3 The Ex Who Conned a Psychic

by Sally Berneathy

  “She said for me to tell her little Tony that she’s ashamed of him.” Teresa sounded stronger, as if she really was talking to his grandmother. If not, she was getting into the swing of her act.

  “Shut up, you crazy bitch!”

  Amanda sneaked a peek up at him. The perspiration on his forehead was moving down the bridge of his nose. He was losing his cool. She wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

  Charley looked around carefully. “I think maybe I kind of see his grandmother over there against the wall.”

  He couldn’t lie so he must really believe he could maybe kind of see Teresa’s grandmother. Amanda doubted he could actually see the spirit. She also had her doubts that Teresa could see her. Teresa was a gifted medium, but she was also a talented performer.

  “She wants you to think about when you were seven and broke your dad’s watch. She knew he’d beat you if he found out, so she told him she did it. Now she wants a favor from you.”

  “I said, shut up! And you—if you don’t get that safe open now, I’m going to start putting bullets in your crazy friend here. I’ll start with her knees since that had such a good effect on that man in your apartment.”

  “She wants you to face up to the wrongs you’ve done. She can’t take your punishment for you this time.”

  “I told you, no more ghost crap!”

  Amanda ducked her head and twirled the dial faster. “Check outside,” she whispered to Charley. Surely the cops had time to decode her verbal and ocular clues and come back with a SWAT team.

  “What?” he asked.

  “The left knee in ten seconds,” Anthony warned.

  A psychotic killer and a deaf ghost. Not a good combination.

  “Ten…nine…”

  Amanda shot to her feet, hands in the air. “Outside! I’m going outside!”

  “What? No, you’re not! Get that safe open now! You have eight seconds!”

  “My hands are sweaty. My fingers are slipping on the dial. I need to go outside.” She rolled her eyes in Charley’s direction and twitched her head toward the door. “You need to go outside.”

  “You want me to go outside?” Charley asked.

  “And look around!”

  He finally got the message and left the room.

  “You’re as crazy as she is!” Perspiration trickled down the sides of Anthony’s face.

  “Your grandmother says she’s going to spank your little bottom—isn’t that cute, that she calls it your little bottom?—if you don’t straighten up and act like her good boy.”

  “Seven seconds!”

  Charley appeared through the open door. “Cops are here! That damned Daggett and Ross and two more I don’t recognize. They’re right outside this place but they’re pointing up to your apartment. I don’t think they know you’re down here.”

  The fear in Teresa’s eyes lessened slightly as she heard Charley’s words.

  “Six!”

  Charley couldn’t tell the cops where they were but he could manipulate electricity. “Blink!” Amanda shouted.

  Anthony blinked…several times in rapid succession. “What? Are you on some kind of drugs?”

  At least he’d stopped counting.

  “Blink the lights in the shop!” At that point, what difference did one more strange comment make? She whirled around and plopped back down at the safe, spinning it rapidly to the correct combination and swinging it open to display several stacks of papers and a metal cash box.

  She could see slight shifts in the light coming through the open door as Charley flashed the lights in the shop on and off repeatedly creating a strobe effect.

  “It’s here!” She held up her own passport. She needed to divert Anthony’s attention from the flashing lights and from Teresa. He wouldn’t know it was the wrong passport until he looked inside. With any sort of luck, that wouldn’t happen.

  “Where’s my flash drive?”

  “In the box.” Dawson kept several flash drives in the cash box, backups of various documents, diagrams and pictures. She grabbed one that looked similar to Anthony’s and held it up in her other hand. “Ta da! Here they are. Now you can relax.”

  “Good girl. Give them to me.”

  Amanda stood and moved slowly toward Anthony and Teresa. From the corner of her eye she could see dark figures slipping through the strobe lights into her shop.

  Anthony still held the gun pressed so tightly against Teresa’s temple she would have an imprint when this was over. Or a bullet hole.

  Amanda held the passport and flash drive out to Anthony. “Take them. I’m damn sure not going to stick my hand in your pocket.”

