Pearl followed, found him standing in front of a fairly recent grave. “There’s still food left,” she said.
Murray nodded. Didn’t turn. It had only been a couple of days since they kissed. He wasn’t sure if or how that moment had changed things. Wasn’t sure he wanted any change at all. No matter what, he had a memory he’d never forget.
“This a new friend?” Pearl asked.
“Used to be on the dance team at Endeavor High. Came to a couple of Sierra pep assemblies. I don’t know if you saw her.”
“Probably before I transferred,” Pearl said. “Car accident?”
“Shot. By mistake.”
“I’ve been thinking,” Pearl said. “We’re lucky.”
Murray turned to her. Reached out. Touched her shoulder for a second and let his hand fall. “I guess I was thinking the same thing,” he said. “This girl, Sandray, was so pretty and lively and…” He looked up at the sky, at high thin clouds pushed by winds that never reached the earth. “She’s gone. Really gone. Can’t be part of things anymore.”
“Well, yeah,” Pearl said, “but you two can still be friends, right? Like Dearly and Blessed?”
This conversation was making Murray sad. “Hey!” He was surprised at the stupid idea that had popped into his mind from absolutely nowhere. “Uh, want to see where I go when I’m mad at you?”
Pearl frowned. “Why would you be mad at me?” She knew she could be a little bit assertive sometimes, but really, shouldn’t he be grateful? She was sure she brought out the best in him.
“Never mind. Feel like a short walk?”
“I get mad at you, too,” she said. “Really really mad.” She stepped to him and took his arm. “You want to know what I do when I’m mad at you?”
Murray ignored her question and began leading her down the path, out to Continental Street and over toward the riverbank beach where he occasionally went to throw rocks and curse her bullheadedness.
Her arm felt wonderful linked through his. He couldn’t explain it.
UNTURNED STONE
Gates sat in the parent pickup zone at Sierra High wondering if he was acting unprofessionally. Several officers in the Major Crimes unit had more than one confidential informant, but he couldn’t think of anybody who used a high school student for such a dangerous assignment. And honestly, Gates had to admit this was just the tip of the iceberg. He would happily pay Kiefer a stipend to help with a number of the kinds of cases he regularly encountered. Asking a dead victim to name his or her murderer was the first one that came to mind. Another, searching for a body. And his own secret wish, that Murray would speak with his son.
Now that it was a slightly more likely possibility, Gates wondered if he had the courage to go through with it even if Murray agreed. What if his son said, “Yes. I committed suicide. Dad drove me to it.” What then? How would Gates handle that? He couldn’t imagine, but the range of possibilities terrified him.
Today, thank god, didn’t require a soul-searching decision. If Kiefer said okay, a serious question might be answered.
Chuck Barker was still critical, under guard at Mercy, but it looked like he would pull through. A lot depended on whether the ax wound developed a staph infection that couldn’t be treated successfully. Murray’s blow had damaged the man’s liver and intestines, grazed the spine. The organs would never be right, but they might eventually heal. In fact, it was possible that within a couple of months Chuck would be well enough to stand trial.
* * *
Gates hadn’t gone inside the high school to get the boy this time, though he understood his reporter friend Doni had been able to make Kiefer a hero without alluding to his paranormal skills. If he wasn’t careful, Kiefer could become a go-to item with the coeds.
This time Gates had phoned the principal’s office. Asked that a note be delivered to Kiefer in seventh period. Sure enough, in the throng of students heading for the buses and cars in the parking lot, there was Kiefer craning his neck, looking this way and that before spotting the cruiser.
* * *
“I appreciate you being willing to give me a hand,” Gates said, heading up Eureka Way before taking Buenaventura to Placer. “You agreed, but do you have any idea what this is about?”
Murray nodded.
“And you’re still willing?”
Murray decided to tell him. “A while ago Pearl and I had kind of an argument about the way I lived my life, the choices I was making,” he said, looking out the window. “She said I had something really different and that I should use it to help people.” He looked at Gates, shrugged.
“You have any idea where we’re headed?” Gates asked.
Murray turned to look through the windshield at the gray wall of fog standing north above Whiskeytown Lake straight ahead against the western hills. “Maybe,” he said. “Newspaper had it that the second voice, the older guy, what’s his name?”
“Chuck Barker.”
“Yeah. His son’s missing.”
Gates looked at Kiefer, looked back at the road. Said, “He is.”
“Guess we’re gonna look for him,” Kiefer said.
Gates nodded. Said, “We are.”
“Got any ideas?” Murray asked.
Gates smiled. “I do,” he said. “That’s why I need you. Mrs. Barker and her new dog won’t want me disturbing those big rocks in the driveway without a good reason.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I had an opportunity to study with psychotherapist and parapsychologist Lawrence LeShan, PhD. He thrilled me with unexplainable stories of ghosts, mediums, and mystics. Years later, my first book, Dead Connection, reflected that association. Since writing it in 2006, I found that the clairvoyant boy Murray, his nemesis girlfriend Pearl, and the cast of cemetery characters stayed with me, often surfacing in the quiet of long drives or emerging whenever I passed a rural graveyard. Gradually the idea of a sequel materialized. I was able to complete most of the book as writer-in-residence at the Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts in Fairhope, Alabama.
