Uncharted Territory (An Angela Panther Mystery Book 3)

by Carolyn Ridder Aspenson

  Emily stood and stretched. "I'm going to bed. You coming?"

  "In a bit. I'm gonna sit here and talk to my mom a little more." I winked at her.

  "Like, you know she's not really here, right? It's just the wine."

  "Yes, I know she's not here." I lied. "But sometimes I talk to her. I figure if she can hear me and I don't talk to her, when I die I'm gonna get an earful. Better safe than sorry, ya know?"

  She laughed. "Yeah, Grandma would like, be seriously ticked if you'd ignored her for that long."

  "Hey, that's not true," Ma said. "You people think you know me, but you sure don't." She turned her face to the side. "I'd only be mad until you kicked the bucket, then I'd probably forgive you."

  "She'd probably say something about how she'd waited and waited and I never once said anything, and she'd be really whiny about it, too," I said to Emily, but eyed my mother, coughing to cover my laugh.

  "Yeah, and she'd start it off with like, ah Madone, because Grandma pretty much never said anything without like, saying that first."

  We both laughed. I snuck at peek at my mother who was sticking her tongue out at her granddaughter. A part of me wished Emily could see her, but I knew that was impossible. "That's so true." I gazed up to the star-lit sky for my daughter's benefit. "Isn't it, Mom? You said that all of the time."

  That time, she stuck her tongue out at me.

  "And I bet if she's listening right now, she's sticking her tongue out at us, too," I said.

  Emily nodded. "She'd totally be sticking her tongue out at us!" She bent down and hugged me. "I miss Grandma. She was so funny."

  "I have a feeling she's still around, keeping tabs on us."

  "I think so, too. I talk to her sometimes too, and like, sometimes I think she talks back."

  I eyed my mother but was busy examining the ground. "You think you hear her?"

  "Sometimes. Like, usually it ends up being just the wind or something, but sometimes it seems like it's her voice."

  "Huh, you never know. Who am I to say it's not possible?"

  She nodded. "Could be, but I like, don't really believe in that kind of stuff." She walked to the door. "Night, Mom."

  "Night, Em. Sleep tight."

  Once the door to the house was closed and the kitchen light shut off, I got my mother's attention. "Eh hem. Sometimes it seems like she can actually hear your voice."

  Ma was still examining the ground. "How're the Bulls doin' this season? Is that Michael Jordan playing again? 'Bout time he came outta retirement again, doncha think?"

  "Stop changing the subject." I sat up straight. "Does Emily have the gift, too? Be honest with me."

  "Or is he a coach now? He'd be a good coach, you ask me."

  "Mother. Tell. Me."

  "Nah, she doesn't."

  "So how exactly can she hear your voice sometimes?"

  She shrugged and stared at her slightly transparent hands, guilt oozing from her energy.

  "Mother."

  "What? So maybe I make my presence known once in a while, what's wrong with that? She's my grandkid. I gotta right to let her know I'm still around. Besides, you heard her. She don't believe in my kind."

  I pressed my thumbs into my temples. "I'm either gonna pop a blood vessel in my head or have a heart attack because of you."

  "Nah. It ain't your time."

  I didn't ask her to elaborate on that.

  She floated over to the fire pit and twirled around. "Fartin' like that in front of your kid. That's ladylike."

  "Oh please. You did that all the time when I was a kid."

  "I did not. I'm a lady. Ladies don't fart."

  "No, they whoop bears."

  "Huh?"

  "They whoop bears. That's what you used to call it, remember? Every time someone passed gas you'd ask who whooped a bear. And by the way, it was usually Paul. He just blamed me."

  Ma's face contorted, and then her mouth opened wide and she snorted. She spun around in circles and laughed for a good minute straight. Once she'd finally stopped enough to talk, she floated close to me, her face sparkling with joy. "You think that's what I said?"

  "Whadda you mean?"

  "Whoop a bear. All those years, any time you or one a your brothers let one rip you think I said whoop a bear?"

  "No, I don't think that. That's what you said. Which we never quite understood. What does whooping a bear have to do with farting anyway?"

  "It don't got nothin' to do with farting, and it wasn't what I was sayin', either."

