“Well, we know where they’ve been. I got me a bead on them with some of my friends. We can track better than the FBI when we set our mind to it.” Joel had no doubt that he could. “And so’s you know, the bastard lives in Ohio too. We can kill us a couple of birds with a single stone.”
Joel was still sort of squeamish on the whole killing thing. He’d never been in a positon to actually do the deed before. He’d had his second wife poisoned. His first wife, of course, was still living. He hadn’t had the resources to take care of her like he did the next time, but he was beginning to feel a little bad about that too. Joel had talked a big game when he was pressed, but he wasn’t sure he could actually kill anyone. But he was pretty sure that Dane had not just done it while living, but even since he’d been dead. The more time he spent with the man, the more he was beginning to realize his mistake in hooking up with him.
Traveling was set up. It was easy too. They just had to think of a place that they knew very well and go there. Since Joel didn’t know where they were headed, he was relying on Dane to get him there safely. And safety was something that he was very concerned with right now.
A ghost could be killed. Well, not killed, but rendered incapable of moving. There were elements, things that could be done to them that would send them to the other side. And Joel was still foggy on where that might be. It wasn’t heaven, he’d been told, but someplace else. No one seemed to know where this other place was, but no one ever came back from it. That was what it meant when you were zapped. You went there.
The rules were simple, if not a little odd. If you landed in a church or a place of worship, you were stuck. And you couldn’t move out of it no matter what you did, but you could move around it. Not a lot of fun in that. Even a cemetery could hold you, but if someone summoned a dead person, said their name three times, they could be brought out of it. There was also the circle. He’d tried his best to get information on that, but all he’d been able to understand was it was round and it involved salt.
And that was another rule he’d been told about. Avoid salt of any kind at all costs. Which made absolutely no sense to him whatsoever since he didn’t eat. Why on earth would he need it around him anyway? But Dane had been very forceful about the no salt, and he was going to do what he said.
It took them what seemed like forever to get to their destination. Dane had gone ahead twice before Joel was able to follow. Joel didn’t care for this idea of depending so much on the other man any more than he had to. To be honest, he thought him a little unstable, but he was getting him to Addison and that was all that mattered for the time being. Besides, the man had a wealth of informants, and that was proving to be extremely helpful to him too.
Like the other day when he’d been trying his best to get a new suit. It was just hanging on the rack, yes, but he loved the color and knew that the fit would be spectacular. The man…ghost, he supposed…that seemed to know the tailor industry better than his other tailor ever did, came to talk to him about it.
“You like?” Joel told him that he did. When something hit him in the head, he looked at the older man. “You can’t wear it, dumbass. You’re dead. You’re stuck in the clothing that you died in. But there are things you can do to change up your clothing. Take off your jacket. Remove your tie. And the best part is, you no longer have to worry about it needing pressed should you leave it wadded up in your pocket. It’ll be just as fresh as the day you put it on. The blood will stay, but the rest will look nice. Don’t remember where you took it off? No problems there, either. It’s yours, and with you all the time should you want it.”
Joel had been playing with his outfit for hours now. He hated that it was always the same one, but he liked that he didn’t have to look like it. Dane, he noticed, was wearing the same nasty looking shirt and pants he’d been murdered in. Even the blood on the front he sort of wore like a badge was something he took pains to show off. The man was a complete moron about a great many things so far as Joel was concerned.
He decided quickly that this area of Ohio was a dump. There was a mall nearby that he wouldn’t have stepped foot in, a movie theater that boasted only six movies at all times, and a selection of restaurants that would have kept him from ever going out to eat. It wasn’t up to his standards at all.
“You really are a snob, aren’t you?” Joel looked at Dane. “Who gives a shit about the quality of the mall? It’s not like you’re going to be shopping there. And believe it or not, they don’t deliver food to the dead. It’s one of their rules or something. And what the fuck do you care if there ain’t no movies you want to see? It’s not like you’re gonna have to pay when you go in. Nobody gives two fucks about you anymore.”