Ghosts by Matt Rogers (ap literature book list txt) 📕

‘It can’t happen again.’

Silence.

She thought of Ruby.

He said, ‘It can’t.’

She said, ‘I understand.’

No one spoke.

She said, ‘So what now?’

‘We have two people Ray would very much like to get his hands on,’ King said. ‘One for preservation, and one for revenge.’

Kerr.

Ward.

Violetta looked at the junior officer. He had his head bowed, and he was stifling sobs. She said, ‘You’re not going to hand this guy over to get tortured and killed.’

Ward looked up.

A twinge of hope.

She said, ‘I’m sure his family was threatened. He doesn’t deserve it.’

‘They were,’ Slater said. ‘Ray was going to kill his grandmother unless he delivered Alexis to him.’

Violetta stared at him. ‘You can’t be aware of that and still be comfortable handing him—’

‘I’m not,’ Slater said. ‘Don’t you get it?’

She thought about it.

She understood.

She said, ‘The swap doesn’t actually have to go through. You just have to get into a position where Alexis is right there, out in the open. Not locked in a back room where Ray can execute her as soon as you show up.’

King nodded. ‘We bring Kerr and Ward. We feign to hand them over. Ray feigns to hand Alexis over.’

A pause.

King said, ‘That’s when we kill everyone.’

Ward bowed his head again.

Slater sat down in the stool next to Ward. He let the silence draw out until the cop got uncomfortable and lifted his face to meet Slater’s gaze.

Ward said, ‘I’m sorry about what I did. Really, I am.’

Slater said, ‘I know. That’s why you’re not in the “kill everyone” plan.’

Ward hesitated.

He didn’t believe it.

Slater said, ‘What good would it do? Killing you for something you saw no way out of?’

Ward said, ‘Please don’t give me hope.’

‘I’m giving you the truth.’

Silence.

Slater said, ‘I’m asking you to trust us.’

Ward thought it over.

Slater said, ‘You take our side, or you take the side of a degenerate drug addict.’

Ward said, ‘Of course I know what the right decision is. But…’

He trailed off.

King said, ‘But?’

Ward looked up, wracked by indecision. ‘I’ve trusted everyone today. I’ve been blindsided over and over. I keep doing what people tell me to do, and it put me here. I don’t want any part of this. If I agree to help you, there’s no guarantee you’ll stick to your word. I don’t know anything about any of you. Who are you? Vigilantes or something?’

‘Let’s leave it at vigilantes,’ Slater said. ‘But we do the right thing. Always.’

‘I watched you kill four people.’

‘Sometimes the law doesn’t lead to the right thing,’ Slater said. ‘You’ve seen that first-hand.’

They all saw Ward flash back.

Disappeared witnesses.

Suppressed cases.

Complaint after complaint from the distraught parents of exploited girls, all of them falling on deaf ears.

Ward said, ‘Okay.’

King said, ‘You have Ray’s number?’

‘Yes.’

‘I’ll call from your phone.’

He fished through Ward’s pockets and found a mangled iPhone, the screen sporting a spiderweb of cracks. He took a deep breath. ‘Any chance you know his number off by heart?’

Ward shook his head. He looked like he might cry.

King pressed the home button.

Behind the cracks, the screen lit up.

King said, ‘It’s your lucky day, Alan.’

He got the passcode off the shaken cop, went to the contacts and found a contact added only hours earlier: RAY.

King looked at it. ‘Did you know this man before today?’

‘No,’ Ward said.

‘Christ,’ King said. ‘It’s been a day for you, hasn’t it?’

Ward said nothing.

His battered, bloody, dishevelled state answered that question.

King thumbed the name, ringing Ray’s phone.

He switched it to speakerphone.

46

The time continued to blur.

Alexis sat in darkness, back in the same endless thought loop, unable to contain her racing mind. She’d given up on stoicism. Maybe with more practice she’d master it, but this wasn’t the setting. She knew with full resignation that the next time that door opened, her aura of confidence would shatter. She’d kept it up for as long as she could. She’d spared herself a couple of hours, maybe. Enough time for Ray to establish a rapport with his temporary army of mercenaries and send them anyplace else.

Then he’d come sauntering back in, happy as a pig in shit, ready for a good time at the expense of—

The door opened.

Light spilled in, but not as much. It was all artificial now, coming from the interspersed bulbs in the outside corridor instead of the sun beating in through the sunroof out in the warehouse. The silhouette of Keith Ray in the doorway was unmistakable. Just as big, just as vile.

He said, ‘Still feeling brave?’

She sucked in air.

He said, ‘That’s more like it.’

He stepped into the room, turned on the small desk lamp, and closed the door behind him. It was so cramped with them both in there, and the lamp did little to stem her fears. It cast shadow over him — his fat red face, his ruddy complexion, the unmasked lust in his eyes.

‘Please,’ she croaked. ‘You don’t have to do this…’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I do.’

He dropped to his knees beside her. She sat cross-legged, hunched over, trying to protect herself. He loomed over her. He reached down and touched his fingers to her chin and tilted her face up to look at him. His fingertips were coated in perspiration. They were slimy against her skin.

She said, ‘Keith.’

‘Yes?’

‘If you do this, you’re going to die. Slowly and painfully.’

He almost laughed. ‘Oh?’

‘I’m here in Vegas with a group of mercenaries,’ she said. ‘That’s how I knew your name when I met Alan. My friends — they’re ex-government. They worked black operations. They’re levels above you and your men. They’ll show mercy if you don’t touch me, but if you do anything to me, they’ll hunt you down and tear you apart piece by piece. I’m not exaggerating. I’m not lying. This isn’t something you want to do.’

She stopped talking, and he let the office go dead quiet before he responded.

‘Even if any of that bullshit was true,’ he said, ‘I don’t see them here.’

He looked left and right for dramatic effect, then he turned his revolting eyes back to her.

‘See?’ he said. ‘Just you and me.’

‘Keith…’

‘You’ve got no friends here.