  “They’re here!” Charley announced.

  Teresa’s eyes widened briefly then she closed them, moaned and slumped as if in a faint, a dead weight on Anthony’s arm. The gun was no longer against her temple.

  Amanda launched herself at Anthony, throwing him off balance. The gun exploded, but the bullet went through the wall, not Teresa’s head.

  Teresa spun and added her weight to Amanda’s, sending Anthony to the floor.

  “Police!”

  “Help!” Amanda shouted, struggling to keep Anthony down as he squirmed.

  Teresa slammed her elbow into his crotch and he shrieked. “Pretty sensitive for a dead man!”

  “Everybody on your feet!” Jake’s rough voice came to Amanda’s ears as beautiful music.

  She pushed away from Anthony and stumbled to a standing position. Teresa got to her feet more slowly, giving her undead husband a final kick as she rose.

  Cops with guns seemed to fill the small room though there were only four of them. Jake and Ross were front and center.

  “It’s Anthony Hocker,” Amanda said. “He’s alive.”

  “We know,” Jake said.

  “You know? How could you know?”

  “I got the DNA results,” Ross said. “The body wasn’t his.” Teresa ran to him, and he wrapped one arm around her while keeping his gun pointed at Anthony. “You’re under arrest for murder. Cuff him.”

  The uniformed officers hauled Anthony to his feet and one slapped handcuffs on him while the other restrained him.

  “You have the right to remain silent,” Jake said. “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”

  “I want my lawyer.” Anthony glowered at Teresa. “This isn’t over, bitch.”

  Ross held Teresa tighter against him. “Actually, it is. Take this jerk to the station, and we’ll be right behind you to process him.”

  The officers left with Anthony in tow. Only Jake, Ross, Amanda, Teresa, and, of course, Charley remained in the small room.

  Jake and Ross holstered their guns, and Ross wrapped both arms around Teresa. “Are you all right?” he asked, stroking her hair.

  She snuggled against his chest and nodded. “I am now.”

  Amanda wanted to go to Jake the way Teresa went to Ross, to feel his arms about her, holding her up and giving her strength. She felt weak and shaky now that the danger was finally over and the adrenalin ebbing.

  But Charley stood between Jake and her, watching her every movement. “I’m glad you’re safe,” he said. “I’m glad I could help you.”

  She leaned against the desk and twisted her lips into a smile she hoped looked more natural than it felt. “I’ve never been so happy to see the cops. Kind of makes up for all the times I saw one of you in my rearview mirror and hated him because I knew he’d be giving me a ticket. I was afraid those first guys who came to my apartment wouldn’t get my messages.”

  Jake moved closer.

  Charley remained between them.

  “Messages?” Jake repeated. “You mean acting like you were having a seizure?”

  “Isn’t that why you’re here?”

  “Yes and no. We were working late, trying to figure out where to go with the results of that DNA.”

  Teresa jerked away and gaped at Ross. “You didn’t think maybe you should tell me immediately?”
<
br />   Ross grinned and pulled her back to him. “No, not in the middle of the night.”

  “I was worried about you after our talk,” Jake said. “I checked the trouble reports and saw the information about your 911 call. I tried to call your cell phone and got no answer. I was worried that creep you’d told me about was bothering you.”

  Amanda’s eyes widened and she stood upright. “Oh, no! I forgot all about him!”

  “It’s okay,” Jake assured her. “I’ll take care of him.”

  “Uh, yeah, somebody needs to. He’s upstairs bleeding all over my floor.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  The sky was getting light in the east by the time Amanda got back to bed.

  Anthony Hocker was securely behind bars and Ronald Collins was in the hospital awaiting transfer to jail. Jake and Ross left with him, and Teresa went home. Bad guys out of the picture, slumber party over.

  Of course Amanda had no time alone with Jake. Not that she ever did with Charley always around. She would have liked a minute or two with him, a chance to relax, to talk about the men who’d invaded her home, about how scared she’d been, how relieved she was that it was over. But that didn’t happen.

