Page 21 of Dead Serious Case 5 Madame Vivienne

I glance over at Nick, who looks like he’s trying valiantly not to laugh. “I swear we’re usually more responsible.” I grimace at the throb in my head as I hiccup. “Please don’t tell your mum.”

“My sister would probably find this hysterical,” Danny mumbles, propping his elbow on the arm of the throne and resting his cheek on his fisted hand. His eyes are heavy and his skin is pale beneath the sexy morning scruff on his jaw.

“Don’t worry, Uncle Tristan.” Nick grins. “I’ve got your back.”

“Oh.” I lift my hand to my mouth and feel a rush of warmth. “He called me Uncle Tristan.” I glance over to Danny who, although severely hungover, sends me a look filled with love.

“Hang on a minute.” Chan scowls. “While we were all… indisposed, what exactly were you two doing?”

“It’s okay, Chan,” Aidan soothes, clearly used to Chan’s moods. “We weren’t drinking, I promise.”

I don’t think it’s just the potential drinking that worries Chan, but I don’t say that out loud. I don’t want to embarrass the poor kid.

“When things started getting a little wild in here, we grabbed some food and drinks and holed up in the other room,” Nick says.

“The spare room,” Aidan clarifies.

“The one with the spare bed?” Chan’s eyes narrowed accusingly in Nick’s direction.

“We were playing Mario Kart.” Aidan shrugs, not picking up on Chan’s insinuation. “I levelled up your high score, Danny.”

Danny lifts one hand and gives Aidan a thumbs-up, but his eyes are closed again and his mouth goes slack as he continues to prop his face on his other hand.

“Wait a minute.” I turn my attention back to Nick and Aidan. “What do you mean,wild?”

“Uh.” Aidan bites his lip. “Well, I hope you weren’t intending on keeping the whole ghost thing a secret, because it was pretty hard to stop Nick from noticing when things started to levitate across the room and the lights flashed on and off like it was a disco.”

“Oh, fuck.” I close my eyes.

“It’s okay, Uncle Tristan,” Nick says. “It was kind of freaky at first, I admit. Definitely a baptism by fire, but Aidan and I stayed up all night talking. Honestly, I never really gave much thought to ghosts being real but after what I saw last night… well, I guess life around here won’t be boring.”

“Speaking of ghosts, where is Dusty?” I frown.

“Holy fucking shitballs, what the fuck happened?” Dusty clutches her lopsided wig as she stumbles through the wall, and my mouth falls open.

She looks like a strange hybrid ofThe Rocky Horror Picture ShowandThe Bill. She’s wearing platform sandals and black fishnet stockings with suspenders. Tiny glittery knickers barely cover her dick and balls, and haveYou have the right to remain fabulousscrawled across the front. A white shirt with black-and-white checked epaulettes buttoned at the shoulders hangs open to reveal a sparkly black corset, which is laced up her torso and shows little peeks of skin. Finally, to finish it all off, she’s wearing a chunky pearl necklace and has a policewoman’s helmet perched on top of her signature Dolly Parton wig.

She glances down at herself. “Fucking hell, was I moonlighting as a stripper last night?”

“What happened to you?” I ask. “Were you drinking the Muertos Tequila again?”

“No.” She looks up and frowns. “I wasn’t drinking, I don’t know what the hell happened. I have absolutely no memory of last night.”

“What the fuck is going on?”

Dusty glances over and her eyes land on Sam, causing her to hoot out a hyena-esque laugh. “Who the fuck did your makeup? Dame Edna Everage?”

“I don’t suppose you know where this came from, then?” He lifts his hand and from the handcuffs attached to his wrist dangles the neon-coloured traffic cone.

“Sorry, handsome.” She grins. “Guess we’ve both got amnesia. Must’ve been a helluva night.”

“Dusty’s your ghost, right?” Nick interrupts.

I glance across to Aidan. “How much did you tell him?”

“Just that you see dead people.” He shrugs. “And also that weird shit has a tendency to happen around here a lot.”

“Urgh.” I scrub my hand over my aching face and knock my glasses askew, then look over to Danny to see how he wants to handle this. However, my darling fiancé is out for the count and snoring softly. I turn back to our nephew. “Okay, Nick, how do you want to handle this? Are you going for full denial, partial denial with a healthy dose of ‘it’s not real, you’re all nuts,’ or full disclosure with optional membership into our weird little dynamic? Dealer’s choice.”