Midnight Jewels

necessary, you try to cross over into this world, the one where people like me live."
    He gave her an odd look. "Is that why you call me a ghost? Because you think I don't belong in your world?"
    She sighed and flopped down on the foot of the bed. "Maybe. Except that you're not a ghost, Croft. You're as real and as human as anyone else. But you've found a separate place for yourself, haven't you? How did you manage that?"
    To her utter shock, he answered her wistful question. "I had to find that place very early in my life."
    Mercy looked at him, willing him to explain. "What happened, Croft?"
    He shrugged. "Nothing that hasn't happened to a lot of other kids. But it changed things for me."
    "What was it?"
    He hesitated, clearly sorting through old memories and emotions. "My father drank. Heavily."
    "Oh, Croft."
    "I told you, it's not an uncommon problem. He tried, I mink. He worked at whatever job he could get, factory work, day laborer, crop picker, you name it. He married my mother when she was eighteen and pregnant. But after a few years of living hand to mouth, my mother decided she couldn't take the life and left for the bright lights of Los Angeles. I was five or six. We never saw her again. I think mat's when Dad started drinking. It got worse as I got older. He used to go on some real binges and when he was lost in the booze he was… violent. Dangerous. It was as if the liquor released all his inner rage. I finally got smart and learned to hide until it was all over. I mink I hated him."
    Mercy swallowed at the calm way Croft said that. "It must have been terrible."
    "When he was sober it was okay. We could both tolerate each other.- But when he was drinking, yeah, it was rough. I think he knew he was dangerous when he was drunk but he couldn't control himself. I think he was afraid that one day he'd really do some damage."
    "To you?"
    Croft nodded. "Either that or he realized that I was getting bigger and that one day I might stop disappearing when he started drinking. I might start fighting back. Whatever his reasoning, he began going into town on the weekends to do his boozing. I was glad to see him go. I had signed up for self-defense classes at the Y. I told myself at first I just wanted to be able to protect myself from my father when he was drunk. But I guess I became fascinated with the world of martial arts and the underlying philosophy of mind and body control. I found a refuge in my classes at the gym, a place where I could go and be strong."
    "Another world."
    "In a way. The instructor at the Y was good, but he had his limitations and he knew them. He told me I needed to travel, to find other teachers who could help me get the most out of myself. He gave me some names of men who might be persuaded to take me on as a pupil. I didn't have the money for that kind of travel and tuition. I felt trapped. Then I decided I couldn't hang around any longer. I would have left earlier but I had some crazy idea my father might die if I weren't there to look after him. But on the day I turned eighteen and packed my bags, he went into town and didn't comeback."
    "What happened?"
    "He got himself killed in a stupid, meaningless back alley brawl. Somebody rolled him for the few bucks that were in his wallet and a bottle of cheap wine."
    Mercy closed her eyes and a premonition of what was about to come took hold of her. "Did they ever find out who killed him?"
    "The cops didn't spend a lot of time on the case." Croft's voice had shifted into that dangerously neutral tone. "My father was just another drunk who got himself killed in an alley. Happens all the time. The authorities have better things to do than try to solve that kind of crime."
    Mercy realized dimly that she was digging her nails into her palms. "So you decided to go looking for the killer, didn't you?"
    "No one else was going to do it. I thought I hated my father, but after he was killed I couldn't walk away from the fact that he was my father. He'd done his best by me."
    "So you did your best by him. You decided to see that justice was done. You went looking for the killer?"
    "I found him. It wasn't hard. I just went to the section of town where my father used to hang out and started asking questions. For some reason people talked to me."
    "I'll just bet they did."
    Croft shook his head. "It wasn't like that. I didn't have to beat the answers out of anyone. There were people on those streets who wanted someone to find the killer. My father wasn't