Supernaturally Kissed (Frostbite, Book One) (3 page)

He lowered his hand from his face and stared at me with curious eyes. “So seeing ghosts happens to you often?”

I nodded. “All the time, and I must say, I’m surprised you have figured it all out. Normally when y’all come to me, you’re clueless.”

“It took a while to realize something wasn’t right. But as soon as I talked to people and no one responded, it became pretty clear cut.” He cocked his head. “So, you see and hear dead people?”

“No, I don’t see dead people, I see spirits.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “There’s a difference?”

Stupid sexy ghost! “Of course there’s a difference. If I saw dead people, there’d be bodies, you know, bloody, stiff, blue—that kind of stuff.”

“Lovely image.” He snorted.

I bit into my apple. “You shouldn’t have asked if you didn’t want to know. Besides, you’re a cop, aren’t you used to guts and gore?”

“Touché.” He inclined his head. “Please continue.”

“The ones I see are like you. Who look normal, but are stuck here and need to do something to free them.” I waved whimsically. “And allow them to cross over.”

He stared, focused and intent. “Cross over to where?”

“I would guess heaven.” I shrugged and nibbled my apple again. “I don’t know where you go. All I know is after I help the spirits do whatever they need to do, they up and vanish.”

He shook his head, appearing mystified. “And how long have you been able to see and talk to spirits?” He studied me as if searching for something.

Probably the truth.

“A few days after my seventeenth birthday, I was in a car wreck. I almost died at the scene, but a doctor, who happened to be in the car behind us, worked his magic and saved my life.”

He quieted a moment before he asked, “Have you looked into why you hold such an ability?”

Been there, done that. “Read a couple books on mediums, and from what I learned, when someone dies—or close to it, like I did for a total of ten minutes—once they’re revived, they take part of the…” I hesitated and tried to find the right words. “The place between heaven and Earth with them.”

“And I’m there now?”

“I suspect so.”

He glanced at his hands, studying them, and looked back to me with sadness in his eyes. “I don’t feel dead.”

He might have annoyed and aroused me into unknown territory, but I did have a heart and he presently tugged on my heartstrings. “I’ve never met a ghost who did.” My appetite fled me. I placed the apple on the coffee table. “What do you need me to do for you, Kipp?”

His eyebrows drew together in an attentive expression. “My partner, Zach Foster, and I were working cold case files within the department.”

“Oh, I’ve seen that show.”

He sighed. “Trust me, solving cold cases isn’t exciting. The cases are old and digging into them is exhausting. Out of the hundred cases we have sifted through, we’ve solved two.”

There went the images in my mind of grave digging, solving mysteries and fighting crime. “Shitty,” was my only response.

He nodded. “The last case we worked was the disappearance of a twenty-year-old woman who went missing five years ago.”

I flittered through my memory, as something seemed familiar, and I remembered a case from the news. “Are you talking about Hannah Reid?”

He quirked an eyebrow. “You’re aware of the case?”

“Of course I am! I think all of Memphis would remember that hundreds of volunteers came to find her, but after weeks of searching, her body was never discovered.”

He glanced away, seemingly satisfied with my answer. “We were beginning to break ground with the case and leads were developing. I can remember going to a house I thought might have been the last place Hannah had been seen.”

I should’ve been more concerned with what he said, but the way he had spoken startled me. He seemed so…coherent. “How do you remember all this?”

His gaze swept back to me. “How do I remember my life?”

“Yes, exactly, how do you remember your life?” He recalled details about the case he worked on, the house he went to and he had accepted his death. Nothing made any sense.

His expression became measured. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because the ghosts I’ve met never do. They only know what they need to do to cross over.” I’d gotten used to my peculiar little world I lived in. Here came a ghost who stirred shit up. “You’re the first ghost I’ve met who can remember anything from the past.”

“I can remember everything, right down to what I ate on the night I died.” His gaze turned probing. “What does that mean?”

“Got me.” The unknown unsettled me, so I grasped on the one thing I did know. “Since your last memory was of you going to the house, I’m assuming you died there?”

“Someone shot me,” he replied.

Yuck! “Did you see who killed you?”

He shook his head. “I never got a look at the assailant, but I suspect whoever shot me also killed Hannah Reid. Apparently, I closed in on a suspect and they didn’t want me to find out their identity.”

Makes sense.
“All right, I get what you’re telling me, but you’ve been quite persistent that I acknowledge you, and as interesting as our little adventure has been, I’m at a complete loss as to how to help you.”

“I need you to go to the station and talk with my partner. Fill him in on what I know so he can move along with the case.”

I burst out laughing. “Oh, you’re funny.” He said nothing and merely gazed at me with a stone-cold expression. “You’re not kidding?”

“No, I’m not. Obviously, I’d been on the right track with Hannah’s case since I’m dead. The only way to solve the case is to tell my partner what I know, and my means to do that is through you. I have an obligation to Hannah to solve her murder, but also staying in my present condition is not something I’d prefer to do.”

He had up and lost his ghost mind. “Are you suggesting I walk into the police station and tell a bunch of cops that the friend they’ve lost is actually not gone, but here with me as a ghost, and he wants me to relay information to help solve a cold case?”

“You got it.”

I jumped to my feet and folded my arms across my chest. “No.” My ability was my secret, one I kept bundled up and hidden from the world. I didn’t want to expose my gifts to a bunch of cops to give them amusement.

“You want to get rid of me?” The side of his mouth curved up. “This is how. I need your help and I’ll do anything to make it happen, including a repeat of last night’s events if I need to.”

