Contains some content from an episode of, "J.A.G.".


Ghosts
Number Three in The Trio Series

SmileyFace

Email: LSky84@aol.com

Flames will be used for toasting marshmallows, otters will given to my friends as Christmas presents. Nice comments will make me smile.


___________________________________________



Introduction

"Jack, get away. Don't hurt anyone else. It's useless," a young man warned. Jack looked up to him, searching his eyes.

"Aw, you don't think it's useless, do ya, Harding? It's not, if your wonderin'," Jack smiled. Harding shook his head.

"It is, Jack. Let the others be. We don't have to kill for revenge."

"I'm not killing for revenge, Harding. Goes to show how much you know about me," Jack replied, standing from his squatting position behind a dead body of a man. Jack walked over to Harding and slapped him on the back.

"Don't touch me, Jack. I warned you. The police will imprison you for this, Jack," Harding warned. Jack laughed deeply.

"Oh, Harding, Harding, Harding...do you think the cops will catch me?" Jack laughed again, then he turned to leave the small house with only the dead body and Harding left inside.

____________


*Thud!*

"Vecchio. How *many* times to I have to explain the ground rules to you? No, don't give me an answer, Detective, just next time give me a report, not a essay on catching a criminal with an unloaded gun."

"But I---"

"...And the next time you *ever*, ever humiliate me again in front of my superior officer, the judge, the jury and all the members of the damn court room ever again, *you* will be on my top-ten-want-to-kill-this-guy-so-bad-I'm-sharpening-my-knife list! Which, I might add, you already are! And if you think your moving before I get my new report, think again, buster!"

*Slam!*

Ray Vecchio gulped and sighed. He watched Louise St. Laurent storm out of the Precinct. "Great," he muttered, tossing the report to the side of his messy desk, and finishing his current one on his dusty computer screen. He couldn't focus on the words. Reports weren't his specialty.

A few minutes of pure torture afterwards, Benton Fraser and Meg Thatcher, Ray's good friends, strode into the Precinct and walked over to his desk. Fraser looked down at him.

"Busy?" he asked. Ray grinned, glancing over at the report Louise had dumped on his desk and answered:

"Nope."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"So, what's up, guys? Ain't it kinda early to let off work there, Inspector?" Ray asked, turning his head toward Meg.

"We need your help, Ray. Unfortunately, we have bad news," she replied.

Ray looked curious at the mention of bad news. "What is it?" Fraser looked from his two friends, then down to the ground. Meg followed his actions. "What?" Ray asked, annoyed with the lack of response.

"We seemed to have...er...um...misplaced the set of car keys you gave us to make that trip to Portham Station to see Agent---" But before Fraser could finish, Ray shouted:

"WHAT?"

"...Ford," Fraser finished. Meg gulped.

"They claim to have, um, thrown them away, Ray," she whispered. Ray looked wide eyed at his two friends. He couldn't believe it.

"You guys are *very* lucky that I have a spare somewhere at home. Come on. Let's go look for them," he said, grabbing his two friends roughly, and pulling them toward the direction of his house where he lived with several members of his family.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"I don't understand, Raymondo! How could they have been thrown out?" Mrs. Vecchio asked her son as the trio searched the whole house, top to bottom. In fact, that's where Meg had gone -- bottom. Ray and Fraser agreed that she was small enough to crawl in the storage hole they had in the upstairs level, and Meg reappeared sooty, and dirty. Meg brushed the dirt off and coughed.

"Thanks guys for making *me* go in there!" she said, covering her mouth as she coughed. Ray frowned.

"Well, you lost my keys, remember?" he whispered. The trio hadn't told Mrs. Vecchio that the two Canadians lost the keys. And even if Ray did, Francesca wouldn't believe him, nor would she say that Fraser did, even Meg, since she had become a friend to the Vecchio household, but especially Fraser. Why, Fraser didn't know. *Dimwit,* Meg thought when Frannie looked at him and smiled, flirting strongly. Although, she couldn't complain, Fraser did ask her out once, and even invited her over his house to watch a movie. What a night! Meg sighed just remembering it.

"Ma! Check the pantry drawer!" Ray yelled, searching in the bedroom drawers of everyone's rooms. Just then, his cell phone rang. Annoyed by being interrupted, he answered unpleasantly.

