Ghost Mortem (Ghost Detective #1) - Jane Hinchey Page 0,38

back. Feed me." Thor burst through the cat door and sat next to his temporary food bowl.

"You've still got food in there," I told him, pointing out the obvious.

"I can see the bottom!" Thor's outrage was real.

"Fine, fine." I slid off the barstool, scooped a measure of kibble from the pantry and topped up his bowl. "Happy now?" I asked.

He ignored me, the only sound the crunch of kibble between his teeth. And then I looked up and caught the amused expression on Galloway's face. Holy heck I'd forgotten only I could understand Thor—so now Galloway thought I spent half my time talking to myself and half my time talking to Ben's cat. Why he hadn't run for the hills was beyond me. Surely he must think I'm an absolute looney tune by now. But he didn't say anything and I decided if he could ignore the fact that I was having conversations with a cat, so could I.

"You'd better follow me," I told him, jerking my head toward Ben's study.

14

Detective Galloway opened his mouth to speak when a loud "Yoohoo!" came from the sliding door behind him, followed by a tapping noise. Over his shoulder, I saw Mrs. Hill waving at me through the glass.

"Sorry," I muttered through gritted teeth. "You've met the neighbor, Mrs. Hill?" I asked as I breezed past on my way to the door.

"Indeed." I'm pretty sure I heard a hint of humor in his voice, but I couldn't be one hundred percent sure.

Flicking the latch on the door, I slid it open, moving my body to block her entrance. Only I wasn't fast enough and she brushed past me with a sharp nudge of her elbow. "Ow," I muttered, rubbing my rib cage and eyeballing the hellion from next door.

"Can I help you, Mrs. Hill?" I asked with forced politeness. She was in another floral dress, her hand twisting the pearls around her neck.

"I was wondering what you were doing here," she replied, not taking her eyes off of Galloway who had stood at her entrance, giving her a little nod.

"Feeding Thor." I glanced down at the grey cat who hadn't lifted his head from his bowl. "Who's going to get fat at this rate," I added.

"Hey!" he grumbled. "Back off. I've had a trauma. I'm comfort eating."

Mrs. Hill sniffed. "Yes. Well. You told me that before. I just don't think it's appropriate that you're here at all."

Galloway didn't miss my eye roll, not by the way his lips twitched.

"Yes well, I have some news for you on that front, Mrs. Hill." Oh, I was going to enjoy this—and for a nanosecond I felt bad about it, but that feeling soon vanished. Mrs. Hill gave me nothing but grief and it was clear as the nose on my face that she didn't like me. She was going to like what I had to tell her next even less.

"I'm your new neighbor!" I announced, rocking back on my heels, a fake smile plastered on my face as I watched her reaction. As anticipated she couldn't hide it. She did a good job of trying to, but I was watching for those telltale signs I knew so well. The flaring of her nostrils, the stiffening of her spine, the way her tongue shot out to touch her upper lip. All signs that she was pissed off. Usually at me. There was something about my mere presence that got on her nerves, and despite me trying on countless occasions to befriend her, we'd never gotten past me being that annoying friend of Ben's. The one that wasn't good enough.

"What do you mean?" Her voice came out three octaves higher than usual and the hand that had been fiddling with her pearls, clutched them in a death grip so tight I feared they'd break and scatter across the floor.

I made sure my following words were not as gleeful as they sounded in my head, hoping I was injecting just enough somber introspection into them. "Ben left me his house in his will," I explained. "Actually he left me everything."

You could have heard a pin drop. Well, you could have if Thor would stop crunching the damn kibble. Instead, his noisy little jaws continued to work away, crunch, crunch, crunch, as Mrs. Hill stood ramrod straight, a look of utter disbelief on her face. Then she left. Without a word. She simply walked out, leaving the door open in her wake. I pulled a face and slid it closed.

"That