Kipp was now on the floor on his knees and his deep laugh echoed through the room. “But I can’t go―can’t be there to see my bones―cause that’s just too weird.”
Drool dribbled down the side of my mouth. I sucked it back in, wiped my mouth and cried out in laughter which begged me to get a grasp on reality again.
It didn’t happen. Not for at least ten more minutes until we all gathered a sense of ourselves again. And decided the craziness of it all didn’t mean it wasn’t going to happen.
Finally, Zach returned to a sitting position, wiping the laughing tears from his face and sighed. “Fuck, if anyone just heard our conversation we’d be committed.”
I sighed too, smoothing the hair away from my face. “Why do you think I try to avoid ghosts in general? I like my freedom, thank you very much.”
Kipp was resolved enough to gather himself up to sit back on the arm of the chair. “No matter how insane it all is, it’s ours to deal with.”
Yes, there was that little fact. Before I could say anything, Zach interrupted. “So, what am I to do, get a map or something?” His chin shook as if another laughing fit was on the brink but to his credit, he held it back.
Why was he asking me? As if I had any idea what the heck we needed to do in order to find the location. “Sounds good to me,” I said, looking up at Kipp.
He nodded, his smile still very prevalent in his eyes. “A topographical map would be best. It will show us little details that she might remember, such as hills and the river she mentioned.”
I relayed the information to Zach.
He nodded and stood. “I’ve got one in the truck.” Then he glanced around, his eyes suddenly cold with shame. He leaned down closer to me and whispered, “Hannah is not here with us, is she?”
My smile was quick, but I restrained my laughter, as did he. “No, she said she’d meet us at the main gates of park.”
“Fair enough.” Zach’s expression shifted to relief. Obviously, his kind heart crumbled at the thought of hurting Hannah’s feelings. Yup, a good match for Caley in every way. Maybe, he could teach her some manners. Without another word said, he spun on his heel and began to head off toward the kitchen.
“Where are you going?” I called out after him.
He glanced over his shoulder, no hint of amusement living in him now. “I’m calling Max.”
Huh? Truthfully, I figured we’d just go and Hannah would show us on the map. Then, in the morning, Zach and the other guys would head out to take a look. If that was the case, why was he waking him?
“Why does he need to call Max now?” I asked Kipp. “Won’t he be pissy for waking him?”
“Just gathering the troops is all. It’s protocol to let him know what’s going on,” he replied, running his finger down my cheek with a sweet smile.
I enjoyed the frosty breeze which danced across my skin, my eyes closed. Guess the whole, not doing it tonight, was a flop. At least hearing there would be others gave me positive thoughts. “Oh good, so there will be lots of you, which means I can stay in the truck.”
Kipp’s finger continued to move up and down my cheek slowly. “That is doubtful.”
My eyes snapped open and I moved away from his touch. “What is doubtful?”
Again, Kipp gave me a smile which said he enjoyed when anger burned in my blood. “I would imagine you will need to come with us.”
Oh hell no I wouldn’t! Go in the middle of the night, walk through a scary dark forest on the hunt for a dead girl’s grave? Not likely. “And just why will I need to do that?”
Kipp shifted on the armrest and shrugged. “Simple, how will the others converse with me if you are not there?”
“But...but...but I don’t want to go out in a dark forest in the middle of the night.” Sure I was pouting now but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to do this. No way. Not one little piece of me wanted it.
Kipp arched an eyebrow and gave me a knowing look. “Not sure you have a choice here.”
He did not just go there. He was stepping over the line from being a ghost to a bossy ghost. It was one thing I never put up with. I had to draw the line somewhere. “I always have choices and this is one where I am saying no.”
“If Hannah knows the location, we’ll just look around the area. I’m sure the forest is thick and anything disrupted will be an obvious sight.”
“But she was killed five years ago.” I pointed out. “It’ll be overgrown by now. How are you even going to see anything?”