"What?"

Welsh was on the other line.

"Vecchio, over in my office. Now, please." *Click!* Ray heard Welsh hang up before he could say, "Yes, Sir." Copying, he hung up and turned to his friends, one now almost spotless, except for a smug of dirt on her cheek...how she got the...oh, Frannie lent her a shirt...figures, and the other, annoyingly and spotless as ever.

"Well, Welsh calling," Ray said. "Unfortunately, none of us have a car, since yours, Meg, is in the shop, and you, Benny, are too cheep to buy one. So, we'll have to walk back. And I refuse for a taxi. Let you two learn your lesson by loosing my keys! I'll take a taxi, though."

"Understood," the Canadians said in unison.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Needless to say, the taxi idea wasn't working for Ray. The two Mounties tapped their feet impatiently as they waited outside of Welsh's office. Ray strode up and sighed, a bit out of breath from his trip in the taxi. He frowned at his two friends.

"Fine, so you got here before me. *Big* deal," Ray said, walking into Welsh's office. Fraser followed Meg inside. The three stared at the quiet Welsh and waited for the reason for their trip back to the 27th Precinct.

"I'd like you to meet Agent Dobbs. Agent Dobbs, this is, from the left, Constable Fraser, Inspector Thatcher, and Detective Vecchio." Dobbs nodded and shook each of their hands before putting out his cigarette.

"Pleased to meet you all. I was curious in knowing if you could possibly tell me where the nearest lunch shop is. I'm headed back to my motel room and I'm a bit famished," Dobbs said. Fraser nodded and gave some simple directions to a cafe' where in mid day hours, they served sandwiches. Dobbs nodded, and gripped Fraser's hand again, and shook it tightly. Fraser and Dobbs exchanged a glance to each other, then Dobbs turned out through the door and left.

"Why's he here?" Ray asked.

"He's checking up on the Counter case, Vecchio."

"But we had that pretty much covered, sir," Meg interrupted quietly.

"Agent Dobbs found some interesting info that you missed. Anyway, I need your approval, Vecchio, on this," Welsh said, pulling a file out from a drawer and handing it to Ray. He took it skeptically and read it. His green eyes widened.

"A resignation, sir?" he asked. Fraser and Meg glanced at Welsh at the mention of resignation. Welsh shook his head.

"No, Vecchio. That will come in due course. It's a cancellation sheet, Vecchio, for all my meetings today. I'm leaving for the day," he stated, looking at the three shocked officers. *Why would he leave?* Meg questioned herself. Welsh had almost become her commanding officer since she worked with Ray regularly now. Welsh walked past her, and touched her small shoulder. He smiled slightly then walked out. The trio met each other in a confused circle. Fraser walked over to Welsh's desk and picked up a photo of a Buddha sitting on a clump of moss. He looked closely at it, then handed it to Ray.

"A *Buddha?" Ray asked. Meg took the photo gently from Ray's large hands, and studied it.

"It has a hole through its stomach," she noted. The two men looked over to her questioningly, since her voice sounded scared, as if she knew what it meant.

"What's it mean?" Ray asked his friend. Meg shook her head, which was tilted downward, then shot it up.

"I don't know, but I know someone who might," she whispered.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Look, guys, don't bug me about this, ok? It's a stupid Buddha!" Ford exclaimed, looking at the photo.

"With a hole through it's stomach like this?" Fraser asked, searching Ford's eyes. Ford sighed.

"Get in, already. But I'm warning you, this stuff can get messy," he said, leading the way to a computer inside his office. Once they were seated at it, they sat down in individual chairs. "Your Welsh was part of a team once, in his earlier years as a cop. They used to patrol the west sides of Chicago to protect they incoming outsiders that sailed to America and stayed in Chicago. They called themselves the Night Watchers, " he explained, typing that particular name inside a box. A sheet came up with different names listed on it. Welsh's was one of them. Listed above him was a Jack Renner.

"Who's Jack Renner? It says he's dead," Fraser questioned.

"Jack Renner wasn't ever found. They never found his body after the Night Watchers' last mission on April 17th, 1976. A smoker that one. Never went anywhere without a pack, they say. It's almost like he's MIA, presumed dead -- that would be Missing In Action, Inspector," Ford nodded to Meg, who nodded back.

