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I barely caught my breath. “But don’t worry, I’ll take you there.”
Kipp dropped down onto his knees, laughing too hard to speak a word. For a few moments, no sound came from his mouth. His laughter crippled him.
“My body is in a forest, buried under the ground.” Zach hardly got the words out. “Would you mind digging me up?” He fell onto his side on the couch, trying to gather air into his body.
“But I can’t go—can’t be there to see my bones—’cause that’s just too weird.”
Drool dribbled down the side of my mouth. I sucked it back in, wiped my lips and cried out in laughter. I tried to get a grasp on reality again.
It didn’t happen. Not for at least five more minutes until we all gathered a sense of ourselves again. And decided the craziness of it all didn’t mean it wasn’t going to happen.
Zach returned to a sitting position, wiping the tears from his face, and sighed. “Fuck, if anyone just heard our conversation, we’d be committed.”
I smoothed the hair away from my face. “Why do you think I try to avoid ghosts in general? I like my freedom, thank you very much.”
Kipp had recovered enough to gather himself up to sit back on the chair. “No matter how insane it all is, it’s ours to deal with.”
Yes, there was that little fact. Before I could say anything, Zach interrupted. “So, what am I to do, get a map or something?” His chin shook, but to his credit, he held back his laughter.
“Sounds good to me,” I said, looking up at Kipp.
He nodded and his smile was still prevalent in his eyes. “A topographical map would be best. It’ll show us little details that Hannah might remember, such as hills and the lake she mentioned.”
I relayed the information to Zach.
He nodded and stood. “I’ve got one in the truck.” He glanced around and suddenly his eyes went cold with shame. He leaned down closer to me and whispered, “Hannah’s not here with us, is she?”
My smile came quick, but I restrained my laughter, as he had done. “No, she said she’d meet us at the main gates of the park.”
“Fair enough.” Zach’s expression shifted to relief. Obviously, his kind heart crumbled at the thought of hurting Hannah’s feelings. Yup, a good match for Caley in every way. Maybe he’d teach her some manners. Without another word, he spun on his heel and headed off toward the kitchen.
“Where are you going?” I called after him.
He glanced over his shoulder and no hint of amusement existed in him now. “I’m calling Max.”
Huh? I figured we’d just go to the park and Hannah would show us her location on the map. Then, in the morning, Zach and some other police officers would head out to take a look. “Why does he need to call Max now?” I asked Kipp. “Won’t he be pissy for waking him?”
“Just gathering the troops, is all. It’s protocol to let him know what’s going on,” he replied, running his frosty touch down my cheek with a sweet smile.
I enjoyed the chilly breeze that danced across my skin and I closed my eyes. Guess the whole not heading out tonight flopped. At least hearing there’d be others gave me positive thoughts. “Oh good, so there’ll be lots of you, which means I can stay in the truck.”
“That’s doubtful.”
I opened my eyes and moved away from his touch. “What’s doubtful?”
Again, Kipp smiled, which showed he enjoyed when anger burned in my blood. “I imagine you’ll need to come with us.”
Oh hell no, I would not! Go in the middle of the night, walk through a scary, dark forest on the hunt for a dead girl’s grave? Not likely. “And just why will I need to do that?”
Kipp shrugged. “Simple, how will the others converse with me if you’re not there?”
“But, but, but I don’t want to go out in a dark forest in the middle of the night.” Sure, I pouted, but I didn’t care, I didn’t want to have any part of this.
Kipp arched an eyebrow. “Not sure you have a choice here.”
He just stepped over the line from being a ghost to a bossy ghost. “I always have choices and this is one where I’m saying no.”
“If Hannah knows the location, we’ll just have a look around the area. I’m sure the forest is thick and anything disrupted will be an obvious sight.”