“It will be less overgrown than the rest of it.” When I opened my mouth to continue my rambling, he stopped me. “Listen, I know the idea of going out there to her grave frightens you but you’ll be kept safe. Don’t you trust me enough to know that I wouldn’t put you in danger?”
“Of course, I trust you.” He smiled at my offering. “But what the hell is trusting a ghost going to do?” He frowned now. “What are you going to do spook someone to death?”
“Yes,” he hesitated, then finished up. “I’d do something. Besides, Zach’s there and he has a gun. Does that ease your worries?”
It would ease me more if I didn’t have to go at all. I’d learned enough so far to know fighting him was a losing battle, so why bother. “We’ll just look around then we’re out of there, right?”
He nodded. “Right.”
Zach re-entered the room, a grin worth a million dollars on his face. “Well Tess, hope you don’t mind a little dirt under your fingernails, because we’re about to go dig up a grave.”
Dark night, scary forest, crazed murder, hidden grave―dirty nails.
Oh, hell no!
***
Chapter Eighteen
The night was pitch-black and as we drove through Meeman-Shelby Forest, shadows and gloom had settled across the land.
I wasn’t normally jumpy―spirits were real, what else could scare me? Still, I felt unsettled. This wasn’t a spirit we were going in search for. This was a body buried five years ago. My stomach flipped and flopped at the images swimming through my mind.
“I wish I could kiss that worry away.” Kipp said, sitting next to me in the backseat of Zach’s truck.
“I wish you could too,” I responded quietly to keep the conversation private. The kissing part would be nice, but it wasn’t only the journey ahead that had me on the edge, indecision had crept up. Once the body was found, clues probably would be there too, and then the case could be solved. Kipp’s need to stay would be gone, his soul settled and content to move on.
“What was that?” Eddie asked, apparently eavesdropping.
I glanced toward him in the front seat next to Zach. When we picked Eddie up, he came out half-awake with three shovels in hand. I was glad to see the coffee he was drinking worked as he now looked perkier. The faster they dug, the sooner this would be over. Which is where I felt conflicted.
I wanted to help Hannah but I didn’t want to be doing this in the dark and I certainly didn’t want Kipp to leave. What a big stinkin’ mess.
I shook myself from my thoughts and answered Eddie. “I was talking to Kipp.”
Eddie laughed softly, shook his head, then looked back out the front window.
“We’re doing the right thing.” Kipp said, drawing my gaze back to his.
His expression was soft and questioning. Apparently, he was re-thinking this choice just as I was. Seeing it wasn’t what I needed. I needed him to be the strong one here, to tell me that we were doing the right thing because now I wasn’t so sure.
The wavering emotions began to break. My mind so confused and full of doubt, it was hard not to feel overwhelmed by all of this. My chin trembled, my lip quivered and tears filled my eyes.
Kipp let out a long deep sigh and lowered his head. “Why did we have to meet now?” It was more of a statement then something I needed to answer, so I kept quiet. He glanced back up to meet my gaze, his eyes filled with sadness. “When you look at me like you are right now, I’d believe I was already in Heaven.”
A tear spilled down my cheek. He reached out to wipe it away, but instead of touching me, the frosty air dried the wetness along my skin. “But when I cannot touch you, I'm reminded I must be in Hell.”
“Kipp,” I barely whispered.
He smiled softly, reassurance in his expression. “You’ve made death easier.” Now, it wasn’t only one tear, but many streaming down my cheeks. “If the only way to have met you was to have died then I’ll never regret it. Not for a single moment.” He gave a serious look. “You know that right?”
I managed to find my voice. “I do.”
“Then when the time comes, remember I was happy to have experienced this small amount of time with you. That you gave me something I’d never known. You made me feel something I thought I was incapable of. Know that I treasured each and every minute we had and I was happier these last days than I’d ever been.”
I sat silent for a moment and absorbed his words.
