Undercover Psychic

by Lisa Freed

  Or even my own Aunt Prudy, where did she go when she wasn’t popping in for a late-night chat? I should try to ask that next time. I had bugged Victor before but he was evasive on that subject and many others, as was his habit.

  I shook off those wayward thoughts and tuned back in to Angel still going on about poor Joey needing peace and she would do anything she could. Outside of leaving Angelo, I snidely almost mentioned but miracle of miracles I kept my mouth shut on that one.

  We agreed on a time for tomorrow and said our careful goodbyes.

  *****

  Angel and Angelo lived outside Rehoboth Delaware in one of the many mobile home courts. Pulling up to the address Angel had given, I had to say just like the couple themselves, it wasn’t what I had been expecting. A cheery peach doublewide with white skirting around the bottom made it simply adorable in my eyes. Like many other homes in the area, the outside motif was beach themed, so sun-faded shells were everywhere. But it was the sound of windchimes filling my ears though the lowered windows of the SUV that enchanted me. I closed my eyes, enjoying the soft tinkling chimes.

  “What are you waiting for? Let’s get going!” Joey’s strident voice shattered the peaceful moment I had been having.

  He really knew how to endear himself to people didn’t he?

  Angel, dressed in mint green capris and a white shirt with a matching green seahorse printed on it, opened the door and waved. She must have seen me just sitting in the truck and thought I might be confused as to whether I had the right address.

  I went to open the door then paused, turning to Joey in the seat beside me. “Remember this is your last chance, you talk like you promised.” I left the threat empty-ended because seriously there wasn’t much I could do if a ghost decided to pester me forever. I truly hoped it never came down to wearing salt in hopes of keeping him at bay. Plus, I wasn’t sure of just how effective it was. Look at how many people drowned in salt water oceans and still were roaming around just fine as ghosts? Victor being the first that came to my mind.

  “I want this, I already told you that so lay off!” Joey snapped then disappeared.

  One deep breath and a half-hearted smile firmly fixed on my face and I left my truck to face the unlikely trio of Angel, Angelo, and Joey, hopefully for the final time.

  Angel ushered me into a bright, plant-filled living room that had painted wicker and rattan furniture that looked super familiar. Angelo was seated on the couch with his long bony, hairy legs, revealed in khaki shorts and sandals, propped up on a matching ottoman. I wanted to look away but found myself unable to. His ankles uncrossed and he made to stand which snapped me out of the vague-trancelike state that had come over me.

  I waved him back down, “Please don’t get up, you’re still recovering from your ordeal.” And my nose might never be the same if he had another fainting spell.

  “Would you like some iced tea or a pop?”

  Pop? What was a pop? Better to stick with what I knew. “Some iced tea would be lovely, thank you.”

  She brought in a tray with three colorful tumblers on it and a jug of store bought iced tea. My confidence in my choice of beverages soared. Angel doled out the cups filled to the brim with the light tan tea which I managed to sip at without spilling. Delicious, probably Turkey Hill brand, which I adored.

  After a few polite words, Angel began to talk about Joey. I detected slight movement from the corner of my left eye and there he was, lounging in a chair next to me. For once he had great timing.

  “Joey was my first love,” she paused and giggled girlishly, “my first kiss.”

  “First hand job,” Joey added with a sly wink directed at me.

  I ignored him.

  He repeated it loudly in my ear as if I hadn’t heard him the first time, “First hand job.”

  “I’m not going to say that out loud,” I said for everyone’s benefit. I could feel the heat of embarrassment burning my cheeks and ears. Yes, everyone has a sex life, but looking at the sweet, old-okay, maybe not really sweet, but old, definitely old lady in front of me I didn’t want to picture her and the grinning like a loon Joey doing anything!

  “Ohhh…” Angel giggled again. “Is Joey telling stories, naughty boy.”

  Angelo frowned, his large lips pooching out in the most unattractive way. Clearly, he was as unhappy with the direction the conversation was going as I was.