"I've had my experience with things like this, Agent," she replied.

"Who's that other guy?" Ray asked, pointing to the last name, since they was only three.

"That's Daniel Chambers. He died two weeks ago in a car accident," Ford replied. The trio looked at each other. It was time to get busy.

"What about the Buddha?" Ray asked.

"The Buddha was Renner's call sign, he'd put the thing on people after he killed them as a warning. The hole---" Ford was cut off by Meg.

"--was for telling people they'd never get to Heaven whole. He used to remove the internal organs from them after he killed them." Fraser looked at her, his eyes questioning why they had even bothered coming thirty miles for her to tell them that. She knew what it meant, at least what that meant. Ray's face turned green when she told about the organs.

"Gross," Ray commented.

"Let's go," Fraser said. "Thank you kindly, Agent Ford," he added.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Car accident you say, Ma'am?" a plump, car wrecker asked Meg. She nodded and nearly shouted her reply over the loud noise from the factory machines.

"Yes, a 1992 Station Wagon."

"Hmm...when was it again?" he asked.

"Two weeks, sir," Fraser replied. The wrecker nodded his head.

"Yeah, I remember that one. She's a pancake by now," he stated.

"Was there anything unusual about it, Mr. Swan?" Meg asked. It was only Fraser and Meg, since Ray went to the grave registration to look for old belongings to Jack Renner.

"Had the brakes been tampered with or anything?" Fraser asked. Mr. Swan shook his head.

"Not that I remember. Although that stone fat guy was pretty weird."

"Stone fat guy, Mr. Swan?" Meg asked. Swan pulled out the Buddha from the photo out of his pocket and handed it to Meg.

"Yeah. I kept it for good luck. I thought it was one of those God things people put on their dash boards. Funny where I found it though. Sitting on the bumper grinning with a hole through his belly. Like some nut put it there. I mean after the accident." Meg's hazel eyes widened. Fraser looked to her. Was it a ghost?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ray sighed at the grave registration center. He waited patiently until the "clerk" came to help him. "Can I help you?" he asked. Ray nodded.

"Yeah, I need to look up a guy named Jack Renner?" he said, placing his police badge on the counter. The young kid nodded.

"Ok, have a seat over here."

When they had found the assigned box that was Renner's, Ray peered inside. "Man, this comic book's old! Hey, look at this." he said, pulling out a picture with Welsh in it, taken about 19 years before. His eyes widened. The man next to him looked as if he was holding something in his right hand. He squinted and saw the Buddha. He shivered. Was this guy dead and coming after Welsh?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When Fraser, Meg and Ray met back at their appointed place, they compared all their clues. Ray nodded his head, and they made their way back to the Precinct. They had been told Welsh had a important meeting to attend before he went home. Ray walked inside with his two friends, and placed the Buddha on Welsh's desk. Welsh looked at it, and sat a bit farther back in his office chair. He looked at the trio, Meg in the middle as always.

"Where did you get this?" he asked.

"Is Renner alive, sir?" Meg asked in reply.

"Hell, no. I watched him die a bit back. He couldn't be."

"Then who is it, sir?" Fraser asked. Welsh stood.

"I don't want to talk about this, officers. Dismissed, if you were ever approved to come in," he muttered. Seeing they had no choice, Ray lead his friends outside.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

That night, Fraser walked home in the dark shadows. He stopped when his gaze met another man's in the distance. They stared at each other for a few moments before he walked away. Not knowing what Renner looked like, Fraser saw something that reminded him of the "Renner" figure. Sighing, he strode back on his path. Little did he know or believe that it wasn't a ghost stalking Welsh, but a spook.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The next morning, the trio met at the Precinct. They gave a full crowd glance to each other before entering Welsh's office to see what he wanted them to do that day. To their surprise, Welsh was packing up and leaving.

"Sir?" Fraser asked.

"This," Welsh said, "is a resignation. I'm resigning from here, Vecchio, Constable, Inspector." He looked over Ray for a bit and smiled. "Go ahead. Try my chair out. Seeing as it will be yours in a couple years. Don't worry, it won't turn you into a sour grouch." Ray, reluctantly, sat inside Welsh's chair. "Fits you, Ray," Welsh said, walking out. The three looked at each other, confused as ever. Fraser remembered the man from last night. It was a long shot, but what did they have to lose?

