by Deanna Chase
The place looks empty. I’ll double-check. Be right back. Ida May disappeared through the wall, leaving me alone on the porch.
I glanced around, looking for the telltale indications that the police had been there earlier that day. Shouldn’t there be crime tape? Maybe that was inside. The door didn’t look forced open, and there were no signs foul play anywhere.
Nope, Ida May said right after she popped back through the wall. No one here. Not even any disturbed spirits.
I frowned. “That’s not normal.”
Ida May shook her head. There should be half a dozen gawkers at least.
She was right about that. Violent deaths created a disturbance in the afterlife. Spirits would hang around, rubbernecking the same way humans did after a car crash. “Did someone smudge the place?” I wondered out loud.
Negative. I would’ve smelled that nasty stuff from a mile away.
She was referring to sage. If someone wanted to rid the place of any unwanted energy, they’d burn a sage bundle. I peered through the window, spotting an inviting living room decorated with bright pillows and artwork. “Maybe someone cast a spell to keep spirits away?”
Ida May shrugged. That’s above my pay grade. My sassy ghost placed her palm to her mouth and mimed a yawn. This is boring. I’m going back to the café where I can harass drunk people.
“You do that,” I said absently.
She snickered. I’ll remember you said that next time you tell me to keep my hands to myself.
“Ida May. Don’t you dare—”
Too late. She gave me a self-satisfied grin just before she disappeared into thin air.
“Dammit,” I muttered under my breath. “She’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.”
It’s about time she left, a raspy voice said from right behind me.
I jumped and let out a gasp as I spun around, spotting an older lady who was holding a cigarette between two fingers. Her piercing eyes bored into me as she pursed her lips and studied me.
You here to do something about what happened to Sam? the ghost asked.
“I’m here to try to figure out what happened, yes,” I said, already reaching for the small notepad I’d tucked into my back pocket.
Why? She took a drag of her cigarette, inhaling deeply.
Uh-oh. The ghost had an agenda. Or maybe she was vetting me before she gave me any information. I needed to tread carefully. There was no way to know what she wanted to hear. I went with the truth. “My friend Charlie was arrested for her murder. And of all the people in New Orleans, Charlie is the last person I’d ever believe killed someone. Not unless she was defending her own life or the life of someone she loved anyway. So that’s what got me here. I wanted to see if any spirits were around who could help me fill in some details. But now that I’m here… the place feels strange. Empty. Void of any emotional energy. Stale almost. And that is not what a murder scene feels like… ever. Someone is covering up something, and I’m going to find out what it is.”
The ghost’s gray eyes sparked with interest. You just might be the medium I’ve been waiting for. The door popped open, apparently all on its own. The ghost floated in, her head held high and her shoulders back as if she were the mistress of the place. Follow me, Pyper Rayne. We have things to discuss.
I hesitated. It didn’t escape my notice that she somehow knew my name. That meant someone or some other ghost had to have told her who I was. Still, if I walked in there, I’d be trespassing, and if I was caught, there was no telling what can of worms I’d open. I could be arrested for everything from breaking and entering to murder if they thought I was the type of criminal who would return to the scene of the crime.
They arrested the wrong person, the ghost called from inside the house.
Crap. I couldn’t risk not talking to her. Not after that. Taking a deep breath, I steeled myself and stepped over the threshold. The door slammed shut immediately, and a small shiver of unease crept up my spine. “Was that necessary?”
She let out a cackle and spun around the room with her arms held out wide.
Oh, son of a cheese biscuit. The ghost was insane. My jaw tightened. I wasn’t interested in playing games. “I’m going to go.”
The ghost vanished and reappeared right in front of me. Four other people were in this house last night. Don’t you want to know who they were?
I raised a skeptical eyebrow. Crazy ghosts often played around with humans just to seek attention. I was starting to think this one didn’t know anything at all. “How do you know who I am? And how do I know you’re not making this up?”