I took a deep profound breath before I let my mouth run wild. “I love you, Kipp.” It wasn’t even a thought when it poured from my lips. I knew it, felt it the moment I met him. I could no longer deny it to him or to myself. It was all of him, every little piece which made him who he was that filled my heart with enough love it could burst.
He smiled, making a happy sound. “I love you, too.”
Suddenly, someone cleared their throat. I looked up. Eddie had already gotten out of the truck and Zach was halfway out.
“I’m sorry to interrupt but we’re here,” Zach said, looking at the seat of the truck as if trying very hard not to listen to what was being said.
I looked back to Kipp, who smiled. Beneath it, I could see he battled against himself in refusal to do this. “Guess we should go?” I said in a strangled voice.
Kipp gave a nod that was full of conviction despite what his eyes said, even when he added a forced smile. “Go and get your feet dirty.”
“Oh crap.” I suddenly realized I had worn my brand new leather boots. I opened the door of the truck and stepped out. After Kipp joined me outside, I slammed the door closed. I approached Eddie and Zach who had a topographic map laid out on the hood of the car.
Just then, Hannah appeared. “About time.”
“The downfall of not being able to teleport wherever you want to, is you have to drive which takes time.” I laughed.
Hannah smiled.
When I glanced away from her, Eddie and Zach both appeared flabbergasted by my admission ghosts could do that. “Never mind.” I waved it away, not wanting to get into it.
“We need to call in the location to Max so he knows our whereabouts,” Zach said in a soft voice, glancing around as if searching for where Hannah stood.
“Speaking of that, where is he?” If I had to be out here, he sure as hell should have to be too. The more of us there to help, the faster I’d be out of the dark forest.
Eddie let out a loud sharp bark of laughter. “Max?”
“Yeah, Max.”
He gave a look which said I should know better. “The Sergeant doesn’t get knee deep in mud, dear.”
I glanced over to the forest in front of us and pouted. Eddie wasn’t exaggerating. Even in the darkness, I could tell it wasn’t going to be an easy trip. Why couldn’t they take one of the nicely tailored trails that would lead them around this forest? “Seriously? I have to go in there?”
“Yes,” Zach responded. “Kipp may need to tell us something and we can’t hear it if you are not there.”
“But my poor boots.” I nearly cried. My pretty, shiny boots that I had only bought a few weeks ago, and had saved a couple months to buy. “These cost three weeks of pay.”
Eddie gave me a rebuked glance. “You can wash them when we are done here.”
Oh, wasn’t he Mister Smarty Pants. Well, I wasn’t going to give yet. “What if they don’t come clean?”
Zach laughed, mirroring Eddie’s expression. “It’s mud, it’ll come clean.”
“But...but they could get scratches!”
Suddenly, Kipp’s voice abruptly broke through my little rant. “You need to let Hannah tell us where she is located, Tess.”
With that interruption, I realized I was stalling, searching for a way out. Both Eddie and Zach studied me, waiting. I forced myself to get a grip. As much as I wanted to stay here and keep Kipp with me forever, if they didn’t discover who had done this, Hannah would never cross over. She would always linger in search for peace. The pain, loneliness and misery in Hannah’s eyes that I witnessed earlier, and could even see of little of it now, was all I could think of. No one deserved that fate. Going against what I felt in my heart, I stepped forward and came up beside Eddie.
“We’re here now.” Eddie pointed to the main entrance of the forest, to the parking lot where we now stood.
My gaze landed on Hannah. “You ready to do this?”
She nodded eagerly. “Damn right I am.”
I closed my eyes and let Hannah’s words become my own as I repeated what she said. “All right, use your finger to follow what I say.”
“Go ahead,” Eddie acknowledged, ready to follow the directions.
I gave Hannah a moment to start before I relayed her words. “Go straight until you hit a creek. Once there, turn left and you’ll hit an incline.”
“I see that, yes,” Eddie confirmed, his voice held a tinge of excitement.
