Page 20 of Ghost
Amazing what a little over forty-eighthours could do to a person’s point of view. He’d be stuck here forthe next two days and was already counting down the hours before hecould catch a taxi back to the airport, and back to Marshall—andGhost.
They were still no closer to figuringout who the shooter was and which of them was the likely target,though all indications suggested Ghost was the one in danger. Asfor the case of Aunt Sophia and her missing baby, things weremoving along well enough. Spencer was able to dig up Jericho’s Armyrecord after Ray discovered his service during the Korean War. Hewas surprised to learn the sergeant had been relieved of duty onlymonths before the United States pulled out of Korea, and was sentback to the States on a medical discharge. Upon furtherinvestigation, they discovered the man had a mental breakdownduring a skirmish outside Saigon.
Jericho’s records indicated that he’dbeen behaving erratically and even had been put on suicide watchfor a time. Of course, none of this was uncommon in such hostileand deadly circumstances, but all prior notes in his fileclassified Jericho as a stable individual with keen insight andskill. He’d even been promoted and received several citations forbravery.
It wasn’t as uncommon as you’d hopefor service members to snap and completely lose their shit withoutwarning, and back in Jericho’s day, there weren’t the mental healthavenues available to service members today. Back then, it was shutup and move out. If you were a little bit crazy, that would be evenbetter.
After Jericho was discharged, hereturned home without a risk assessment or plan for hisreintegration into civilian life. It was unfortunate that most“shell-shocked” vets were institutionalized without any hope ofimprovement or let loose on the general population. The militaryhad come a long way in the past forty years, but it wasn’t a secretthat there was always room for further improvement.
“Well, look what the catdragged in,” a voice said from behind Ray.
Funny, it was the second time he’dheard that line this week. Hell, it wasn’t like he’d fallen off theplanet, but by others’ reactions, Ray may as well have.
He turned to find Detective RockoOwens standing roughly twenty feet from him across the lobby. Owensand Ray had a past; they’d fallen into bed on more than oneoccasion, and Ray had even looked forward to picking up wherethey’d left off the last time they’d been in the same city for morethan twenty-four hours. Now, oddly, the thought didn’t hold thesame appeal.
“Where the hell have youbeen hiding?” Owens asked.
“Some people have to work,”Ray shot back. “Not all of us have the cushy job you do over inBoca Raton, where you’re more likely to die of old age than by aviolent crime.”
“You’re jealous.” Owenslaughed.
“That you’ll likely get amelanoma from that Florida sun or be eaten by a shark whileswimming in the ocean?”
Owens closed the distance and slappedRay on the back good-naturedly.
“How the hell are you,man?” he asked.
“Living the dream.You?”
“Leave it to you to be therealist. As for me, I’m stellar. Couldn’t be better. Life isgood.”
That was the thing about Owens: he wasthe optimist and pretty much the opposite of Ray.
“Want to grab a drink?” heasked.
“Can’t. I’ve got some workto do before the welcome banquet tonight.”
“Want some company?” Owensasked suggestively.
Normally, Ray would have been open tothe company, but not today.
“No, man. I gottawork.”
“No worries, plenty of timeto catch up later,” Owens said, adding a wink. “Hope to see youtonight and with much less clothing on.”
Owens left Ray standing in the lobby,feeling at a crossroads. It wasn’t as if he and Ghost had some sortof relationship. Hell, it takes a lot more than a stolen kiss andheated moment, that’s for sure. Then why was he feeling soguilty?
***
Ghost
“You can’t be sure it wasme they were after,” Ghost tried again to talk some sense intoBrick. “It could have been this new case. Maybe someone didn’t likeus poking around into the whole Jericho Miles issue or Sophia’smissing baby.”
Brick gave him another withering look.“The odds of that are slim.”
“However, there is still achance I’m right, and forcing me to stay on the property isoverkill.”
“Seriously, give upalready,” Fletcher said. “Until we get to the bottom of this,you’re safer here.”
