“Great,” Liam said with sarcasm that Alice didn’t seem to pick up on. “All right. Thanks for coming everyone.”
He moved to pointedly stand next to the door. It was a dismissal if ever she saw one. And it worked. Mostly. The humans filed out, after a lot of hugging and promises of support and assistance. Some of the spirits, however, lingered.
“So you’ve accomplished nothing in the pursuit of my killer,” Lionel said, his arms crossed.
“Stop. There was no killer,” she reiterated.
“Are you arguing with a ghost?” Liam asked.
“Yes,” she answered before turning back to Lionel. “You’re an old man. You died. Get over it.”
“Some people are such drama queens,” Gabe said pointedly, only to get shushed by Millie.
“Then what about the suspicious traumatic head injury? Hmm?” Lionel asked.
She rolled her eyes at his drama. “It wasn’t a traumatic head injury nor was it suspicious. I’m sure you just hit your head falling. Just like Liam said. We did the right thing. We let the authorities know. But I’m sure it’s nothing. You weren’t murdered, Lionel. There’s nothing suspicious about it.”
“Uh, Nat?”
Natalie turned to face Jules in the doorway. “Do you need me?” she asked with hope. Anything to get away from Lionel and his delusions of murder.
“There are a man and a woman here to see you.”
“Customers?” she asked.
“I don’t think so. They’re, uh, wearing uniforms. Police uniforms.”
Before Natalie could react to that, the man and the woman bypassed Jules in the doorway and entered the room.
Yup. Those were definitely police uniforms. And not the kind of sexy khaki kind of uniform like Deputy Bekker wore. These were the scary dark blue ones with the big black belt holster thingy to hold their guns.
Wide-eyed and looking unsure the teen hovered. “Um, Nat. I do have customers. So I’m gonna...”
“Yes, Jules. Go on,” Natalie managed.
“Natalie Chase?” the female asked, her hair pulled back in a low bun tight enough it probably acted like a face lift.
“Y-yes,” Natalie answered and inwardly cursed herself for her stutter. She had nothing to worry about. She didn’t kill Lionel. She knew that.
“We’d like to ask you some questions about the circumstances surrounding the unexplained death of Lionel Graves,” the older, paunchy male officer asked.
Over the sound of her pulse pounding in her ears, Natalie could still hear Lionel’s self-satisfied, “Hmm. Told you. Murder.”
Chapter Sixteen
Motion in her peripheral vision dragged Natalie’s attention away from the two scary officers and their various holsters, belts, bulletproof vests, equipment and weapons.
It was Liam. He’d caught her eye as he closed in on Carson the moment the deputy had cleared the doorway after following the two officers into the meeting room.
The same Deputy Carson Bekker who’d already questioned Natalie just a couple of hours ago.
“What the hell, Bekker? She answered all your questions.” Liam’s voice sounded deeper than usual. More ominous.
It would be sexy if she weren’t staring down the Po-po, the Fuzz, the 5-0, as Alice called them.
Hat in hand, his eyes downcast, Carson nodded. “I know. But it’s New Haven’s case, not mine. Graves died in their jurisdiction. My hands are tied.”
Liam threw his hands in the air. “What case? There is no case.”
