Page 20 of Ghostly Bother (Ghostly #9)

Lance glanced at Eden as he drove home. She sat in the passenger seat of his car, having not left his side all day.

He was so tired. Other than when he went into the bathroom, she'd been by his side.

At least today, she hadn't been talking the whole time, though she'd spent a lot of time questioning him on things or asking him to call Angus for any updates.

He'd hoped her being nice to the ghost who'd overdosed would mean she was changing her ways and having a bit of empathy for others, but he'd been wrong.

She'd gone on a tantrum about how much drug addiction was costing the city and how much more money there would have been if she hadn't had to deal with cleaning up the streets and rehabilitation.

While he agreed with her, he wasn't angry about it.

It was something every city had to deal with.

Their growing city wasn't as bad as other bigger areas around them.

Jeremy had shown up right before Lance was about to head home and explained he'd been helping Isaac follow his son around the last few days.

Lance had the feeling Isaac reminded Jeremy of his father and some kind of friendship had formed between the two of them.

While glad for it, he really missed having Jeremy around the morgue to run interference with Eden.

He'd tried to get Eden to stay with Jeremy for the night, but she'd refused, insisting that she had to be with him in case Angus learned something. He was never going to get rid of her.

"Will Angus be home early?" Eden asked.

"I have no idea. I haven't talked to him since he called to ask if you were ready to give us some names to work with," Lance told her.

"I told you that I wasn't going to get anyone in trouble."

"Trust me, I know what you've said. I've told Angus what you've said. I don't know why he bothered calling to ask. We all know you're not willing to help solve your murder."

"I'll help, but I'm not taking others down at the same time," Eden objected.

"One of them might have killed you. It's not as if all those companies won't face charges later anyway. The audit will show who you were accepting bribes from. You could just save the police the time of having to weed through the audit or wait for information."

"I don't want anyone to blame me for their downfall," Eden argued.

"Then you shouldn't have broken the law with them.

Besides, I've told you fifty times you're dead.

No one is going to blame you or even think you're involved in how the police get their information.

If you'd just tell us everything, we could weed through it and see if anything leads the police to your killer. "

"No, I'm not going to do that. I might be dead, but I made promises to those people.

We have a mutual trust that I won't break.

I don't think one of them killed me. Why would they?

They were getting rich off the contracts they got from me.

As for the ones I didn't work with or quit working with, there were only two, and neither of them would risk everything they have on killing me.

What good would it do? It's not as if a new mayor is going to make the same deals I did.

The next mayor might do things by the book, then no one profits. "

"Except the city of Fairway," Lance glared at her. "Maybe a group of underpaid city workers got together and planned your death. I know I get murderous when I see how much medical examiners in other cities make compared to my salary."

"You guys have everything you need. Not a single department went without. As for wages, if you don't like it, you can move." Eden shrugged.

Lance was furious. "Oh, sure. That might be possible for some, but most the city workers have families here.

You want them to just pick up and have both parents change jobs, take kids away from their schools, from their friends?

The whole time you're saying this is okay for others, you're breaking the law, and bringing in probably three times the amount of your normal wage. "

Eden laughed. "Do you really think I'd risk going to jail for that little money? Trust me, I was making a lot more than that."

"Then where is it? I heard your personal accounts were larger than they should be with what you and your husband made, but not by much." Lance narrowed his eyes. "Overseas accounts?"

Eden just shrugged, but the smirk on her face told him he was on to something.

"You're a piece of work. Don't you care that others struggled while you stole money that should have gone to them?

What about schools, libraries, and other places that help children?

They just go without so you can have more?

" Lance pulled into his driveway, not even bothering with the garage.

He wanted out of the car and away from Eden.

"They were still open and functioning," Eden followed him to the front door.

"Not as well as they could have been." Lance unlocked the door and pushed it open.

He stepped inside and knelt as Haunt ran up to greet him.

"Hey, girl. How are you?" He buried his face against her neck, so glad to be home.

"Ray and Bethany here?" He stood and headed to the kitchen to look out the window into the backyard.

He frowned when he didn't see the ghosts out there.

"Your friendly ghosts not here to save you from me?" Eden stood behind him with her hands on her hips.

"Listen, I'm hungry and tired and just want to sleep.

I'm done fighting with you. You have no idea of the damage you've done to the city, or if you do, you don't care that you did it.

You don't want to help find your killer.

I'm just done with you. Go into the light and see what's next.

You're not doing any good hanging around.

I'm the only one who can talk to you, and I'm done with giving you the attention you crave.

I've tried. I really have, but I just don't have it in me to deal with someone following me around all day, talking constantly when you know I can't respond.

" He pulled his shirt off as he went down the hallway.

"I'm taking a shower. Be gone when I get out.

" He slammed his bedroom door on her, but she floated right through it.

His temper flared again. "Damn it. Can't I have even a few minutes alone to shower and change? "

"Then get me the information I want." Eden sat down on the foot of the bed.

"I can't get you information that isn't available. If you'd do your part and help us, maybe we'd figure things out. You're not going to get answers hanging around with me. My part in your case is over. Go follow others around."

"But they can't hear me." Eden pouted.

"Lucky them." Lance stared at the bathroom door, wishing he could go in there and just shut her out. He didn't trust that she'd give him the privacy he wanted if he attempted to shower.

"Your boyfriend has to know more than he's telling you," Eden insisted.

"You'd know everything he knows if you followed him around instead of me."

"But he can't talk to me. You can."

Lance sighed. "Then come to me when you have questions about stuff you hear when you're with him. I'll ask him to explain things then, but you're only pissing me off by bothering me. I'm not going to help you if you’re a pain in my ass all the time."

The bedroom door opened, and Angus walked in. "From the yelling, I'm guessing you're not alone?"

"Eden's sitting on the bed." Lance glared at the ghost. "She insists you're not telling me everything."

"It's a police investigation. I never share everything with you." Angus shut the door and leaned against it. "Does she have more information for me?"

"She's still insisting she doesn't or if she does, she won't give it because it could get others in trouble." Lance sighed.

"One of them could be her killer," Angus stated.

"I've told her that. She's still not giving me names.

I'm done with her. She's on my ass all day, following me around like a stray puppy.

Hell, even a puppy would let me use the bathroom alone.

I can't do this anymore. She's driving me crazy.

She's distracting me during autopsies, she won't shut up when I'm trying to write reports.

She is always talking when I'm trying to have other conversations.

One of these times I'm going to mess up and respond to her with others around.

She's a nightmare and I can't get rid of her.

" Lance threw the shirt he was holding at Eden.

Had she been solid it would have hit her, but since she was a ghost, it just went through her, landing on the bed behind her.

"Hey!" Eden frowned. "That was rude."

"You want to talk about rude?" Lance was nearly screaming.

He could feel himself losing control he'd been forced to have all day at work when he was around others.

"You are the rudest ghost I've ever met.

I heard that you were annoying when you were alive, but if you were like this alive, it's amazing someone hadn't killed you sooner. "

"You can't talk to me that way." Eden floated up and came to stand right in front of him.

Lance laughed. "What are you going to do about it? You're dead. You're already following me around and annoying me. That's about as bad as it can get, right?"

"Easy, Lance," Angus said softly.

"Easy? You're telling me to go easy on her? Seriously? Why don't you just tell her everything you have on her case so she'll leave me alone?" Lance felt tears in his eyes. Angry tears that only pissed him off even more. He was letting this stupid ghost get to him and he hated himself for that.

"I don't have anything. That's the problem. We don't have a single damn lead. If you could get her to help us…" Angus ran his hand through his hair and sighed.