  It was time to get this back on track and over with. “Yes, obviously you were very special to one another. Joey has remained in love with you for all these years, and now he would like to know a few things so he can find peace he’s has longed for at long last.” I thought I might have overdone it with the last part but none of the three seemed to mind.

  “Of course, anything to help my Joey.”

  Angelo’s sour expression worsen and I was half-afraid of him suffering another heart attack, or even worse indigestion. I couldn’t handle anymore of his lethal farts.

  “If I lived, would she have gone to prom with me?” Joey’s hesitant question broke through my horrified visions of dark green gas clouds gathering.

  I relayed the question to Angel and she smiled broadly.

  “I dreamed of going to prom with Joey,” she enthused. Her face taking on a dreamy far-away look of her own. Then perhaps she remembered Angelo sitting next to her because she patted his knee before continuing on, “I had a lovely time with Angelo, of course, but he only took me because Joey disappeared, and as a good friend.”

  “If she had known Angelo had killed me would she still be with the big lug?” Joey’s eyes were squinted down as he stared at Angelo, no doubt wishing he would drop dead instead of guzzling his iced tea.

  I left the lug part out in sensitivity to Angelo but asked the question.

  “But it was all an accident!” Angel maintained. “Though I don’t know why Angelo felt the need to hide your body.”

  She squeezed Angelo’s knee that she still had her hand on and I could see the blue veins jump out as she applied pressure. Ouch!

  “I was a scared, stupid kid without the best of reputations. I thought the Five-O would put me in jail. You know I was supporting my mother.”

  “That’s true. What a dreadful accident, better that it stayed forgotten.”

  At that Joey exploded. “It was my life! Who cares if it was an accident? What about my family? They died never knowing what really happened to me, they thought I ran off. Where’s my family’s justice?”

  The kid did have a point. “What about Joey’s family? The pain and the grief of not knowing what became of him?”

  “Well, yes, I felt bad about that, but there was nothing I could have done. The risk of exposing myself was too great.”

  Before, I admit, I hadn’t had much sympathy for Joey, forgetting he had been just a kid himself and his entire life was taken from him. It took the pain in his voice as he spoke of his parents to remind me that a crime had been committed, and one that Angelo had hid for a very long time.

  I’ve long known that I don’t have the best poker face and this time it was coming back to bite me. Both Angelo and Angel’s face suddenly went very hard and still. When they spoke, it was as if I wasn’t right there in front of them finishing up the last of the tea. It kinda made me wish I had told someone my whereabouts.

  “There’s no body and the statute of limitations must have run out by now. There’s no worries,” Angelo said in the same tone of voice one would use to order biggie sized fries.

  “It would be her word against yours,” Angel said nodding her head wisely. “She hadn’t even been born when Joey went missing.”

  “Plus, who would believe a crazy cat lady,” I piped up with a smile, while grabbing my bag off the floor and standing up. “Look, I’m sorry for all the emotion this has brought back up but Joey has every right to be upset and...”

  “I want a decent burial,” he interjected smoothly.

  “And he wants a decent burial. You owe him that much at least.”

&n
bsp; “I’m not paying for it!” Angelo declared.

  “Stop being so cheap. I agree with the annoying psychic girl. You do owe Joey that. An anonymous tip to the police and his body can be reclaimed. I think his sister is still over in Jersey, she could pay for the funeral.”

  Except for the annoying girl crack, I was happy to see Angel talking sensibly again. “If you want, I’ll make the call for you, you don’t even have to be involved at all,” I offered, somewhat generously I thought, considering they may have just been planning for something unpleasant to happen to me.

  “One moment,” Angelo muttered. Then he and Angel headed into the hallway returning less than two minutes later. He handed me a folded piece of paper. When I unfolded it, I saw it had Honey-Do List in script writing on the top along with some ripe looking melons and then below it in slanting print was an address and rough description. “I didn’t bury him deep, after all this time who knows if anything’s left.”

