She didn’t bother looking up again. “No. Now, get out.”
Get out? What the heck?
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Have we done something to offend you?”
Louisa rose from the desk, her belly prominent in her animal control officer’s uniform. It almost looked like a police officer’s uniform, but there were subtle differences. The main one being that it was olive green. She even had the walkie-talkie radio thingy on her shoulder, even though she appeared to be the only one around. “You were horrible to me in high school.”
Carol and I exchanged a surprised glance. “Um,” I said. “That’s not how I remember it.”
Her face darkened. Before she could reply, her cell rang, and instead of quieting it or asking us to give her a moment, she held up one finger and answered. “Hey, sweetie!”
After a few seconds, she kept talking, her finger still in the air, as if we were bugging her to hurry when we were just standing there. “Yeah, they’re taking forever with my car. I know. It’s awful.” Another pause, finger still up. “Sure, come pick me up. My shift ends at six. See you then!”
She hung up and her cheerful tone disappeared. At least she lowered her finger. “Are we done?”
I still didn’t know what we’d done to offend her. “If you don’t know Al, then yeah, I guess we are. Whatever we did to you in high school, Louisa, I’m sorry.”
She glanced at both of us. “Too little, too late.”
We walked out as Louisa rounded the desk. She slammed the door shut behind us and locked it.
I looked at Carol in shock. Whoa.
That was our whole list. And every one had been a dud, except for hateful Louisa. She could’ve been a suspect, but more likely she was just bitter.
Chapter Seventeen
Emma
“Here.” Henry handed me a glass, condensation made the glass slick so I was careful as I took it from him. “I made lemonade.” The pale yellow liquid made me thirsty just looking at it. He'd even put a half slice of fresh lemon on top, which he knew I liked.
“Oh, thanks,” I said as he sat beside me on the back deck glider. I was beyond exhausted. I hadn’t caught up on my sleep from all the packing and moving, then all this running around town today and the stress of it all… I just needed a month’s worth of Sunday naps. At once.
Every bone in my body told me exactly how old I was. My hip, which had never been the same after having Travis, kept protesting my sitting in the old, hard glider and my back was aching in a way that said there was almost no possible position in which I could be comfy. It was enough to make me want to go straight to bed, but I was still too wired after everything that had happened.
Why couldn’t middle age come with a bubble?
But, oh well. It didn’t.
Henry sat quietly for a while, then started telling me about his video game. I tried really hard to focus but poor Henry really droned on about some sort of ‘boss’ and a raid they were going on later. There was too much detail in what he was telling me for me to really understand it. I needed big picture, bullet point type stuff and he was out in the weeds telling me which was which.
Before things got awkward with Henry and the conversation about his video game, Thomas appeared. “Oh,” I said and sat up straight, almost spilling my lemonade down my top, prepared to step in front of Henry if this freaked him out too much. I never knew which way surprises were going to go with him, it just seemed to depend on how much other stuff he'd been dealing with that day, most of which I never knew about.
“Hello,” Henry said, cool as a cucumber. “Who are you?” I did a double take at my brother, how was he not freaked out by this? I mean yes, he knew about vampires and shifters and sirens, but had he seen a ghost before? If he had, why on earth hadn't he told me about it? I was learning more about my brother every day it seemed.
Thomas grimaced like he was in pain, his body, or spirit, or whatever you want to call it seemed tense. “Someone is trying to summon me, almost constantly. And someone else is trying to repel me, almost constantly,” he said. It looked like he took a deep breath and braced himself but the air around him was still.
“That explains the flickering,” I said.
Thomas nodded, then flickered in and out for a moment like an old TV before disappearing for about two seconds. Before Henry or I could open our mouths to question the ghost’s appearance, Thomas reappeared.
“Every time they war against each other, it hurts,” Thomas said through thin lips. He was fully wincing now and I couldn't imagine what it was taking for him to be here and not give in to one of the parties that seemed to be trying to control him.
“Who?” I cried. “Who is it? I can stop them.” I was pretty sure I could, anyway. I'd certainly try my hardest. Just seeing someone in that much pain was difficult, and to know that it was someone that my friends cared about, especially Daniel? I'd kick butt and take names then do whatever I could to make sure Thomas could rest in peace again, or for the first time since I wasn't really sure what had happened.
“I’m forbidden from saying, cursed. I can’t speak either name. But there will be more murders if you don’t find them, and find them fast!” He flickered again this time for longer before disappearing for three seconds this time.
“Is he gone?” I asked, but then Thomas appeared again, several feet away. Henry and I both jumped up and stepped toward him. This time he was flickering almost constantly, his words coming through in fits and starts. He sounded almost like a CD skipping. “Th-this person has-s m-m-murder-er-ered b-b-before. Th-th-the s-s-s-secrets-s-s a-a-are b-b-buri-i-ied.”
