Another One Bites the Dust Read online

Amanda Lee strode toward the window. She probably hadn’t seen the old man—I was the only ghost she’d ever fully connected with—but she’d noticed my reaction to him, so she could make an educated guess.

  She shut those curtains. “That was only Jensen brushing by the window, dear. Don’t mind her.”

  Heidi’s voice shook as she continued, but the kid was brave to stay. I’d give her that.

  “It’s all good, Ms. Minter.”

  Excellent. Then the girl wouldn’t mind a little of this.

  I turned on the computer by manipulating the electricity in the atmosphere. Ghosts were pure energy, after all.

  Heidi made a surprised sound.

  With a lowered glance at me, Amanda Lee took the hint, sitting down in front of the computer. “Getting a little pranky, are we, Jensen?”

  “Me?” Hmph. I wasn’t the pranky type—that was for the ghosts who’d already gotten bored with their existence, looking for stimulation from the responses pranks got from humans.

  I wasn’t bored. Or maybe I was. After the Edgett situation, I’d been, well, dying to move out of the casita, just to put some space between me and Amanda Lee. But all the annoying ghosts and the threat of the dark spirit had kept me here to watch over her as much as I could.

  I’d leave soon, though, I kept telling myself. Someday I’d find an abandoned house that was just right for me.

  “What is your friend’s name?” Amanda Lee asked Heidi, her fingers poised over the keyboard.

  “Nichelle Shaw.”

  “And her boyfriend?”

  “Tim. Tim Knudson.”

  “Address, please?”

  Heidi rattled off a place in Pacific Beach, and Amanda Lee typed it all in. The search engine came up with several links, and she clicked on one of them.

  My energy was humming, mostly because I was feeling the growing apprehension in Heidi. “Why does she think he’s going to kill Nichelle?” I asked Amanda Lee.

  After she translated for Heidi, the girl answered, “It’s just . . . a hunch. I read a book once, and they called this kind of intuition the gift of fear. And that’s why I can’t go to anyone else, because all I have are creepy suspicions about this guy. He and Nichelle have been with each other for a couple months now. They live together. At first, he was fascinating for Nichelle. She hasn’t had a lot of boyfriends, and Tim rides a beat-up motorcycle and has a blue-collar thing going on, so he’s edgy and kind of wow for her. And he had a steady new job in a department store warehouse, working the swing shift. I found out a week after they were dating that he has a spotty work history, though. When I told her, she asked him about it, and he said that the past didn’t matter—he was going to make himself better for her.”

  Amanda Lee had brought up a profile on that Facebook thingie. Frankly, I couldn’t stand the site. It was the type of distraction I would’ve hated when I was alive, too. I had true, close, dear friends that I used to go out and toke with and drink with every once in a while, face-to-freaking-face. That, and my waitressing gig at Roundtable Pizza, had been enough of a social life for me.

  Anyway, Tim’s picture showed a handsome guy in his twenties with buzzed sandy hair and a Tom Cruise smile. He was a smaller man. I could tell because he was posing near a bar, and it provided some scale as he toasted the camera with a draft beer.

  Amanda Lee said, “He looks harmless enough, but that’s always the problem. We know better than anyone that bad people are good at hiding who they really are.”

  “Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt right now,” I said. We didn’t know Heidi very well, and I was eager to get an empathy reading off her to see if she was on the up-and-up with us. Besides, I didn’t need to remind Amanda Lee about Gavin Edgett and how we’d rushed to judgment with him when she’d suspected him of killing Elizabeth.

  Just at the thought of Gavin my ghost-heart sank, beating with a longing that was invisible, but real just the same. Regret, attraction, fascination . . . I hadn’t expected to feel any of it, being a dead girl and all.

  Maybe I was a little obsessed because of my guilt. I’d trespassed into his mind, as well as the heads of other suspects. Sure, I’d been inside of them for good reason—I hadn’t taken it lightly because messing with them was hard on their bodies and psyches—but the major fact was that me and Amanda Lee had gone rogue, taking the law into our own hands.

