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He groaned a bit, but then shot her a smile. “You gotta be better than the grump I had before.”
“Thanks?” She awkwardly stepped away from him and rushed out of the alley.
“Sonowwhere?Wegot a lead—”
“We don’t ‘have a lead,’ Mel. We found blood for the police, but haven’t made any type of progress in tracking down your murderer.”
“Excuse me for being optimistic,” Mel chatted excitedly down the street as he and Anastacia made their way toward her apartment. The smile didn’t drop from his face as he continued. “The police are maybe one step closer to catching the bastard who shot me. I should have come straight to you instead of trying to talk with the quacks with the crystal balls.”
“Not all psychics are mediums, Mel,” she said patiently, watching him bounce from one side of the street to the other. An amused smirk grew as similarities between him and an excitable child became more evident. Not that she had a lot of experience with kids, but she saw them out in public and, as Mel stood in the middle of the street and crowed loudly before hopping onto the sidewalk next to her, empathy for those mothers filled her head. “Not every psychic is going to see you. Each medium’s gift works in different ways. Some see or hear like I do, others feel a presence, and others only see auras. Those others may be legitimate mediums, just not ones who could see you like I do.”
“How did you become a medium?”
“I was born one. My mother felt spirits and could hear them. Grandma saw them. I got all the above.”
“So not everyone gets the full bag of tricks?”
She stopped and frowned. “They aren’t tricks.”
“I get it, I get it. I’m not trying to bash your gift, or anyone else’s, but I should’ve just come to you as soon as the first person failed to see me. That's all.” He shrugged and jumped back into pace beside her. “You’re amazing. You know that, right?”
She leaned away from him like he had just spouted gibberish at her. “You know it’s going to take more than this to track and convict your murderer, right? Do you know how long, on average, murder cases take? There’s no direct evidence, as of yet. At the very least, we’re probably looking at months, if not years.”
“Well, lucky you,” he chuckled. “And just take the compliment, Stacia. It takes as long as it takes, as long as it happens.”
“Anastacia,” she groaned the correction, knowing it was going to be an uphill battle about the nickname. Turningdown the last street, she dug through her satchel for her keys, walking up to a small side door.
“What? No drinks for celebration? Oh! I know a great hole-in-the-wall down the way. Thebestcrawdads.”
“Mel, it’s been a day. I just want to crawl into bed.”
“Live a little more! Who out of the two of us is actually dead?”
Ignoring him she quickly entered the building, climbed up a tight staircase, and shuffled down the long hall of doors, Mel behind her the entire way.
“You know, this place has a certain feel to it. Very Overlook Hotel.” He gestured to the dated wallpaper and put his finger to his chin in a show of evaluation. “I just hope we don’t turn a corner and find a set of twins at the end of the hall.”
“What do you have to worry about? They’d just ask you to join them for the party in the ballroom.”
“Good to know you have a taste in the classics. I didn’t think you enjoyed any kind of entertainment.”
She rolled her eyes. “Who doesn’t knowThe Shining?”
Reaching the last door before the corner, she stepped through, tossed her keys into a small plate on a counter, and put her bag on a hook behind the door. Mel went to follow, but when his foot hit the doorway he instantly flew back into the opposite wall, his interaction with the living world still limited to walls, floors, and chairs.
“What the hell was that?” He coughed out of memory reflex.
Anastacia popped her head out into the hallway. “Where’d you think you’re going?”
“I’m your bodyguard, remember? I keep the bad ghosts out of the picture so you can concentrate on figuring out your gift?”
“I have wards and salt lines to keep all ghosts out of my living spaces. As a kid, I woke up one too many times with a ghost looking at me from the foot of my bed. If I break those protections for you, I risk others coming in while you’re sleeping, or whatever ghosts do at night.”
“I won’t let any of them bother you. You’ll have the best night's sleep tonight. I promise.”
She paused, her eyes darting over the floor as she considered it. She pointed a finger at him as she put her toe through the line of salt at her door.
“I better not find you at the foot of my bed watching me tonight.”