  She settled into bed and tugged the sheet over her. The slumber party with Teresa had been kind of fun, but the rest of the night had gone rapidly downhill. Thank goodness she no longer had to worry about Collins burning down her apartment or shooting her plant life. She could get some sleep and be ready for her date tomorrow…tonight…with Jake. And Charley.

  “Good night, Charley.” For a brief instant she dared to hope he wouldn’t answer, that he’d be gone.

  “Good night, Amanda. I hope Teresa’s okay. I wish she’d stayed here.”

  “She’s fine. Go to sleep. Or wherever it is you go.”

  *~*~*

  Amanda woke to the sound of her phone.

  Jake.

  She sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, trying to clear the fog from her brain. “Good morning.”

  “How are you doing? Did you get some rest?”

  Amanda looked at the clock. “Almost six hours. How about you?” Was he going to be too tired for their date? She would be devastated…and a little relieved. She wouldn’t have to deal with Charley.

  “I got a couple of hours. I just wanted to see if you’re going to feel up to going out tonight.”

  “Absolutely. If you are. I mean, if you’re too tired, I understand.”

  “I’m not tired. But you went through a pretty traumatic experience last night.”

  “Yes, but that was last night. I’m fine today.”

  “So we’re still on for six?”

  “You bet. What should I wear? Dressy? Blue jeans?”

  “How about dressy blue jeans?”

  “Sounds like my kind of evening. See you tonight.”

  She disconnected the call and realized she was smiling…until she saw Charley standing next to the bed with a huge scowl on his face. “That was disgusting.”

  She fell back onto the bed and pulled the pillow over her head.

  “That’s right, hide your face in shame,” he said.

  Amanda sat up in bed. “This has got to stop. Let’s go get some breakfast and talk.”

  “I can’t eat, remember? I’m just stuck here in the middle of nowhere, can’t eat, can’t sleep and I’m forced to listen to my wife make a date with another man.”

  Amanda lifted her hands to her face and groaned.

  “You need to call that man and tell him you’re not going with him tonight,” Charley ordered.

  Maybe she should do that. She wanted to spend time with Jake, get to know him better, relax for an evening of fun. But that wasn’t likely to happen with Charley around.

  She vaulted out of bed, fisted her hands on her hips and faced him. “No. This is all so wrong. You’re dead! We’re not married anymore! We almost weren’t married when you were killed. I’m sorry you’re stuck in between. I’m sorry you can’t eat or drink or feel the sunshine. But that’s at least partially your fault. Teresa tried to send you on to the spiritual world, and you resisted.”

  He flinched and looked away. “I don’t want to talk about Teresa.”

  “Then let’s talk about me. I’m still alive. I can still eat and drink and have relationships with living people. I can get married again and make love with my husband and maybe have children. I can’t do any of those things with a ghost. Be reasonable, Charley. You’re violating the natural order of things.”

  As usual when confronted with logic he didn’t like, Charley narrowed his eyes, crossed his arms and turned away.

  Amanda glared at his back. “That’s the best you’ve got? When you were alive, you’d have stormed out of the house and gone to a bar. Why don’t you do that now? If you want to believe we’re still married, act like it. Leave. Go get drunk and pick up some bimbo.”

  He said nothing. Maybe he was going to sulk again. That would be pleasant for as long as it lasted, but she knew it wouldn’t last through her evening with Jake.

  She picked up the phone and dialed Teresa. Maybe she could try again to get Charley on his way.

  Charley whirled around and ran his hand through the phone, effectively cutting off the call. “What are you doing?”

  “I was calling Teresa.”

  “Why? You just saw her a few hours ago. Why would you want to talk to her again so soon?”

  “I don’t have to give you a reason for calling a friend!”

  “You want her to get rid of me, don’t you?”

  Unlike Charley, Amanda could lie, but she saw no point in it. She leaned toward him, nose to ghostly nose. “Yes!”

