by SUE FINEMAN
“If I do, I’ll call.”
“Thank you,” she whispered as his lips came down over hers in a kiss that left her lips tingling all the way down to her fingertips.
Chapter Two
After a night of dreaming about Steffen Marchand and his compelling eyes and magic lips, Ginny walked into the station the next morning feeling tired and cranky. She hung her coat on the back of her chair and sat down.
At the next desk over, a woman said, “Roland Bickley. He didn’t show up for work and I don’t get any answer when I call his home. If he’s not coming back, I need to know so I can hire someone else. Tax season is coming up, our busiest time of the year. He couldn’t have picked a worse time to disappear.”
Ginny listened quietly as fellow detective Mark Montgomery wrote down the information. Could this be the same Roland that Steffen had seen in his vision last night?
“He’s an accountant?” Mark asked.
“CPA. He always calls in when he’s sick. Shoot, he calls in if he’s going to be more than ten minutes late. That’s why this is so strange. He’s been gone for two weeks. He didn’t show up for work the last Monday in January, and we haven’t seen him or heard from him since.”
“Physical description?”
“About five-three and slender. He has dark hair, thinning in the back, and blue eyes. Just an average looking guy in his forties, but very small.”
“Married?”
“No. I don’t think he’s ever had a girlfriend. He’s shy around women. Roland is a meek little man, a quiet guy who goes about his business and doesn’t bother anyone. He lived with his mother until she died last year. He still lives in the family home. I’m afraid he might have gotten sick, you know, had a heart attack or something and couldn’t get to the phone to call for help.”
Ginny wondered why she waited so long to file a missing persons report. If Roland Bickley was so sick he couldn’t get to a phone, he could be dead by now.
Mark asked, “Did someone go to his home to check on him?”
“Yes, but no one answered the door, and his car wasn’t there.”
“We’ll check it out.”
As soon as the woman left the room, Ginny picked up one of the pictures of Roland Bickley.
Feeling a sudden need to talk with Steffen, Ginny slid the picture in her pocket and grabbed her jacket.
Mark asked, “Do you know this guy?”
“No, but I might know someone who does.”
Ginny rushed to the Whippoorwill Inn, hoping to find Steffen there. As she pulled into the parking lot, she spotted the van and knew Steffen and Carson were here. Ginny parked by the office and walked inside, flipping her badge open as she moved toward the desk. “Steffen Marchand,” she said. “Room number?”
The man behind the desk stared at her and her badge. “I don’t want no trouble.”
She leaned over the desk. “Then give me the room number,” she said slowly.
“Thirty-seven. Halfway back.”
She walked back and tapped on the door. When Carson opened the door, she held her badge up. “Police business. I need to speak with Steffen.”
Carson crossed his arms. “He’s in the shower, and you don’t consult with him without paying me first.”
She cocked her head. “Really? How much did you take that man for last night? A thousand? Five thousand? Do you pay tax on that money? What would the publicity do to the show if the police investigated how you do business?”
He stepped back, muttering to himself, and she followed him into the room.
The bathroom door opened and Steffen stepped out in a cloud of steam. He wore a towel around his waist and rubbed his wet hair with another towel. His longish hair curled around his ears. She wanted to take the towel from him and rub his hair dry while she inhaled the scent of clean man.
Steffen glanced over and smiled. “Well, well, well, look who came to visit.”
“Your radar not working this morning, Mr. Sensational?”
“I forgot to turn it on. Did you come to pay me the one you owe me? I’ve always liked sex in the morning, and as you can see, I’m dressed for it.”
She scanned his wide shoulders and chest and arms. He wasn’t heavily muscled, but he looked solid and strong. His legs were straight and hairy, and he had a patch of hair in the middle of his chest. It tapered down and disappeared under his towel.
“Get dressed. We need to talk.”
Carson grabbed his coat, glared at Ginny, and walked out the door.
Steffen pulled underwear and jeans from the suitcase on the dresser, then motioned for her to turn around. Watching in the mirror, she saw him turn his back, drop the towel, and pull on the clothes. He had a great ass, and the knit boxers hugged him like a second skin.
