Forty-Four Box Set, Books 1-10 (44) (122 page)

I could understand his sadness. I couldn’t imagine working on the case for all this time with nothing to show for it.

“What do you think I can do?”

“Well, Abby,” he said, stopping for a moment. “I apologize. That’s presumptive of me. Can I call you Abby?”

“Sure.”

“The truth, Abby, is that it’s reached the point where I figure that we have nothing to lose by asking for your help.”

I sat back in my chair. Frazier didn’t come out and say it. He didn’t need to. I knew Emily Ross was probably dead and I wasn’t sure I wanted to help look for her body.

“And there’s no chance that she just took off?”

He shook his head.

“Nothing seems to point to that. She didn’t appear to be that kind of girl.”

I rubbed my arms.

“I’d like to help you,” I said, not sure if that was completely true. “But it’s not really how it works with me. I usually don’t go looking for ghosts. It’s the other way around. They find me.”

“I understand you haven’t done something like this before,” he said. “And I’m not expecting miracles. But I’m willing to give it a shot, if you are.”

I looked over at his car parked on the street.

“The six-month anniversary was last week,” he said. “My partner and I are the last ones still working the case. We need to find out what happened to Emily. We need to give the family that much at the very least.”

I didn’t say anything.

“How about you give it just a few days? Come back to Eugene with me, stay a night, look over the files, videos, walk through her apartment and the route she took to school. Maybe you’ll pick up on something. It may be small and seemingly insignificant, but maybe it’s something we’ve missed.”

“You want me to go to Eugene? When?”

“I’m still working here on another case. Whenever you could come would be fine.”

I was quiet.

“Well, I’ll let you get back to your evening,” he said, standing up and then handing me his business card. “Please, please think about it.”

“Okay, Detective Frazier,” I said. “I will.”

“Call me Ellis.”

He smiled faintly and slowly walked to his car. I watched as he drove away and then stayed out on the porch for a long while, thinking. 

I thought about those shows Kate and I used to watch late at night, the ones about missing persons with a camera crew following the police on their investigation. I remembered them saying that the first 48 hours were crucial in those kinds of cases. That window was their best shot at finding the victim alive.

Emily Ross had been missing for more than half a year. 

That window had long since come crashing down.

CHAPTER 5

“That was one sweet goal, Abby,” Leonard said after the game. “You’re a natural born finisher. I don’t know where we’d be without you.”

“I can tell you where we wouldn’t be,” Tim said. “We wouldn’t be at
McMenamins celebrating another win. You coming with?”

“I’ll catch you guys next time,” I said. “I’ve got to be up early tomorrow.”

“That’s too bad,” Tim said. “We’ll drink one for you.”

“At least one,” Leonard said.

It had looked like the game was going to end in a scoreless tie, but then I did the unexpected. I played defense. The last defender got the ball tangled up in his feet and I pressured him at just the right moment. Or wrong moment for him. He coughed it up and I faked the goalie out and softly passed the ball to the back of the net.

Normally it would have been cause for celebration, but Emily Ross was still floating around in my mind.

“Sorry, I’m late,” Ty said, jogging up. “Did I miss it?”

“You could say that. Feel like walking around a little?”

“Sure, if you promise to give me some play-by-play on what I missed.”

“Deal.”

I picked up my bag and hobbled over toward the Jeep. I looked down and saw a big bruise on the back of my left calf. It must have been when that beast slide tackled me from behind early in the second half. I hadn’t felt anything at the time.

“You sure you wanna walk?” Ty said. “You’re moving rather gingerly.”

“Yeah, I’m okay.”

We headed over to a field that wasn’t being used. Instead of telling him about the game, I gave him a play-by-play on Detective Ellis Frazier and his visit.

“Even though it’s true, I won’t say it,” Ty said when I was finished.

“Say what?”

“That I wish you had told me that someone was following you.”

“I can see how you would feel that way. And I thought about it, but—”

“Next time tell me.”

“Okay.”