  “Bastard,” Joey hissed, he stood next to me, his fist balled up tightly at his sides.

  “If he’s still there, they’ll find him. Thank you,” I said while walking toward the door.

  “Yeah, well, I’m wishing we never went to Station Ten’s carnival,” Angelo said bitterly.

  “You and me both,” I said under my breath.

  Angel came to stand beside Angelo and see me off. “Joey, find peace and know that I loved you and never forgot you.”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Joey said and left, but not before delivering a kick to Angelo’s left knee.

  “He said the same,” I lied, opening the door and hurrying out.

  “Can you believe that?” Joey steamed beside me as I got into my truck, hitting the lock the minute the door was safely shut.

  “I spent my afterlife loving that girl!” he complained. “And even after knowing the guy she shacked up with killed me she sticks with him!” A slow nasty grin spread across his face. “You know they thought about bumping you off too, don’t you?”

  “It was pretty obvious for a few moments there,” I replied, keeping my eyes on the road and way from that nasty grin.

  “Then why didn’t you get out of there, you dope?”

  I overlooked the name calling, since it seemed he was genuinely concerned, in his own way. “I think I could have handled two geriatrics.”

  “Overconfidence gets you dead. Angel is a black belt and has a concealed carry permit.”

  “That little old lady?!” I braked much harder at the stop sign than was warranted. But that bit of news really did shock me and I felt a trickle of unease go down my spine. Perhaps I was too trusting.

  “By the way, thanks.”

  I blinked, hadn’t expect any gratitude out of the twerp. “You’re welcome. And I’m sorry I’ve been pretty rude about this…”

  Joey cut me off, “It’s okay. You’re just a kid too and in the end, you helped me get some answers. Maybe not what I wanted, but better to know.”

  “Really?” His sudden switch from pushy punk to reasonable, non-vengeful spirit had me slightly wary.

  “Absolutely. The years I wasted following those two around like a lovesick fool when I could have been peeking in on Marilyn Monroe or something else good. Plus, it will mean a lot to my folks having my grave next to theirs.”

  “They’re still around?”

  “Nah, they moved on once they realized I wasn’t going anywhere. They both searched for me when they died. My mom passed first, she waited until my pop died before they moved on together. They never forgot me, kept my pictures up all over the house. They deserved better, maybe I didn’t, but they did.”

  “Joey, this is a very surprising side to you,” I ventured to mention.

  “Yeah, see I’m not such a bad guy. It’s funny, I’m not even pissed anymore. I even feel different,” he smiled, this time a beautiful one that highlighted his youthful good looks. “I feel kinda good. Thanks again, Teresa.”

  Without giving me a chance to reply he was gone. No dramatic puff of smoke or cryptic message, just some thanks and he was no longer in the passenger seat. I felt a tad let down but since I wasn’t fully convinced this was the last I would see of Joey, I didn’t brood over it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  I swung into the Walmart parking lot, wedging the SUV in between two big pickup trucks and hoping neither of them dinged mine as they opened their doors. I was in and out within five minutes, the prepaid phone swinging in the bag at my side. One quick stop at Chick Fila for a tea and I was back on the road heading to the Rehoboth boardwalk.

  Once there, I got a small container of Thrasher’s fries with a generous dousing of vinegar and then sat munching them on a bench while I looked out at the waves. I ate half the fries before making my call. I kept it short, not because I was afraid of them tracing it, more so I could finish my fires before the pesky sea gulls tried to make off with them.

  “Got a decades old body to report. Joey Burns, he’s located at the base of a split oak tree about eighty feet from the new nature center in the Killens Pond State park. WBOC News is next on my call list. Bye.”

  I turned the phone off, but not before an incoming call started ringing it. Standing, I tucked the phone into my dressy pants before tossing the remainder of my fries to the birds. I received several disapproving looks from the people in the immediate range of me on the boardwalk as the birds attacked the fries and each other with loud squawks and fluttering feathers. The phone got dumped with the fry container in the black metal trash bin as I walked by. I wasn’t concerned about it being found. If it was there was a good seventy-five percent chance the person would keep it. Besides, reporting a body wasn’t a crime-unless I had been the murderer.

