Unfinished Business

I didn’t mean to die. One minute I’m waiting in a mall bathroom because my girlfriend thinks fooling around in public is hot and then suddenly I’m watching myself be wheeled away in a body bag. It’s pretty surreal.

I have no idea what happened. I was alive then I wasn’t. I can’t ask anyone in Sears to change the channel and they’d never play the news over the intercom, so I’m lost on all of the details. My death didn’t seem to slow the mall down any though. The next day there was a huge crowd like they wanted to be in the mall where someone died.

My luck turned around this morning with the Sunday paper. They were stacked high behind the counter in the bookstore and flying off the shelves. Only one person with it kept my interest. Standing behind the register and skimming the paper was Tess, her bobbed blonde hair falling into her eyes. We had been going out for a couple of months. It hadn’t been serious, but I was hoping it could be. I doubt it’s going anywhere now.

The title was in huge, glaring print: Mall Slaying.

At least I made the front page. She lingered there, reading slowly and letting me take in the entire story. I was “brutally” slain and the police were following some “promising” leads.

A sick heat rushed into my face. That’s not how I wanted to go out. Tess straightened up to read the story, pouring over every detail. She didn’t notice one of her coworkers come up beside her.

“That’s fucked up.”

Tess didn’t startle, just raised her head to look at the younger girl. I think her name was Jamie. “Majorly.”

“And, like, they just make us come back to work the next day?” Her voice raised at the end like it was a question. I think that was just how she talked. “Like, someone killed him. And they’re just out there. They could be inside this store right now.”

Tess nodded, “Maybe. The police don’t have shit.”

“What? But—but the paper said they had a lead?”

“That’s what they say when they’re stumped. People would freak if Sheriff Campbell got on the news and just shrugged.” Tess ran her middle finger along the included picture. My picture. It wasn’t bad, but they had used my senior yearbook photo. I was 24. There were six years of pictures to choose from. “Gotta keep the public safe from themselves.”

Jamie noticed how she traced me, how her eyes glazed over for a brief moment. “Did you know him?”

Tess pulled herself back to reality. “Kinda. I saw him around campus. I think we had a lecture together a few years ago.”

We did have a lecture together. Psychology. She had sat at the front of the room. Every morning she would prop her legs up on the railing in front of her and use her legs as a desk. I’d liked her ever since.

“I’m so sorry. If you ever need anything, you know where I am.” Jamie gave her shoulder a light touch before she left.

Tess went back to the paper. Her thumb sat firmly on my photographed chest. She gave the room a quick scan. No one was around. From under the counter, she pulled out a pair of scissors and began cutting the story out. She paused. I could see the goosebumps rise on the back of her neck. Tess threw a look over her shoulder, right where I was standing. Shaking her head, she finished and put the story between two pages in a book she had beside her. After a few seconds, she cut my picture out too. Sighing, she put my picture inside of her wallet and went back to work.

I spent the rest of the day thinking about that. How Tess had to lie about us. Of course she didn’t want to be a dead guy’s girlfriend. I wouldn’t.

I’d been doing the same thing before I was gone. My parents hadn’t even known about her.

My parents. Somewhere in the mess of all this, they’d gotten lost. I died, sure. But I was still here. But for them, I’m gone. Completely and totally gone. They have no idea that I’m stuck. They get all the pity, the avoidant glances, and all the pain of losing their son, while I get to be a walking, invisible corpse.

That wrecked me. I was so caught up in that thought that I didn’t avoid walking through people. They’d gasp and spin around, searching for what had just chilled them. If it was anything like what I felt then it was a sudden shiver down the spine. I didn’t like the feeling. Plus, it just seemed rude.

Plowing through the crowd with my head down, I saw a set of feet dance out of my path at the last second. My body snapped around. I looked right into her eyes. She looked right into mine.

“What’s your fucking damage?” She scoffed. Then she froze. Her head cocked to the side. Her eyes searched every inch of me, always coming back up to my face. “Not again.”

Maybe it was a wild coincidence. Except that everyone else was moving and not paying any attention to us. The color drained from her face with each second. “You can see me.”

“You’re the guy.”

“Steve,” I gave my hand to her. Her hand fell through the air between us. “Sorry.”

“Sydney,” she shook her head. “Happens more than you’d think.”

“How can you see me?”

“That—” She sighed. “That’s a long story.”

—

They sat in the far corner of the food court, away from anyone who could hear her talking to herself.

“You don’t remember anything?” She twirled her cup of tea around in her hands.

