Page 4 of Ghostly Bother (Ghostly #9)

Lance smiled at Gretta as she pushed the button to release the half door that separated the office from the public area of the morgue office. "Morning."

"A busy one too." Gretta glared at the phone on her desk as it started to ring.

"About the mayor?" Lance asked as he paused beside her desk.

"Yeah. I've started letting them go to voicemail.

The media knows it can take days to get a report.

She hasn't been dead twelve hours, and they think we're ready to tell them everything.

" Gretta reached for her coffee. "I'm going through messages as they're left so that I don't miss anything important, but I'm tired of pushy reporters already. "

"Let me know if they start showing up here.

I'll get some kind of security here to keep them out or we'll lock the doors and let families we may have to deal with make an appointment.

I know Sam's done that before." He took the clipboard Gretta had on her desk that kept track of the bodies in need of autopsy.

He was glad to see there were only three.

"The mayor is first up. I'm guessing the police will want the results as soon as possible. Is Brayden in yet?"

"Not yet, but Carrie and Kyle are both back there already."

"Good, that means someone made coffee in the breakroom.

" Lance started back, then paused. "If the media starts coming in with questions, lock the doors.

We don't need that mess here. And tell Brayden he's with me in autopsy one when he gets here.

I also expect someone from the police department to show and watch the autopsy. "

"I'll send them up to the viewing room." Gretta saluted him with her coffee cup.

"Thanks." Lance made his way down the hallway, wondering what Angus was up to. He'd expected a text or phone call from him, but he hadn't heard a word from him since he'd left the house to head to the murder scene. He hoped that meant Angus had found a place to catch a nap.

"Morning," Kyle called from the table in the breakroom. "I stopped and got muffins. I figured it might be a long day."

"Thanks. I left home without eating." Lance went over and took the cup of coffee Carrie poured for him. "You two are great."

"So, the mayor, hmm?" Kyle asked.

"That's what I hear. Angus got called out last night on it, but I haven't talked to him since. Anyone read the report yet?" Lance took a muffin and sat down.

"Not yet. I hoped you'd have all the details from Angus." Carrie wiped her mouth.

"We can read through it together when we get in there.

" Lance sighed. "I'm dreading this case.

I'm going to have Carrie and Brayden assist. While we're doing the autopsy, Kyle, I want you to check on Gretta from time to time to make sure the media isn't hounding her.

This is going to be a nightmare for a few days. "

"Are you going to call Sam?" Carrie asked.

"No. He's been looking forward to this vacation.

I'm not going to ruin it for him unless we really need him.

" As the assistant medical examiner, Lance was trained to handle situations like this.

This wasn't the first time they'd had media attention because of the suspicious death of someone important.

"This will blow over in a day or two. At least for us.

The media will give up on getting anything here and focus on the police department and mayor's office for information.

" At least he hoped so. Not that he wanted to put all this on Angus and the other officers and detectives, but it was just how things worked.

"Morning." Brayden walked in. "Oh, muffins. Thanks, whoever brought them."

Kyle lifted his coffee cup and nodded.

"Guess I don't have to ask where I'm working today since Sam's on vacation." Brayden poured a cup of coffee and took a muffin before sitting down at the table with the rest of them.

"We've only got three autopsies today, but the mayor is up first. The police haven't started calling for results as of yet, but it won't be long before they do," Kyle told him.

"Then we better get moving." Lance swallowed down the last of his coffee and stood.

"I need a few minutes to check my email and listen to messages.

If you guys can prepare the body for us while I do that, it would be great.

Get photos of everything. Go overboard on this one.

It's going to get a lot of attention. I don't want anyone coming back saying we missed something. "

"On it." Carrie stood.

Lance took what was left of his muffin and headed to his office.

He pushed the door open and paused, seeing Jeremy and the ghost of the mayor standing near his desk.

He quickly pushed back his shock at seeing her and stepped into the office and closed his door as if he was completely blind to the fact there were two ghosts in his office with him.

