Page 17 of Ghostly Bother (Ghostly #9)

Lance stared at Eden's ghost as she walked into his office. He'd hoped she'd stick with Angus throughout the day, but it wasn't even noon and she was already back to bothering him. He glared at her. "What are you doing here?" He kept his voice low since his door was open.

"I got bored. I stuck around to hear a couple interviews.

It was boring. Jessica Milton came in. She owns Milton Construction with her brother.

Then Andrew Stratford came in next. Your boyfriend and his partner asked the same questions to both of them.

They got the same answers from both of them.

I wasn't going to stick around all day and listen to that.

" Eden appeared to be sitting on the corner of his desk.

Lance wished he could push her off. "So you come back here? I have no news."

"At least you can hear me." Eden smiled.

"My curse to carry," Lance mumbled as he tried to concentrate on the report he was typing.

"We don't have to be enemies." Eden stood and started pacing the small office. "If you'd get your boyfriend to share more information with you, I'd know what was going on."

Lance stood and went around his desk, nearly walking through Eden as he went to shut the door.

Once it was closed, he turned to face her.

"You'd know everything he does if you stayed by his side instead of bothering me.

Hell, we could probably close your case and make an arrest if you'd just tell us the names of people you were dealing with.

It's probably someone you refused a contract that took you out.

" Lance moved back to his chair. "Give me a list of people you screwed over, and we'll figure out which one of them killed you. It's that easy."

Eden frowned. "I wasn't screwing anyone over. I worked with the same people. It wasn't a big list. I can't just hand their names over to you. That could ruin their business."

"One of them probably killed you. How can you worry about their business when one of them murdered you?"

"One of them might have, but not all of them. I can't destroy twenty companies because of something one person did." Eden stared at him. "If I had any idea who killed me, I'd tell you, but I don't know. I can't think of anyone who hated me enough to kill me."

Lance found that hard to believe. Okay, so maybe most wouldn't want to kill her, but he didn't know anyone who liked her.

"There isn't one company you screwed over?

Someone you promised to work with and didn't follow through?

Someone who you used to work with a lot that you tossed aside? Give us something to work with."

"The police have the names of everyone. I saw the list this morning.

There weren't that many companies I took bribes from.

I had to let some of the smaller businesses get contracts from time to time or someone would have caught on to what I was doing.

" She slumped her shoulders a bit. "You know from the audit that people were catching on already.

Once news of the audit got out, most of the bribes stopped.

People were nervous. At that point, only those who had complete trust in me would make deals.

That was Jenkin Construction, Planter Landscaping, and Astute Medical.

" She sighed. "There, I gave you names, but I swear none of them killed me.

They wouldn't. They made too much money working with me. "

Lance wrote down the names to give to Angus later. He wasn't about to call him while Eden was around. "That's a start. Now how about the names of companies who lost out on contracts?"

"I've given you what I can." Eden pointed at the names Lance had written down. "I'm already putting those companies at risk. I'm not going to give you more."

"Fine, then we're done here. Let me get back to work.

Go hang out at the station or your office if you want more information.

Or better yet, how about you go see how your kids are holding up?

" He would have thought her family would have been her main concern, but it seemed protecting her criminal activities was more important.

"My sister has the girls. They're fine. Michael is meeting with the city council later today to plan my funeral. I won't learn anything interesting there. I like being here where you can hear me. I hate when no one knows I'm around."

Lance closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, he stared at Eden. "I have a job to do. I can't keep talking to you. Someone will eventually hear me and think I'm talking to myself. I've helped all I can for now. Go somewhere else and let me get my job done."

"Why do you hate me?" Eden narrowed her eyes at him.

"I don't hate you." Lance easily told the lie.

"Most ghosts are happy to help solve their murders.

You keep trying to keep information from us.

Most ghosts move on or at least go find stuff to entertain themselves instead of hanging around with me.