  "Uh, yeah it was. Ask Paul." I knew she couldn't, but if she could, he would have said the same thing.

  "Whoop up air, Angela. That's what I was sayin'. Whoop up air. Not whoop a bear." She laughed all over again. "I shoulda cleaned your ears better, huh?"

  My mind raced back to the times we'd driven to visit my grandparents in Ma's late 1960s model Chevy Impala, me squished between my brothers in the enormous backseat. Someone would pass gas but not claim it, so Ma would ask who whooped a bear. My brothers and I never understood what kicking a bear's butt had to do with farting, but we never questioned it. I repeated what I thought she'd said and what she was actually saying, and laughed right along with her. "Wow. We never knew. Always thought you were saying whoop a bear."

  "Why would I be whooping a bear anyway? The only bears I ever saw were at the zoo."

  "Beats me. It's just what we thought you said."

  "Whoop a bear, for cryin' out loud," Ma said. She shook her head. "Enough about farting. It ain't ladylike anyway, talkin' about it like this."

  As if my mother had ever cared about being ladylike. "Ladies don't discuss a natural body function, but they'll say the word twat?"

  "Twat's a perfectly acceptable name for a girl's who-ha."

  "I think the term you're thinking of is vagina."

  "You say tomato, I say tomahto. Now, back to this girl. I got my super celestial thinking cap on and I'm itchin' for some excitement, so let's get this party started." She hovered, and her energy vibrated so much, flecks of metallic gold floated from her. "So what's different with her other than left over hormones?"

  "It's hard to explain. She just doesn't seem like the rest of you."

  "Can she touch things? 'Cause if she can touch things then I'm gonna have a talk with my superiors 'cause I'm past due for that little trick."

  "No, it's not that kind of thing. I don't really know how to explain it."

  "Words might help."

  "You're funny." I stretched my neck and leaned my head back, only to snap it up again. "She doesn't shimmer." I jumped out of my seat. "That's it! She doesn't shimmer!"

  "Huh?"

  "When you disappear, you do this funky shimmering thing. You don't disappear all at once, you sort of shimmer away, kind of like someone's dimming a light and then turning it off. She doesn't do that."

  "I shimmer? Who knew?"

  I talked over her. "She does this funky jerking thing. Like she's not doing it on purpose and it kind of looks like it hurts."

  Ma thought about that. "Yah, that don't sound too fun, you ask me. Lemme ask around and see what I can find out. I never thought much about how I leave. I just do it."

  I nodded. "While you're at it, can you check into the boy, and maybe see if you can find out anything about him, too?"

  "I'll give it a shot. Anything else? Know anyone who needs their cheating husband busted? I'm good at that."

  "Not that I'm aware of, but I'll keep you in mind."

  She winked at me. "Good, now I'm gonna shimmer away." And she did just that.

  Before I went up to bed, I sent Mel a text. "Coffee. Tomorrow. Eight o'clock. Be there or be square."

  "Got it," she texted back.

  I went to bed thinking about the boy and the girl, and fell asleep to Jake snoring quietly next to me. A few hours later Gracie nudged me awake. "It's too early, Gracie girl. Go back to sleep."

  She nudged me again, and I knew she had to go potty. She was getting older, and, like me, cou
ldn't hold it as long as she used to. If I didn't get up and let her out, I'd have a mess to clean later. I got out of bed. "Okay, let's go."

  I shuffled downstairs using my cell phone as a flashlight. While she did her business, I leaned my head onto the backdoor, trying to keep myself from waking up completely. When she finished, I flipped off the outside light and locked the door. Only half awake, I didn't see the girl in the white gown floating in front of me and walked completely though her. My skin tingled and little currents of electricity bounced off the hairs standing up on my arms. My insides vibrated and I shivered. "Son-of-a-beachball!" I shook off the creepiness and leaned against the kitchen counter. "For the love of God, don't you know anything about personal space?"

  She jerked and shook, her eyes wide with fear. I was afraid she'd disappear again. "Wait, don't do that." I held my hands out, as if that could stop her. "Don't go away. I want to help you."

  She stilled. "Where am I?"

  "You're in my house. Do you know who you are?"