Sam told me, of course. And you can trust I’m not making this up, because I have names.
“Sam is here?” I asked hopefully.
She shook her head. She was, but you know how traumatic it is to die. She said you’d show up and that you could help right before she vanished. So I suppose I should tell you what I know. But first I need something from you.
I sighed. Of course she did. And she was right. The ghosts of those who’d just passed were notoriously unstable. Even if Sam were here, she was likely to be an unreliable source. It would take some time for her to come to terms with her new reality. “What is it? Need me to track down an old lover? A child? The one who got away?”
She let out a bark of laughter. I never had children, and I couldn’t give two shits about any of my exes. No. I need you to find that bitch Maya Blanch and get Stanley out of her house before she turns him into a bitter old man.
“You want me to find some dude named Stanley and extract him from his home before you’ll tell me what you know about last night?” I asked, astonished at her audacity. But then she was a spirit. It wasn’t unusual for them to lose their inhibitions after death. I mean, look at Ida May. Though she’d likely been just as crazy in life as she was in death. She had been a lady of Storyville after all.
Not some dude. My dog. Stanley is a shih tzu, and my bitchy neighbor took him after I had my heart attack. Stanley hates her. Save him, and I’ll give you all the names.
A dog. Whew. Well, that was certainly easier than trying to get a grown man to move out of the home he shared with some woman named Maya Blanch. But I wasn’t exactly down with being a dognapper. The lady couldn’t be that bad if she’d taken in a rescue dog. “I can’t steal Stanley. What do you expect me to do? Break in and run off with him?”
Yes. Once you go over there, you’ll see. Some of the fire faded from her angry expression, and her eyes turned worried. I don’t think he’s safe. Please, just go check on him.
Well, damn. Now she had me worried about her furry friend. I knew I couldn’t live with myself without at least making sure that Stanley wasn’t in any danger. “Give me the address.”
Really? She quickly rattled off an address I recognized as being in the Lakeview neighborhood of the city. It was near the shores of Lake Pontchartrain and was where a lot of the wealthier residents of the city lived. If she asks who sent her, tell her Ginny Jacobs says hi from the grave.
“You’re Ginny?” I asked.
Damn straight. Maya hated me, and that’s why she’s mean to my dog. She pushed out her bottom lip in an exaggerated pout.
“I see. Well, Ginny, why don’t you tell me a tiny detail about last night so I know you aren’t pulling my chain. And then I’ll go check on Stanley.”
You better do more than check on him, or mark my words, I’ll haunt the crap out of you, she said, her eyes narrowed.
“My best friend is a witch who knows her way around a smudge stick,” I countered.
Fuck. She pressed her hand to her eyes. Just… do what you can, all right? Her distress was palpable, and I was starting to believe that this Maya really might be the monster that Ginny made her out to be.
“Fine… give me something about what happened here last night, and I’ll see what I can do,” I said with a sigh.
She pursed her lips together. Then she straightened her shoulders and stared me in the eye. Fine. Your friend Charlie was he
re, but she was spelled. And that’s all I’m going to say. Come back tomorrow night with Stanley, and I’ll tell you everything I know.
I opened my mouth to demand she tell me what she meant by Charlie being spelled, but the ghost vanished with a loud pop, leaving me alone in Sam’s house. “Ginny!” I called. When there was no answer, I moved to the kitchen in the middle of the house and called her name again.
Nothing. Pure silence.
“Dammit!”
She was gone. I should’ve left too, but I was already in the house. I should at least take a look around, right? If I was smart, I’d get my butt out of the house before someone found me there, but the image of Charlie sitting in a jail cell kept my feet rooted to the floor.
I scanned the kitchen, taking in the pile of dishes in the sink. There was a mixing bowl, still coated with some sort of yellow batter, measuring cups, and a spatula. The counter had a thin coating of white powder, likely flour. Some had drifted to the floor, but other than that, the kitchen was spotless and orderly. I walked over to the refrigerator, grabbed a nearby hand towel, and used it to open the fridge door. Inside, there was a tray of untouched cookies that had been decorated with bikinis, an almost empty jug of almond milk, eggs, butter, and the usual condiments. My heart sank. Those cookies had been for my shower. I’d heard Charlie saying something about them earlier in the day.
