Pete shook his head. “Ladies, ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do and die.”
“Why are you misquoting Tennyson?” Charlie glanced between us as he sat down. “It’s ‘theirs’ not ‘ours’.”
“Speaking of someone else’s death,” Pete said, gesturing at Sabrina and me with a chip, “what happened yesterday at the festival?”
Charlie sighed. “For one day can we please not talk about dead people over lunch?”
“Aren’t you interested in who’s trying to bump Bridge off?” Pete asked before taking a huge bite of his very tasty looking burger.
Charlie stared at me is surprise. “Someone tried to kill you?”
“Not exactly,” Sabrina answered for me, patting my hand. “Someone killed Bertha, the girl on the front desk. She’d dyed her hair the same colour as Bridget’s.”
Charlie frowned. “That doesn’t mean whoever killed her was trying for Bridget. I’d imagine if you were planning on killing someone, you’d make sure you’d got the right person.”
Pete pointed to Charlie. “The man’s got a point.”
“Yeah, but if you’re planning on killing someone, it’s highly unlikely you’re thinking straight enough to operate on rational logic.” Sabrina wagged her finger at both Pete and Charlie.
Pete turned to Charlie. “The woman’s got a point.”
“Can we please stop discussing murderers?” Charlie implored again.
“Absolutely.” Sabrina smiled widely at him. “As it happens, Bridget and I have something else we need to do before she returns to complete her assignments alone, so if you’ll excuse us?”
“Always a pleasure, ladies.” Pete waggled his eyebrows at Sabrina before winking conspiringly at me.
“Have a good afternoon,” Charlie said and waved as we took our trays back to the kitchen.
“You ready for some eavesdropping?” Sabrina placed her tray through the hatch after mine.
“Officer Leonard.” I smiled over Sabrina’s shoulder at him as he appeared. I was starting to like him. I didn’t trust him, but he was a very likeable fellow. “No smoke and pop today.” I gestured around him to the very plain tunnelling entrance he’d just made.
He pointed to the serving area. “Health and hygiene laws.”
“Ah.” I nodded, watching Sabrina, who was totally focused on cleaning her tray. “Are you here for lunch?”
“Actually, I’m here for your friend.” He smiled politely as he placed his hand on a stunned Sabrina’s shoulder and tunnelled them both.
Chapter Fourteen
“What the hell just happened?” Pete loomed in front of me. He was frowning so hard there was no space between his eyebrows.
“Officer Leonard abducted Sabrina.”
“I could see that from where I was sitting. What did he say? Why did he take her?”
“Yeah.” I shook my head. I wasn’t liking his tone. “He didn’t exactly explain his evil plan to me.”
Pete pushed his face into mine. “Well, why didn’t you ask him?”
“Because, Pete,” I said, stepping closer to make sure he understood I wasn’t intimidated by him, “he tunnelled them before I had the chance.”
His eyes flattened and he leaned back to look me over. “What are you two involved in?”
I threw my hands up. “We’re not involved in anything. Why do people keep asking me that?”
“Probably because it’s painfully obvious you’re both involved in something. You’re about as subtle as a lightning bolt.” He reached his hands towards me and for the briefest moment I thought he was going to throttle me. He pulled his hands up short and pressed his palms together, taking a breath. Just as well. Pete would not have liked the consequences of placing an angry hand on me. And that would be before Oz got involved.
“Excuse me.” I calmly smoothed my hair back into a ponytail and gave him my professional smile. “I have assignments to complete.”
“Whoa.” Pete grabbed my upper arm to keep me from walking away. “Where do you think you’re going?”
I looked at his hold on me then back to his grim expression. “I would seriously rethink that if I were you.”
Pete laughed but the sound had no humour in it. “I guess it’s a good job you’re not, then.”
I was about to remove Pete’s hold on me in a less than polite way when Charlie placed his hand on Pete’s wrist. Pete reluctantly let go. “Now, now, children, let’s not squabble. We all want the same thing.”
