Not Quite Free

by Lyla Payne

  “Okay, Gracie, he’s gone. Out with it. I need your version of events.”

  “My version of events?” I make a face at him. “I was the only one there, Will. Who else’s version would you have to compare it to?”

  For the first time in weeks, Will is looking at me as if he’s concerned my marbles have been scattered to kingdom come. “You weren’t the only one there.”

  “Yes, I was.” Aside from Lavinia, of course, but it’s not as if anyone else would have gotten a glimpse of her.

  “Gracie, Leo said he saw a shadow come up behind you in the boat house before you flew into the water.” He gives me a hard look. “Flew, not fell.”

  My mouth goes dry. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth as I stare at him, hoping like hell that my eyeballs don’t fall right out of my face. Leo saw a shadow? He saw one of my ghosts?

  Or was it something else?

  Someone else?

  And why was he watching me in the first place?

  Chapter Eleven

  I stop at home for long enough to check in with Amelia. She’s going stir crazy stuck in the house, and since it’s been raining, she hasn’t even had a chance to take Jack on a walk. Which is why all three of us end up strapping into her car to visit Daria.

  I’m not sure whether the strange medium is the best new face for an impressionable baby, but on the bright side, he probably won’t remember her later.

  Of course, bringing Amelia with me means that she’s going to find out what happened at the riverfront today. Not that she wouldn’t have heard about it sooner or later; Will already told Mel, if the fifteen texts on my phone are any indication.

  “So, tell me why we’re going to see Daria? Not that I’m complaining. She’s terribly interesting, and I’m slowly going insane from talking to someone who can’t talk back.” She gives me a small smile. “I know you’re busy and you have every right to have a life. But I’ll admit I’ve missed you this week.”

  “Where’s Brick been?”

  She laughs, tucking her hair behind her ear in a self-conscious action that’s telling—and completely unlike her. “He’s been around, but only here and there. He’s taken on this murder case that’s eating up a lot of his time. Maybe you heard.”

  At least one of us is working on my case. It should make me feel good to hear that Brick has some fire under his ass, but it sends more guilt coursing through me than anything. My cousin finally meets a guy she thinks she can trust, and because of me, he doesn’t have as much time to spend with her as either of them would like. Gold star, Gracie.

  “I’m sorry. I told him to take a couple of weeks off.”

  “Have you met the Draytons?” She grins, her eyes sparkling. “They don’t understand taking time off.”

  “Well, that’s true.”

  “So…Daria?” she prods.

  “The new ghost I’ve seen,” I admit, still reluctant. I had planned to downplay how much Lavinia creeps me out, but there’s little chance of that once she finds out that her ghost tossed me in the Charles. “She’s…different.”

  “Different how? And why didn’t you tell me about this before now?”

  “I don’t know. We’ve been figuring things out with Jack. You didn’t need the stress.” I lick my lips, darting a glance at her to gauge how pissed she is. Doesn’t look too bad. “And different like she’s not a good person.”

  “You’ve already figured out who she is? Nice work.”

  “She showed me one of those vision things, so it wasn’t too hard to figure it out. I verified it with Brian in Charleston—the ghost’s Lavinia Fisher.”

  It doesn’t take her long to pluck that name from her memory, but then again, Amelia has been on about as many ghost tours as I have. And they all mention her in one way or another.

  “The serial killer?” There should be fear in my cousin’s voice, but she only sounds intrigued.

  Maybe I’m not the only crazy person in our family. The thought is strangely comforting.

  “The one and only, though according to Brian and the verifications I’ve been able to track down, the details of her life may have been grossly exaggerated.”

  “Exaggerated or not, she was still executed for murder, right?”

  “Wrong. Highway robbery, though I tend to think that she and her husband did kill at least a couple of people along the way.”

  “Huh. So where do the stories come from, I wonder?”

  “That’s the real question,” I murmur as we pull into the gravel lot outside Daria’s trailer.