I closed the fridge and moved on to the bedroom behind the kitchen. But as soon as I took my first step into the room, I froze. The place was trashed. Clothes were everywhere, spilling out of the dresser and closet. The mattress was askew. And jewelry and perfume bottles were scattered over the pinewood floor near the dresser.
The place had been tossed.
Chapter Five
“You want me to do what?” Bo asked, his expression a mix of amusement and disbelief.
“Come on, Bo. You heard me. There’s a dog we need to rescue.” I sat down on the edge of his bed and grabbed his large hand. “I’d ask Jade, but she’s busy with Juliet.”
My brother rolled his eyes. “I’ve had my fill of flirting with the law. I’d rather not end up in handcuffs if you don’t mind.”
I couldn’t blame him. Before he’d come to live with me, he’d been the ward of a small-town drug dealer. And over the summer, he’d been the prime suspect in a murder he didn’t commit. Jade and I, along with our loved ones, didn’t rest until we’d found the true murderer, but it had been scary as hell. The only thing Bo wanted was to go to school and keep his head down.
“I understand,” I said. “You deserve some normalcy.”
He sat back against his headboard and narrowed his blue eyes that were so like my own. “But this is so you can get information to help Charlie?”
“Yes, but never mind. I shouldn’t have asked you,” I said quickly, realizing he’d do anything for her. Charlie came into the café at least twice a day for her caffeine fix. And more often than not, if we were busy she’d jump behind the counter and help out. Sometime in the past six months, they’d become buddies. “I’ll get Kat to go with me.”
He laughed and ran a hand through his mop of dark brown hair. “Kat is not going to help you dognap a shih tzu.” He glanced down at Stella, who was cuddled up next to his leg, and his eyes softened as he scratched her behind the ears. “We’ll have to go first thing. I have class at ten.”
Bo was a senior in high school, but he was on independent study and took a few classes at the local college. Reagan, his girlfriend, was also on independent study, giving them both fairly flexible schedules. I couldn’t help the smile that tugged at my lips. Bo was much preferable to Kat. She was way too uptight to do anything that wasn’t completely aboveboard. It always amazed me that she and Jade were besties from back in the day. Jade was one hundred percent a risk taker when it counted, while Kat did everything by the book. But then, Kat had never let us down when there was something important on the line, so maybe I was being unfair.
Still, Bo as my sidekick would be much more fun. He wasn’t likely to lecture me on trespassing laws. I leaned forward and threw my arms around him. “Thank you!”
“Don’t thank me yet. If you think I won’t sacrifice you to the fuzz if they come after us, think again, dognapper.” He grinned at me and pulled Stella into his lap.
I raised my hands in the air in a surrender motion. “I will happily take all the heat.”
He snorted. “Did you hear that, Julius?” Bo called. “Pyper’s turned into a bad girl. Better do something to put her in line.”
Julius appeared in the doorway, wearing low-slung jeans and a white T-shirt. Bo had been giving him fashion advice lately, and he looked every bit a part of the twenty-first century these days. It was a far cry from his 1920s persona he’d been rocking ever since he’d shed his spirit status and become human again.
His green eyes sparkled as he flashed me an easy smile. “Turned into? Please. What do you think attracted me to her in the first place? But I’m always available if she needs to be… punished.”
I grinned at him, knowing he was just pulling Bo’s chain.
Bo looked between us and wrinkled his nose in mock disgust. “Gross. Get a room.”
“That sounds like a plan to me.” I popped up off the bed and strode over to my fiancé. I made a show of running my hand down his chest as I batted my eyelashes at him. “Ready to take this somewhere private?”
He laughed and slipped an arm around my waist. “Can’t say I’ll turn that offer down.”
