Page 18 of Ghostly Bother (Ghostly #9)

"I know the audit was more than a rumor, but I haven't heard anything about what they found or even if they found anything.

I'm sure that's a big question right now.

Maybe the fear of the audit and information it would reveal is why someone killed her.

" Lance slowed as they neared the apartment complex.

He saw police cars parked up ahead and pulled up behind them.

"Grab the kit while I find out what we've got.

" Lance shut off the van and climbed out.

"On it," Carrie said.

Lance looked around and quickly noticed an apartment on the first floor with the door open and an officer standing just inside.

He made his way over, taking in the complex around him as he went.

It was a nice place. Each apartment had well maintained grass in front and small flowerbeds under the front windows.

He was several feet away from the open door, when he caught the overpowering scent of decomposition.

He'd done this enough to estimate how long the body had been in the apartment just by the smell alone.

The body had been there for days, maybe even weeks.

He braced himself for what he was about to walk into.

He smiled at the officer. "I'm with the Medical Examiner's Office. "

"Good. The sooner we get her out of here, the sooner I can get out of here." The officer sighed. "Looks like she's been dead a while. Family reported they hadn't heard from her in a week and that was unusual. We're talking to neighbors now, but it looks like she overdosed while shooting up."

Lance pulled out a jar of Vicks Vapor Rub and handed it to the officer. "Put some under your nose. It will help." He often carried the stuff with him, not so much for himself anymore, but for the others who weren't used to the smells of a decaying body.

"Thanks." The officer took it, smearing a little beneath his nose.

"What do you know about the deceased?" Lance asked as Carrie walked up beside them.

"Corianne Wallace, twenty-six." The officer read from a small notebook.

"Family said she recently moved here from Oklahoma to take a manager's position at one of the stores at the mall.

She was good about calling home every few days or at least texting her sister.

When they didn't hear from her, they called her work and found out she'd stopped showing up. They called us to check on her."

Lance sighed. "Too young. Let's see what we got." He glanced at Carrie. "Possible overdose." He refused to diagnose anything until after an autopsy and lab work were done. He'd learned a long time ago that things were often not what they seemed when it came to death.

"Been dead a while." Carrie wrinkled her nose.

"I'm guessing at least a week." Lance walked farther into the apartment, following the noise of others talking.

He paused in the doorway to a small bedroom, but it wasn't the body that had his attention, it was the ghost of a young woman that appeared to be sitting on the bed.

He glanced at the body, confirming the ghost was probably that of the woman now lying on the floor of the bedroom.

As badly as he wanted to talk to the ghost, he forced himself to ignore her for now.

He knelt down by the body and nodded to Carrie to get to work.

"How gross." Eden floated into the room, then stopped. "Oh, I didn't expect her to be here."

The woman on the bed rose up, a look of shock on her face. "You're like me."

Eden made a snorting sound. "You mean dead?"

"Yeah, I guess." The woman glanced at her body.

"No guessing about it. You're dead." Eden moved closer. "Not surprised if you were doing drugs."

"I know. I was stupid. I didn't think it would kill me." The woman stared at Eden. "How did you get here?"

"I caught a ride with them." Eden gestured to where Lance and Carrie were working.

"I can leave my body?" The woman looked confused.

"Hell, why would you want to stay with it?" Eden shook her head. "At least they found my body quickly, so I didn't look like that."

"I know. It got worse every day. I'm so confused. There's this light. I think I'm supposed to go to it."

"I see it too. They tell me it's where we go next, but I want to stay here." Eden shrugged. "I don't know where the light leads. They tell me it's not bad."

"Who are they?" the woman asked.

"Other ghosts I've talked to," Eden informed her.

"Ghosts. Yeah, I guess that's what I am now, huh?" She looked back at her body. "What about my body?"

"You got family?" Eden asked.

"In Oklahoma."

"Then they'll probably take you to the morgue until your family can get you and bury you. You weren't murdered or anything, were you?" Eden asked.

"No, I didn't think I was taking too much. I started to shake, then fell off the bed and the next thing I knew, I was like this." The woman waved a hand up and down her ghostly form. "I was afraid my family would find me."

Lance tried to focus on the women's conversation without acting distracted. He went through the process of examining the body before nodding to Carrie. "We'll get her bagged, then get the gurney."

"You going to stay around or go into the light?" Eden asked.

"The light is tempting. Why are you staying?" the woman asked.

"I want to know why someone killed me." Eden stated.

"Oh, you were murdered?" The woman took a step back. "That's horrible."

Eden laughed. "Tell me about it. I'll move on eventually, but not until the police figure out who killed me."

Lance glanced up at Eden and rolled his eyes. Things might go faster if she did something to help them figure out who wanted her dead.

"Stop that. I've been told you've helped a lot of people. I don't know why you won't help me." Eden had her hands on her hips as she glared at Lance.

"He can see us?" The woman asked.