“Seen enough?”
“The view from here was magnificent.” She couldn’t believe she’d said that out loud.
He laughed. “I like a woman who speaks her mind.”
He pulled on a dark red sweatshirt and sat on the side of the bed with a pair of socks. As soon as he had his shoes on, she handed him the picture of Roland Bickley. “Is this the man with Phoebe?”
He glanced at the picture and handed it back. “Looks like him. Who is he?”
“Roland Bickley, CPA. He went missing about the time Phoebe did, but from the way his boss speaks about him, he wouldn’t hurt her.”
“No, I don’t think he would.”
“Will he bring her home?”
Steffen cocked his head. “I don’t know.”
“I need to find them. Phoebe’s mother isn’t well, and worrying about her daughter isn’t helping her condition.”
Carson walked in. “Are you ready to go?”
“Almost.” Steffen took his leather zipper bag from the dresser and glanced around the room. “I wish I could stay and help you, but Carson is a bear before breakfast. If we don’t eat soon, he’ll be like this all day.”
She had a feeling Carson was a bear all the time. She didn’t much like the man, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about Steffen. He made her uncomfortable, yet just hearing his voice excited her. Maybe she’d just gone too long without a man in her life.
She shook away her thoughts and asked, “How long will you be here in River Valley?”
“Two more days, then three days in Columbus ends the tour and we’re going home to Chicago.” He scribbled on the pad beside the phone. “Here’s my cell phone number. Call anytime.”
He kissed her gently, then settled in a kiss that left her breathless with longing. “Next time I see you, I intend to collect.”
After a long hug, he released her, grabbed his coat, and walked out the door. Seconds later, she heard the van door slam.
Walking back to her car, she breathed deeply of the cold, clear air. Why did she have such a strong attraction to him? Did he plant that thought in her mind? Handsome or not, she didn’t intend to fall for a man who could mess around inside her head. He’d be leaving River Valley soon anyway, and she’d never see him again. Just as well. She didn’t have time for a man in her life.
Since college, she’d dated mostly other cops, detectives, and attorneys. Most men who weren’t involved in the criminal justice system seemed a little intimidated by her job.
Steffen didn’t seem intimidated.
She doubted anyone or anything would intimidate Steffen Marchand.
I hope you enjoyed this excerpt of The Ghosts in the Audience. If you’d like to read the book in its entirety, it’s coming to Kindle and Nook soon.
Author’s Note
I hope you enjoyed reading Charlie and Alex’s story.
Seeing things happen before they actually happen can be a blessing and a curse, especially for a sensitive kid. There were little things that happened when my daughter was small, things I learned not to examine too closely, things she just knew, and a peaceful sweetness about her that I took for granted.
When my children were small, we lived in Houston. We hadn’t
been there long, and I didn’t know my way around the city. After the kids left on the school bus one morning, I went to the grocery store down the street. When I returned home, I didn’t get out of the car. Something drew me on, and without knowing exactly where I was going, I found myself at the elementary school my three kids attended. My younger daughter sat in the office with two women and the principal. I’ve never seen three adults look quite so stunned when I walked through the door. One woman said, “Mrs. Fineman, we’ve been trying to call you.” My little girl said, “I told you, I already called her.”
Years later, we’d just moved to Washington state when she saw friends in Oklahoma die in a horrible accident. She tried to call them to warn them to be careful, but she never got through. Two weeks after her vision, her friends died when their pickup ran off the road and hit a piece of road machinery, just as she’d seen in her vision. The shocking vision and the reality of the accident left her stunned and depressed. As if being a teenager in a new town wasn’t hard enough.
My daughter is married with a child or her own now. Her father keeps asking her for the lottery numbers, but she just smiles and says, “It doesn’t work that way.”
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THE KANE GHOSTS SERIES
The Ghost in the Basement
When Hannah Taylor inherits her grandfather’s home, the attorney tells her there are strings attached. She must share the house with Police Detective Donovan Kane and his family for a year, and if she doesn’t stay, Donovan gets the house. He’s sure Hannah won’t stay the full year and he’ll end up with the house, but she’s not about to give him her home.