  It was just that, when you died a victim like I had, you refuse to live your eternal afterlife as one, too, or to see it happen to others. So I’d become a justice-seeker, just like Amanda Lee. I was even going to solve my own murder someday, as soon as I figured out how to get around the whole lack of witnesses, suspects, and evidence dilemma. There wasn’t even blood at my death spot to tip off the authorities to where I’d died, for God’s sake. Still, I’d spent the last month collecting data, looking up all my old friends on the computer, hoping to locate them so I could get readings off them and see if they had any clues about what’d happened to me that night.

  Heidi was peering over Amanda Lee’s shoulder now, hugging herself as she stared at Tim’s computerized profile.

  “He’s very well behaved on this Facebook page,” she murmured. “But he’s got a temper in real life. Gets in fights at bars and with his so-called friends. One of them even told me that he stole a credit card from a former girlfriend. Nichelle didn’t want to believe that, and he told her it was a lie.”

  Amanda Lee asked, “What is Nichelle like?”

  “Strong-willed. Won’t take any guff. But she’s got a naive side that Tim sensed or something. She thinks she’s not very attractive—which isn’t true—so she was wide-open to his limited charms.”

  “Is he outright cruel to her?”

  “Well, let’s just say that they fight like cats and dogs sometimes. And Nichelle tells me things that he does in private that disturb me.” Heidi went back to rubbing her arms. “I thought that maybe a ghost could watch him in those private moments, when he thinks no one is looking. Or a psychic could read him, even if it’s just for my own peace of mind.”

  I got closer to the computer, wanting a better look at Timmy Boy’s profile. It fizzed with some screen-snow, but I could still make out that he had been born in Montana and he liked to play guitar. I backed away when Amanda Lee shot me a you’re-causing-interference glance.

  She asked, “So you think he’s violent enough to hurt her badly one day?”

  “Yes, and if I’m wrong about that, then I’ll lay off him.” Heidi shook her head. “It all sounds so melodramatic, but I swear, it’s not. I’m taking general ed classes at SDSU, and one of them is abnormal psych. He’s got qualities that point to antisocial behavior.”

  Okay. Time to see if she was overreacting.

  “Amanda Lee,” I said. “Ask her if it’d be all right if I did an empathy reading.”

  “Heidi, would it be fine with you if Jensen read your thoughts?”

  “Oh. Sure. Is that safe?”

  “Yes. And you’ll be cold only for a short time. Jensen won’t push it.”

  If I did, then I’d go farther into her psyche than I needed to, draining her and me more than necessary.

  Heidi breathed out, holding her hand up so I could touch it. I took that as an all systems go.

  As I made contact with her skin, a shiver zinged through her. It was as if I’d connected with a power outlet while her thoughts slammed into me . . .

  Nichelle’s voice on the phone. “I can’t go to the movies tonight, Heidi, okay? Tim wants to stay in. I know this is the third time I’ve canceled this week, but maybe tomorrow?”

  Walking by Nichelle’s bedroom on the way to the bathroom, overhearing Tim’s quiet, private-time voice. “This is what you’re gonna wear tonight. I’m throwing away that trashy blue dress. It makes you look like a slut.”

  At lunch with Nichelle. A ringing phone. Tim’s voice on the speaker. “Who’re you with? Get home, Nich, no ifs, ands, or buts, got it? I want you here, with me.”

  I
unlinked from Heidi, then went to the car battery. Empathizing always took a little juice out of me. Meanwhile, she held a hand over her chest, shivering.

  “Da-mn.”

  Amanda Lee tapped away on the computer, bringing up more information about Tim on that Twitter thing now. “I told you, Heidi. Only a slight chill.”

  “More than slight. That was . . .” Heidi huddled into herself. “I think I’ll sit down.”

  She walked across the room, pointedly away from my coldness, to a rose-upholstered love seat. She pulled her sleeves all the way over her hands like they were two turtle heads disappearing into shells.

  I hoped Heidi would never have to experience a ghost making her hallucinate or going dream-digging if she was asleep. That would be intense.