  She jerked again, her body fluttering like a light switching on and off. "It's dark and I'm scared."

  I flipped around to turn on the light above the kitchen table. "Here, this'll help."

  But it was too late. She was gone.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  "IT'S DARK AND I'M SCARED?" Mel repeated. As always, we sat at our regular table outside of Starbucks. I sipped on a full-fat, whipped cream laden mocha while Mel had tea. "What's that mean?"

  "And there's the million dollar question." I popped the lid on my drink, scooped up a heaping finger full of whipped cream and ate it. "Unfortunately she didn't stick around to answer it."

  "Something's funky with this one."

  "Ya think?"

  "Maybe it's time for the super celestial spy to have a look-see for us?"

  "Good grief. Don't call her that when she's around. I'll never hear the end of it."

  Mel laughed. "It's kinda true though. You should have her see what she can find out."

  "She's already on it, though she'd prefer to hunt down cheating rat bastard husbands, she said."

  Mel blew into her cup. "I love your mom. And we both know she's pretty darn good at that." She slurped a sip of her drink. "Wow, that's hot. And speaking of cheating husbands, my attorney is sending mine the final papers to sign today. He doesn't think there's anything to stop Nick from signing them, so it'll be final soon." Her tone was strong, but her eyes dulled while she spoke. "And I'll be able to move on with my life."

  I covered her hand with mine. "I'm sorry."

  She jerked her hand away. "Pfft, I'm not. Carrie can have him for all I care. Once a cheater, always a cheater so karma's gonna bite her in the butt one of these days, too." There was a hint of bitterness in her voice, but I didn't blame her.

  Mel's life hadn't been easy since she discovered Nick was cheating, but she'd held it together better than I'd expected and definitely better than I ever could. I admired her strength. "Did you hear back from the recruiter?" Mel had met with a life coach, figured out what she wanted to be when she grew up, and put together a pretty impressive resume. She'd been a writer before staying home with her kids, and still dabbled in some freelance work, but was hoping to do something that gave her a regular paycheck.

  "Yup. She thinks I'd be perfect for an editor's position and is submitting me. It's actually a pretty interesting job, and I could work from home so that's a bonus."

  I wanted nothing more than for Mel's life to fall into place easily. She didn't ask for Nick to be a tool, and didn't deserve having her life screwed up because of his selfishness. "That would be awesome. Does it pay well?"

  "Enough. With Nick's child support and a tighter budget, I could probably swing staying in the house, but now I'm kind of thinking I want to move."

  "Move? Like away? From me?"

  She snorted. "Of course not! As if I'd ever do that. Just to something smaller, silly. I don't need a five thousand square foot house and certainly don't wanna clean it if I'm working full time."

  My body sagged back into the chair. "Thank God. I don't think I could do this without you."

  She rolled her eyes. "You could totally do this without me."

  "But I don't wanna."

  "And you don't gotta, so don't have an anxiety attack." She swirled her tea. "This stuff takes forever to cool down. Anyway, back to the dead kids. We gotta figure out what to do for them."

  "We. I love you."

  "How could you not?"

  "Aaron said they still haven't been able to identify the boy."

  "His body was pretty damaged, huh?"

  "Horribly. Jumping off a bridge onto a highway breaks a lot of bones, but they're trying to piece a photo together." I flinched. "No pun intended."

  "They don't need to do that, you know."

  "They do if they want to figure out who he is."

  "Hello? You've seen him. You can tell Aaron what he looks like."

  "Yeah, that'll work." I mimicked Aaron. "Hey boss, this here's my friend Angela. She sees dead people. Let's get the forensic artist in here so he can draw the dead kid we got." I shook my head. "Aaron'll never do that."

  "Maybe he doesn't have to."

  "Whadda you mean?"

  "I don't know. Maybe he's got some special software where he can put in a description and it creates an image or matches images or something."

  "Hmm, I hadn't thought of that."

  "That's why you need me."

  "Obviously." I grabbed my phone and sent Aaron a text. "I just told him to call me when he can."

  Five minutes later, he did. I put him on speaker so Mel could listen, and explained her idea. "Your friend ever consider being a cop?" he asked. "We don't actually have that kind of technology but we do have a database of photos you can look at. Maybe you'll find him in there."