I considered my options, which were limited at best. Annoying to find that part of me was hell-bent on saying no because I kinda liked looking at him and didn’t mind hearing his voice, which disturbed me. The situation turned into some sick movie I’d watch because I didn’t have a choice, but then I’d complain about how morbid the movie was afterward. I had to put a stop to this insanity. “Fine, I’ll help you. But just so you know, they’re not going to believe me.”

He winked and aimed his sexy grin my way. “You won’t see me arguing that point with you, gorgeous.”

* * * * *

G E Patterson Avenue led to anything and everything in Memphis; exactly why I loved downtown living. I strode next to Kipp, heading down the road toward the police station, while he stayed quiet and thoughtful.

He didn’t even chime in after I called in sick to work—Dylan would hand me my ass later—to handle my current predicament. Doris, as always, wished me well and sent a big dose of love over the telephone line.

We continued down the street and the silence became unbearable. So I did what I always do when uncomfortable and blurted out the first thing to enter my mind. “How long have you been dead?” I clamped a hand over my mouth. “Sorry,” I mumbled beneath my fingers.

Kipp smiled. “Nah, it’s a valid question and I suspect if I were you I’d wonder the same thing. If I woke the night I died, then a week has passed.”

A week didn’t seem too long, but to a dead person I assumed it’d feel like an eternity. No one to talk to or acknowledge your presence, I imagined minutes would feel like hours. “And you’ve just been wandering the streets?”

“I went home for a few days, actually, but as expected, I ended up getting nowhere, so I decided to venture out.” He winked. “Luckily, I stumbled across you.”

Yeah right, lucky me!

Main Street came into view and the downtown core buzzed with pedestrians, which explained why every person I passed looked at me like “oh that poor crazy person”, since I was having a conversation with myself. “The glowing bit caught your attention, didn’t it?”

“The glowing bit?”

“The golden aura.” I waved my hand across my body. “It made you approach me, right?”

“Initially, yes.” He cocked his head. “And why do you have an aura around you?”

“Good question, and I’ve never found an answer to why.” Even though it made me curious what he meant by initially, the intensity in his stare told me to leave the subject alone. Moreover, his sexy grin, which grazed his face, left me all too aware he was once a man—a smokin’-hot man with a dirty mouth.

I needed to change the subject to direct the conversation into an appropriate one. “How long have you been a cop?”

He chuckled, apparently aware I dodged his attempt to flatter me. “I joined the force a few years back and I’ve lived and breathed it ever since.”

His admission stunned me. He seemed too personable to only care about his career. “Not married, then?”

“You up for a proposal?”

“No,” I retorted. “I just want to get to know you better since I’m on my way to talk with your partner.” Good God, did I probe him to actually learn more about him?

His smile confirmed my interest showed. “No, I’m not married. Too busy working to have time for relationships.” His eyes twinkled. “Well, ones lasting longer than a night.”

We turned left onto Main Street. “Sounds like you had fun.”

He nodded, solemnly. “Yes, I have had that.”

I recognized immediately I’d made a terrible mistake. If I could’ve, I would have buried myself underground and stayed there. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t make you relive the life you’ve lost.”

His eyes filled with profound sadness, yet he shook his head. “It doesn’t bother me for the reasons you think.”

No denying the misery on his face, something made him regretful. “What—”

A stern voice interrupted, “Ma’am, are you all right?”

I glanced away from Kipp to find a uniformed cop staring at me. “Ahh…” I peered over his shoulder to see the police station. I’d been so lost in the conversation and my own thoughts, I hadn’t realized we had arrived. “Yes, I’m fine. I’m…er…just going into the police station.”

The cop nodded. He clearly agreed I made a wise decision, considering he must have seen me talking to thin air. “Go on in.” He held the door open and gestured for me to enter. “You’ll find the help you need with the officers, and not to worry, you can trust them.”

I fought against the urge to roll my eyes. Instead, I offered him a kind smile. “Thank you.”

He tipped his hat. “Good day to you, miss.”

I strode into the building and the door closed behind me with a whoosh of air. The station had a simple design, with a main counter in the front, hall down to the left and cubicles behind the counter where police officers sat.

Approaching the main counter, I spotted a young woman fresh out of college—bright-eyed with an eagerness to work—who sat with a phone stuck to her ear. “You owe me so big,” I whispered.

Kipp chuckled.

The receptionist hung up the telephone and looked at me. “What can I do for you?”

“Tell Betty you need to speak with Zach Foster,” Kipp said.

Before I could respond, the door next to the desk opened with a loud bang and startled me. Two cops came in with a drunk, elderly man who slurred and spit while he fought against the cuffs around his wrists.

I squished myself against the desk to get away from him. He reeked of day-old booze and urine. Lord, I didn’t belong here. I glanced back at the receptionist, who stared at me with an impatient expression. “Is Detective Zach in?”

“Detective Zach?” Kipp repeated.

What?
If he wanted better, he could go float away to find someone else to help him.

“Zach Foster?” Betty asked.

“That’s him,” Kipp replied.

I nodded. “Yup, Zach Foster, is he in?”

Betty picked up the telephone again and placed the receiver against her ear. “Who can I tell him is here and what’s the reason for your visit?”

“Tess Jennings.” I stole a quick glance at Kipp to find him nodding encouragingly. I sighed, focusing back on Betty. “I’m here to talk to him about Kipp McGowen.”

Her eyes widened before her fingers typed quickly as she entered in the extension. “Tess Jennings is here to see you and says she has information regarding Kipp.” She paused. “Mm hmm.” Another pause. “Yes sir, I’ll send her along.” She hung up the phone. “Detective Foster is unavailable right now, but Detective Eddie Perez will meet you in interview room one now.”