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“I know of several.” She shrugged. “A few have reached out to me anonymously. Others are easy to spot. They have cars or houses or boats they never would’ve been able to afford before. And none of them will talk to me. Cowards.”
“Some people can’t afford to say no to that kind of money,” Jason said. Cassie heard the hard truth of his voice past the polite exterior.
“Justice is more important than wealth.” Marsha stared him down. “Lives are more important than money.”
It’s easy when you’re the one who already has the money, Cassie thought. “Did you know someone by the name of Charli? She was a volunteer at the Tu
lane Medical Center.”
“A girl named Charli?” Marsha scrunched up her face. “No, I would’ve remembered that. Besides, Naomi was at UMC.”
Cassie forced a smile. “It was worth a try. Thank you so much for your time.”
“Oh, before you go.” Marsha handed Cassie a pamphlet she’d been carrying in her back pocket. “This is for you. We’re having another rally this weekend for Naomi. Trying to spread the word. We’re going to march at the hospital. You should come. We’re printing sashes with the names of the people we’ve lost. You can write Jessie’s name on it.”
“Jasmine.” Jason’s voice didn’t hold any of the kindness she’d heard earlier. He took the pamphlet. “She was my cousin.”
“Of course.” The woman’s smile was as artificial as the whitener she used on her teeth. “Jasmine.”
“Thank you for talking with us.” Cassie put her hand on the doorhandle just as Jason walked around to the driver’s side. “I can tell you really care about everyone you’re fighting for.”
And with that, Cassie punctuated her sentence with the slamming of her door.
31
Jason had a death grip on the steering wheel as he drove away from Marsha. He hit the gas and the brakes too hard, and Cassie could tell their interaction with Naomi’s mom had frustrated him.
“Maybe that would’ve been worth it if we’d learned something new,” Jason snarled.
“Maybe we didn’t learn anything new.” Cassie closed her eyes against the morning sun as he turned a corner. “But one part of her story stood out to me.”
“The part where Naomi was talking to someone who wasn’t there?”
A cloud passed overhead. Cassie opened her eyes again. “It sounds like the Ghost Doctor, if you ask me.”
Jason had calmed considerably, but he hadn’t relinquished his grip on the steering wheel. He cast a glance at her, and she saw something close to sympathy in his eyes. But for what? “I’m having a hard time believing a ghost is behind all this.”
“I’m right there with you.” As much as it pained her to say it, she didn’t want to lie. “The entire thing is unbelievable, and I’ll be the first to admit I’ve never seen anything like this. But something is going on, and with Stephanie and Charli nowhere to be found, what other choice do we have?”
“Fair point.” Jason took a left and then another left, pointing them in the direction they’d just come from. “Back to UMC?”
“It’s the only lead we’ve got right now.”
“What’s the plan, then?” He shrugged and shook his head. “Go up to the ghost and ask her why she’s killing people?”
“I wouldn’t have put it exactly like that, but yeah, I guess.” Cassie tipped her head back against the seat. The car was stuffy and hot and her qualms about coming face to face with the Ghost Doctor didn’t make her feel any better. “Most spirits try to reach out to me when they know I can see and talk to them. Even if they can’t communicate directly, I can feel their desire to move beyond this plane of existence.”
“But Dr. Cohen’s different?”
“Very different. She doesn’t try to reach out. It’s like she’s single-minded about doing whatever she’s doing.”
“Killing people.”
Cassie studied a spot on the roof of the car above her head. “Whatever it is, she doesn’t care that I can communicate with her. But if what Marsha said is true, and Naomi was talking to her, that means she can talk back. If I can catch up with her, I’ll know a lot more.”
“And if we find out a ghost has been killing all these people?”
“Then we stop her.”