He needed a moment to adjust to the fact that the mayor's ghost had stuck around and what that could mean.

"I thought you said he could see me." The mayor glared at Jeremy as she moved through the desk to come stand before Lance. She waved her hand in front of his face.

Lance wanted to slap her hand away, but instead he did something he usually tried to avoid. He stepped through the mayor's ghostly body and went to his desk.

Jeremy laughed.

Lance fought to hold back his own grin. Jeremy had been around long enough to know Lance didn't like rude ghosts.

Having died in his early twenties, Jeremy decided to hang around and spend his afterlife at the morgue.

He was learning everything he could, and if he'd been alive, would one day make a fantastic medical examiner.

Unfortunately, he would never see that dream come true.

Lance, being the only one who could see him, tried to include Jeremy as much as possible without alerting the others that there was a ghost living in the Medical Examiner's Office.

"Why did you lie to me?" The mayor turned to Jeremy, her hands appearing to rest on her ghostly hips.

"He didn't lie. I chose to ignore you for a moment." Lance didn't look up as he typed in his password to get into his computer.

"You can see me?" She stepped closer to Lance's desk. "You know who I am?"

"Eden Anderson." Lance nodded. "I'm actually glad you're here. I have no idea where the investigation into your death stands at the moment, but I'm sure the police will love to get any information you have on who killed you and why."

Eden frowned. "How am I supposed to know? They came up behind me and choked me. I never saw the person."

Lance looked up at her. "Even after you died? You didn't see them leave the scene?"

"I saw someone running away and jumping into a car, but I was too confused to realize what was going on. It took me a minute to recognize I was looking at my body and that I'd…" She paused and waved her hand up and down in front of her. "Changed."

Lance nodded. "So, you have no clue who killed you?"

"No, but I'm going to find out." She glanced at Jeremy, then back at Lance. "But first, I have to stop you from cutting into my body. There's nothing an autopsy can do to help you figure out who killed me."

"That might be the case, but it's the law. Even if we don't find anything, we have to do the autopsy." Lance had come across several ghosts since he'd first started seeing them who hadn't wanted their body autopsied. He understood how unsettling it could be to think of your body being cut up.

"But you can't." Eden was now standing in the middle of his desk, her legs nearly touching his underneath it.

"Will you please step back?" He looked up at her.

"I don't mind helping you figure out who killed you, but you need to be respectful and understand that there are things you can no longer control.

The autopsy is one of those things. If it freaks you out, go spend time with your kids while I do it.

Most ghosts don't worry about their body once they've died. "

"I've already been there. My kids can't see me. No one there can see me. You can see and hear me, so I'll stay here, but I don't give you permission to do an autopsy on me."

Lance raised a brow, a bit amused at Eden's attitude. He hadn't liked the woman when she was alive and was pretty sure he wasn't going to like her in her ghostly form. "You do realize I don't need your permission, right?"

She glared at him. "I was strangled. My body still has a scarf around my neck.

There's nothing more you need to know other than why someone strangled me.

Cutting into my body won't tell you that.

" Eden threw her hands up and floated backward, then started floating back and forth in the small office.

Lance focused on his computer and the new emails he'd received overnight.

He wondered why Eden was so upset about having an autopsy done.

Was it simply the idea of her body being cut into or having them see her naked or was there something more that she was trying to hide?

He couldn't resist teasing her a bit. He glanced up at her and narrowed his eyes.

"You have some hidden tattoos you don't want us to find? "

She paused her movement and glared harder at him.

"Piercing?" Lance wiggled his eyebrows.

Jeremy laughed. "Those are always a surprise."

"Is this how you act with everyone?" Eden stood with her hands on her hips. "I'm glad I didn't give this place more money."

That was the wrong thing to say. Lance stood.

"No, you would rather remodel your office, give your staff new cars every year, and make sure your bank account grows instead of worrying about what goes on here.

" Lance shoved his phone into the desk drawer and turned to Jeremy.

