A Breath of Witchy Air

by Amanda M. Lee

  “Wow.” Ashton looked impressed as he bobbed his head. “Amazing!”

  I seriously wanted to punch him. Every word that escaped his mouth now was like a small torture, as if invisible mites were using paper to cut into my skin and then drop lemon juice in the open wounds for good measure. “Yes. It was truly the highpoint of my life,” I drawled, rolling my neck as I turned my full attention back to Landon. “You need to take it easy.”

  “I’m perfectly fine,” Landon argued. “I’ll be stuck in the passenger seat all day with this mother hen clucking over me.” He gestured to Chief Terry with his good arm. “I want to know what you’ll be doing. Yeah, I haven’t forgotten that you dodged that question when Chief Terry asked it. I want to know right now what you have planned.”

  “Right now,” Ashton echoed, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “You’re not even a part of this conversation!” I snapped, momentarily losing my calm.

  “I am an FBI agent.” Ashton puffed out his chest so far I couldn’t help but wonder if I stuck a pin into it if he’d deflate like a balloon. “I am a part of every conversation because of that.”

  I rolled my eyes and exhaled heavily. “Whatever. I have to get going. I’m running late.”

  Chief Terry snagged my elbow before I could escape. “What are you running late for?”

  “I have an appointment.” I wasn’t trying to be purposely evasive – okay, maybe a little – but there was no way I could admit my true plans in front of Ashton. It simply wasn’t a good idea.

  “With who?” Landon challenged.

  “Whom,” I automatically corrected, regretting it the moment the words left my mouth. “I have no idea why I did that.”

  “I know why.” Chief Terry’s eyes were probing. “You used to do it with Thistle when you girls were up to something. You corrected her, which frustrated the dickens out of her and often ended with the two of you tussling on the front lawn.”

  “I’d like to see that,” Ashton enthused, shrinking back when Landon glared at him. “What? They’re hot.”

  “Stop talking,” Landon ordered. “In fact, go into the office and start doing what you’re supposed to be doing. We brought you here for a reason. As for you … ,” Landon swiveled toward me. “you’re not going anywhere until you tell us what you have planned.”

  That sounded a little over the top. “You can’t keep me here. I’m a private citizen. I’m allowed to do whatever I want. You can’t just make me stay here simply because you’re law enforcement representatives.”

  “You’d think that, wouldn’t you?” Chief Terry took me by surprise when he tweaked the end of my nose. He was far too happy for me to be comfortable. “It just so happens that I have an open file in my cabinet. I saw it a few months ago when you were arrested with Aunt Tillie for breaking and entering a dead woman’s house and I wanted to hide it from another FBI jerkface so it wouldn’t reflect negatively on you. Your name is on top of it.”

  That sounded unlikely. “You have a file with my name on it? What file is that? I’ve never broken the law in my life.”

  Landon rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

  “What has she done to break the law?” Ashton asked excitedly.

  “Go do your work,” Landon instructed, pointing at the hallway. “This conversation doesn’t involve you.”

  “I’m with the FBI.”

  “So what? This discussion is between Bay and me. It has nothing to do with work.”

  Chuck twisted his face into a morose pout. “Chief Terry gets to stay.”

  “Because he’s her father,” Landon barked. “I mean … he’s like her father.” He shot me a worried look. “I mean … he helped raise her.”

  “It’s fine.” I waved off his worry. I had plenty of things to be offended about. Landon slipping and calling Chief Terry my father was hardly one of them. “As for where I’m going, I plan to spend the day with family.”

  “See.” Ashton beamed. “She’s going to hang out with family. They’ll probably knit or something.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “You should really start your work.”

  “She’s right.” Chief Terry sounded weary as he rubbed his forehead. “You have work to focus on, Chuck. You’re not part of this conversation.”

  “Bye, bye, Chuck.” I offered up a faux sad face as I waved at his departure, waiting until he’d disappeared inside Chief Terry’s office before continuing. “I’m not going to let you guys bully me.”

  “No one is trying to bully you.” Chief Terry was used to my moods, so he adopted a placating tone without backing down. “But you will tell us where you’re going. You were attacked last night.”

  “Ugh. You don’t know I was the target. Landon could’ve been the target.”

  “Get real.” Chief Terry’s lips curved. “I’m fond of the boy, but there’s no way he was the target. It was you.”

  “How can you possibly be sure?” I countered.

  “It’s the only thing that makes sense. Plus, trouble is magically drawn to you. I have no idea why. You were obviously the target.”

  I hated that he agreed with Landon. “Fine. I’m taking Clove and Thistle to where we found the bodies. That’s all we’re doing. Are you satisfied?”

  Chief Terry rocked back on his heels and glanced at Landon. “Do you think that’s safe?”

  “I’ll be with Thistle and Clove,” I reminded him.

  “I’d feel better if Aunt Tillie was with her, but someone would have to be stupid to move on her with two witnesses,” Landon replied, talking as if I wasn’t even present. “I guess it’s as safe an outing as any given the circumstances.”