“I’m surprised that a cop is actually asking for your help. I guess you’ve crossed over. I mean, to the legit side of town.”

“I know,” I said. “It’s kind of weird, huh?”

The air was still warm, but I started shivering. He rubbed my shoulders and pulled me close. 

“Do they think she’s dead?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t say that exactly, but I don’t think anybody is expecting anything good to come from it after all this time. And he knows that I see ghosts. He must be thinking that I’ll go with him to Eugene and find her spirit lurking around somewhere so I can ask her what happened.”

A worried look fell over Ty’s face and his white energy faded into gray.

“He may also want your help to find the killer, if there is one. And if that’s the case, it could be dangerous.”

“Yeah, I thought of that too,” I said. “He didn’t go into all the specifics of what I would do. He just said that I would look at the files and her apartment. See if I get any feelings.”

Ty let out a long breath.

“So, are you going to do it?” 

“I don’t know. I hate those fakes out there who pretend to see ghosts and claim they can help find missing people. I don’t want anybody to think that’s me.”

“Trust me. It ain’t you, babe. And you know I had my doubts in the beginning. You’re the real deal.”

“Yeah, but part of being the real deal is that you’re not always successful. I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up and then let them down.”

He leaned over, kissing the top of my head.

“Shhh,” he said. “You don’t have to decide anything right now.”

“Maybe I’m just being selfish, but I can’t see this having a happy ending,” I said. “For Emily Ross or for me. And I don’t want to get sucked into the darkness again.”

“You know, if you do decide to do it, you don’t have to go all the way with it. Just put in a day or two. And you can pull out anywhere along the way.”

“Like on a river?” I said.

“Yeah,” he said.

I was surprised by his attitude. I was expecting Ty to tell me not to go. We had gone down a few bad ghost roads in the past, and I figured he wouldn’t like me diving back into that world again. But it made me happy that our relationship had evolved to this point.

“I still remember when you were kidnapped,” he said, his voice cracking. “It was the worst thing I’ve ever gone through in my life. It was like time just stopped, and it felt like all there would ever be was that you were gone.”

I closed my eyes and took in his words.

“If it were just about you, I’d be the first one to tell you not to do it,” he said. “But I can’t imagine what her people have been going through for all this time. I think that just knowing what happened to their daughter might give her parents some comfort. Even if the news is bad.”

“It means a lot,” I said after a while. “You being here for me like this.”

“I’ll always be here for you, if you want me to be. Hell, even if you don’t.”

I smiled.

“So you coming over tonight?”

“That’s the best offer I’ve had all day, but I think I need to head home,” I said. “The house is lonely. I need to think about what I’m going to do, and I have an early day on the river.”

“Okay,” Ty said. “But if you need anything…”

I nodded and then let out a long sigh as we stood for another moment.

It was the body, I knew that.

I didn’t want to be the one to find it.

CHAPTER 6

I didn’t even have to ask. David’s voice said it all as he screamed in my ear like a Chinese firecracker.

“I
am
the man. I did it, I did it! Take that, you hairy, back-stabbing mother fu—”

There was a loud crash.

“Oops. Sorry, Abby Craig,” he shouted a moment later. “I dropped the phone. I guess I’m a little ossified.”

“Ossi who?”

“Get with the lingo, Abby Craig. Ossified, zozzled, you know, drunk. Drunk with happiness. And giggle water!”

David had just wrapped up shooting the season finale of his paranormal television show, which involved a dream sequence set in 1920s Portland where he had to outrun a werewolf in the middle of the night.

I was glad he called, even though it was after one in the morning. I was having trouble sleeping anyway.

“That’s great,” I said. “You are the man.”

“And we took eight takes. Eight, no joke. Do you have any idea how many miles I must have run? And I looked athletic and beautiful in every single one, thanks to you, Coach Craig. You’ve turned me into a fabulous hottie!”

“Nah. Beneath that pale and skinny exterior you’ve always had it goin’ on.”

“Well, I can’t argue with that.”