"Yeah, see and hear us, but he plays stupid when others are around. Hell, maybe he only plays stupid when I'm around. I don't know. He sure isn't much help." Eden continued to stare at Lance.

"Can others see us?"

Eden shrugged. "Not that I've found. He's the only one, which is sad, because he won't do anything but tell me to go away."

The woman looked wearily at Lance. "Is she right? Should I go to that light?"

Lance gave a slight nod, careful not to alert anyone else in the room he was interacting with the dead. He quickly lost focus on the ghosts as he worked to carefully bag the decaying body. By the time he glanced back over, only Eden was standing there. He raised a brow.

Eden smiled. "I guess she was ready to see what's in that light. She just walked into it and was gone."

"We free to release the scene?" one of the officers asked.

"Yeah. I can't say for sure until I get a better look at the body, but I'm pretty sure this was an accidental overdose.

Usually, he'd be uncomfortable saying that, but since the ghost had confirmed how she died, he had no problem releasing the scene.

There wasn't a murder to investigate. "Too young, that's for sure. "

"Probably the bad batch of heroin we've seen recently." The officer gestured to the drug paraphernalia sitting on the nightstand.

"Yeah, we've had several come through because of it.

" Lance figured there had to be a lot more he didn't see who hadn't ended up at the M.E.

's Office. He glanced around the bedroom, getting a sense of the deceased from the little things around.

Makeup on the dresser, a teddy bear on a pillow at the head of the bed.

He could only be thankful that there wasn't a grieving family in the next room.

That was when things got hard for him. He knew their pain.

Remembered the feeling when he'd been told his parents were dead.

He pushed the thoughts away as Carrie pushed the gurney into the room.

"Let me help," the officer by him offered when Carrie went to help Lance lift the bag.

"Thanks." Carrie smiled.

"Who gets to clean up that mess?" Eden asked as she looked at the stains the body had left on the floor.

Lance didn't answer, but thought, not for the first time, that there were jobs much worse than his. Cleaning up a death scene would have been much harder on him than dealing with the actual body. At least during an autopsy everything was somewhat contained and not splattered over walls or carpet.

"I hate that you won't talk to me," Eden huffed.

Lance raised a brow and looked around the room where Carrie and several officers stood.

How the hell was he supposed to talk to her with others around?

The woman just didn't get it. Or probably didn't care if the world thought he was crazy.

"Let's get out of here," Lance told Carrie as they pushed the gurney out of the apartment and to the van.

Once loaded, Carrie rushed back inside to make sure they hadn't forgotten anything.

That gave Lance a chance to talk to the officers and make sure the Medical Examiner's Office would get any information on the victim's family once it was available.

He climbed into the van a moment later and started it as he waited for Carrie to return.

Eden stood between the driver and passenger seat.

Had she been a solid form, she would have been in his way.

Still, his arm kept moving through her because she was so close. "Personal space." Lance stared at her.

"I'm not riding back there with the body. I'm fine here. It's not as if I take up any room," Eden told him.

"Move over a bit. It's distracting to have my elbow go through you." He glanced over at her. "You did a good thing helping that woman go into the light."

"I didn't do anything. She made the choice." Eden moved so she was more on the passenger side.

"You kept her calm and gave her the courage to move on. I can't tell you how many ghosts I come across who are scared and confused. I can't talk to them. It was nice having you there to help her since I couldn't." Lance smiled as Carrie opened the passenger door.

"Ready." Carrie climbed in and buckled her seatbelt. "Wow, it's cold in here." She reached out and flipped the air conditioner off as she rubbed the arm that was going through Eden's ghostly body.

"So, are you saying I helped you, so you'll help me now?" Eden grinned at Lance.

Lance didn't look at Eden as he pulled the van away and headed back to the Medical Examiner's Office. She had helped the ghost, not him. Besides, he didn't have any information to give her. If she wanted information, she needed to go hang out with Angus.

As he drove, he wondered how he could get rid of her but also wondered when Jeremy would be back.

Having him around would go a long way in keeping Eden busy and give her someone besides him to talk to.

He hadn't seen Jeremy in days, and that wasn't like Jeremy.

Even when helping Isaac, he'd check in almost daily.

It was something he'd ask Ray and Bethany to look into when he got home.

"Will you call Angus when we get back?" Eden asked.

Lance rolled his eyes, but didn't answer.

"Come on. Something has to happen. I know you want me to go there, but they can't hear me. What if I have questions?" Eden was now almost sitting on the seat with Carrie.

Lance glanced at her.

"I know, you can't talk with her around. I can't wait to get back to your office." Eden frowned.

Lance decided then and there to avoid his office and being alone the rest of the afternoon.

If he didn't give Eden a chance to catch him alone, then she might leave.

He had two autopsies to get done, and if that didn't take up all his time, he'd find something else to occupy his day.

Reports could wait until tomorrow, or he'd pull a laptop out and work at the front desk with Gretta.

One way or another, he'd get her to leave.