  “I see that Ashton’s sexist attitude is washing off on everyone,” I muttered, shaking my head. “Now you guys can’t even hear me.”

  Landon snorted. “I hear you. Your tone isn’t nearly as dulcet as you seem to think. As for your outing, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be safe. You’ll be careful, though, right?”

  “Aren’t I always careful?”

  “No.”

  I scowled. “I was a total badass last night. That should count for something. I mean … I think I deserve a little respect.”

  “I respect everything about you except for whatever file Chief Terry has hidden away,” Landon countered. “That doesn’t mean I won’t worry about you.”

  “I only want to see if any ghosts are hanging around up there.”

  “I know.” Landon rested his hand on my shoulder. “It’s a good idea. Maybe they can point us in the right direction.”

  “That’s the hope.”

  “So be careful while you’re up there.” Landon gave me a quick kiss. “Oh, and text every so often so I know you’re okay.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” I waved off his concern as I trudged to the door. “I’ll be fine.”

  “You’d better be.”

  “And that file – whatever Chief Terry thinks he has on me – I’m sure I was framed for whatever that was.”

  Chief Terry chuckled. “That sounds like something I heard quite a bit of when you were a teenager.”

  “That’s because I was telling the truth even then. Aunt Tillie and Thistle framed me just about every other day.”

  “Now that I can believe.” Landon waved. “Be careful. Don’t get into trouble.”

  “You don’t have to worry. I never get into trouble.”

  “WE’RE IN TROUBLE.”

  An hour later I eyed the line of ghosts standing shoulder to shoulder in front of the trees where the bodies had been discovered with a hint of worry.

  “What do you see?” Clove asked, shifting closer. “Is it a ghost?”

  “Four of them.”

  “Four ghosts?” Thistle furrowed her brow. “That means all four of them are here. That’s not normal, right?”

  It was pretty far from normal. “No.” I took an uncertain step forward, watching with curiosity as the ghosts swayed, as if tied with the same string. “Hmm.”

  “Tell u
s what you’re seeing or we’ll assume the worst.” Clove’s voice was shrill. Seeing and talking to ghosts wasn’t a common gift – in the Winchester family only Aunt Tillie and I could do it – but my cousins could eventually hear ghosts if they were near me long enough while I held a conversation with one.

  “They’re just standing there, not doing anything.” I wiped my gloved hand under my nose as I considered my options. “It’s weird.”

  “What are they wearing?” Thistle asked.

  “What kind of question is that?”

  “I’m just curious.”

  “I can’t remember each body exactly, but I think they’re wearing the same clothes they died in.”

  “That’s normal, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, well, if they’re not aggressive you should probably try talking to them,” Thistle suggested. “That’s why we’re out here.”

  She wasn’t wrong, and still … . “They’re moving in unison, as if they’re somehow tied to one another.”

  “Like they’re one entity?”

  I nodded.

  Thistle tapped her bottom lip. “Are they looking at us? This is why it sucks that you’re the only one who can do this sometimes. We can’t see what’s going on and you lose time explaining it to us.”

  “They’re looking at us.” I swallowed hard and took a step forward, focusing on one of the girls in the center of the group. “You’re Laura Patterson, right?”

  The girl nodded, her expression unreadable.

  “Do you know me?”

  “You found us.” Laura’s voice was barely a whisper. “You were here the day they took us from this place.”

  “Your bodies,” I corrected automatically. “They took your bodies away. I … um … have a few questions. Can you answer?”

  Laura looked to her fellow ghosts and nodded. “We can answer.”

  “Great.” I tried to pretend the fact that Laura’s speaking for the group – as if they were all thinking the same thoughts and somehow magically sending them to her – wasn’t odd. “Do you know how you died?”

  Laura nodded without hesitation. “Badly.”

  I pressed my lips together to keep from uttering a “well, duh” and making things worse. “I understand. It’s just … you were all found together at the same time, but you weren’t killed at the same time. In fact, from what I’ve been able to ascertain, it was almost as if all four of you were killed a day apart.

  “Like Abby disappeared first, followed by Heather and then Jennifer. Laura, you were the last to go missing,” I continued. “You didn’t see each other before you died, right? You weren’t kept somewhere together, were you?”

  “We only met in death,” Laura replied.

  “So how did it happen?” Thistle asked, catching me off guard when she finally spoke. She could obviously hear the ghosts now and was eager to dig into the conversation. “Were you isolated? Were you taken from work? Were you stalked?”

  “We were … simply taken.”

  I wasn’t sure what to make of the answer. “We need more than that.” I purposely fixed my attention on Abby because she appeared to boast the friendliest expression – and by that I meant she didn’t look as if she wanted to kill me through nefarious ghostly means – and held out my hands. “I need someone to run me through the day she died.”

  “Why would you want us to do that?” Jennifer made a face. “No one wants to remember that.”

  “No, but I think you want the guilty party punished. We can’t do that until we catch the individual who did this. We need information if you expect us to do that.”

  “Why?” Abby challenged. “Will we be less dead if that happens?”