"Ray, I saw a man last night when I was walking home. He was approximately 6 foot, had dark brown hair, green eyes and wore a jean jacket. I'm not quite sure..." Fraser kept talking until Ray remembered the picture. Renner next to him was wearing the same jacket, had green eyes, looked about 6 foot. "...And he was smoking a cigarette. I don't think he's any bother to our case, but..."

"Benny, did you say smoking?" Ray asked, turning.

"Yes, I did."

Meg thought for a moment. "Didn't Ford say Renner smoked a lot?" All three looked at each other. "This is a long shot," she added quietly.

"What do we have to lose? Benny, take us to that place where you saw him," Ray said excitedly.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"This is it," Fraser said, standing in the alley. "He was standing right here, approximately 26 yards away from me. I couldn't quite make out the---"

"Spare us the details," Meg said. Ray was close to the ground, looking for clues. Meg picked up a cigarette butt and tossed it down. "Something's wrong here." she said. Fraser nodded.

"What?" Ray asked. He knew something had to be wrong for a Canadian to just "say it" not hide it.

"Our man Renner is a smoker. He wore the same attire in the picture with Leftenant Welsh. He wore the same attire last night. He's the same height, give or take since my assumptions aren't fully accurate, and so was the man sanding in the picture, since we know for sure, since Agent Ford told us so. Same hair, same eyes...same everything," Fraser explained.

"So...?" Ray asked, annoyed.

"Ray, that picture was taken over 19 years ago. How could a man who was 19 years older, possibly fatter, fit in those clothes? And doesn't it seem odd that he wouldn't change any after 19 years?" Thatcher asked. Fraser nodded.

"But the biggest point is, Renner is dead. He and Leftenant Welsh never got along. He said he *saw* him die, Ray. I'm not certain about ghosts, but I know for a fact that a ghost couldn't be smoking and leave real traces of evidence, the butts," Fraser concluded. Ray nodded. They were right. "You see, Ray. We have been tracking Renner, not the man who is after Leftenant Welsh."

"But I thought Renner *was* the man after Welsh!" Ray objected.

"He isn't, Ray, but he is. At least, that's what this man wants Leftenant Welsh to think," Fraser explained. "It's a spook."

"Besides, this evidence, the butts, were planted. Left here with a plan in mind. He wants us to find him. And I have a feeling why," Meg said, gazing off into the distance.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Elaine, run a trace on these for me. We only touched the marked one," Ray said. Elaine nodded, walking with the plastic bag of butts to the computer. The trio followed.

"Finger print match," Elaine stated. "Charles A. York...born, it doesn't say, but it clearly states from the time of arrests that he's pretty old. This can't be your man." she said quietly.

"It was a bit dark, maybe he looked younger then he was," Fraser considered.

"Are you sure you saw him at all, Benny?" Ray asked.

"I can't be certain if I did," Fraser remarked. He hung his head, in fact, they all did. They were almost running around all day to find out what this Buddha meant, they came so close, and now Fraser was saying he wasn't sure if their man was real at all?

Ray flopped in a chair. "This is nuts. Totally nuts." Just then, Dobbs walked in and smiled at the trio.

"Good afternoon, officers. Having a bit of trouble?" he asked, looking from one to the other. They shook their heads, not wanting for the case to become aware to the public of Chicago.

"Nah. Lunch just didn't agree," Ray replied. Dobbs nodded.

"Of course. Well, I shouldn't interrupt your...oh, my, Constable!" Dobbs said suddenly. Fraser looked down to see his hat on the floor. He bent over to pick it up, but Dobbs reached and got it for him.

"Thank you kindly," Fraser said, smiling. Dobbs placed Fraser's Stetson on the table and smiled. He reached out and gripped Fraser's large hand.

"It's no problem, son. None at all." They shook. Fraser squinted a bit, deep in thought as the elderly agent let go of his hand. Fraser, after Dobbs left, lifted his hand and inspected it in the room light. Ray, not seeing their interaction nor Fraser's actions, slapped Benny and Meg on the back lightly.