  I spoke to Amanda Lee. “I got definite hints about a controlling relationship. Heidi’s been around when Tim does things like keeping Nichelle from seeing her friends. It also looks like he checks up on her, chooses her clothes, and seems to get jealous that she wants to spend time with other people.”

  Amanda Lee turned from the computer to survey Heidi, who still didn’t seem comfortable with knowing that a ghost had been inside her.

  “She’s got a good aura,” Amanda Lee said quietly.

  “I do?” Heidi asked.

  “And good hearing,” Amanda Lee said, standing, going to Heidi. She gestured toward the girl’s hand. “May I?”

  Heidi seemed skeptical, and after the chill of my touch, I couldn’t blame her. Then she pulled the sleeve away from her hand, and Amanda Lee clasped it in her own, closing her eyes, psychically riding the girl’s skin while her thoughts were still on Nichelle.

  It was over in under a minute.

  “So Nichelle really doesn’t tolerate Tim’s behavior,” Amanda Lee said. “She stands up for herself, and that seems to frustrate him.”

  “Right. When they fight, she’ll come over to my apartment and sometimes stay while I’m at my classes. But by the time I get home, she’s usually gone back to him. I told you—her self-confidence could improve.”

  “What’s that girl even thinking?” I asked Amanda Lee.

  “That she has Tim in hand,” she said. “And that his good qualities outweigh everything else. It seems like a chemical attraction. You know what love is like.”

  I didn’t want to think about love.

  Heidi seemed more desperate to sway us now. “Please, I know all this doesn’t sound that dangerous. But I’ve heard him on the phone with Nichelle when he’ll go deathly silent during a fight. I can’t help thinking he’s going to explode one of these days.”

  I traded glances with Amanda Lee, seeing that, like me, she would never be able to forgive herself if we ignored this. We had the power to prevent something bad from happening. We also had a responsibility.

  We also had a hell of a lot to make up for because of how we’d almost ruined Gavin. Not that he was a pristine guy. No way. He had blood on his hands for sure, but in a righteous way since he’d secretly killed his and Wendy’s father, an abusive bastard . . . and, quite possibly, the dark spirit Amanda Lee had unleashed during that séance.

  To tell the truth, I was yearning to do some right with my abilities. I’d never done much of anything as a human, and now . . . ?

  I could finally be someone who mattered.

  Amanda Lee seemed to feel those vibes from me, and she smiled at Heidi. “We’ll tell you what we find out soon. Rest easy until then.”

  Heidi returned Amanda Lee’s smile; then, by some miracle, she seemed to find me and give me the same sunny thank-you.

  It charged me up better than any battery ever could.

  • • •

  After our business was done with Heidi, I stuck with her until she was safely in her Honda, then watched her drive down the treelined street. The sun was climbing in the sky, bringing a few more curious ghosts along with it since our kind didn’t mind the light.

  I told them to scram, and they must’ve seen that I meant it since they gave me no lip. Weird, but I’d never been a tough girl when I was alive. I guess it took a murder or two to sharpen a ghost up.

  Back in the casita, Amanda Lee was on the computer again, doing more research on Tim Knudson.

  “I guess we’ve got our work cut out for us,” I said, hovering above her, close enough to the computer that the screen danced with interference.

  Amanda Lee blinked her eyes, coming out of her myopic online search. Then she said, “You’re not angry with me about committing to Heidi before I even asked you, are you?”

  “No, but . . .”

  She fixed her gray gaze on me. “You don’t have to say it. I’ve felt it for a while. You’re not going to be around here much longer for me to bother you.”

  Having a psychic in your life could be such a bitch. “I’ve been planning to look for a comfortable, abandoned place. Part of it has to do with all the attention we’ve been getting from Boo World, with those nosy ghosts hanging around. It shouldn’t last much longer because they’ll get tired of us soon, but I hate being such a freak show to them.”

  “You’re not the freak show, Jensen. From what you’ve told me, ghosts are more fascinated with humans who do things such as accidentally opening portals and letting in malevolent entities.”

  A pall hung over the room, weighed down by Amanda Lee’s obvious guilt about what’d happened during the Edgett situation.

  “Do you think,” I asked, “Wendy was reaching out to us in a way? By sending Heidi here?”