  Given that it’s a Sunday afternoon, the fact that her car is here, too, doesn’t surprise me. Even so, I’m relieved. I’ve been trying not to focus on what happened earlier today, on what it means if Lavinia did try to kill me. Despite my defensiveness over Mel’s suggestion I talk to her boss, hearing from Daria on the complexities of ghost hunting never fails to put me more at ease.

  Amelia unbuckles and puts her hand on the door, but I stop her.

  “Wait.”

  The thought of confessing what Lavinia’s ghost did to me turns my stomach inside out. My heart sinks at the knowledge of what it’s going to do to Millie, but I can’t drop that bombshell on her in front of Daria. It’s not fair.

  “I fell in the river today.” I rush ahead, hoping to smooth the worry lines on her face. “I’m fine, obviously. Leo pulled me out, and Will was with me at the hospital, but I only had to stay for an hour. Just a little chilly.”

  “Grace! How could you not call me! How did that happen?” She twists back to face me, reaching out to squeeze my forearms like a concerned mother. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. No need to freak out.”

  “Wait, you were with Leo? I thought the two of you were pretending to fight.”

  “First of all, we’re not pretending to fight. Second, I wasn’t with him. Apparently we just both decided to go for a run at the same time, and neither of us has any sense of adventure so we picked the same path we always do.”

  “Okay…”

  “There’s something else.” I lick my lips and swallow, thinking about how even Ryan didn’t buy the whole ‘I fell’ scenario. “I think Lavinia’s ghost pushed me.”

  “What?”

  “She was there, just before it happened. Then she was gone, and I felt hands on my back that shoved me right through the railing and into the water.” I pause, not wanting to continue, but also needing to make the rest of it real. “Leo told Will that he saw a shadow in the boathouse just before I flew in.”

  “Leo can see ghosts?”

  She doesn’t seem to pick up on the fact I’m hung up on—that Leo was watching me—but my mind is admittedly not functioning all that well where he’s concerned.

  “Or it wasn’t a ghost,” I suggest, not realizing until that moment it’s a possibility I’m considering. But somewhere in the back of my mind…I am.

  The way all of the color drains from Amelia’s face tells me that she hadn’t considered the possibility, either. “You think someone alive could have snuck up on you?’

  “I don’t know. I didn’t hear or see anyone else, but I was focused on Lavinia. She’s the kind of ghost that holds your full attention.” I frown. “And before she showed up, I was pretty much just feeling sorry for myself. Stuck in my own head.”

  “You spend too much time there, Grace.”

  “Ten years ago, you would have encouraged me to spend more time considering my actions and their consequences.”

  My cousin makes a face, but ignores my attempt to divert her attention from the issue at hand. “So, how do we find out who pushed you?”

  “That’s part of why we’re here. I need to find out from Daria if it’s even possible that Lavinia did it—and I have some other questions about things she’s done and showed me since she first popped up.”

  “Well, let’s go see what she says. I’ll get Jack.”

  This time I don’t stop her. Before I get out of the car, I take a deep breath and s
hake my head a little. I never expected she’d take my news so well. It’s high time for me to stop trying so hard to keep her safely in the dark. Amelia is strong—the last six-plus months have proven it. And if I’m going to fight for my future, I need to relax enough to let my friends and family into the trenches alongside me.

  I also need to face the fact that whoever set me up to take the fall for Frank’s murder might not be done with me—like, maybe simply ruining my life isn’t enough. My stomach twists into knots at the realization that I can no longer just focus on staying one step ahead.

  I need to watch my back, too.

  I need to tell Travis what happened, because if it is a rogue Fournier after me, then they could be after him, too, but before I pull out my phone, Amelia knocks on the trailer door.

  Jack’s sleeping peacefully in his carrier, like a little angel. Daria answers the door, her disinterested gaze traveling between Millie and me and then toward the carrier, when it absolutely lights up.

  And she actually squeals. Daria. Like a twelve-year-old who just found out she was going to a Justin Bieber concert.