“When you’re over the hill turn to the right and walk for a while,” I continued, repeating Hannah’s words diligently. “The lake runs along your right here. You can hear it the entire time.”
“A short distance away,” Zach spoke up. “Yes, we can see that.”
After a moment of letting Hannah speak, I repeated, “You’ll come to a cliff. You have to climb down it. Once at the bottom, you go to the left and you’ll come into thick bush.” I paused, waiting for Hannah to finish. I opened my eyes. She gave me a smile, said a few words, then up and vanished.
“Well?” Zach asked, impatiently after the long break.
I glanced away from where Hannah vanished and looked at him. “You only need to walk a few minutes longer and then you’re there.”
Zach smiled, at thin air. “Thank you.” Obviously, he intended for Hannah to hear it.
“She’s not here anymore.” I laughed.
Zach shook his head in a harsh manner, clearly annoyed.
Eddie and Kipp laughed with me.
Ignoring us, Zach reached onto the hood of the car where his phone rested. He picked it up and typed away on the buttons for a while. Once done, he held out his other hand to Eddie. “Phone.”
Eddie handed him his then folded up the map and stuck it in his back pocket.
Zach held Eddie’s phone to his ear and after a few seconds he said, “Max, the coordinates are thirty-five degrees north and ninety degrees west.” He went quiet a moment then said, “Yeah. Got it. Right.” Seconds later, he lowered the phone from his ear, pressed end and glanced at us. “We are to call him if we find anything. He’s at the station now digging through old reports to see if any unknown bodies have been pulled from this area.”
Just then, headlights caught my attention, I covered my eyes against the beaming lights. As they drew closer, I noticed it was a police car. “Who’s that?”
“K9―must be Brody.”
“K9 division,” Zach said, without knowing the question had already been answered. “What’s Brody doing here?”
The police car pulled up next to Zach’s truck, the door opened. “Howdy y’all,” Brody’s friendly voice called.
Zach gave him a completely befuddled look when he approached the truck. “Max called you in?”
Brody nodded, running a hand through his warm brown hair. “Thought you might need a little extra help.”
“Wasn’t that considerate of him.” Zach laughed.
I stood, not at all understanding the exchange. Apparently, this was out of the norm to have the K9 aboard, and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what wa
s so odd about this. Made perfect sense to me. Need to find a dead body? A dog with a good nose seemed like the perfect choice. Unable to restrain myself, I voiced my confusion. “Why does it surprise you?”
Zach met my gaze, quite serious. “Max is never considerate.”
“Bet it’s for her.” Eddie gestured toward me. “If she wasn’t here, I doubt he would have done this.”
All of what was just said was the most ridiculous statements I’d ever heard. “Are you telling me Max would have sent you out to the middle of a forest in the pitch black on your hands and knees trying to find this grave which was buried five years ago?”
“Yup,” every one of them responded.
I snorted. Maybe my first impression of Max had been wrong. “Sounds like a real charmer.”
“Don’t be put off, Max’s about as good as they come,” Kipp said. “But his roots are old school. He thinks clues are found by searching for them yourself.”
“Well that’s just...” I started.
Zach interrupted me. “He does what he has to.”
I glanced at him, a little annoyed he cut me off, but when I caught Brody’s baffled gaze, I understood his interruption. “Sorry,” I said to Brody. “I’m not weird or anything, I just talk out loud sometimes.”
Brody smiled. “We’ve all be known to do that once in a while.” Then, his gaze flashed with curiosity. “Why are you out here anyway?”
Zach and Eddie exchanged a glance. I didn’t hesitate. “I was talking with Eddie and Zach...about...you know.” Brody nodded which stated he understood I meant Kipp’s death. “When they discovered this clue about the body’s whereabouts, I thought having an extra set of hands would help.”
Brody’s eyes widened. “Well consideration is going around tonight then.”
Eddie stepped forward, eager to change the subject. “So, who did you bring with you?”
“Duke,” Brody responded, then he spun on his heel and went back toward his police car.
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