"Come on, guys. Let's go catch some real lunch." Ray was about to grip Fraser's hand, when Fraser jumped back, like a terrified horse.

"Don't touch me!" he yelped. Everyone watched him rush to the bathroom...for men. Ray looked down at Meg, who shook her head in confusion.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the bathroom, Fraser lifted his hand high toward the light that shone steadily over one of the sinks. Then he saw it. The connection. He spun around when Ray banged on the door. He smiled as Ray walked in, then looked surprised as Meg followed, eyes shut, then faced a wall.

"I'm not looking, trust me," she said, since all the guys were yelling at her. "There's nothing to look at," she mumbled.

"Fraser, what's wrong?" Ray asked. Fraser grinned ear to ear.

"The butts, Ray. We need to see the butts again. Let me see your hand, Inspector," Fraser said. "Which one did you touch the butt with?"

Thatcher thought for a short moment. "My right, Fraser." The trio left the bathroom, Ray guiding Meg since she had her eyes closed, and since Fraser refused to touch anyone. Fraser had also given strict instructions for Ray not to or let anyone else touch her right hand. Finally, eyes open, Meg met Fraser's gaze. He gently took her hand in his, feeling the smooth skin under his left one. *Would I'd like to invite her over tonight again for another movie,* he thought. He took a magnifier and looked at her fingertips. He smiled.

"Aha! There it lies!" he said, grinning again. He smiled, let her hand down, but told her not to touch anything with it just yet, and looked at his own. He smiled with the same line and same results. Then he took Ray's. "I know this is a long shot, and we already have the connection, which I will get to in a moment, but I need to examine your hand, Ray. I know you've touched a lot in the past hour or so, and since the trace is very thin, and very wearable, meaning it comes off easy, but I need to see anyway, if this is what I think it is."

"Just DO it!" Ray exclaimed. Fraser examined his hand closely. It took a bit of time before Fraser located a thin, white powder deep within Ray's skin...on his fingertips where he had shaken Dobbs' hand. And picked the butts up with. Fraser then took the butts carelessly and dumped them on the desk. Then, he took a butt, rubbed it in between his fingers, and smiled, making the slight traces if powder rub off on to his fingertips. He smiled and showed his friends the matching powder: the rubbed on stuff from the butts, and the stuff on his palm from Dobbs' hand. Meg smiled, then sniffed the powder on the butts.

"Cocaine," she said triumphantly. Fraser nodded.

"Great job, Benny!" Ray said. "So Dobbs is guilty?" he asked. Both Mounties looked to Ray at once.

"We don't have enough evidence against Dobbs just yet, Ray. We need to investigate some more before we jump to conclusions. It's for the best." Meg tugged on Fraser's serge.

"Here's something...Dobbs smokes," she said. Fraser nodded. Both men forgotten about his addiction. Now they just had to find out a bit more about this Agent Dobbs.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"What the heck is this? It says Agent Dobbs isn't alive! He died two weeks ago!!" Ray shouted at the computer, mad from their discovery. Fraser looked to Ray.

"Didn't Chambers die two weeks ago as well, Ray?" he asked.

"Yeah..." Ray thought. They looked at each other. "But still, how could Dobbs, if he IS Dobbs, be connected to Chambers, who's connected to Renner?" he asked.

"We know Renner is dead. We also know that Chambers is dead...many people testified to seeing his body at the viewing. We also know that Dobbs isn't Dobbs. But who could Dobbs be if he isn't Dobbs?" Fraser said. "Dobbs was there in the alley last night, smoking cigarettes. He left the traces of powder on them and on his hand for me...us to find. Remember how they were placed on the side walk?" he asked. Meg remembered.

"In a circle..." she said.

"Exactly. The same circle, hole that was on the Buddha. Now Dobbs wants us to believe that Renner's alive and well after Leftenant Welsh. But the funny thing is, if Dobbs killed Chambers two weeks ago, and he's after Leftenant Welsh, with his fake identity, then who is he really?"

