by E. C. Bell
“And I’ve missed you,” I said. “More than I can say.”
Marie:
Back Home, and Back at Work
SO, SYLVIA DROVE me to Jasmine’s place.
Everybody was happy to see me, not just James. Jasmine made me chicken and as I devoured it, she wouldn’t stop crying.
“Happy tears,” she kept saying. “They’re all happy tears.”
My dad didn’t cry, but he kept hugging me and telling me how proud he was of me when I told him what I’d done. It was a bit hard to take, but whatever. The hugs were nice.
They wanted me to stay and talk the night away, but I said no.
“I’m going home with him,” I said, pointing at James, who blushed, cutely. “I need to make up with him.”
So, it was James I went home with that night. Once we got back to his apartment and I’d made up with him not once, but twice, he told me that he wanted me to take a few days off, for rest and recuperation, before I came back to work.
So I did. After all, he was the boss.
I slept most of the two days and nights away, and I didn’t have one bad dream. I suspected that the meds were finally doing what they were supposed to, even as they left my system.
And I didn’t hear that voice that was not my mother’s any longer, either. That was a real relief, because I didn’t need any more voices in my head. Mine was enough.
ON THE MORNING of the third day, I called Dr. Parkerson and told her I wanted to drop by the institution for a visit. I wanted to find Otto and help him move on to the next plane of existence. And I wanted to say hi to Juliette. She got no visitors, and I wanted to let her know that at least one person in the world gave a crap.
Parkerson was happy to hear from me. “Drop by anytime,” she said. “I’ll make sure the staff knows to let you in. And Marie, I’d like you to consider something.”
“What?” I asked.
“I’d like to offer you a contract,” she said. “Apparently, I have a ghost problem, and I wouldn’t mind your help.” She laughed. “I’ll pay and everything.”
“How can you afford to pay for that?” I asked.
“I’ll find a line item in the budget and pad it,” she replied.
It only took a little while for me to convince James that going back to that place was a good idea. He calmed down considerably when he found out I would be paid. Then, he picked up Millie and we went to the office, and it was almost like the two weeks I’d spent away hadn’t happened.
While James ran some errands, I made coffee, and fed the dog, and answered the voicemails, even the ones from Ellis Wheeler the media guy, who really really wanted to interview me since he’d heard what had happened during my time at the institution. I told him I’d think about it, which surprised me as much as it surprised him. Then, I had a second cup of coffee, and read the local newspaper to catch up.
Apparently, there was a bit of a murder spree going on. Bodies were piling up, and the police were afraid that it was another gang war.
I dropped the newspaper in the garbage. The last thing in the world I needed was to be involved in another gang war. James had more than enough divorce cases on the books. We were going to be busy for half a year, at least, with regular business.
Everything was normal, and I felt good. Just one more cup of coffee, I thought, and everything will be perfect. Then, Millie the comfort dog picked her head up from her little doggie bed and barked.
“Somebody there?” I asked. Maybe James was back. Or maybe it was another potential client. Well, we could squeeze in one more case. More was always better, Right?
“Come on in!” I called, but the door didn’t open. Karen Dubinsky, the ghost from the ball diamond—the ghost who had caused me so much trouble that I’d ended up in an institution, for heaven’s sake—walked through it and up to my little secretary slash receptionist desk and glared at me.
“Glad you finally decided to come back,” she said. “I hate coming to this part of town.”
I was more shocked than I could say. “What are you doing here?” I gasped.
“You have to help me,” she said. “The others won’t listen to me anymore.”
“What others?” I asked. I looked longingly over at the coffee pot, but knew the ghost would lose it on me if I walked away from her even long enough to pour a quick cup.
“It’s the ball team,” she said. “They’re not just going after people who hurt them anymore. You know, like Andrew.”
I nodded. I knew Andrew very well. He’d been a big part of my trip to the institution, after all. Maybe more than the ghosts.
“They’re going after others now,” she said. She looked afraid. “People they don’t even know. We have to stop them. Or you have to.”
I glanced down at the newspaper in the garbage and sighed. The crime spree wasn’t a gang war. It was a bunch of ball-playing poltergeists who’d decided that revenge was a better game than softball.