I shook my head. “Nothing. I was in that bathroom then I was watching myself be wheeled away.”

Sydney nodded. “That’s pretty normal for… cases like yours.”

“How many dead people have you talked to?”

“Too many.”

“And you never questioned it?”

“It’s a family thing,” she waved it off like she was explaining why her hair was red. “A lot of us can see you all, I’m just bad at ignoring it. I’ll do what I can to help you, but moving on is your own business.”

“So, is it an unfinished thing? Is that why I’m here?” I leaned forward. I’d heard a lot of ghost stories, but I didn’t seem like someone with unfinished business. I didn’t have to warn anyone about impending doom or tell my wife that I love her.

“I have no idea. It’s different for everyone,” she sighed. “When people are torn from this world before they’re ready, they stay. It’s like spilled Coke. You can clean it up and it’s gone, but it’s still sticky. It’s still there.”

“Did you just compare my murder to soda?”

“It’s the best I had,” Sydney whispered. Holding my gaze, she stated, “Whatever is keeping you here is something for you to solve. I’ve met some who just need to say goodbye, some leave when they realize they’re dead. Some people have the Patrick Swayze thing where they want to protect someone, at least for a little while. Make sure they’re safe.”

“Like in Ghost.”

“Like in Ghost. But I’m being real. I can’t solve this for you. I don’t know what was going on in your life before you died. You figure out what it is and then I will do what I can to help you pass on.”

I wanted to say goodbye to my parents. I wanted to tell Tess we deserved more time. I wanted to be alive.

“I think… I need to know what happened.”

“What?”

“I have to know who killed me. Then I can go.”

“I don’t think that’s it.”

“How can I just say goodbye without knowing? Without them knowing?” I could say I was sorry and that I loved them, but then my time is up and they still have to suffer knowing that my killer may never be found. “They deserve answers.”

Sydney took a sip of her drink while she thought. “I’ll bring a paper by when the police catch the guy.”

“They don’t have shit. They said they have a lead, that’s what they say when they’re stumped.” I fought back. I couldn’t wait for weeks while they worked this case.

“Or they have a lead,” she countered. “I won’t make any promises, but I’ll ask around. See what the cops know. I’ll be back in a couple days. Don’t go anywhere.”

“That’s not funny.”

—

And she did come back. With a friend in tow.

“Steve, I want you to meet my friend. This is Michael, he’s a cop.” She motioned to the man standing up beside their table. He was the most average-looking man I’d ever seen.

“This guy believes you?” I asked.

“I’ve helped on a few cases. Under the table,” Sydney explained.

“It’s nice to meet you, Steve,” he said to the empty seat beside me.

“There,” she pointed at me.

Michael corrected himself and turned to look at me. “I’m very sorry about what happened to you.”

“My faith in the police is fading,” I whispered. Sydney gave me a look.

“I want to ask you some questions if that’s alright.” Michael sat down to my left.

“Tell him I want a lawyer.”

“He said he’s happy to help.”

“Sydney told me that you don’t remember anything, but it’d be really helpful if you could try. Were you meeting someone? Did you run into anyone who gave you trouble?” He had a little notepad out on the table, his hand poised to write down whatever I told him.

“Nothing. Nobody even looked at me twice. I came to see this girl, Tess, but she never made it,” I said. Sydney relayed my message and he jotted it down.

He flipped through some old notes, “Would that be Tess Macher?”

“Yep.” Sydney gave him a nod.

“And are you sure you never saw her?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Alright,” he nodded along. “I’m sure you have questions, so I’m going to tell you what we have. We had a lead, but he wasn’t in town when you died. No one around the mall saw the actual incident. Some claim they saw a large man enter the bathroom, others said they saw a woman, and one person said they didn’t know there were any bathrooms. The security camera set up nearby was out for an hour that day. That hour includes your murder. So, whoever did this knew how to take a camera offline or was working with someone who does.” Michael gave a small smile in my direction, one full of pity.

I was right. They had nothing. “How does someone just take a camera offline?”

Sydney didn’t tell Michael this, she responded to me herself. “Since it came back on, that means it probably happened inside the security office. It was manually turned off and back on.”

“We’ve checked tapes before that to see who went inside the office. It was a pretty busy day. Lots of shoppers and employees went in during that time,” he took a deep breath. He was really considering his next steps. “Would the girl you were coming to see want to hurt you? Were you all fighting?”

