Dances With Ghosts - Erin McCarthy Page 0,6
say yes if he asked you to marry him?”
Flustered by the direct question, feeling his gaze on me, I kept my eyes on the road. “What? I don’t know. Yes? What difference does it make? He hasn’t asked me.” We hadn’t been dating long enough for marriage, in my opinion, but I knew that was the wrong answer to most people. If a man is ready for marriage, a woman is supposed to be. Which is crap. I was almost ready. Getting warm. Like when you put on a sweater in September. Upping the temp just a notch. That should count for something.
“Whoa. Overreacting. That’s very revealing.”
Now I did glance at him. “What are you, Freud? It’s not revealing at all. Jake is moving in with me. We have a serious relationship and that’s all that matters and why do you care anyway?”
“Meow.”
I hated it when he did that. I rolled my eyes even though I was still looking forward at the road.
“I can’t get used to the two of you as a couple. You knew each other for years before you started dating, so I don’t get the sudden shift. And I just never saw you two together, that’s all.”
“You never saw me with anyone.” That was a sore spot for me. “You were visualizing me as an old maid, there for you whenever you needed a favor.”
“You wound me. That is not true.”
It was true. “Can we get back to the dead dance teacher? I feel really terrible about Carmen.”
“You need to get your hands on the CCTV footage from the neighborhood.”
Because, sure, that would be easy. “And how am I supposed to do that?”
“Impersonate a police officer?”
That actually made me laugh. “Sure, sounds like a great plan. How about I just let Jake take the lead on this murder? Carmen isn’t part of our quota, is she?”
There had been some noise about me having a quota as a medium, that I needed to help a certain number of spirits pass on or… what, I had no clue. I didn’t even know what my alleged number was because Ryan sucked at details. He tended to fall asleep in meetings. Being dead hadn’t changed that.
He was, as usual, zero help. “I don’t know. But she has to be. It can’t be a coincidence that Mrs. M called this particular dance studio for lessons. It had to be some kind of guiding force.”
“I think it was because she got a Groupon. And she liked the name Tippy-Toe.”
“Lemon tree.”
Of course, he’d said that. I wonder if Carmen had regretted her name choice. Or maybe she’d done it on purpose so people would easily remember it.
“Well, unless I get some sort of actual notice from upstairs, I’m taking a backseat on this. I have no way to investigate Carmen’s death for one thing. And for another, in this case, the cops will be on it. I thought my job was to be the squeaky wheel when nothing was getting done, not to play detective.”
“I’ll have to see if I can get some clarification on the issue.”
“Great. Then we’ll circle back to this next week.” I glanced over and shot him a grin. “This meeting of the first order of otherworldly incidents is adjourned.”
“You’re weird,” was his response.
Then he was gone.
I sighed.
Sure, I was getting used to the vaporizing thing. But I still didn’t like it.
Pulling into my narrow driveway, I put the truck in park and turned it off. Jake was calling me.
“Hello?”
“You could have warned me you were going to call my mother,” he said, though he sounded more amused than pissed. “She’s on my ass about it already. Like you and I personally killed Carmen.”
“Sorry. But admit it, it would be worse if she saw it on the news or something.”
“You’re right. I’m going to be really late tonight. I’ll just stay at my place so I don’t wake you up.”
“Okay.” That was a bit of a bummer. Jake kept my feet warm. “I can bring the truck back to you tomorrow.”
“Sounds good.”
“So—
“No, I can’t tell you anything, so don’t ask.”
Dang it. He knew me too well. “You can’t tell me what?” I asked, angling for innocent.
Jake snorted. “Uh-huh. Okay, Nancy Drew, I gotta go. I love you.”
I never appreciated the Nancy Drew reference. She was way better at this sleuthing thing than me. But she had lousy shoes.
“I love you too.” I ended the call and exited the truck, slamming the door shut. Geez, that thing was heavy. I