“I hate you,” Nick muttered angrily, the pout so prominent on his face he could barely see through the slits that were now where his eyes should be. 

“I need brain food!” Brian defended in a hushed tone, waiting patiently at the McDonald’s counter for his food, “You can’t expect me to think seriously about anything without a hearty meal to help me concentrate!”

“Why did it have to be here though?” Nick whined, wishing he could smell the food, “I want some so bad.”

Brian rolled his eyes, trying not to let people around him see him talking to air, “You don’t want any. Think of it this way Nick. All those years you struggled with your weight fluctuating, your clothes not fitting right so often that you wore clothes four times too big, your self confidence has never been great and sometimes I worried you might take drastic measures to fit the mold that people expected you to…”

“Where exactly are you going with this?” Nick asked as the woman behind the counter gave Brian his meal and they set off in search of a table.

“All I’m saying is that maybe death has been the best diet you could have ever been on!” 

Nick’s face dropped and he glared at Brian, reaching out to knock the older man’s tray over onto the floor with a loud crash, “Asshole.”

“My food is on the McFloor,” Brian said breathily, now adopting a pout of his own.

Nick just smiled smugly and shrugged, “Maybe now you know not to be such a McJerk!”

Brian’s shoulders dropped with defeat and he sighed, picking up the garbage that once was his meal. With a glance back to Nick he headed back to the counter to buy another one, secretly plotting a way to get his vaporous companion back. 

“Enjoy your McDeath,” Nick said sarcastically as Brian sat down at a table with his new food triumphantly.

“At least I’ll die full, unlike some people,” Brian grinned and dramatically bit into his burger while Nick looked on longingly, “Now, can we discuss serious matters here? You said you would tell me about the list.”

“Right, the list,” Nick nodded, and then went into the details of what had happened in his regained memories, with the men who had killed him asking about the list and its whereabouts.

“So you think Toni stole the list and gave it to you? Why would she do that though?”

“She was so obviously scared that night. She saw the opportunity to give me the matchbook so she took it, and then made a point of telling me to keep it. Maybe she thought that if she got rid of it then they wouldn’t chase her when she ran away. I’m guessing she didn’t imagine they would come after me for it because she didn’t know they were there watching us. So they would have had no reason to suspect me,” Nick theorized, watching Brian continue to eat as he thought. Brian was definitely right about the brain food, if there was one thing that helped him concentrate on a specific task it was having food in his hand. 

“Why is Toni still alive and well though?” Brian wondered, not understanding why these two guys would have gone through the effort of killing Nick without getting rid of the person who had stolen their secrets in the first place. 

“That’s what I haven’t quite figured out,” Nick admitted, “That’s why we need to go talk to her.”

“And what exactly are we going to say to her?”

Nick paused for a moment and collected his thoughts, “I don’t want to scare her. There’s no way we can tell her details about what happened in the car because I’m the only other person who knows them. That might freak her out a little bit. I have this feeling that maybe this guy is still in her life, and that’s why he didn’t get rid of her. I just want to get a feel for how she’s acting. I know her, I know everything about her, so I’m going to know if she’s freaked out when she sees you come to her door and start asking questions about whether she knows anything about my death. Even if you just go to her and explain that you’re trying to take things into your own hands. I think it’s going to be a good idea to talk to her.”

“Should we talk to her after we go to the storage locker?” Brian asked, having planned on taking Nick to the self storage area where he was keeping all of his belongings, not having had the guts to get rid of them.

“I’m worried it won’t be there. Who emptied out my car?”

Brian blanched, “The police did. They impounded your car after you went missing because when Howie found it the doors were wide open. They dusted for prints and all of that, and before they did any of the tests they emptied everything out of it and gave it to me.”

Nick sighed heavily, “Do you think they would have thrown anything out?”

“It’s hard to say,” Brian shrugged lightly, “I don’t imagine they would throw something out but if, like you said, they might have been looking for the same list maybe they took it. Or maybe it just got thrown away because it looked like garbage. We’ll have to go through everything and see.”

Nick nodded then let Brian finish up his meal, anxious to get on the road and look for that matchbook. He knew it was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack but it was worth a shot anyway. Maybe this ghost thing came with super powers he hadn’t discovered yet that included finding a one inch by one inch matchbook lying amongst an entire households worth of stuff. 

“Nick…” Brian breathed, suddenly looking up from his food.

“What?”

“You were right.”

“I’m always right,” Nick shrugged.

“Stop being an ass, I’m serious here. You were right about Toni.”

Nick raised an eyebrow high, giving Brian a curious glance, “I was right about Toni?”

