Page 22 of Dead Serious Case 5 Madame Vivienne

Nick looks down at Aidan—who’s just a few inches shorter—standing next to him.

“Full disclosure with membership benefits,” he decides.

“Right, then let’s go with just the Cliff Notes for now because my head is killing me.”

“Okay,” Nick says curiously.

“About a year and a half ago, I choked to death on an ice cube. I was technically dead for about thirty seconds before Danny revived me on the floor of the pub.”

Nick barks out a laugh. “That’s how you met?”

I nod. “Anyway, Dusty”—I point at her even though he can’t see her—“was a drag queen that was murdered that same night. The next day she was wheeled into my mortuary for a post-mortem. That’s when I discovered I could see ghosts. I met Chan at Dusty’s funeral.” I point to Chan who nods in agreement. “Chan was also a drag queen and Dusty’s best friend.”

“Aww, you’re my bestie too.” He wraps his arm around me.

“Thanks.” I smile and rest my banging head on his shoulder. “Anyway, Danny was assigned to Dusty’s murder. Case solved. Dusty crossed into the light but decided to come back as my spirit guide in training. Other ghosts are drawn to me and we solve their unfinished business so they can cross into the light. Sam is Danny’s best friend from up north.”

“I know about Sam,” Nick mutters. From his tone, I guess his mum told him what happened to Sam, given that it was part of the reason Danny fell out with his family and left Yorkshire.

“And there we are,” I continue. “Oh, and we saved the world from a chaos monster and Chan is dating Death.”

“Death?” Nick blinks slowly.

“Did someone mention my name?”

Nick jolts as Death appears in the middle of the living room with his dog, an overgrown black-and-white puppy ofindiscriminate heritage who is also dumb as a brick and twice as gorgeous.

Aidan grins. “Hey, Grim.”

The dog, Sol, gives a joyful bark and dashes across the room to leap on Danny, which jolts him out of his sleep and crushes his balls in the process.

“What the fuck?” Danny yelps as he finds himself clambered all over by forty pounds of enthusiastically slobbering supernatural dog. “Christ, what has he been eating?” Danny gags.

“Dead fish,” Death states calmly.

Chan sniffs. “So you finally decided to show up, then?”

“What do you mean?” he replies. “I was here last night.”

“Oh.” Chan blinks then frowns. “You were?”

Dusty wanders over and seats herself on the arm of the sofa beside me, wrapping her arm around my shoulders so it sits atop Chan’s, sandwiching me in between them, and it’s kinda nice.

“Will someone get this dog off me before I puke?” Danny gasps and tries to avoid Sol’s breath, and I have to admit, Danny’s looking a little green.

Death gives a sharp whistle and Sol vanishes from Danny’s lap, reappearing moments later on the floor. He sniffs the carpet and cocks his leg against the bottom of the throne.

“Don’t you dare!” I snap at the dog. He manages to look suitably chastised and thankfully lowers his leg without peeing all over my living room. Although I’ve long since kissed our damages deposit goodbye, I don’t want the flat smelling like piss.

I sigh and look over at Nick, who’s staring at the dog with wide eyes.

“Did he just–”

Aidan gives a small laugh. “You get used to it, I promise.”

“Uh.” Nick shakes his head and sucks in a breath. “Anyway, I have to go. Thanks for the introduction to life in London. Nothing like diving in the deep end.”

“You’re welcome,” I say apologetically. “Welcome to our weird little family.”