“And what’s that, Charlie?” I asked since Pete’s reaction seemed a little extreme to me, even if he did have a crush on Sabrina.
“To make sure Sabrina’s okay,” Charlie stated as if it was the most obvious thing.
I glanced between them both. “Why would she not be?”
“Because I don’t know what you two are up to, but if it’s enough to warrant a GB’s attention then it’s something to worry about,” Charlie explained calmly, releasing his grip on Pete’s arm. “Now is there anything at all you can think of that the GBs might be interested in you for?”
Breaking into a medical facility, attacking the guards, haunting the receptionist. Breaking into the secret records room at the bureau. I shook my head. “Nope.”
“Really?” Charlie placed a hand on Pete’s shoulder when he snorted in disbelief. “Nothing at all?”
Aiding and abetting a fugitive. Conferring with a medium. Withholding evidence in a murder investigation. I shook my head again. “Nope.”
Charlie sighed at me. “We can’t help you if you don’t tell us the truth.”
“Honestly, Charlie. I don’t have anything that I need help with.”
Pete folded his arms and snorted again. “I notice you didn’t insist that you’ve told us the truth.”
I met his gaze squarely. “I have told you the truth, Pete. We’re not involved in anything.” Which was a very flexible version of the truth. That maybe involved a little untruthfulness.
Charlie sighed again as if he was beaten. “You know how to find us if you need anything.”
“I appreciate that, Charlie, but look.” I nodded behind him. “They’re questioning everyone in coordination.”
The regular police had filled the room, tunnelling anyone in a coordinator coloured jumpsuit away.
“But that’s just the idiot police.” Pete pressed his lips into a hard line and looked like he was biting his tongue. “Not the GBs. You’re new, so I don’t think you understand the full magnitude of having the GBs’ attention. You have no regard for the depth of trouble you’re in.”
“You know how to contact us,” Charlie reminded me before urging Pete back to their table.
I stood at the side of the canteen not exactly sure what to do. I trusted Sabrina was far too adept to say anything that would incriminate either of us. Since there was nothing I could do to help her, I figured the best thing would be to plough on with my assignments. They probably would’ve released her by the time I’d finished. Then we’d be able to concoct a plan to get in and talk to Barry. If I’d been alive, I’d have been worried that I was planning yet more illegal activity when Sabrina had just been abducted by the GBs right in front of me and with Pete’s warning ringing in my ears, but the whole dying thing had skewed my sense of danger somewhat. I was already dead. What else could they do to me?
∞
I didn’t stop to watch the outcome of any more assignments. I figured the best thing to do was complete them on time and as the assignment sheet directed. When I knew a little more about the whole being dead thing I’d look into it again, but until then I was going to get in, move stuff and get out.
Just as I was about to head back to the bureau to hand in my completed assignment list I felt that familiar pull of being summoned. As it became more insistent I had a genius idea of how to get to Barry.
I landed with a heavy bump on the floor of Madame Zorina’s reading room and stared around in a silent daze, ears ringing. I knew she was yelling something at m
e, though, because there was a vein pulsing in her neck and she was waving her arms around like she was directing traffic. Very fast traffic. I shook my head and the sound came back with a pop.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?” I asked, struggling to stand up on my shaky legs.
Madame Zorina stared at me, her lips in a tight line. “I said, ‘Where have you been?’”
“I’ve been working.” I gestured to my jumpsuit before realising all she could see was a white suit.
“Have you managed to find Barry yet?” There was a tinkle of hope in her voice beneath the layers and layers and layers of irritation.
“I have.”
“And? Who killed him? Was it Porscha? It was, wasn’t it? Damn it, I knew it’d be her. Damn it!” She turned and slapped her hand against the reading table, making the crystal ball wobble in its cradle. She inhaled a long, calming breath before turning back to me. “Did he tell anyone I advised him to marry her? Does everyone know? Am I ruined?”