  “I wouldn’t set my hopes on that.”

  “You know what I should do? Talk to her. See what she thinks about Heidi since she knows her from online. . . .”

  “And how will you manage that? Rap on her window, ask for her forgiveness, then dive right into a relatively normal conversation? We nearly sent her brother into a mental spiral, Jensen.”

  “But she’s thankful for what we did, deep down, don’t you think? We couldn’t save Noah from Farah, but Gavin came out all right in the end. So did Wendy herself.”

  “You can’t know what she’s thinking by watching her through a window.”

  True. I didn’t want to get too close to Wendy, wanting to respect her by keeping my distance. But I wondered if she’d ever seen me lingering outside her new home, watching over her and Gavin, longing for them to just open a window and let me in.

  Amanda Lee had turned to me, her hands folded in her lap. “You realize, of course, that devoting time to this Tim Knudson situation will postpone our investigation into your own killing.”

  “Oh, you’re ready to go forward with that now?” I wasn’t being sarcastic. I’d known that Amanda Lee was in no shape to do much but stay in her house, mourning Elizabeth all over again, as well as everything else that had gone wrong during the investigation.

  Amanda Lee nodded. “If you’re ready.”

  Hell, yeah, I was. And after I solved my murder, I was also hoping to look up any relatives I had who might be cruising around Boo World. But it wasn’t like there was a spook directory that would speed that up or anything. “As far as Tim Knudson goes, it sounds like a pretty easy thing—go to Nichelle’s place, observe him, check out what he’s all about, then . . .”

  “We should talk about the ‘then’ portion.”

  “You mean, what will we do if it looks like he’s going to beat Nichelle to within an inch of her life someday, after he loses his cool?” I sighed, the sound like a soft cry that skimmed over the walls. “I’ll just have to find a way to talk him out of it. I can be pretty persuasive.”

  Amanda Lee sat back in the chair. “You’re rather confident about succeeding in that.”

  Was I? And why did it sound like Amanda Lee wasn’t thrilled about that?

  It occurred to me that she might be a little bit bruised by the fact that I was my own ghost now. Without all her lies and manipulations, I was free to make my own decisions. Of course, she was going to help me with my own murder, so she had me by the balls the
re.

  But maybe there were more mediums besides Amanda Lee who could see me and hear me. And, believe me, I needed psychic help, because I was hoping to get some clues from my old friends once I got around to interviewing them. Once I had some suspects, I could go into their heads and hearts. But I needed suspects in the first place. A psychic could speed up the process, intuiting details about the night I’d died, giving me a list of people who might’ve had it out for me, and a medium could communicate all these details to me. Otherwise, it’d be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, sifting through every person in San Diego County, and maybe beyond, to find someone who knew something about my demise.

  Amanda Lee was the only person I knew right now who had the power to do all that.

  “Anyway,” I said, “there’ll be enough time for Tim Knudson and everything else.” I paused. “I’ve been planning on visiting Suze soon, too.”

  “Why haven’t you already?”

  Because she was my best friend from when I was alive, and every time I dropped by the pub where she worked, I got a little more depressed at seeing how she’d turned out. Lonely, wistful . . . I didn’t know if her bright personality had been killed along with me or if life had just been that nasty for her afterward.

  “I was only thinking about it,” I added, not committing myself.

  Amanda Lee stood, straightening her clothes. It was the first sign I’d seen since the Edgett situation that she cared about what she looked like.

  “You’ll be checking up on Wendy then? Soon?”

  “Yeah. I figured I’d see how she’s doing before going over to this Tim’s house. Heidi said he works the swing shift, so he might be there for me to observe and do an empathy reading.”

  “I can do one, too. Subtly. Perhaps on any possessions he has outside his home. I’d like to see where he lives, as well, just to get more of a feel for him. We could meet there, say, at three?”

  “Let’s go for it.”

  “When you see Wendy,” she said, “if you do happen to talk to her, would you tell her I’m sorry?”

  Amanda Lee didn’t give up. “If she hasn’t gotten your flood of apology calls, yes, I will.”