Page 3 of Dead Serious: Case 3 Mr Bruce Reyes

“What?”

I remove the thermometer from my mouth and toss it on the bedside table. I really don’t need it to know I’ve got a temperature; my body feels like lava. “I said, where have you been?”

“Oh, upstairs.” She points to the ceiling. “The suits weren’t happy about the whole body-swap thing.”

“Did you get in trouble?”

“Not exactly. They knew it was because I was trying to protect you, which is exactly what they sent me back to do. I mean, how was I supposed to know I’d get stuck?”

“What did they do?”

“They tried to send me on a training course.” She rolls her eyes. “Corporeal safety and accidental possession awareness.”

I chuckle but barely any sound escapes, just a wheezy warble. “You’re kidding.”

“I wish.” She grins. “I managed the first five minutes and then I snuck out and headed back here. What have you been up to? You sound terrible. Honestly, Tris honey, I leave you alone for five minutes and you’re practically on your death bed. You’re so pasty, you look like the old guy fromPoltergeist II.”

“Thanks, that makes me feel so much better,” I reply dryly. “I have the flu, not the bubonic plague.”

I look across the room as the door nudges open slightly and Jacob Marley appears. He pauses in the doorway, first taking in me and then Dusty lying beside me. After a moment, he wanders toward us, his chunky body winding through the obstacle course of pots and buckets holding rainwater from the various leaks in the roof. Seriously, it’s getting beyond a joke in here. I’m going to have to build an ark soon, given the biblical amount of water currently leaking into the flat. Danny and I have both already given notice on our respective flats and we were supposed to go flat hunting this weekend. Although we pretty much already live together, I can’t wait for us to have a place that’s all ours.

And is hopefully waterproof...

Jacob Marley scrambles up next to my feet, lifts his chin imperiously, and sashays up my body, padding over my legs before finally settling in my lap.

I hear his deep, rumbling purr as he closes his eyes for a nap, and I’m surprised he’s deemed me worthy of his attention. Ever since the body-swap fiasco, he’s flat-out avoided me. But I can’t deny it’s comforting, and I smile and reach down to stroke his fur affectionately.

“Grumpy cat.”

“What have you been up to anyway?” Dusty asks when I pick up the TV remote and change the channels. Her brows rise as I settle on the channel I was looking for. “Days of Our Lives? Really?”

“Don’t judge me,” I say blandly as she chuckles. “We went out for dinner with Harrison a couple of nights ago.”

“Harrison?” Dusty frowns. “The witch?”

“That’s probably not the best way to refer to him.”

“Fine.” She rolls her eyes again. “The red-haired cutie with a stick up his arse. How did it go?”

“It was a complete disaster, didn’t even make it to the starter course.” I shake my head, wincing at the throb of pain. “It took a bit of convincing to even get him to agree to go in the first place.”

“Why bother? You barely know him.”

“That was the whole point,” I remind her. “You’re always on at me to make new friends.”

“Friends, yeah, but he looks too intense. He looks like he’d suck the ‘F’ right out of the wordfun.”

“He’s prickly, I’ll give you that, but I get the impression he’s lonely.” I shrug.

“Tris, honey, you are too sweet for this world.” She smiles at me in that way you’d look at an adorable two-year-old when they do something cute.

“Shut up.” I roll my eyes.

“So what happened?” She grins. “What did Danny think of him? Oh, did you tell him about the whole accidental possession and Harrison having to… you know…” She mimes being shocked by a defibrillator.

“No,” I sigh. “I mean, I will eventually, I guess. This won’t work if there are any secrets between us, I know that, but I’ve thrown a lot at him in the last week with the whole ‘I see dead people’ thing. I didn’t want to push my luck.”

“Makes sense,” she muses as she idly twirls the stethoscope she’s wearing in her fingers.