1 Broken Hearted Ghoul (13 page)

“I agreed to the terms when you were a baby. I’ve had my time, and used it to build up a good future for you and your sister. Now, stand back, and take care of your mother for me. Believe me, there is no way out of this.”

“I can kill
her
!”

The Glock came up in my face. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Debbie take a few steps back. Just what I needed in a partner. She was probably hoping he didn’t see her.

Mr. and Mrs. Wopack bargained and pleaded with their son. The daughter slid to the floor, sobbing. The whole situation was out of control.

I didn’t really see Debbie move again, but suddenly—there she was—behind Wopack’s son. She raised a piece of firewood in her hands from a stack near the hearth, and slammed it into the back of his head. He dropped to the floor.

“Thanks.” I was surprised, and pleased, that she hadn’t left me hanging.

“Sure.” She grinned back.

“I’m so sorry.” Mr. Wopack picked up the Glock, and handed it to his wife. “Let’s leave now. I’m sure he’ll be fine later when it’s over.”

I took him at his word, and the three of us went out to the van. Mrs. Wopack followed us to the door, and waved to her husband as we pulled out of the drive.

“Does this
ever
get easier?” Debbie asked.

Chapter Sixteen

“No,” I mumbled under my breath as I glanced in the rearview mirror at Mr. Wopack.

He cried all the way to the mortuary. Not loud, sobbing cries—the kind where the tears quietly roll down your cheeks. He looked out the window at the passing scenery, and didn’t beg for another shot at life, or try to escape.

I hoped I’d be that way when the time came. I wanted Kate to remember me that way. It was possible that you didn’t know how you were going to react until you got that knock on the door. I wanted to be ready.

We reached the mortuary, and I backed the van up to the back door. Mr. Wopack got out, adjusted his suit, and shook hands with me and Debbie. He even thanked us for handling the situation with his son.

“I’m sorry that this is it for you.” I didn’t know what else to say.

He smiled. “You’re a zombie too, aren’t you? Do you have kids?”

“A daughter.”

“Make sure she’s prepared. Even though I thought we were prepared, it was still messy. But I think it will make a difference to them now that I’m gone.”

“Thanks. I’ll do my best.” I watched him walk into the mortuary, shoulders held back—head high—and shake hands with Brandon. I turned away, suddenly not wanting to know what happened next.

“Is that it?” Debbie asked. “My kids are due home soon.”

I glanced at my watch. “Oh my God—I missed career day! Kate is gonna
kill
me.”

Abe was there in an impeccable white suit with a black shirt. Before he went inside the mortuary, he said that was all for the day. He kissed Debbie’s hand, and asked after her husband.

“He’s fine, thank you.” She smiled at him like he was God himself come down to speak with her.

I turned away from that too.

All the evidence I’d picked up at the scene of Martin’s death was in my pockets. I concentrated on that. But without a crime scene lab, it was hard to decide what to do with it. I didn’t know anyone who could analyze that type of thing.

I took Debbie home. She chattered about a new quilt she was working on that would depict her family’s lives—including Terry being shot. She told me that she planned to add some small part about her making the deal with Abe too.

I wished her well with that, and hurried home. I wasn’t sure how I was going to explain to my daughter why I hadn’t been there in time to talk about my career.

Of course, I’d been dreading that opportunity. I’d been going to talk about being a police officer, even though I wasn’t working as one. I thought I could do a good job with that, and it would be easier to explain than picking up zombies whose twenty years was up.

Instead, I was left with getting home after Kate. She was in the kitchen with Addie and Lucas, eating cookies, when I walked in.

“I’m so sorry,” I began. “I had to work through career day. I really wanted to be there, but my boss needed me.”

Kate didn’t even glance up. “That’s okay. Laura’s mom works at the zoo. She brought some animals with her. Everyone loved it.”

“That’s okay for Laura.” I sat at the table with her, ignoring Addie’s frown, and Lucas’s interested stare. “I really wanted to be there, Kate.
Really
. But when you work, you don’t always get to have the schedule you want.”