I paused before answering, considering the best way to play this out. “There’s been a slight hiccup.”
She stilled. Her voice dropped from worried to suspicious. “What kind of hiccup?”
“Well.” I moved to sit in her client chair. “He doesn’t know he’s dead.”
She opened her mouth but closed it again without speaking and sat down at her reading table opposite me.
“He still thinks he’s alive.” I reached out to adjust her crystal ball securely back into its holder. “That he and Porscha are getting married next summer.”
“How can he not know he’s dead?” she finally asked.
I held my arms out to the side, giving a wide, helpless shrug. “I don’t know. I just work here.”
“So where is he? What’s he doing?” She frowned at me. “He can hardly be at home or going to work because he’d know something was up pretty damn sharpish.”
I wasn’t sure exactly how much to tell her. “He’s staying at a hotel.”
“Again, how’s he doing that without realising there’s something odd going on? When the waiters keep ignoring him, or when another guest sees a knife and fork tucking into a meal on their own and screams the house down? Surely there has to be an alarm bell going off in his head?”
“I don’t know. I’m new, remember? I have no clue how any of this afterlife stuff works. Perhaps he’s not that observant.”
“Not that observant?” She stared at me in disbelief. “Barry’s being ignored by everybody and he’s not noticed?”
“He doesn’t know he’s dead,” I said again. “I don’t know what else to tell you.”
Madame Zorina stared at me in silence as if weighing my truthfulness. “Okay.” She nodded finally and leaned forwards. She rested her elbows on the table and interlaced her fingers. “Then tell me where he is so I can talk to him.”
I sucked some air through my teeth. “I’m not really sure that’s a good idea. I mean, one moment he’s planning for his wedding, then a conversation with you later he’s dead. That’s kind of a lot to take in.”
“I’m incredibly tactful,” Madame Zorina snapped, affronted.
“Im sure you are. But still …”
“Look, surely it’s better if he understands he’s dead,” Madame Zorina reasoned, laying her hands on the table palms down. “For him, for his murderous fiancée, for his family.”
I pointed to her. “For you.”
“Yes, of course for me,” she snapped and rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t care otherwise, would I?”
“Wow, that was brutally honest.”
“Look, if I can talk to Barry I can find out who killed him. Helping him relive that last moments of his life will hopefully help him make peace with being dead. I can give the police an anonymous tip which will mean a murderer off the streets, my name cleared and I get my inheritance. It’s win-win. So I’d really appreciate it if you’d tell me where he is.”
I held my hands up in surrender. “Okay.”
“So, where is he?”
“Ah.” I saw a flaw in my plan. “Somewhere in Scotland.”
“What do you mean somewhere in Scotland?” Her serenity evaporated and left a frown in its place. “You said you knew where he was.”
“I do, I know exactly where he is, but I don’t follow road maps so I’m not sure how to direct you.”
“Well, how do you get there?” she asked impatiently, obviously not happy to be thwarted at the final hurdle after getting her way.
“I do some kind of ghost thing that gets me there.” I didn’t have a clue how it worked and doubted very much if I simply said I “tunnelled” that would explain anything.
She gestured around me. “Can’t I hitch a ride somehow?”
“I think you kinda have to be dead to travel like that,” I said, though really the rules were far too flexible for me to be certain of anything.
“I died,” Madame Zorina rushed. “When I was seven, I drowned. I was legally, medically, totally dead for nearly three minutes. It’s how I got the Sight. Let’s give it a go. The worst that can happen is that it’ll not work.”
“Okay.” I nodded, though I was thinking the worst that could happen would be that she somehow got turned inside out or shredded or vaporised or numerous other equally bloody and gruesome outcomes. I stood and mentioned for her to do the same. “Ready?”
“Absolutely,” she said, clearly half excited, half petrified. I made sure I had a good, firm grip on each of her hands as I didn’t want to lose hold of her halfway. I visualised the front on the hotel and dragged us there.
