“Not saying it is sensible. Only less stupid than the others.”
“Okay.” Simon leaned on the desk. “I’ll need you to tell me about all these other stupidities.”
“Hmm.” Stan looked around. “Not here.”
“No, probably not the best spot.” Simon turned to the sofa. “You can come out now. He’s fine.”
Chris’s head peeked from behind the backrest. “Not cool, dude. I was invisible.”
“I’ll explain her,” Simon said as Stan flinched, his arm reaching under his jacket. “Who’s up for a late-night drink?”
They found a still-open bar and settled in a corner booth.
“First, as I’ve already made clear,” Simon started, “I’m not dead.”
Stan only nodded.
“The rest is harder to explain. You know I had an accident three years ago, right?”
“On the way back from Vegas. I remember.”
“Turns out I died there, and then I was sort of brought back by”—who was it again? Never mind, even if the name slipped him—“a witch, but I was only a spirit, with another man possessing my body, until that got sorted out about a month ago. And now I’m me. Again.”
Stan stared at him, unmoving. “I’ll imagine you hit your head hard.”
“Or you can go with that, yeah,” Simon said.
“What happened with your girlfriend?” Stan asked.
“Who?”
“Dr. Guidry? Before all this shit started, you left with her. You said it was an emergency.”
Ah, shit.That was Raleigh, and Dr. Guidry must be his girlfriend. The said emergency was presumably them leaving for the ritual which popped Simon back into his own body. “Uh, let’s say we’re not a thing anymore.” Wait—he knew that name sounded familiar. He’d read it in one of the articles. “Is she the one involved in the funding scandal?”
Stan gave a short nod. “Although Everett says that’s been sorted out. That you signed a new contract for her. He didn’t seem too pleased with it.”
Simon buried his face in his hands. If Dr. Guidry had a bad experience with Everett, she might be on Simon’s side. But she was also innocent, and even though he didn’t know—or remember—the woman, he didn’t want to drag her into another mess.
“Okay.” Simon let his hands rest on the table and leaned forward. “I’ll need you to tell me everything Everett has done since I left with Dr. Guidry.”
Stan would not be making motivational speeches anytime soon, but even his short-and-to-the-point sentences gave Simon a good enough picture.
“So first, he said I was sick. And then two weeks later, dead.”
“I thought it was strange,” Stan said. “You were always so healthy. Even if Everett said the injury was hidden in your brain.” He shrugged his massive shoulders. “He wouldn’t let anyone see the body until you were cremated. I’m glad it wasn’t you, though.”
“So am I,” Simon said, deep in thought.
“But if there was a cremation procedure and a certificate of death, there must have beenabody,” Chris chimed in.
Exactly.The officer at the airport mentioned a death certificate. That was either falsified, or Everett had paid someone to claim a body was Simon. Either way, it found its way into the system.
“I couldn’t find anything in Everett’s email,” Simon said. “But somebody else must know about his misdeeds. He couldn’t have done it alone. And if we can’t find the proof from Everett’s side, we might be able to find it from that other person’s side.”
“Me,” Chris said. “I can tell them he hired me to kill you.”
Stan’s eyebrows shot up.