  “A baby! Oh my gosh, come in. Can I hold him? Can I feed him?” Her voice fades as she retreats through the office portion of her trailer, heading toward the living space.

  Amelia and I exchange a stunned look before shrugging together, as if on cue, and following her inside. It’s cold out, after all, and if fussing over Jack makes Daria more apt to answer all of my questions, what the hell.

  Once we’re settled on the couch, Daria starts happily cooing into Jack’s awake and slightly shocked face—it could be her bright orange hair, or maybe the cat-eye makeup she’s rocking at six in the evening. Quite the getup for ghost-hunting.

  “I guess you’ll tell me in your own sweet time, as usual, but what are you doing here, Graciela?” Daria says all of this in a sing-song voice, her gaze still on Jack even though she’s obviously talking to me.

  “Um, well, I have this ghost.”

  “I figured that much. And let me guess, this one is different and you need help?”

  “Yep,” I reply with as much cheer as possible, refusing to let her bait me. “And if you could be more helpful than you were last time, that would be great.”

  Her dark eyes flick to my face, half-hidden by her serious eyeliner. “It’s not my fault your boyfriend’s ex was still alive. Doppelgängers are, like, one in a million. Besides, if all she had to do to steal him away was show up, I’m not sure things were really going all that well between the two of you.”

  “Hey,” Amelia snaps, pointing a finger at Daria. “Be nice or I’ll take the baby away.”

  Daria’s arms tighten around Jack. She works on an expression of contrition, but her face doesn’t really allow for it. It’s a nice try. “Fine. But I don’t like having my advice questioned.”

  I bite my tongue. Daria doesn’t owe me anything. If anything, it’s the opposite. I’d do well to stay on her good side.

  “There are a couple of weird things that have happened with this most recent ghost—first, she showed me a vision of her death, but from what I’ve gleaned, most of it is not true.”

  “What’s the second thing?”

  “She might have tried to kill me today.”

  Her head snaps up, and her eyes narrow on my face as her knees continue to sway back and forth. The movement is lulling Jack back to sleep without the use of a pacifier or my cousin’s boob—no small feat. Add ‘good with babies’ to the long list of things that make Daria such an enigma.

  “That’s happened to you before, though. I mean, you know it’s possible.” Her tone is odd, almost defensive.

  It takes me a moment to follow her train of thought. She must be talking about how Mama Lottie used Mrs. Walters to try and get to me and Amelia…but it’s not the same thing.

  “No, I don’t mean that she convinced a living person to do her dirty work. She put her hands on my back and shoved me into the river.”

  “Oh. Well, that does change things.” She chews on her lower lip. “But they’ve touched you before, haven’t they?”

  “Not like this. It’s always just been this icy cold sensation. I’ve never felt their hands before, per se.”

  Now that I think about it, I didn’t feel cold when those hands touched me. Or did I? It all happened so fast.

  If I didn’t, it’s one more thing that adds up to the culprit being someone with a pulse.

  I never thought I’d see the day when I wished a ghost were trying to kill me. Now, it seems as if it would be an easier thing to handle than the alternative.

  “It’s rare, but it’s not unheard of,” Daria admits, looking slightly pale. A frown touches her lips for the first time since she noticed we brought a baby with us. “She must be pretty old and powerful.”

  I cling hard to the not unheard of part, knowing exactly why I’m doing it but not caring.

  “Okay, so it’s possible she pushed me. But why would a ghost want to do that?” My lower lip feels raw from the treatment I’ve been giving it, but my nerves won’t let me stop. Every instinct I’ve developed about ghosts has told me that Lavinia is different.

  Almost as if the motions she’s going through, the pointing and play-acting, are just a mimicry of what the others have done. Like she learned how to get my attention from watching me with them. But something tells me she doesn’t want the same thing.