And never has a ghost sat in my bedroom and tortured me with her singing all night.

You can understand why I'm not excited to help you. You're kind of a pain in the ass."

"But you're my only tie to the living," Eden said.

"I'm sorry. I know it has to be hard accepting you're dead.

I don't know why more can't see or hear you, but you can't keep interfering with my job and my life because you want attention.

Go into the light and see what comes next for you.

There's nothing here for you anymore." Lance was so tired of Eden popping up.

"I want to know why someone killed me first."

"I can't help you with that. You can hear more from hanging around the police station than you can by bothering me.

You know I don't talk to Angus much during the day.

Hell, he could be making an arrest right now and I wouldn't know it.

" Lance tried to refocus on the report he'd been typing up.

"Go see what everyone else is doing. Let me get my work done. "

Before Eden could respond there was a soft knock on his door.

"Come in," Lance called.

Carrie opened the door and smiled. "Sorry to bother you, but we've got a call to pick up a body."

Lance nodded. "I could use a break from reports anyway." He stood, ignoring the fact that Eden was still watching him. "Any idea what we're walking into?"

"Police did a welfare check and found a body. Nothing beyond that," Carrie told him. "Sorry I don't know more."

"It's okay. We'll find out soon enough. You with me?" He grabbed his phone and headed around his desk, having to walk through Eden since she didn't move. He tried to hold back the shiver that caused as he followed Carrie out of the office and down the hall.

"What about me?" Eden called from behind him.

"Yeah, Kyle went out for an early lunch and Brayden is in the middle of helping Gretta. You're stuck with me." Carrie gave him a small shrug.

He was aware that Carrie didn't like going on calls any more than he did, but it was necessary at times. "If only the mayor had approved our request for a budget increase, we'd have a death investigator to do all this for us." Lance made the comment, aware that Eden was listening.

"Hopefully the new mayor will be willing to help." Carrie swiped her badge to get into the garage.

"Can't be any worse." Lance climbed into the driver's seat, aware that Carrie didn't like driving the large van. He hit the button on the garage door opener and started the van. "Where are we headed?" He tried not to groan as Eden suddenly came through the side of the van and stood behind his seat.

"Apartments off Collins Street. The Elmbridge Apartments." She gave him the exact address. "Do you think we'll get enough funding to hire more people?" Carrie asked.

Lance focused on backing out the van, then paused to make sure the garage door closed behind them.

"I sure hope so. We're way underfunded compared to other offices in the state and underpaid.

With the growth the areas seen, we should have a couple more medical examiners and at least one death investigator.

I know Sam wants to remodel and tighten security too.

I doubt we'll see enough money to do everything, but without raises soon, we're going to lose people.

I could move to the next county over and make twice what I'm making now.

If I moved to a big city, I'd more than triple what I make. "

"It's not my fault. You try and finance a whole city," Eden argued.

Lance wanted to swat at Eden who was speaking right into his ear as he drove since she hovered right beside his seat. "If we can get an honest mayor in office, one who doesn't pad her own pockets and give all the raises to just her staff, we might see changes."

"I admit I've looked around at other jobs, but I love you guys and can't imagine working with anyone else." Carrie put the address into the GPS.

"Hopefully, it won't be a decision any of us have to make.

I know the police department is hurting just as badly.

It could take time for the city to heal after what Eden Anderson did to it.

It's going to be a slow process. I feel for anyone brave enough to step up and run in the next election.

" Lance enjoyed the comments, knowing Eden was listening and couldn't do anything about his comments or opinions.

"Hey, you sound as if I didn't do anything for this city." Eden stared at him. "I did a lot. I revamped the entire City Center. And there's that new skate park, and I approved the new hospital being built."

Lance raised a brow, recalling one of the companies she admitted to taking bribes from was the company that would run that hospital.

"I wouldn't want the job. It's going to be a mess to clean up. Has Angus said anything about the audit rumored to be going on?" Carrie asked.