. I'm not sure how long he sits there with me in his lap and lets me soak his shirt. But it feels like forever when I finally sit up and hiccup. He hands me a tissue he's gotten from the little nightstand beside the bed. I blow my nose loudly and sneeze and then scoot off his lap and settle back in the bed.

"Tell me what you know. Everything you've discovered about the cases."

"It's not much. I was able to get the jackets only on Sally and Mary's disappearance since they are both CPD cases. The disappearances are in a three county wide radius. All the victims were taken from busy public places. There is no connection between the victims except your bullet holes. It's not a lot to go on, Mattie."

"Mirror Boy. He is the key to all this. If we find out what happened to him, then we can find out what happened to all of them."

"How do you know that, Mattie?"

"I don't know, but I know it's true, Dan. I just do."

I can feel the sigh go right through him. It's hard for Dan to believe me, but he is trying which is more than I ever expected from anyone.

"Okay," he says at last. "I'll try to get the case file from the Statesville PD tomorrow and then we'll go through it."

"We?"

"Yeah, we," he grins down at me. "You're pretty good at this stuff, Mattie."

"Do you think we can find her before she dies?"

"We will."

"Dan?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."