  I spent the next two hours walking the boardwalk. I loved the sights, smells, and just overall happiness that the boardwalk brought about in people. I bought two boxes of salt water taffy to send to Megan and her family then grabbed two slices of extra cheese pizza and a Pepsi at Ghotto Pizza for my dinner before heading back to my car.

  I inhaled most of my pizza before leaving, because pizza and driving was far too messy. Though if I had a bib on me I might have dined and dashed. I was eager to get home and just put today behind me.

  Entering the house, I was very surprised and happy to see Maverick and Daisy in a content bundle of sizzling fur in the patch of sun shining through the sliding glass door that lead out to the deck. For the first time in the four months I’d had them, they didn’t run and hide at the sound of the door opening. This was huge for my two foster fails.

  They weren’t failures in that they were unable to find homes or be adopted, nope, they were fails on my part in that I couldn’t imagine them not being with me. I loved my little anti-social furballs.

  I felt an insistent pressure on my lower leg and looked down to see Agnes rubbing against me and meowing her little hello. Picking her up, I moved my face against her delightfully soft fur. She always smelled so good. I inhaled her clean cat scent and felt relief go completely through me.

  The issue with Joey never took over my life but it had annoyed me. My brief relationship with Lance, now that it was over I wasn’t sure how I felt. Maybe for a dizzying moment I had believed I was falling in love with him. Or had simply craved something normal in my life. The same way Lane wanted stability in his, but his clingy personality and drinking sabotaged him.

  Agnes squirmed to be let down and I opening my arms she jumped free. A final rub against my leg and with an audible purring rumble she ambled away to inspect her food dish.

  Did Lance know that I had been planning to break up with him that night? Did he rev up his drinking because subconsciously he knew it would push me over the edge and he wanted me to break up with him? I didn’t know, and outside of asking him probably never would.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  I paced around the house.

  Daisy and Maverick were also pacing.

  Agnes stared with contempt from her warm triangle of sunlight on the
entryway hall floor.

  I rearranged a few books that were carelessly stacked on the small hallway table. On my second pass, I picked them up meaning to transfer them to the living room but dropped them off on the dining room table instead.

  My skin itched, my head had that bug crawling on it sensation and I was fairly certain I had forgotten to brush my teeth this morning so they felt icky as well. Overall, I was a mess.

  Lance and I were broken up. Victor hadn’t appeared in weeks, and my favorite show had been canceled. I know the last part was mild compared to the others but dang I had loved that show and with how shitty other things in my life were going that just added to my grumpy mood.

  The days without Lance had gone by quickly, all pretty routine, lots of time spent at Whisker Kisses, or in front of the TV. My productivity had perfectly balanced my sloth-like couch potato activity, so I felt little guilt there. Okay, maybe a bit, but dating had never been my thing so it wasn’t like I was going to throw myself back into it. Besides Lance the only man I wanted was a ghost so yeah, best to keep things simple and remain the crazy cat lady.

  But something was wrong, besides everything, that was. I just couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

  So, I paced some more. Maverick and Daisy eventually got fed up with me and went off to do cat-business. Agnes didn’t bother moving the rest of the morning.

  Eventually pacing got old for me too, though it did do amazing things for my step count. I crammed my feet into my sneakers without bothering to untie them first and headed out the door, but not before calling out to the kitties that I was leaving. I like to keep them in the know.

  The steady drone of a mower was background noise as I walked through the neighborhood, enjoying the well maintained bright green lawns and the mini rainbows from the almost synchronized sprinkler systems. A few landscaping vans and trailers with and without mowers dotted the road, but those barely registered. The smell of freshly mowed grass did penetrate my brain fog and I breathed deeply. Heavenly, so pure and wonderful.