“The police had to have known who she was. The police are covering something up!”

“What made you suddenly realize I’m a genius?”

“Just now, talking about the stuff from your car…the police impounded your car and fingerprinted it. You said you were talking to Toni in your car when those guys came, right? Unless she was wearing a pair of gloves and a hat it’s not fathomable that Toni’s fingerprints, or hair, or anything else would not have been in that car. They made up the DNA to prove to us you were still dating her, and clear her from the crime but why would they do that?”

Nick thought long and hard about Brian’s revelation then it came to him, “They want Toni to lead them to the list. They couldn’t risk having her caught up in my murder investigation because then her boyfriend would drop her like a hot potato. Maybe Toni didn’t mean she was in trouble with this guy when she came to me, maybe she was in trouble with the police.”

“How can we be so sure that this list is still important? It’s been a year.”

“It was important enough to kill for,” Nick reminded him.

“You ready to go find that matchbook?” Brian asked with a sudden burst of energy, quickly crumpling a wrapper in his hand.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

***

Brian sighed and wiped a bead of sweat off his brow, looking forlornly around the storage room, “Nick I don’t think it’s here.”

“It has to be here!” Nick groaned in frustration, pulling another box towards him that was once again full of clothes and other crap he never needed while he was alive. 

“If it’s not here, it might be at the police evidence lock up. They might have accidentally kept it. Obviously they don’t have the list or all of this wouldn’t have happened in the first place,” Brian pointed out, almost worried that this so called list didn’t even exist and Nick had mistaken the writing on the inside of the matchbook.

“Well we’ll keep looking until we know for sure it’s not here,”

“Nick…I can’t look anymore! It’s been hours, I’m tired, I’m hot, and eventually I do need to go home to my family!” 

Nick’s head snapped up and he looked at Brian with his eyes full of disappointment, “Fine, go home. I’m going to keep looking until I find it. To be honest Brian I’m kind of disappointed in you. You really made it seem like you would go to any lengths to figure this out but now I know it was all just talk in front of the guys so you didn’t have to admit that you’re too scared to let go of me and my stuff.”

“I am scared to let go of you,” Brian admitted, “I’m scared right now that you’re going to leave and never come back and I don’t think I can lose you again.”

“You make it sound like you’re in love with me.”

The older man rolled his eyes, “Not in love with you but I do love you. You’re my best friend. I can’t just get over you like they seem to have been able to.”

“Whether you like it or not Brian I’m not here to stay. I’m going to find that list, we’ll find a way to use it to figure out who killed me and then I’m gone. I can’t stay here forever. Even Casper got to go home at the end of the movie,” Nick noted, resting his head against his hand casually as he watched a multitude of emotions cross Brian’s face. 

“This is your home, Nick.”

“No. It’s not. Not anymore. There’s nothing for me here. Eventually you’re going to get tired of having an invisible friend, and you’ll move on with your life and then where will that leave me? Alone, that’s where. At least if I go I can be with people who can see me and talk to me and I can just finish my existence.”

“What’s it like there?” Brian finally asked, having held back the question since he’d first seen Nick.

“I can’t tell you,” Nick admitted, “You’ll just have to find out for yourself. I don’t want to give you false expectations because it’s a little bit different for everyone.”

Brian pressed on, not deterred, “Then tell me what it’s like for you.”

“No,” Nick said stubbornly, “It’s mine and mine alone, I can’t tell you what it’s like for me.”

“It’s yours? You come here and expect me to devote every second of my time, risk my life and the life of my family chasing mobsters and you won’t even tell me the details of where this new “home” is and what it’s like there?”

“I’m not allowed to tell you what it’s like after you die! It’s a rule!” 

Brian rolled his eyes dramatically, “Since when have you ever followed rules? Hell this whole mission we’re on right now is going to break the law many times over!”

“Why are you so desperate to know?”

“I just want to know that you’re being taken care of.”

Nick sighed, “You don’t have to worry about me Brian. Nothing can happen to me…I’m already dead.”

“Don’t remind me,” Brian said sadly, “I’m sorry Nick I just need to get out of here. Are you coming?”

“No,” he shook his head, “I’m going to stay. I’ll catch up with you later.”

“Don’t you need a ride?”

Nick laughed sarcastically, “You think that they would give me powers of invisibility without first thinking how I would get around?”

“Point taken,” Brian chuckled then waved his friend goodbye.

“Maybe when I find it I’ll go haunt a house! Rattle some chains or something…” Nick called behind Brian watching his shoulders shake with laughter as he headed to the door.