"Let's break into some government files," Ray said, an idea popping into his brain.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

All they way back at Portham Station, the trio, tired and hungry, sat down in front of the computer Ford was typing on. A file came up. "Charles A. York. A close friend of a Jack Renner." Ford said. The trio looked from one to another. There it was. Or was it?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"So Dobbs is York and pretending to be Dobbs to get access into the files that the police department has on Renner, so he can pretend realistically that he's him," Ray said, back at the police station in Chicago. Meg closed her eyes and almost fell asleep. They were all tired. Fraser touched her gently as Ray answered a phone call which turned out to be from Louise.

"Do you want to come home with me? I mean, uh..." Fraser said, embarrassed. She smiled.

"I'd love to," she answered. Fraser sighed. With all that was going on today, and everything, he wanted her to be safe. He knew she had police training, and she was a good fighter, but he wanted her by his side. So he knew she would be safe.

Ray hung up, the turned to his friends. "Let's sleep on it tonight, Benny, Meg. I'm tired...too tired for ghosts and goblins right now." The pair, Fraser and Meg started to Fraser's apartment to sleep on the floor, watching Meg sleep peacefully above him, on his bed, knowing she was safe from any harm that would cross their paths.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bright and early the next morning, after a quick stop to the Consulate to check on the other officers that worked there, Fraser and Meg walked quickly in the cold winter winds toward the 27th Precinct. Entering inside, the weren't surprised to see Welsh was gone. Fraser came up with a suggestion to Meg.

"Maybe we should visit Leftenant Welsh's home and ask him who Dobbs really is?" he asked, leaning close to her ear.

"Maybe, but do you think that Welsh would know since he introduced him as Dobbs? I doubt it. If he thought Dobbs was Dobbs then why would he tell us otherwise?" she asked back. Fraser nodded.

"Good point," he said.

"Great movie last night," she whispered. Fraser, gently and happily, leaned and kissed her ear.

"Thank you kindly."

"Welcome."

The pair made their way over to Ray's desk, surprised to see him absent from it. They looked at each other in shock. Where would Ray be?

"Let's check with Detective Huey," he said, walking toward Huey's desk. When he asked, Huey shrugged, saying he didn't know at all. They looked at each other. Where could he be?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ray, at his warm home, sighed and typed the name "Agent Jason Dobbs" on his computer. He didn't realize that Fraser and Meg were looking for him, since he caught them going home together. He sighed when the report came up, almost the same as the one in Portham Station. But not quite. This one, on Ray's lap top, showed that Dobbs *did* die two weeks before, but it also showed he had family, Dobbs' brother named Richard Dobbs, also an agent. And also, an identical twin. He squinted. Was Dobbs Richard Dobbs or Jason Dobbs? He sighed and shut the lap top when he heard a knock on the front door.

"Benny! Meg!" he said, looking at his two friends. "I thought you two, uh...never mind," he quickly said, seeing their surprised faces. "You'll never guess what I found."

"What, Ray?" Fraser asked, excitedly.

"Nothing," Ray said, annoyed with the whole ghosts thing. "Nothing except that Dobbs had a twin brother. Richard." Meg looked interested.

"Maybe since Dobbs is dead, Richard Dobbs is pretending to be his brother, who's an agent, so he can..." she left off there. The two men looked at her. She looked back. "Maybe Dobbs, whichever one he is, is here as a spook to Welsh, and as an agent to...nah. That couldn't be possible," she said, shaking her head.

"What?" Fraser asked, interested.

"I was thinking maybe Dobbs, Richard Dobbs, is here to avenge his brother's death by causing a spook and Welsh's own?" she asked. Fraser's eyes widened in joy. There was the link.

"Yes! Dobbs is here to avenge his brother's death...wait...check and see who the killer was, Ray. And then York would just be a throw off to our case." Fraser instructed. Ray re-opened his lap top and went through the files.

"Lt. Harding Welsh for self defense."

"So," Fraser continued, "Dobbs' brother was killed by Leftenant Welsh. Leftenant Welsh has Renner's 'ghost' after him, which is really Dobbs. All for revenge? Yes. All for revenge." Fraser said. They looked at each other. Then Meg came up with a logical question that threw Ray off.