The tunnelling took much longer than normal, well over two minutes. By the time we reached the hotel I was shattered. I’d held on until the end by nothing but willpower. I had no clue how Madame Zorina was going to get home, but she most definitely was not hitching a ride with me. I’d have enough trouble getting myself home.
As soon as I felt the pavement underneath my feet I dropped to the ground. My head felt like someone had taken an axe and tried to cleave it open, while Madame Zorina was retching off to my left.
“Look at you, breaking all of the rules.” Barry’s mum laughed. “First time hauling a livie, dear?”
I wanted to nod, since speaking was out of the question, but the first dip of my head told me that wasn’t going to work either.
“Medicinal purposes,” she said as she moved a silver hip flask of whisky under my nose.
I took a long sip and felt fire burn its way down my throat and all the way to the tips of my fingers and toes. My head gave a few more spins before slowing down and stopping like the end of a fairground ride. I breathed out in relief.
“I think that has to be my least favourite dead experience,” I said as Barry’s mum helped me to my feet and kept hold of me since my knees were still knocking together. It even beat my first day finding Jim. “What are we going to do about her?”
“Nothing we can do, dear.” Barry’s mum stood and watched impassively. “We’ll just have to wait until she finishes.”
As if on cue Madame Zorina’s retching ceased. She’d been hunched over on her hands and knees but straightened up to rest on her haunches. She turned to face us, paler than us ghosts, and wiped her mouth with a cloth.
Her voice came out in a hoarse whisper after all the vomiting. “Do not ever do that to me again.”
“When you summon me? That’s how it feels.” That wasn’t entirely accurate but it still wasn’t a pleasant experience and perhaps would make her less inclined to do it.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she rasped, climbing unsteadily to her feet.
I gave her my flat stare. “I did.”
Madame Zorina made a noise that might have been agreement but I wasn’t sure. “Who’s this?”
“Oh.” I looked at Barry’s mum and suddenly realised I didn’t know her name. “This is …”
She smiled reproachfully. “Edith, dear.”
“Edith, this is Madame Zorina.”
“It’
s a pleasure to meet you.” Edith inclined her head.
“Likewise.” Madame Zorina looked between us. “You’re dead too, right?”
Edith arched an eyebrow. “That’s incredibly impolite, but yes.”
“This is Barry’s mum,” I explained to Madame Zorina before turning to Edith. “Madame Zorina is going to try to convince Barry he’s dead. I thought she’d be the best option since neither of us can go in there.”
“You can’t go in there?” Edith smiled and shook her head. “You are turning out to be quite the rebel, aren’t you, dear?”
Madame Zorina frowned at us. “What do you mean your best option?”
“Edith wants to talk to her son but she can’t go in there, and you want to know who killed him,” I said. “Two birds, one stone.”
“Nicely played.” Madame Zorina smiled though she still looked anything but happy.
“He’ll probably be in the bar area,” Edith offered helpfully. “And I’d appreciate it if you could walk him out here once he understands he’s dead.”
Madame Zorina nodded and headed inside. I wasn’t sure if her slow gait was a residual effect of tunnelling or due to general trepidation.
“I guess we just wait.” I sat on a low wall outside the front of the hotel. My legs were still a little shaky after the marathon tunnelling session. “Don’t suppose you know why this place is classed as a medical facility, do you?”
“It’s a bit like a psychiatric ward.” Edith joined me on the wall and twisted so she could see the front of the building as well as the street. “If you don’t know you’re dead and you’re surrounded solely by alive or solely by dead people, it can have negative consequences on the psyche. ”
“What type of consequences?” I checked over my shoulder towards the front of the building, suddenly not so confident in having my back to it.
“Negative, dear.” Edith folded her hands primly in her lap. “Facilities like this are supposed to encourage their patients to recognise their new state of being. To ease the transition from alive to dead. The mix of alive and dead people surrounding them is supposed help them to slowly recognise their own state of existence.”
Beyond Dead Page 22