“Ugh.” Bo slipped down onto his bed and buried his head under a pillow. “Go away. Try to keep quiet, will you? I don’t want to hear you two making babies.”
“Better put your headphones on then.” I teased. “I might be ovulating.”
“La, la, la, la, la,” he sang and rolled over, turning his back to us.
Chuckling, I pulled Julius out of his room and into ours.
The moment our door shut, Julius pressed me up against the wall and placed his hands on my hips. “Is it really baby-making night?”
I pressed my hands to his chest and smiled up at him. “Yes.”
“Thank the gods,” he said with a strangled moan as his lips devoured mine.
“Are you sure this is the place?” Bo’s voice was full of skepticism as he peered into the empty apartment. The address had turned out to be an ugly three-story apartment building with twelve units that didn’t fit the upscale neighborhood.
“This is the address Ginny gave me. But she is a ghost. So…” I shrugged, certain that Ginny was either crazy or had lost track of time and Maya and her shih tzu hadn’t lived here for a few decades. It happened. Ghosts weren’t the most reliable of beings.
“Right.” Bo turned to make his way back down the stairs but paused when my phone buzzed. “Is that the lawyer?”
I glanced down at the message from Jade. She hated that we’d left her at home this morning, but what were we going to do? Bring Juliet on a heist? Not likely.
“Nope.” The lawyer had yet to get in touch with me, and that fact was driving me a little insane. I was going to wait until lunch and then call her. “It’s just Jade checking in. She doesn’t handle being left out of the action very well.”
He snorted. “No kidding.”
I tapped back a message letting her know our excursion was a bust and we were on our way back to the café. “Let’s go get breakfast.”
“Now you’re talking.” Bo pulled the hood of his sweatshirt over his head, intending to block out the December wind. Up until today it had still been in the low seventies in the Crescent City. But this morning we’d woken up to high thirties and it hadn’t gotten much warmer. That was downright freezing for the residents of New Orleans.
“Bad Stanley! Move!” a low gravelly voice barked from the apartment below. “I have to get to work.”
Bo froze and glanced back at me.
“Jackpot,” I whispered, glancing down between the stairs. A woman with short pink hair who was wearing frayed jeans and a
stained LSU sweatshirt yanked on the leash of a small brindle-colored shih tzu. The poor pup was shivering and cowering away from her as she tried to drag him back into her apartment. “Damn. Ginny was right. He’s scared.”
Bo let out a sigh. “Looks like dognapping is on the agenda this morning.”
We both moved back up the stairs, trying to stay out of the line of vision of the woman. If we were lucky, she’d leave Stanley in the apartment, and once she left, we could complete our mission.
Breaking and entering. Great. Not only was I willing to break the law, but I was turning my brother into a criminal too.
“Listen, Bo,” I said as soon at Maya disappeared into her apartment. “You go get the car. I’ll deal with getting Stanley.”
He blinked at me.
“Bo,” I warned. “Don’t fight me on this. If we get caught…” A slight shudder ran through me. I could deal with a dognapping charge. But if Bo ended up with a record while trying to apply for college, I was going to hate myself.
“Fine.” He held out his hand for the keys. “But I’m not leaving until Cruella leaves. I’ll keep an eye on her while you get the dog.”
“All right.” I sucked in a breath and patted my hip for my magical dagger. I didn’t usually keep it on my person, but when one was intent on breaking the law, she couldn’t be too prepared. I was a medium, not a witch. Well, not much of a witch anyway. My dagger carried power that I could wield but that was about it. I never used it unless there was a damned good reason, but I really hoped I wouldn’t need it to rescue Stanley.
The apartment door downstairs opened and then quickly slammed shut. The woman was grumping under her breath about needing to get rid of the ungrateful dog and said something about the kill shelter.
I let out a gasp and quickly clasped my hand over my mouth as I pressed myself against the wall, praying the woman was too self-involved to hear me.