"Then if Dobbs, Jason, had a twin brother, Richard, who came here, and practically stood in Welsh's face, then why wouldn't Welsh recognize him as Jason Dobbs' brother? Or even Jason Dobbs for that matter?" he asked. Fraser looked to her and said in reply:

"Who said he didn't?"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Across a section of Chicago, Welsh sat in his house and sighed. He knew very well that his three officers, well, his one and two adopted ones, were on his ghost case. And he also knew very well that Dobbs was Richard, not Jason. And he also knew that Dobbs was Renner's ghost, avenging Jason's death. But what he didn't know was that his three officers knew all that plus they knew the plan Dobbs had in mind after a bit of searching.

"So he's going to try and kill Welsh? That's why Welsh resigned?" Meg asked. Ray nodded. They had found out that the finger prints were rubbed on by Dobbs from York, so it would throw them off a bit on the case. But Dobbs was the real stalker.

"So he can kill Dobbs."

"Let's go," Fraser said. The three rushed out the Precinct, and hurried to Welsh's house.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dobbs drove his car up to Welsh's house. He also knew that Welsh knew that he was going to kill him. But he didn't know what Welsh had in plan for him when he reached the outside of his car. Welsh was waiting, and grabbed Dobbs, drawing a knife from his pocket and resting the sharp blade against Dobbs' throat. Dobbs gulped and walked with Welsh to his back yard where he let him go, aiming a gun at him, and still holding the knife that was once pressed to Dobbs' throat. Then, he threw it on the ground in front of Dobbs as a challenge. Dobbs took it, and reached for the knife, but was stopped short by a land mine that Welsh had planted. Dobbs' eyes widened.

"Harding...you wouldn't," he said breathing hardly.

"It's your call, Richard," Welsh replied.

"I didn't mean to kill her, Harding...that bomb back in '76 was meant for you." Dobbs argued.

Outside the wooded area where Welsh and Dobbs were, Meg, Fraser and Ray were listening. Ray looked quizzical.

"In 1976 Dobbs planted a bomb, or land mine, for Leftenant Welsh that killed his loved one, Shirley Tike. Ever since then, Welsh has had a grudge put against Dobbs and his dead brother. I guess he's confessing right now," Fraser said.

"Honestly, Harding, I wasn't planning on her to be killed! Harding, please!" Dobbs cried, watching Welsh walk away while his foot was still on the mine. When Welsh disappeared from sight, Dobbs went to reach for the knife to un-do the mine.

Back out of the woods, Welsh saw his officers and nodded. Ray smiled.

"I've *got* to see this," he said, walking toward the wooded area. Welsh stopped him.

"Don't go out there, Detective," he warned. Fraser and Meg looked at him.

"It is a training mine, isn't it Sir?" Fraser asked. They all stared at Welsh. Just then, they heard a whistle of the training mine Dobbs was standing on. He tried to disarm it, but he fell over. And when he did, he fell right next to the Buddha that was found in the car wrecking place.

Welsh nodded. "Of course, Constable," he said after the mine "exploded". Ray smiled.

"Why'd you stop me, sir?" Ray asked, confused at Welsh's reaction to Ray going in the woods.

"To watch would be taking pleasure. That's what he did," Welsh smiled, and walked away, leaving the Mounties and the cop to think their own thoughts.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

With Welsh back, everything was back to normal. Except one thing.

"So, you two pains haven't found my keys yet?" Ray asked, back at the Precinct. The two hung their heads. Ray secretly, all this time, had been pretending he didn't know where they were, but he had them in his pocket all the time. He frowned. "Well, then I guess there's only one problem left."

"What's that, Ray?" Fraser asked.

"How much I'm gonna miss all that fun I had through all that time of pretending I didn't know where they were." He smiled, holding the keys up and dangling them in front of the two shocked Mounties. They were shocked.

"Ray!"

"Vecchio!"

"Hey," Ray said, "a guy does what a guy has to do." He smiled, the turned at the yell from the entrance.

"Vecchio!"

"Oh, God. Louise. Pretend you two didn't hear that, go, go, go!" he said, rushing away, but Louise caught only him by the shirt. During her yelling, Fraser smiled.

"Want to watch another movie at my place?" he asked Meg, who smiled.

"I'd love to," she said, leaving Ray behind to follow Fraser. Their case was over, ghosts and all. Fraser still didn't know whether he believed in ghosts at all.

"Hello, son." Fraser Sr. appeared. Ben closed his eyes.

"Oh, Dad..."

Maybe he would have to, just for his sake.


fin.