I would have never thought that David would step on a track, but when he found out that one of his last scenes involved a considerable amount of running, he had called me in a state of panic asking for help. I set up a simple program, at first alternating between walking and running. A month into it, he had cut out the walking. Not bad for a guy whose only previous exercise consisted of sprinting up to a bar for another Lemon Drop.

“You know, I looked better than the werewolf who was dripping his nasty evil sweat all over his costume. He slowed us down twice with wardrobe changes. I even heard someone yelling at him. Serves the bastard right.”

I put the phone on speaker and took a seat at the kitchen counter.

“I’m so proud of you, David. I never had any doubts.”

“Well I did. But the episode’s director pulled me aside afterwards and told me that I was ‘resplendent’ in the scene. Of course, at first I was worried, but then I looked up the word and it means that I shined brilliantly. I shined, Abby Craig! He loved me. He loved me!”

David was still running, only now with his mouth. He was talking at a four-minute mile speed and it was hard to understand a lot of what he said. The dance music pounding away in the background didn’t help.

“You know I had a feeling this afternoon that everything would go my way,” he said. “I was sitting outside, studying my lines, and out of nowhere this hummingbird came up and kept flying around me for the longest time, batting those cute long eyelashes in my direction. And then I remembered!”

He paused for a long time and I thought maybe he had dropped his phone again, but then I heard him gulping.

“Remembered what?”

“The angel CD I told you about.”

Ever since he landed the role, David had immersed himself in everything New Age. He bought packs of tarot cards, read books on astrology, carried crystals in his pockets, and repeated positive mantras several times each day. 

“Remind me again,” I said.

“Abby Craig! Do you ever listen to me? Angels communicate with us through nature. They use birds and butterflies and I suppose even squirrels, although
they
seem a little too nuts. Ha! That joke just came out. Anyway, our angels are around us all the time and they’re sending messages. See? The little bird was really telling me that I was going to plant that wolf boy in the dirt!”

I laughed.

“So you’re saying that your angels helped you take down that obnoxious actor?”

“Jesus, Abby Craig, no! Angels aren’t hit men! Hey, by the way, how come I’m the one who has to explain this to you? That’s a little backwards, don’t you think, Ms. Ghost Whisperer?”

“Not really,” I said. “I only seem to see the darkness in that other world.”

“Exactly. That’s why I’m telling you all this. I think it’s time you start cultivating a relationship with your secret guardians.”

“Okay. When you get back to Bend, maybe you can help me dial them up. But angels or no angels, you did it, David. You worked hard to make this happen.”

“Thanks again for everything, Coach.”

“My pleasure. So when are you coming home?”

“I’m not sure. We still have to do a few more promos and then there’s our cast party. This week we also find out from the network about whether the show will be picked up for next season. Fingers crossed!”

“Will do, and my toes too.”

“Ewww, I’ve seen your toes. Let’s leave those poor bruised and abused babies out of the equation.”

“For whatever it’s worth, everybody loves the show over here,” I said. “As a matter of fact, Lyle and Paloma invited us to their house last Thursday night to watch it with a bunch of people on his 70-inch Aquos.”

 “His what? Whoa. Wait. Back up.
Their
house?”

“They’re living together now.”

David groaned.

“Okay, could you please explain how a gorgeous ex-cage dancer falls in love with a moody troll on the lam from White Man Afro Land? It pushes the limits of believability.”

They did make an odd couple. Lyle had nearly three decades on her.

“Well, I’m holding out that it’s just one of those weird phases for Paloma,” David said. “You know, the
I’ve fallen for my grandpa and I can’t get up
phase?”

The laughter and familiar wheezing started up and lasted a long, long time. I waited it out.

“Okay, gotta blouse, Abby Craig. Time for one more round!”

“Hey, take care of yourself tonight,” I said. “You’ll still need a few brain cells in the morning.”

“It’s all under control.” He hiccupped loudly. “Whatever damage I may do will be fixed tomorrow. I already have my spa reservation. Four hundred dollars and change to pamper my badass silly self. But hell, I’m worth it.”