“We were smooth sailing. I just came so we could… Fool around a little.” I don’t think I can get in trouble for that now. “No fights. She told me to meet her and then I died before I could.” Sydney told him this and he wrote it down.

“But you don’t know that. You said you don’t remember, so is it possible that you did see her?”

“Maybe, but she wouldn’t do this. We were dating.” This guy kinda pissed me off. I know it was his job, but accusing a dead man’s girlfriend of being involved in his death was not the way to get on his good side. From experience.

Michael took more notes before looking near me, more at my chest than anything. “See, we didn’t get that impression. We talked to everyone in the nearby shops. The bookstore is a few stores down. Tess Macher spoke to me willingly, but when we asked her if she knew you… She told us that she couldn’t remember ever seeing you. If you two were close, why would she tell us that?”

“She didn’t want the pity, can you blame her?”

He took a moment to consider it. “I can understand that. But, if my girlfriend was killed then I’d tell them everything I knew. I’d want to help however I could.”

“Says the cop,” I mumbled.

Sydney stepped in. “Steve, he’s just trying to help. If someone lies to the police then it might mean they’re hiding something else.”

“She has a friend in security, she goes to see him all the time. It isn’t weird that she was there and it isn’t weird that she didn’t want to be dragged to the police station.”

“Who’s her friend?”

“Ben, or something like that. They were neighbors when they were kids. Should we go see him and ask him about this?” I was a little hostile, I’ll admit it.

Sydney scooted closer to Michael. “Was there a Ben in the security office?”

He flipped back a few pages in his notes. “We questioned a Benjamin Bronson. He said he was at his post the entire time and never noticed a missing camera feed. Other people in security said they didn’t see him for a bit during this time.”

“He could have gone on break. Maybe he smokes?”

“He smelled like a walking cigarette, so I don’t doubt it. But if they’re friends then I think it means we need to question them both again.”

“No, you need to be finding who did this instead of harassing innocent people,” I told Sydney. She rolled her eyes at me.

“This is how an investigation works,” she said. “These things aren’t complicated movie plots. When someone is murdered, it’s usually by someone they know. You weren’t a mob hit. Someone you know probably killed you.”

“I think I’d remember if my girlfriend killed me.”

“But you don’t! You don’t remember dying!”

“Why don’t we go fucking ask some questions then?”

“Michael,” Sydney reached her hand out to touch his lightly. He straightened in his seat with a grin. “Steve thinks we need to look more into this, just to prove they’re not involved.”

“Alright,” he agreed. “I can go talk to Ben again if you all want to talk to Tess. Maybe you can get those goodbyes out of the way too. If he wants.”

Michael stood up and went towards security, giving one more glance at Sydney on his way. I kept my eye on her. We wandered out of the food court and further down the mall towards the bookstore.

“Why hasn’t he locked you up yet?” I asked.

Sydney shook her head. “He’s known what I can do for a long time. He was one of the only people I told who didn’t call me a freak.”

“What a nice guy, doing the real bare minimum.”

She laughed at that. “He believed me when only my grandmother did. It meant a lot to me when I was a kid and struggling with this… Whatever this is.”

“Your grandma knew?” I noticed how sad her eyes were.

“She was the one who told me our family was full of seers. Gifted with sight. Mumbo jumbo like that. She couldn’t see, but her mom could. It’s a lot for one person to handle.”

“And now he just happens to be a cop who asks a medium to solve his crimes?”

“Not a medium,” she threw in. “I offered to help when one of our friends died. They had no leads, no clues, and a lot of questions. I filled in some blanks.”

We stopped in front of the bookstore. Looking in, I could see Tess stacking books on the front display with her back to us. She was one of the few people I knew who was beautiful in the bright lighting of this store. I knew, deep down, that this was a waste of time. But more importantly, I wasn’t sure that I was ready to tell her goodbye.

“What if I’m not ready?” I asked her.

Sydney reached out and squeezed my hand. She didn’t pass through me. I could feel her. My eyes went wide. “We’re never ready.”

“I felt that.”

“You’re learning,” she grinned and let go of me. “Maybe you’ll be able to leave the mall soon.”

“What?”

“We’ll talk about it later. It’s time to talk to Tess.” Sydney walked in ahead of me, stopping right inside the store and waving me in. When I got closer, she whispered, “Point her out.”

I motioned to the blonde girl delicately placing books on a table. “She looks good.”

“Easy, tiger,” she mumbled. I let her lead the way, standing back while she handled this. It’s not like I could do much anyhow.