  Mel beamed. "I'd be good with a gun," she whispered.

  I mouthed, "Oh, hell no," and laughed. "I can do that," I said to Aaron. "But what if he's not there?"

  "Then we'll talk about getting our forensic sketch artist involved. When can you come in?"

  "I'm good now, if that works."

  "Can I come, too?" Mel whispered.

  "Can Mel come too?"

  "Does she see ghosts, too?"

  "Nope. She's just a regular human. No superpowers."

  "Then yes. She'll balance your abnormal with some normal."

  "Hey, I'm normal. With a dash of special."

  "Sure, whatever you say."

  Mel snapped her fingers. "Oh, I'm gonna like this guy."

  "Good to know," Aaron said.

  Mel blushed. "Oh my gosh," she whispered. "Embarrassing."

  "We're on our way. See you in a bit," I said to Aaron and ended the call. "You'll behave." It wasn't a question.

  She pushed her chin back and unwittingly gave herself a second one. "Who me? I'm offended you'd even suggest I wouldn't."

  "Uh huh." I got up. "Because you're such an angel."

  She ignored my slam. "So, you've never told me. Is Aaron cute?"

  "Oh good grief. This is gonna blow up in my face. I can already feel it."

  "You're no fun."

  "So I'm told." I pointed to the passenger's side of my car. "Get in, I'll drive."

  ***

  Aaron set us up in his cubby and showed me how to navigate through the photos. "If you find a match, or someone close." He handed me a notepad and pen. "Write down the name and this number here." He pointed to the screen.

  "Got it."

  "Excuse me," Mel said, raising her hand.

  I rolled my eyes.

  The corners of Aaron's eyes crinkled. "I'm not a teacher. You don't have to raise your hand."

  Some obnoxious half-giggle, half-moan thing escaped Mel's lips. She followed it up with a throaty sounding quip that made me want to barf. "Not even if you need to cuff me?"

  I elbowed her in the side. Hard.

  The corner of Aaron's mouth twitched. "I doubt you'll ever need to be arr
ested, but if you did, I'd make sure to personally handle your case."

  I threw my hands in the air. "Oh for crying out loud. I came here to check out mug shots, not listen to you two flirt. Can we focus here?"

  Aaron didn't make eye contact and Mel squealed. If she was trying for sexy, she'd missed the mark but if sick animal was her goal, she'd nailed it.

  I swiveled toward the computer. "Okay I've got work to do so if you two wanna flirt, you'll have to take it elsewhere." I flicked my hand toward the entrance to the cubby. "So either go away, or focus please."

  They both laughed.

  "I'll be in the conference room behind you and to the left," Aaron said. "If you need anything." He nodded to Mel.

  I pushed my shoulder into Mel's. "You said you'd behave."

  "I am behaving. And you didn't tell me how hot he is, so it's your fault for not preparing me. I could have jumped his bones right here, but I didn't." She pushed her shoulders back. "That's behaving for someone who hasn't gotten laid in months. And you're totally setting me up with him."

  I gritted my teeth. "Aaron will not be the first person you have sex with. I can promise you that."

  She scooted her chair closer to mine, and batted her eyelashes my direction. Her eyes sparkled. "If he is, I promise to give you all the dirty details."

  I stuck my finger down my throat just a little too far and gagged for real. "Can we focus here? Please?"

  She leaned back in her chair. "Fine. But I still can't believe you never told me how hot he is."

  "I never noticed," I lied. "Guess I don't really check out men anymore."

  "Well for my sake you'd better start." She wiggled her eyebrows. "I've got needs that are dyin' to be met."

  I grabbed the notepad and pen and handed it to my soon-to-be-ex-best-friend. "Here. Your job is to write down what I tell you to write down and stop grossing me out."

  "You're no fun."

  "I think you've mentioned that a time or two."

  I clicked through the photos. "This is gonna take months. There're hundreds of mug shots. I need a Diet Coke."

  "I guess we'll be spending at lot of time at the detective's desk then, huh?" She leaned closer to the computer screen. "Oh, wow. Take a peek at that guy. That's some expensive lookin' gold teeth he's got there, huh?"