"Let's get her autopsy done. Then maybe she'll leave us alone. "

"Shouldn't you call Angus first?" Jeremy asked. "He'll want to know she's here, won't he?"

Lance sighed. For the first time since he started seeing ghosts, he was tempted not to let anyone know the victim's ghost was around.

He ran his fingers through his hair and sat back down at his desk.

Jeremy was right. He needed to let Angus know.

He'd want to interview Eden and find out if she knew anything.

"Yeah, he will." He opened the drawer and pulled his phone back out.

"Who's Angus?" Eden turned to Jeremy.

"His boyfriend. He's a detective with the Fairway PD," Jeremy informed her.

Eden's eyes widened. "The one who arrested my head of security?"

"For murder," Lance reminded her.

"If he's in charge, we'll never find out why someone killed me." Eden shook her head. "The police made a public spectacle of that arrest. It should have been handled quietly, behind closed doors. You have no idea the damage that caused me."

"He murdered your secretary," Jeremy told her.

"She was my administrative assistant." Eden started to float back and forth again. "Arresting him in public made the city look bad. It was all over the news."

Lance ignored her and placed the call to Angus. He wasn't even sure Angus would answer, but he had to let him know Eden was around. The phone rang four times before Lance heard Angus answer.

"Hey, sorry I haven't called." Angus sounded tired and distracted.

"It's okay. I wouldn't even bother you, but I thought you'd want to know your victim is here at the morgue trying to stop me from doing her autopsy." Lance glanced over to see Eden staring at him.

"She's there? Does she know who killed her?" Angus whispered. "Give me a second. I need to step out of the office. Too many people."

"She doesn't know. She saw someone running away and getting into a vehicle, but she doesn't know who. She says she was too confused at finding herself dead to pay attention. On that, I do believe her. She had to be in shock."

"That implies there is other stuff you don't believe me about." Eden frowned.

Lance shook his head. "I'm about to start her autopsy. I can't put it off. I can call you once I'm done and see if she'll talk to you."

"I'm not talking to anyone if you do an autopsy on me," Eden warned him. "Leave my body as it is."

"It's the law. I have to do an autopsy," Lance argued back at the woman.

"Woah, I know. Go ahead and do it. We can meet for lunch later today," Angus told him.

Lance took a deep breath. "Sorry, that wasn't at you. I was talking to Eden. She says she won't talk to any of us if I do her autopsy. She doesn't seem to understand that it has to be done. Nothing she says can stop it from happening."

"Sounds like she's worried you'll see something." Angus laughed.

"My thoughts as well. Let me get the autopsy done, then I'll call you. I can't go out for lunch since Sam's not here, but we can eat in my office."

"Sounds good. Franks and I will grab burgers and head over when you call. Hopefully, she'll stick around and talk to us despite you doing her autopsy. Either way, we'll need to talk to you about your findings. So far, we're hitting a lot of brick walls."

"Not sure what I can give you, but I'll do my best. Love you," Lance said softly.

"Love you too." Angus ended the call.

Lance tossed his phone back in the desk drawer and stood. "Okay, let's get this done."

"You can't." Eden stood directly in front of him.

"I can." Lance stepped through her, opened his office door, and walked out, hoping she wouldn't follow.

"You can't do this. You have to stop." Eden was suddenly in front of him, trying to block him from walking down the hallway.

Lance sighed and continued through her. He hated the cold chill that went through him each time his body passed through hers. Hell, he lived with two ghosts and didn't feel them as often as he'd already felt her today.

"He won't talk to you or acknowledge you outside of his office.

The others don't know he can see you." Jeremy was floating beside Lance.

"Just let him do his job. Let's go over to the City Center and see what's going on in your office.

I'm sure you want to know what people are saying about your death. "

Lance was grateful that Jeremy was trying to get Eden out of the building, but he could tell by the determination he saw in her eyes that she wasn't going to go anywhere.

As much as he dreaded listening to her while he worked, it would hardly be the first upset ghost he'd had to ignore.

He had a job to do, and no matter what, he was going to do it.