  The other ghosts murmured their enthusiasm regarding the question, causing my stomach to shift as unease washed over me. They were acting strange. Yes, that was an odd observation for ghosts, but I’d never seen anything like this. They appeared to be tethered. That was the best word to describe what I was seeing.

  “No. You’ll still be dead. Knowing your killer is being punished will help you cross over, though. It will help you find peace.”

  “Cross over to where?”

  “Whatever is on the other side.”

  “How do you know that’s better?” Abby was persistent. “How do you know this isn’t the best in store for us?”

  I thought of a ghost I once helped cross over, a former slave running to freedom who wandered the area for more than a century before finding peace. She came back briefly with her mother to thank me. I’ll never forget that, or her mother’s serene nature. “I just know there’s something better out there,” I said after a beat. “I know this is hard for you to understand. You’re probably confused and having trouble following a timeline. I’ve dealt with ghosts before.

  “This is important,” I continued. “It’s not just you girls. I don’t say that to be rude, but it’s not. What about the other girls out there, the ones who haven’t died yet? If you help us figure this out, no one else has to die.”

  Abby made a noise I couldn’t quite identify. It sounded almost like a sigh, but I wasn’t sure. Finally she nodded. “Fine. We will help … but only for the others. We understand there is nothing that can be done for us. We accept that.”

  It was weird for fresh ghosts to act so defeated – most spent their first few days trying to figure a way to rejoin the living – but I didn’t have time to waste fixating on the odd ghostly development. That was something to ponder another day. For now, I needed to focus on what was truly important.

  “Were you guys playing a game right before you died?”

  The ghosts nodded in unison. “Infinity Echo,” they whispered simultaneously.

  I could’ve been stalwart and strong at the admission, but instead I pumped my fist in triumph. “I freaking knew it! I can’t wait to tell Landon. I don’t know why he ever questions me when I tell him I have an idea.”

  “Yes. Landon is the one acting odd,” Thistle drawled. “It’s all on him.”

  I recovered quickly. “So, tell me about the game. Also, I need to know everything you know about the days you were taken. We’re trying to track your killer. We have no time to waste.”

  Twenty-Three

  “Wow, Bay. That was so respectful the way you just screamed ‘I was right’ in front of the dead girls,” Thistle noted. “I bet they want to elect you queen ghost whisperer of the world.”

  I tamped down my irritation, keeping my smile in place as I tugged on my coat to keep it from bunching around my waist. “I’m sorry. I lost track of myself there a bit.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Laura was back to speaking. “We don’t … feel … like we used to.”

  That made me inexplicably sad. “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but you guys don’t act like other ghosts I’ve met.”

  “Do you meet a lot of ghosts?” Jennifer looked legitimately curious.

  “You’d be surprised. You guys, though, are … different.”

  “They sound different,” Clove added. “They sound kind of washed out.”

  That was a good word. “They do. They’re also moving in tandem and there’s nothing unique about any of them. It’s almost as if they’re the same person, except they look different.”

  “And I’m sure they love you talking about them as if they weren’t there,” Thistle groused. “Focus on the information we need. I feel like an idiot out here. Someone could drive by at any moment. How would we explain ourselves?”

  “I brought the camera from The Whistler,” I replied. “We’ll say we’re taking photos for the next edition. In fact … .” I dug in my purse and came back with the small digital camera. “Take some photos, Clove. I actually do need additional photos.”

  “Fine, but I’m not wandering far away in case there’s a killer out here.” Clove made a disdainful noise as she snagged the camera. “I’m totally serious.”

  “You’re always totally serious,” Thistle shot back.
/>   I used the lull to give the ghosts another once over. They were like something out of a horror movie. In fact, they were like the twin ghosts in The Shining, only they were a little older and there were four of them. Wait … why did I bring up The Shining? I was going to have nightmares now. I just knew it.

  “Tell me about your last day,” I prompted, meeting Laura’s gaze head-on. “I need to know what happened.”

  “I can’t remember everything about that day. Only bits and pieces.”

  “Try.”

  “I … had classwork.” Laura looked as if she was struggling to remember. The other ghosts tilted their heads to stare at her, equally intrigued. It made their foursome look all the more abnormal. “I had to work the next day, so I spent the entire morning working on an English paper and … something. I think it was something for my history class.”

  “That college sounds as if it offers high school classes,” Thistle muttered.

  I ignored her. “That’s good. You were working on your schoolwork. My understanding is that most of your classes are available online. Does that mean you turn in your work that way, too? I mean, back in the day you had to turn in a physical paper to a professor. I’m guessing that’s not how things work any longer.”

  “You’re so old,” Thistle teased.

  It took everything I had not to explode at her and instead remain focused on the girls. “What did you do when you finished your assignments?”

  “We have portals,” Laura replied. “We send the assignment to the instructor there. We get our next assignment there. We take tests there.”

  “That makes sense.”

  “She sounds like a robot,” Thistle complained.

  I held up a finger to silence her. I was completely at my limit. “Then what happened? What did you do when you finished your work?”

  “I played Infinity Echo.”

  “And you all played that, right?”