  Daria heaves a sigh and cuddles Jack closer, taking a big whiff of his baby scent. “I know you don’t want to hear this, Graciela, and honestly, I was hoping I would never have to have this talk with you. But some spirits are plain evil.”

  “I mean, I dealt with Mama Lottie.”

  She shakes her head, and it’s like a punch in the stomach. “No. She was angry, and she had damn good reasons. That’s different. I’m talking about evil, all the way down to their moldering bones. Soulless.”

  “Like those things we saw in the trees on that first job you took me on?”

  The first time I went on a walk with Daria, there were creatures in the trees. Big, black, with long, spindly arms and legs tipped by talons or claws. Totally unnerving.

  “Sort of. Those, though…they were never human. Never had souls. They’re sort of like, I don’t know. Denizens.” She frowns again. “It’s hard to explain without some kind of religious frame of reference.”

  Amelia sits forward. “We’re not heathens, Daria. And we’re both fairly educated. Pick a frame and stick this into it. We’ll figure it out.”

  “You know, I really kind of like you. You’re spunky. I’m glad that curse didn’t get you.”

  “Thanks,” my cousin says dryly. She shoots me a look that asks whether her baby is okay with the crazy woman.

  I shrug. Daria’s a little out there, but she’s never struck me as the dangerous sort of kook. And I’ve known a few.

  Brian comes to mind.

  “So, the figures you saw that day…I would call them guardians. Of hell.”

  “Like demons,” Amelia clarifies.

  “Sort of, but there are so many different kinds of demons that it’s not the best definition.”

  I’m overwhelmed by the enormity of this other world I’ve barely breached. I want to learn more—to learn everything—and not just from Daria. But as usual, the real, physical world is calling. Murders and arrests and trials, babies and ruined relationships.

  “So she wants to kill me because she’s evil. And what, bored? Why me?” Frustration oozes out of me, clipping my words short. “How do I get rid of her?”

  “Your gift works differently than mine, so I’m not sure I can answer that last question without knowing more about who we’re dealing with, but as far as why you?” Daria shrugs. “There aren’t that many of us, comparatively. People they can talk to or interact with—sensitives. Regular people…it wouldn’t affect them to have ghosts around, not even ones like her.”

  “At all?”

  It’s hard to understand how people could brush p
ast someone with Lavinia’s energy and not get burned.

  “Sometimes people who aren’t sensitive to spirits can be affected by their presence—they’ll get headaches, nausea, mood swings, things like that. But they usually don’t realize a ghost’s to blame, and if this woman is really as bad as you say…she wouldn’t be satisfied terrorizing people who don’t know she’s there.”

  “She’s like a real haunting ghost,” I work out with a frown. “She wants to scare people.”

  The memory of Lavinia’s endless black gaze is enough to send a shudder down my spine. She’s got the spook part of her job description down, for sure.

  “I’ll think about how we might be able to get rid of her.” Daria sighs and settles a sleeping Jack back into his carseat. “You don’t think your usual thing would work?”

  “What, helping her?” Amelia frowns, shooting me an incredulous glance. “Why would Grace want to help someone who’s already tried to kill her once? Let’s just give her the boot.”

  “It’s not that I don’t appreciate your whole woman of action thing, but sometimes tried and true is the fastest way to get things accomplished.” Daria raises her eyebrows and shoots me a look, still waiting for a response to her question.

  “I don’t know. She does seem to want something, but she hasn’t been very helpful or proactive in telling me what.” I wrinkle my nose. “We were supposed to go on a bit of a road trip this afternoon, but that was before she dumped me in the river. I had to spend a few hours raising my core body temperature at the hospital.”

  “Where?”

  “I don’t know. She pointed south, and I offered to drive in that direction. I wanted to go through the abandoned farmhouse of one of my relatives who’s missing. She seemed fine with the idea. You know, before she pushed me into the river.”

  If she did. Which…maybe she didn’t.

  Daria shakes her head, the expression on her face caught between amused and exasperated. “Don’t you have enough trouble without sniffing around for more?”