“You mean you had to pick up some dead guy for Abe, right?” Her brown eyes felt like a blow to my chest.

“I don’t think you understand what Mommy does.” I smiled at her. “You probably misunderstood when you heard me talking to Grandma. I just pick people up and take them places.”

Addie sounded like an engine letting off steam. Did she look more . . .
real
today? Her features were more clearly defined.

“It’s okay that you pick up dead guys.” Kate drank the last of her chocolate milk. “What do you do with them?”

This wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have with her—not yet anyway.

“When people die, they have to go to a place called a mortuary where they bury them. It’s very sad, and everyone cries. But I also pick up people who are alive, and take them places they need to go.”

“Like a bus driver?” She tried to understand.

“Kind of like that.” Changing the subject, I asked if she had any homework.

“Not tonight.” She smiled. “I was thinking that maybe we could go ice skating at the mall. Laura has gone every weekend since it started. This is the last Friday.”

Apparently, Laura was the new ‘it’ girl for this week.

“Ice skating it is.” I hugged her. “Go get your skates.”

“Thanks, Mommy.” She smiled at me. “Can Lucas go too?”

I studied him. “Sure. I guess.”

When she’d left the room, Addie grunted. “If you’d kept up better with what you were supposed to do, she wouldn’t have to manipulate you that way.

“Leave it alone. I do what I have to do.”

“And here I thought you were only alive to take care of
her
.”

“Addie, let it be. You and I both know there’s more to what I do than it seems. After all, you’re the one who introduced me to Abe.”

“Only because Jacob died on the road that night. Otherwise, he’d be here with Kate. And
he’d
have remembered that she needed him at school today.”

She vanished before I could say anything else I might regret. I don’t think she cared what she said. Her son was gone, and that was it. I was a poor substitute.

“Well.” Lucas cleared his throat. “It has been a fascinating day.”

“I’m sure it has. Find anything new about your problem?”

“Not to speak of. I remember nothing before waking up in the city right before I met you. It is as though I know who I am, but yet I am a stranger to myself.”

Great!
That sounded like a long-term problem to me.

“Did you do something to Addie today?”

“Something?” He paused. “Oh yes! I did not
do
anything to
her, as you say. It was more a matter of giving her some suggestions on being a ghost. She has no idea what she is capable of. She has been living a half-life since she perished. She is really quite powerful.”

Even better! That’s what I need is a powerful, disapproving mother-in-law.

“You really want to go to the mall?”

“Yes.” He smiled. “The mall sounds enlightening. Lady Kate was endeavoring to explain the importance of it, within the confines of society. I believe travel broadens the mind, do you not agree?”

Yeah.
“Great,” I muttered. What I really wanted was some time to think about what had happened to Martin, and decide who I could find to help me analyze everything I’d taken from his house.

But I owed Kate. I should have found a way to be back in time for Career Day. Maybe I was dreading it so much that I forgot about it. I wasn’t sure.

We drove to the mall where they’d set up an ice skating rink outside in the parking lot over Christmas.  People seemed to like it.  Every time we went by, it was crowded. I’d never been much at ice-skating. Jacob had loved it.

I diligently put on rental skates while Kate put on her pink skates. She was out on the smooth ice way before me. I joined her, almost falling, and she smiled at me.

For a few minutes, we held hands, and skated around together. She had her father’s natural ease with the sport. I could manage to stay upright—Jacob had taught me that much. That was about it.

Lucky for me, it was all that was required. By that time, Kate’s friends had found her, and the three of them were giggling as they skated together. Gratefully, I sat down on a bench, took off my skates, and watched.

It was cold. The stars were brilliant hard diamonds shining overhead. A tiny crescent moon peeked down at us. Traffic at the mall was brisk, despite being after the holidays. A steady line of cars went in and out of the large parking lots.

I’d never been what I’d consider as a deep thinker. Death, loss, and coming back to life had made me a different person. I’d always been curious about how things worked, and why people did the things they did. Now, I wanted to understand more about me and other people. Maybe I’d even become wise in the next eighteen years.