Well, I’d learned a thing or two. I knew how to stop poltergeists, and I knew how to move them on.
“That won’t be a problem,” I said, and smiled at the frightened ghost. “That won’t be a problem at all.”
I hoped.
END
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Acknowledgements
First, a huge thank you to Anne R Allen for her wonderful website, especially the “Poisoning People for Fun and Profit” section.
Thanks to Guillem Mari for another fabulous cover, and Lucia Starkey for the set up. It looks just wonderful!
Thanks to Ryah Deines for the layout. And again, to Rhonda Parrish for being a fantastic editor, once again. The hand holding worked, thank goodness.
And thanks to Margaret Curelas, my publisher, for letting me do what I did in this book (and then making absolutely certain that I didn’t make any even inadvertent mistakes by asking Katie Thieme to look over my book concerning details about sign language.) I appreciate your support more than I can say.
About the Author
E.C. (Eileen) Bell’s debut paranormal mystery, Seeing the Light (2014) won the BPAA award for Best Speculative Fiction Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for the Bony Blithe Award for Light Mystery. The rest of the books in the series have all been shortlisted for awards (look at her go!), with the fourth in the series, Dying on Second (2017) winning the Bony Blithe Award for Light Mystery.
Watch for Book 6, Haunting the Haunted, out in October 2019.
When she’s not writing, she’s living a fine life in her round house with her husband and their two dogs. (Only one of the dogs has made it into her books so far, so don’t tell the other one, OK? She doesn’t want to hurt his feelings.)
Want to know more? Check out her website: www.eileenbell.com
Other Tyche titles you may enjoy
From the South three sisters fair ran athwart the gloom. / Dressed of fur and fierce of tooth… the maidens of the moon.
Discredited journalist Ella Jerome isn’t thrilled about working at Adelaide’s fanciful tabloid the Informer. So when zoologist Adam Lowell seeks her help in finding his missing cousin, she’s cynical of his claim a monster lurks near the Church of the Resurrection. The trouble is, solving the gruesome case could be her best shot at restoring her reputation.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Prologue
Stage One
Marie: A Danger to Myself and Others
Jasper: That Was Not the Best Way to Meet the New Girl
Marie: Meeting the Staff. And Everybody Else
Jasper: Marie on Drugs
Marie: The Drug Regimen and All It Wreaks
Jasper: She Has a Boyfriend . . .
Marie: To Sleep, and Dream
Jasper: Group
Marie: My Schedule
Jasper: Talking to Franklin, Fina
lly
Marie: The Good Sergeant Comes for a Visit
Jasper: Visiting Marie
Marie: Food and my Shrink. Oh Joy
Jasper: Out in the Pasture
Marie: If Only I Was Normal
Marie: Dad Comes to Visit
Jasper: Paper and Pencil
Marie: Hiding in Plain Sight
Jasper: Practice Before the Meeting
Stage Two
Marie: Things Go More to Crap, If That Was Possible
Jasper: Investigating Was Never My Strong Suit
Marie: Lunch with Juliette
Jasper: Phillipa Has a Plan
Marie: Sylvia’s Back, with More Bad News
Jasper: More Lessons. What, Am I Back at School?
Marie: Are We Having Fun Yet?
Jasper: Phillipa’s Greatest Triumph
Marie: The Quiet Room Isn’t so Quiet
Jasper: I Have a Lot to Think About
Marie: A Nap Should Be Restful . . .
Jasper: Marie’s Request
Marie: The Intervention
Marie: I'm Free! Or Am I?
Stage Three
Marie: Now I’m Voluntary
Jasper: Phillipa and the Deal
Marie: Meatloaf and Otto
Jasper: Off to See the Psychiatrist
Marie: A Session with Parkerson I’ll Never Forget
Jasper: Franklin and Phillipa
Marie: Talking to My Dad, Once More with Feeling
Jasper: Finding Nurse Melodie and her Little Pink Pills
Marie: Otto and Phillipa
Jasper: My Final Session
Marie: Time to Catch a Murderer
Marie: The Trap Is Set
Marie: Back Home, and Back at Work
Acknowledgements
About the Author