  “It’s not going to work! I won’t leave you!”

  Amanda stormed into the kitchen, slammed open the refrigerator door, grabbed a Coke and yanked off the top then drank half of it.

  He wasn’t going to leave her and she couldn’t leave him.

  “Fine!” she shouted then realized he was, of course, right beside her. “Fine, but I’m going to live my life as if you aren’t around. And if that includes doing things you don’t like to see, well, you shouldn’t be looking!”

  “I will be looking. Don’t ever forget that.”

  She wasn’t likely to forget.

  *~*~*

  That afternoon while Amanda dressed for her date with Jake, Charley continued to make a nuisance of himself.

  “Those jeans are pretty tight. Maybe you should wear a pair of slacks, something that doesn’t look so slutty.”

  “You need another button on that blouse. Maybe you could pin it so it doesn’t go down so low.”

  “Makeup? You don’t wear makeup very often, Amanda. I don’t remember the last time you wore makeup for me. I guess this is a special night, huh? Getting all painted up to commit adultery.”

  “That lipstick is too red. You don’t need lipstick that bright. You think this guy’s gonna kiss it off you right in front of your husband?”

  By the time she finished getting ready, she felt worn out and was beginning to question if the effort would be worth it. Charley was not going to let up. He would keep her a nervous wreck the entire evening. Maybe she should cancel. Surely Teresa would eventually figure out a way to help Charley progress to the next plane and then she could have a real date with Jake.

  She picked up her cell phone. It seemed to weigh a ton, about the same as her heart at that moment. “All right. You win. Shut up! I’m going to call Jake and cancel.”

  Charley smiled. “I’m glad you understand. It’s the right thing to do.”

  Amanda checked her watch. Fifteen till six. He was probably on his way over already but he’d have his cell with him.

  Someone knocked on the front door. Too late. For a moment she felt elation at the thought of seeing Jake. That flicker of elation was replaced immediately by a dark, leaden feeling. She’d have to send him away.

  “Damn! Now you’ll have to get rid of him in person.” Charley vanished
through the bedroom wall to the living room. Of course he’d go out to meet Jake and say rude things while she was trying to tactfully break their date without jeopardizing a future one.

  With a sigh of resignation, she put her phone in her purse and started toward the door.

  Charley appeared in front of her, blocking her path. “Don’t answer that!”

  “Get out of my way. Don’t worry. I’ll tell him I’m sick or something. It wouldn’t be fair to subject him to an evening of you.”

  “It’s not Jake. Don’t answer it.”

  “Then who is it? It can’t be Collins. He’s in the hospital with two bullet holes.” She went around him then through him as he again tried to block her.

  “Amanda, please come back. Please don’t answer that.”

  She opened the door to find Teresa standing there. Charley had tried to keep her from answering the door because he was afraid Teresa would send him to another plane. Good grief. She couldn’t date and now she couldn’t even have a friend?

  “I’m sorry I’m so late,” Teresa said. “I’ve had appointments all day, which is good because I need the money, but I know you need me too.”

  “Yeah, I do. Come on in, but it’s a little late to try to get rid of Charley. Jake should be here any minute.”

  Teresa smiled as she moved inside, a big, happy smile. “I should have known Charley wouldn’t tell you.”

  “Tell me what?” Surprisingly, Charley had vanished. That was strange. He must really be scared. Odd that he’d been worried about Teresa’s welfare the night before and now he was avoiding her.

  Teresa closed the door and looked around. “Charley, come here. We have to tell Amanda.”

  Charley came through the bedroom wall, straight to Teresa’s side, moving as if someone was dragging him. He wasn’t doing his usual pretense of walking. He kept his gaze on the floor and he didn’t look happy.

  “You should have told her.” Teresa turned to Amanda. “Last night I had just got home and was pouring myself a glass of wine when Charley suddenly appeared.”

  “At your place? Charley came to your place without me? He was able to get that far away from me?” She looked at Charley who continued to stare at the floor.