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Cassie opened her mouth to agree with Detective Harris, but movement out of the corner of her eye made her turn as she was about to step through the entrance to Langford’s house. It took her a moment to figure out what she was looking at, but as soon as she did, a lump formed in her throat.
The ghost of the little boy who had spent months standing in the corner of her bedroom stood at the corner of the house, staring at her as though he had a million things to say.
But before Cassie could comprehend what was going on, her phone buzzed in her pocket. When she pulled it out, she had no idea who she expected the caller to be, but she wasn’t prepared to see her sister Laura calling her for the first time in months.
And by the time she looked back up, the boy’s figure vanished into the ether.
Thirty-Four
“Cassie, you ready to go?”
Harris was impatient, and it took Cassie’s brain a minute to catch up with everything that was going on. She was experiencing sensory overload.
“My sister’s calling.” Cassie held up her phone as evidence. “She doesn’t call unless it’s an emergency. Can I meet you inside?”
“Make it quick,” Harris said.
Cassie nodded and hit the answer button on her phone. “Hello?”
Her sister’s laughter filled the other end of the line, but it sounded off. “Why do you sound like you don’t know who’s calling you? Doesn’t your phone have caller ID?”
“Yes.” Cassie rolled her eyes and started walking to the corner of the house where she had seen the little boy’s ghost. “I wasn’t expecting a call from you. Is everything okay?”
“That’s how you know we don’t talk enough,
” Laura said. “Why does something have to be wrong?”
Cassie could still tell this wasn’t a normal phone call, but she decided to play along. “You’re right. I’m sorry. How are you?”
“Pretty good, all things considered. California is so expensive.”
Cassie laughed. “You say that every time.”
“And I’ll keep saying it until it’s not.”
“Good luck with that one,” Cassie said. She searched the phone for something—anything—that she could pull from her memory about what was going on in her sister’s life. “Are you still seeing Alan?”
Laura sighed heavily. “No. He was a good guy, but boring as all hell.”
“Boring is good sometimes. Don’t take it for granted.”
“I’m saving boring for my thirties, like you. I want fun and excitement!”
“Just not too much fun and excitement.”
“Of course, you would say that.” Laura’s tone rolled her eyes for her. “What about you? Are you leading a boring life?”
“Never.” Cassie laughed at the idea. She had been dreaming about a boring life for a while, but the concept was too far-fetched. “But the museum’s going well.”
“Still helping the police with their investigations?”
Cassie sighed. Her sister knew more than her parents did, but she didn’t know the complete story. As far as Laura knew, she was a bit of an amateur detective. Cassie wasn’t sure if Laura thought it was because of her run-ins with Novak or because she had a strange talent for solving murders. Either way, Cassie was sure her sister had no idea the spirit world was involved.
“Yeah,” Cassie said. She rounded the corner of the house but was disappointed when all she saw was open air. Had the little boy disappeared, or was he playing hide-and-go-seek? “I’m at a crime scene as we speak.”
“Oh, really? That’s not boring.”
“No, it’s not.” Cassie weighed her next words. “I know you called for a reason.”