I especially appreciate Mr. Skip Jones for his tireless shepherding of the Fairhope Writing Arts Program, and Teen Siener along with the many volunteers for their diligent work in bringing the writing cottage to full bloom.
I am most grateful to my editor, Wesley Adams, for the savvy and humor that makes each literary project a pleasurable collaboration. Also to the people at Farrar Straus Giroux and Macmillan whose care and quality in publishing operations make this a beautiful book inside and out.
Thanks to my agents, Tracey and Josh Adams at Adams Literary, whose support and advocacy I hold dear.
I receive finely tuned feedback from my comrades in two marvelous writing groups: Jim Dowling, Kathryn Gessner, Carla Jackson, Melinda Kashuba, and Robb Lightfoot in California; and Skip Jones, Don Sawyer, and Teen Siener in Fairhope. I’m very lucky to have ongoing encouragement from long-time friends Kit Anderton, Chris Crutcher, Tony D’Souza, and artist Chris Knight, my fellow inspiration student.
Further thanks to Dr. Paul Swinderman for relevant medical consultations, to Manuel J. Garcia, Esq., for advice pertinent to the story’s legal areas, and to physicist Dr. Steve Hudgens for perspective on the theories presented herein.
Finally, I’m forever grateful and deeply in debt to the loves of my life. My magnificent psychotherapist/artist wife, Joanie, is always my first reader, and my radiant daughter, Jessica Rose, edits from afar in Portland.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Charlie Price lives in northern California. He is an executive coach for business leaders and has also worked with at-risk teens in schools, hospitals, and communities. He is the author of six novels, including Desert Angel and The Interrogation of Gabriel James, winner of the Edgar Award. You can sign up for email updates here.
BY CHARLIE PRICE
Dead Connection
Lizard People
The Interrogation of Gabriel James
Desert Angel
Dead Girl Moon
Dea
d Investigation
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Capped
Talks to the Dead
Sheriff’s Department
Deadweight
Lethal Solution
Look It Up
Anniversary
Square Root of Nothing
Classmating
New Tract
Strike Two
Lingering Stain
Working on the Railroad
Spiffed Up
Fleece and Powder
Consultation
NASCAR
Courting
Making the Short List
Over-the-Hill Gang
Corned Beef, Harsh Talk
Unclear Envelopes
Right Again
Mission Accomplished
Hot Sweet Pickle
Intern Intake
Rex
Unconscious Inconvenience
Going to the Other Side
Jumping Jack Flash
Won’t Go Away
Floored
Someone’s Killing
Hypothetically Syndromatic
The Goofball Scale
Ex Marks the Spouse
Cards on the Table or Shovel’s in the Shed?
Investigation Terminated
Rope Burn
Daymares
Long-Distance Photo
Hill and Fail
Dog Gone
Short of the Porch
Samurai Cemetery
Aftermath
Dead Ventriloquism
Duck Love
Whole Lot of Parking Going On
And Three to Go
The Psheriff and the Psyche
A Fixture at the Country Club
Lake Talk
Mind’s Eye
Story Time
One Walk and You’re Out
CarterGuard
The Big Sleep
Front Loading
Paranoid Patrol
Wanderer
If a Phone Rings in the Forest
Green Blinking Light
Semi-Coma
Think Inside the Box
Invisible Blue
Nurse Warrior
The Final Word
War Plans
A Woman’s Touch
Intrusion
Noteworthy
The Power of a Sandwich Bag
Needle in a Forest
Tech Support
Cabin in the Woods
Mighty Casey
No Picnic in the Park
I’m a Lumberjack and Not Okay
Put This Together
Hold the Relish
Mad Alive
Unturned Stone
Acknowledgments
About the Author
By Charlie Price
Copyright
Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers
175 Fifth Avenue, New York 10010
Text copyright © 2015 by Charlie Price
All rights reserved
First hardcover edition, 2015
eBook edition, October 2015
macteenbooks.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Price, Charlie, author.
Dead investigation / Charlie Price. — First edition.
pages cm
Sequel to: Dead connection.
Summary: Since the affair of the murdered cheerleader, seventeen-year-old Murray has moved into the lawnmower shed at the town cemetery, where he is close to the dead that he talks to and considers friends—but the caretaker’s daughter, Pearl, wants him to use his gift to find a homeless man who seems to have disappeared, and may have been murdered by someone who is hunting the homeless.
ISBN 978-0-374-30227-6 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-374-30228-3 (e-book)
1. Psychics—Juvenile fiction. 2. Spirits—Juvenile fiction. 3. Murder—Investigation—Juvenile fiction. 4. Cemeteries—Juvenile fiction. 5. Paranormal fiction. [1. Psychics—Fiction. 2. Spirits—Fiction. 3. Murder—Fiction. 4. Supernatural—Fiction. 5. Cemeteries—Fiction. 6. Homeless persons—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.P92477Dei 2015
813.6—dc23
[Fic]
2015007180
eISBN 9780374302283
Our eBooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945 ext. 5442 or by e-mail at [email protected].
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