She smiled at the sound of his voice and stretched, then opened her eyes and shrieked, instantly pulling the covers over her head.
“You see her too?” Greer asked.
A lump under the covers nodded.
“We have to go with her.”
Remi lowered the covers enough to expose her eyes. She looked over toward the floating, human-sized blue orb, then shook her head and covered back up.
Greer pulled the covers back. He handed Remi’s clothes to her. “Get dressed. I don’t want to leave you behind.” She dressed in hurried jerky movements, keeping her eyes on the apparition. He geared up, strapping on his Kevlar, stowing his weapons. When Remi came to stand behind him, he turned and helped her into her protective vest.
“Don’t be afraid.”
She glared up at him. “Do you hear yourself? We’re going out into the night in an area where we know mass murderers are loose, wearing Kevlar, you’re armed to the teeth, to follow a ghost. The only sane thing to do is be afraid.”
Greer grinned. “That’s my girl.”
The ghost disappeared. Greer took Remi’s hand and led her through the front door and out into the night. The village was buzzing with activity, as it had been since he and Remi quit for the night. He checked his phone to see if something more had happened while they slept. No alarms or messages.
The ghost had jumped all the way to the edge of the forest, on the far side of the village. Greer and Remi jogged after her.
When they reached the edge of the community, Sally’s ghost slipped into the woods. Her glowing light dimmed, then disappeared, only to reappear whenever they had to make a course correction.
Two miles into the national forest, Remi stopped Greer. The path they’d taken wasn’t a well-defined hiking trail. No, it was over steep, rocky outcroppings and through underbrush dense with ancient scrub pines. They’d just topped another jagged ledge when Remi snagged Greer’s shirt. She needed a short a break…and they needed a reality check.
“What are we doing? Think about it. This is crazy.”
Greer set his hands on his hips and peered into the dark woods in the direction where they’d last seen the blue glow. “Have you ever seen a ghost before?” he asked.
“No.”
“But you saw the ghost tonight, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I saw her the night I ran into you up here. I saw her at your office. I saw her on the next rooftop over the night your apartment was hit. It’s no accident that we’re seeing her tonight.”
“Greer, where is she going? What’s ahead of us in this direction?”
He pulled out his phone and opened an app Owen had provided the team. Beyond a topographical map, this one had layers for roads and trails, residences and commercial buildings, energy and telecommunication resources, underground gas, sewer, and water lines.
“The only man-made structure around here is another mile east of us,” he said.
“Do you think that’s where she’s leading us?”
“I don’t know. According to my info, there’s no power or telephone to the site. Either they’re running on generators or it’s an abandoned building.” He sent their coordinates to Max. There was no reason to wake the team—yet. When they arrived at what the ghost was leading them toward, he’d be better able to assess the situation and know what kind of help he needed.
He looked at Remi, proud of her fortitude and attitude. He wished, as much as she was keeping up with him and staying calm, that he’d had a safe place for her to wait. He had no idea what they were getting into up ahead. This whole thing may not pan out at all…or it could be an important discovery in the mystery of what had happened to Sally and the others.
He cracked open a bottle of water and handed it to her. She guzzled half of it and handed it back to him. He finished it off, then put the empty bottle in his backpack. They started off again, following the terrain shown by his phone app. He hadn’t gone but a few hundred yards when he realized Remi wasn’t behind him.
“Greer, over here! She went this way!” he heard her call.
He doubled back and followed Remi. He couldn’t see her or the ghost, but he could hear her moving at a fast pace through the woods. On the side of the mountain where they were, there was less underbrush to obstruct their way. Jagged rocks pierced the ground, sticking out at sharp angles.
He was about to call out to Remi to slow down and move carefully—he didn’t want her injured by missing a step and slipping down into the ravine below them—but a sharp cry from her told him he was too late.
Her flashlight was dancing around in a tight pattern as he reached her side, then it locked on one thing. “Oh, God. Oh, God. What is that? Greer, what is that?” Remi held the flashlight on the decomposing flesh of an arm.
The ghost stood where the feet of the body would be, a little down slope, and wept, the ethereal sound surrounding them as if it came from the hills themselves.
Greer knelt beside the body. He had no doubt the body was Sally. He’d found her at last. “Aw, hell. I’m so sorry, Sally. Rebecca.” He looked at the corpse’s dirtied blond hair, her head at a strange angle against a rock.
Remi scooted away, tucking her heels tightly against herself. “Is that her?”
“Yeah. I’m willing to bet it is.” He texted the coordinates and info to Max.
“What do you suppose she was doing out here, so far from the community?”
“I wish I knew.”
The ghost’s blue glow dissipated. Greer looked up to see if she was leaving them now that she’d accomplished her mission. She was walking away, heading toward the building site he’d identified on his app.
“I don’t think she’s done with us,” he said. He looked at Remi. “Are you all right?”
“I tripped on her arm. I-I’m fine.”
He gave her a hand up. “Then let’s get a little closer to that building.”