23
The ghost has Jared, and I have no idea how to find him. My heart is about to beat out of my chest. I calmly tell Keri and Roger I’ll put in some calls and have every cop in the city looking for him.
Which I should do, right?
But they won’t be able to find him. Because a ghost took him.
A fucking ghost.
Where do ghosts even take people? How did she take him? I go back inside and close the door, feeling dizzy. Jared is in danger and I’m fairly certain it’s totally on me this time. Letting Lynn through the rift was an accident.
But sharing info about her with Jared…maybe I said too much. Maybe I got him too interested and too excited and should have made sure he wouldn’t try to summon her. I should have done a better job protecting him.
I put my head in my hands and lean against the door.
“Ace?” Gemma’s voice comes from the stairs. “You okay?”
“No,” I say, slowly shaking my head. “I’m not.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Remember that boy, Jared, I told you about?”
“Yeah, your neighbor. Did something happen to him?”
“The ghost took him.”
Her eyes widen. “Took him?”
“I have no idea what to do.” I inhale, feeling close to panicking. “I have absolutely no idea how to get him back.” I blink, and look at Gemma. “She’s going to kill him.”
“Ace,” Gemma starts, getting freaked out by my panic. “You’ll save him. It’s what you do.”
“But how?” I’m not one to let self-doubt get the best of me, but right now I’m feeling as helpless as ever. “Where the fuck does a ghost take a person?”
“I don’t know. She’s an angry ghost?”
“Oh, I’d say so for sure.” I blink and try to snap myself into detective mode. Jared was kidnapped. His kidnapper is an angry ghost, but I need to think of her as an angry woman. “Her death was ruled accidental, but given the circumstances and how pissed the fuck off she is, I think she was murdered.”
Gemma’s eyes meet mine. “Maybe that’s what she wants: a confession. Was it Jared?”
“No. He’s too young even now to even be suspected. I think it was her boyfriend and—that’s it!”
“What’s it?”
“If I can get him to confess, maybe she’ll stop with the haunting.”
“Yes!” Gemma agrees. “Her unfinished business will be finished and she can move on. But, uh, how are you going to get the boyfriend to confess? Don’t you have legal hoops to go through with that stuff?”
“Yes and no.” I push off the door and go into the kitchen and open the notebook full of translated spells. “I don’t have time to do this as Detective Bisset.”
“I’m not quite following,” Gemma says.
“I’m a witch. What’s the point of having powers if I can’t use them to terrify someone into a confession in order to save an innocent kid?”
* * *
“And you can’t tellme what I’m doing here?” Officer Nick Beasley asks, raising an eyebrow.