Tess finalized her books and turned to greet the woman behind her. “Welcome! Is there anything I can help you with today?”

Sydney’s demeanor was calm and warm as she held her hand out. “Tess, it’s so nice to meet you.” Tess eyed her with suspicion. “You don’t know me, but I know Steve.”

“Oh,” she let out a shaky breath. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know many of his friends. We weren’t really close like that.”

“I only met him recently,” she started. She was so steady. She’d done this before. I would never know how to start this conversation. “He told me you all were very close before he died.”

Tess froze. “I’m sorry?”

“He’d like to talk to you, Tess. He needs to say his goodbyes, so that he can move on. His death was so sudden and he’s stuck here until he can handle everything he left undone.”

“Are you high?” Tess asked her. She crossed her arms tight.

“Unfortunately, no,” Sydney shook her head. “I know it sounds crazy, but this is what I do. The dead find me and I help them. And Steve needs to say goodbye.”

Tess stared at her. She hadn’t walked away yet, which was good. She would never stick around this long if she didn’t believe her, even a little bit. “I have a break in ten minutes. Meet me by the old shoe store.”

Sydney came back to me and we headed farther from where we had started, towards the part of the mall under construction. The lights were dim here and the people were suddenly gone. No one came down this far.

“I’m nervous,” I admitted. What if she didn’t believe us?

“Me too,” Sydney looked all around us. She wasn’t as calm as before, her shoulders were tight and her eyes never settled in one place for too long.

We didn’t wait long before we saw Tess marching towards us. She had her store apron in her hands and her sights set on Sydney.

She stopped a few feet away. She looked nervous too. Talking to your dead boyfriend will probably do that to you.

“Is he… Is he here?” Tess asked.

Sydney nodded, motioning to where I stood. “Right here.”

She walked forward, standing right in front of me. Like we were still together. Her green eyes looked so close to mine that I almost believed she could see me. “I missed you.”

“I miss you so much, Tess. I didn’t want to leave you. I wanted more time.” I meant it. Sydney told her exactly what I said.

Tess’s head fell, she wiped at her eyes and tightened her grip on her apron. “I loved you so much, Steve. It’s been so quiet without you.”

I tried to take her hand, but it fell through her. She took a sharp breath, looking back to where I was with wide eyes. “What was that?” She asked Sydney.

“He tried to touch you. He’s not got the corporeal thing down yet.”

Tess looked between her and where I was. Like she had just seen a ghost.

“He’s really here?” She asked.

“Yes, right in front of you,” Sydney bit the inside of her cheek. She took a step away from Tess, just a small one. But not small enough that I didn’t notice it. Which meant Tess saw it too.

“You’ve actually spoken to him?” She got closer.

“Of course.”

“Does he remember—remember what happened?” Tess skipped a beat.

Sydney paused. “No. He can’t.”

I watched them. Sydney’s guard was up, but what struck me most was the cold look in Tess’s eyes. It felt like ice stabbing my soul. I’d never seen that look before. Had I?

“You’re sure?” She walked towards the other woman.

“Positive.”

Tess nodded, glancing behind her before she pounced. Her apron fell to the floor. Tess was on top of her, her knees pinning her arms to her side. Sydney fought, kicking and throwing herself to each side to shake the blonde off.

In her hands, Tess had her apron cord. She wrapped it around Sydney’s neck, pulling it tighter and tighter. Sydney’s face was going as red as her hair.

“TESS!” I screamed and charged at her. With every bit of force I had, I shoved into and through her. I hadn’t touched her, but the shock was enough to give Sydney her exit.

She forced her to the side, throwing Tess off. Sputtering and holding her neck, she didn’t sit still. She ran back. Back where people were. Where she might be safe.

Tess took off after her. She was fast. She was gaining. Sydney looked over her shoulder, tripping and hitting the ground with a loud thunk. Tess threw herself at the fallen woman.

From the dark, Michael sidelined her to the ground.

“Are you alright?” He asked Sydney, who’d fallen just a few feet away. She gave him a thumbs-up, laying her head back on the cold tiles. The cuffs clinked as he put them on Tess.

And I remembered. The cold eyes, I remember them right before I died. Nothing else, just her eyes. I stepped through Tess on my way to Sydney, getting down beside her. We laid there, listened to Michael recite her Miranda rights. Staring up at the horribly lit, ugly ceiling of the mall she put her hand in mine. I looked over at her while she caught her breath.

“I don’t think that was my unfinished business.”