Morgaine strode toward the phone. “No, you said it perfectly.”
Breathlessly, she crooned into the receiver. “Hey, baby. I knew you’d call back. Now don’t be shy. We can just talk for a while if you want—if this is your first time…”
A female voice responded. “Uh, no. This isn’t my first time.”
Morgaine wrinkled her nose.
“I’ve heard her say she doesn’t like doing lesbian phone sex and didn’t advertise that way, but occasionally it happened and heck, she needed the money.”Chad perked up his ghostly ears expectantly.
“Oh, I didn’t recognize your voice, sweetheart. Forgive me. What do you need from Venus today?”
“Huh? Is Venus in conjunction with something?”
Morgaine glanced at the phone and double-checked the lines.
“Yup. It’s the phone sex line, babe.”Chad hovered over the desk so he could hear every word.
She sighed. “It’s all right. I’m a go with the flow type. Venus can be in conjunction with you, sweetheart. Is that what you need? A little licking? Some finger action? I can strap on a dildo and—”
“What? Excuse me? Do I have the right number? I’m looking for Madam Morgaine, telephone psychic.”
Morgaine gasped. “Oh! I’m sorry. No, you must have the wrong number. I—I thought you were my—girlfriend. What number did you dial?”
The woman repeated the number of the psychic line.
Chad knew the two lines were nine-hundred numbers but in no way similar. On purpose. Just to prevent this little problem.
“Hmmm, what could have happened?”
He blew a breath of cold air down her cleavage.
Morgaine suddenly realized there was aghostof a chance that the source of the problem might be Chad and her lips thinned to a hard line.
“Ma’am, I think there’s something wrong with the phone lines. Could you call back later, please?”
“Okay…” the woman said, sounding confused.
Morgaine hung up, rose, and jammed her hands on her hips. Then she yelled at the ceiling, “You fuckwad, Chad! What the fuck…?”
“Really! Such language, and from a nice Southern girl.”
“I’m from Maryland, you idiot.”
“That’s south of Boston.”He laughed.“It’s about time I received your undivided attention. I want to know what’s happening with my murder investigation.”
“Rot in hell, you self-centered, inconsiderate spook!”
“Hey, I don’t appreciate the racial slur.”
“It wasn’t a racial slur, you jerk. It was an insult aimed at your ghostliness. If you were alive, I’d…”
“Yeah? Well, I’m not. So, what are you gonna do now?”Chad purposely came close enough to chill her and she shivered.
Gwyneth poked her head around the kitchen corner. “What’s goin’ on?”
“It’s that friggin’ ghost. He messed up the phone lines on us, just because I couldn’t talk to him right away.”
“Well, that’s no good, honey. You need to talk to him. Ask him nicely what he wants and tell him we’ll help him if he puts the phone lines back the way they were.”
