Betty laughed. "You're right. He hasn't left the hospital since you got here. You've heard your mom and dad?"
"Yeah, Mom more than Dad, but that's not a surprise. Mom's got to be freaking out wondering where you are."
"She'll understand as soon as I can release you. I'll explain everything to her. She'll forgive me."
"Of course, she will. You saved my life." Angus stared at Betty. It had taken time for him to learn how to use his spiritual eyes to see her, but now that he could, he was amazed by her. She held a human form for him to see, but sometimes she'd forget and fade into a ball of energy with swirling colors he assumed were like an aura. He wondered what his own energy ball looked like but felt foolish asking. "Do you know how much time has gone by?"
"No, time is hard to figure out in the spirit world. We don't look at time the way you do in human form. When we're around you, we have to pay attention to clocks, or we lose track of time all together. We'd forget it even existed if we didn't keep in contact with the living."
"Isn't that the wrong way to say things? I mean, you're still living, just in a different form. Lance and Mom say they talk to the dead, but you're not really dead, just changed into another form." This whole experience had him thinking about things he'd never thought about before.
"That is true. There is no real death. At least none that I know of. I don't know what comes next. Once I cross into the light I guess I'll learn more, but it's only the human body that dies. Not the person who was inside that body. I wish more people knew that. Maybe then they wouldn't take death as hard as some do." Betty started to hum a tune.
"I'm going to miss your singing when I wake up," Angus admitted.
"I'll still be humming and singing even if you can't hear it. Used to sing you to sleep at night. I always imagined you could sense me there in some way."
"I don't know. There were times when I was sick, I was sure you were with me, but other times I didn't think you were around when you probably were. I was scared to death when Jared and I smoked a cigarette in my room. Thought for sure you'd go tell Mom."
Betty laughed. "Wouldn't have gotten you in trouble for that. Your Mom and Dad were probably smoking a joint in their room at the same time. I tried to give you your privacy. Your mom would ask me to spy on you, but I never felt it was right. A boy needs his privacy. I told your mother that just because she had the advantage of having a ghost in the house didn't mean I was willing to be her spy. She had to raise you just like any otherparent did, without my help. Not saying I never spied on you, but most of the time I resisted unless I thought you were really up to no good."
"I was never up to no good." Angus laughed.
"Not as much as some boys, but you were far from innocent."
"There's a part of me that doesn't want to wake up and lose you," Angus admitted.
"Oh, my boy, I'll still be with you. Just because you can't see or hear me doesn't mean I'm gone. Lance will always speak for me. I hate this happened to you, but I do admit I've enjoyed being able to talk directly to you." She started to hum again.
Angus listened, relaxing to the sound, and trying to cement the memory of the tune in his mind so he could remember it once he woke. He was a lucky man to have Betty in his life, and even though he'd known it long before his injury, he now understood just how special she was. Without her, he would have died. He owed her his life, but in saving him, he'd lose her again until death really did come for him, hopefully many years from now.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
"I've been looking for you everywhere." Amy walked toward Franks.
He straightened from where he'd been leaning on his car. There was no sense in hiding the cigarette he held. It was clear from the narrowing of Amy's eyes that she'd seen it. "Had to get some air after that meeting." He took another drag, then put the cigarette out on the bottom of his shoe, shoving the unsmoked half into the pack in his pocket for later.
"You okay?" She leaned against the hood of his car beside him.
"Yeah, just wish we had more to go on. They've verified the blast came from the bakery, but I just don't see the owner doing anything to risk her business. That means it was either a maintenance issue or someone else was in there and did something to cause that explosion. I don't know where to look next. We've talked with everyone we could."
"Then we talk to them again. While ATF focuses on the financials and looks for signs of insurance fraud, we focus on the people. Someone had to have seen something. Let's find out the last time the bakery had any work done. See if the city was upgrading anything in the area. Talk to those we know were in the area during and directly before the explosion. Maybe we've missed something or someone thought of something else. We don't give up." Amy pointed to the pack of cigarettes in Franks' pocket. "Except those. We give up those."
"Yeah, I know. I feel bad enough already for starting back up. I don't need a lecture." He pulled his keys out and unlocked his car. "Where first?"
Amy went around and opened the passenger door. "Let's go talk to Hillary Hilton again. Push a little harder on how well therestaurant was doing. See if she knows who his competition was. Then we can hit Jasmine Chris and see if she has thought of anything. I feel like we're intruding on the families since we're interviewing them, the fire marshal has spoken to them, and now ATF will be looking into things."
"I don't care who we have to annoy or intrude on to find out why my best friend is lying in a hospital bed, fighting for his life. I'll knock on every door in the city if I have to." Franks started the car. "Besides, the fire marshal and ATF are focusing on the gas lines and equipment at the moment. If they find that this was caused by an equipment malfunction, I'll back off, but my gut—"
"My gut is saying the same thing. There is something more to this. This was human caused. Equipment doesn't malfunction like this, or we'd be having huge explosions all over the place. Not saying it's not possible something broke or went wrong, but it's more likely a human did something that caused this," Amy agreed. "We'll do the rounds again today and reinterview those we can, then tomorrow we can start talking to other business owners in the area to find out if there were any feuds going on between businesses or if they saw anything earlier in the day."
Franks nodded as he pulled out of the lot and headed back to the Hilton residence. It was a short drive, and before long he was pulling up in front of the house. A single car sat in the driveway, giving Franks hope that someone was home.
"They finally released his body this morning. We can always say we were dropping by to make sure they knew." Amy glanced over at him.
"True, but honestly, if it was my spouse, father, or even family business, I'd be willing to answer any questions to get answers. I can't imagine anyone involved in this that doesn't want to know what happened." Franks got out of the car, keeping an eye on the house as he walked around to meet Amy on the sidewalk.
As they walked toward the house, the front door opened and Becca Hilton smiled at them. "Hi, Mom's not here if you came to talk to her. She won't be home for a few hours."