“Beautiful night.”

“Yes.”

“Hot chocolate?”

I didn’t immediately reach for the steaming cup Lucas held. “Did you conjure this up?”

“I wish!” He nodded toward the kiosk with the hot chocolate sign. “I have do concept of what is holding the liquid in with this cup. What is it made of?”

“They call it Styrofoam. I’m not sure what it’s made of.” I took the cup from him. “Where did you get money?”

“There was a mechanized creation in the city. When I touched it, green currency spewed out at me.” He showed me the wad of bills that were in his pocket.

“That’s stealing!”

“Is it?” He put the bills back. “I claim a stranger’s innocence, my lady.”

He was probably telling the truth. There was no point in making a big deal out of it anyway.

He sipped from the cup as we watched Kate and her friends skating. “She is a natural skater, is she not? Very graceful and sure of herself.”

I saw his green eyes following my daughter on the ice. I suddenly thought about his appearance coming at the same time as the zombies being killed. Was that a coincidence?

My first partner, an older man with twenty years on the job, had once told me that there were no coincidences. He said you just had to wait, and watch to see how the events were tied together.

Was Lucas part of what was happening with Abe?

Chapter Seventeen

“What do you remember about yourself before you showed up here?”

I figured the best way to get him to give himself away was to get him talking.

“As I explained before, I do not recall much of anything.” He glanced around at the mall and the traffic. “I have a feeling that the place I come from is a long way from here.”

“Why is that?”

“Nothing looks right.” He sipped his hot chocolate. “Nothing is as it should be. Even the air is different. Yet, I could not tell you what that difference is.”

Not a great start, but it was something.

Lucas smiled at me. “Tell me about your husband.”

My mind and heart shied away from that request. “I don’t like to talk about him.”

“But you seem so happy with him in the images Lady Addie showed me today. Did you love him?”

“Yes.” I drank the hot chocolate, and looked away, hardening my heart. “But he’s gone now. I have to go on without him.”

“For Lady Kate’s sake. That is why you agreed to become what you have. To protect your daughter.”

I took a deep breath. “I never knew my parents. Someone found me walking along the road. There was never any clue as to who I was. There was no one to take me in. I was passed from one family to another. I never had a home—until I met Jacob. I can’t let that happen to Kate.”

“I understand.” He squeezed my hand. “My apologies for reminding you of something so painful.”

That was more than I’d planned on saying. He had that effect on me. I needed to turn the conversation back to him if I wanted to learn if he had anything to do with Martin’s death.

“A second zombie was killed today,” I told him. “Both men had their hearts ripped from their chests. There was no blood.”

“Interesting.” He turned to me. “And you have taken it on yourself to solve the matter of their deaths.”

“Yes.” I nodded. “Have you ever heard of anything like that?”

“I could not be certain, truthfully.” His reply was smooth. “If I had, I might not remember it.”

“I’ve seen a lot of strange things working for Abe. I watched a man change into a wolf once. I know there are creatures out there that can do terrible things. That’s why I wasn’t really surprised about you being a sorcerer.”

He took it all in. “And so now you think
I
killed the two zombies you found.”

“What? No.”
What did I say that gave me away?

“Lady Skye.” He smiled in a bitter way. “Whilst I am a trifle confused about who, and what I am, and how I came to lose my magic—I am not blind nor unintelligent.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

He touched my cheek. “I know you too well for you to lie to me.”

Fine.
“Did you kill them?”

“Why would you think that?”

“Because you showed up on the same day that this started.”

“What about Abe’s former wife, Mary Gable?”

“His wife?” My voice squeaked, and people looked at us. “His
wife
?” I whispered. “Why do you say that she’s his wife? Even if he has a wife, why would she be involved?”

He shrugged, and studied the skaters again.

“And how do
you
know about her?”

“I apologize for listening in on your conversation with Abe. I am very connected to you. It was merely an afterthought.”