In a letter to Donovan, Grandpa said to “find the diaries, open the house, and send the wandering spirits on their way,” but nobody expects the old diaries to lead them to a secret staircase, a body buried in the basement, friendly ghosts, and a love that will last a lifetime.
The Ghosts Upstairs
Billy Kane, a teacher in a private academy, inherits his grandfather’s mansion in River Valley, but he doesn’t expect to find three ghosts there. His mother and grandmother made his childhood a living hell, and he wants their ghosts gone, but his grandmother’s ghost won’t let his mother’s ghost leave.
His grandmother’s heir, Kayla Blanton, is crazy about Billy, but she knows she can’t have him. He’s a teacher in a school that has a morals clause, and her last job was in a topless club. Billy wants a wife who can give him children, and she can’t. But love finds a way.
The Ghost at the Farm
A gypsy fortune teller convinces architect Andy Kane his dreams are of a past life, that of the man who was murdered and buried in his family’s basement in 1918. He must resolve the issues of the past life or his life will end the same way, but how can he do that from this life?
After he rescues Julianne Tandry from an abusive man in a bar, Andy’s mind isn’t just on his dreams, but he can’t move forward with a relationship until he figures out what issues need to be resolved. Julie, a real estate agent, helps Andy find a farm to buy, where things get really strange. But she loves Andy, and despite his past life visions, she’s not willing to give him up.
The Ghosts in the Attic
Someone tracks down Charlie Kane and tells him his daughter is in the hospital, a kid he didn’t know he had. He’s been with a lot of women, so who is the child’s mother, and why didn’t she tell him about the adorable little girl with the big bump on her head and his gray eyes?
Alexandra Porcini’s father hates Charlie’s father, the former police detective who put him in jail many years ago, but Alex has always loved Charlie. When she sees him with their little girl, she knows she has to explain and hopes he can forgive her for choosing her family over him seven years ago. She wants to build a future with Charlie and their spirited psychic daughter.
The Ghosts in the Audience
Police Detective Ginny Kane asks psychic entertainer Steffen Marchand, on tour in River Valley, to help her find a missing friend. She’s excited by him, yet frustrated with the way he can plant thoughts in her mind. She doesn’t need a man in her life anyway.
When someone shoots Steffen in the shoulder, Ginny can’t leave him alone to fend for himself, and he can’t drive home to Chicago until he heals and she finds the shooter. She takes him home with her to recuperate. After the shooting, his psychic abilities are gone, and he can’t pull up a vision of the shooter’s face. Psychic or not, Steffen finds himself falling hard for Ginny. She doesn’t want to love him; she knows he’s not the kind of man who stays.
Books by Sue Fineman
The Martinson Ranch Series
The Mitchell Money
Ginger’s Grief
Maggie’s Man
The Gregory Series
On the Run
On the Lam
On the Hunt
On the Edge
The Donatelli Series
Nick’s Journey
Maxine
Blind Love
The Inheritance
The Inn at Dead Man’s Point
The Kane Ghosts Series
The Ghost in the Basement
The Ghosts Upstairs
The Ghost at the Farm
The Ghosts in the Attic
The Ghosts in the Audience
Single Title
Gran’s Guilt
BIO SHEET
Sue Fineman
Sue’s Blog
Sue Fineman lives in a small town in Washington state with her husband of forty-nine years, a tiny poodle with no tail, and a scruffy rescue dog who wags her tail all the time. Her three grown children are nearly old enough to join AARP. She also has one adorable grandson and multiple grandpuppies and grandkittens. At one time she and her husband took in foster kids, but that was when they were younger and had more patience. These days her husband manages to try Sue’s patience on a daily basis, but she’s decided to keep him anyway. She doesn’t want to start over training a new husband.
She’s been a secretary, technical writer, real estate agent, and foster mother to five children. Always an avid reader, she began writing in her mid-fifties, when she quit her day job. Sue has written over two dozen books in the past fifteen years.
To contact Sue, send an email to [email protected]. To read her blog, go to http://suefineman.blogspot.com/.
