can’t be, I mean. We couldn’t have been killed by the same killer, right? This had to be something else.”
“Great. Another serial killer. Does it really matter?” Tim asked, adding glumly, “Dead is dead...and we’re dead.”
Harvey looked at Keenan. “Jack the Ripper gutted people, right?”
Keenan and Stacey glanced at one another.
“Uh, yes,” Stacey said.
“Were we...gutted?” George Seasons asked, looking glum.
“We don’t know since we haven’t found your bodies yet,” Keenan said.
“Go find them! Maybe if we get real burials, we get to go to...well, heaven,” George said. “I... Yeah, I believe in heaven. Something more. More than this!”
“We don’t have that kind of answer,” Stacey said softly.
“But you’ll go get our bodies, right?” Tim said.
“Yes, but if we go before our warrant gets here... Well, it gets complicated in court. With a search warrant, everything we find is admissible—”
“If you found a body, it wouldn’t be admissible?” Tim demanded.
They didn’t have to answer. Keenan saw headlights coming down the road.
“Our team is here. They’ll serve the warrant,” Keenan said.
“Should we...go away? Hide?” Harvey asked nervously.
“We’re ghosts. Why the hell would we hide?” Tim said wearily. “They can’t see us anyway.”
Keenan looked at Stacey; they both grinned.
“Actually, these people will see you just fine,” Stacey assured them.
“You mean...” Ronnie began, “you have more people coming who will see us?”
“Exactly,” Keenan said.
“Where have you been all our lives?” Ronnie asked.
“You mean, where have they been all our deaths?” Tim said, shaking his head.
A car pulled ahead of Keenan’s. The doors opened. Jackson stepped out of the driver’s side, Angela from the passenger’s side, and Raina—with two huge, handsome German shepherds emerging with her as well.
“Dogs!” Harvey said with pleasure.
“Must be cadaver dogs,” Tim told him. “But yes, please, bring them on!”
“Hey, guys,” Angela said, waving. Raina was making sure that her dogs were behaved and under control, paying attention to her.
Jackson called out to them. “I’m heading straight to the house with the warrant.”
“We’ll get moving!” Keenan called to him. Angela and Raina were both staring at the ghosts. One of the dogs barked.
“Angela, Raina, please meet Tim, Ronnie, Harvey, and George. Guys, that’s Jackson heading to the house. Now we can find your bodies,” Keenan told them.
“Dogs!” Harvey said. “I have always loved dogs!”
“Brutus and Butch,” Raina said, introducing the dogs. “We’ll get off the road, and I’ll let them loose. They’re not quite done with training, but they’ll find you!”
“They’re beautiful!” Stacey said. “Is it okay to say hi?”
“Today? Yes. Usually, I’d say no, as they need to concentrate. But these are still learners, and it would be good for them to recognize you as a friend. Won’t hurt to give him one of these treats,” Raina said, handing her a handful of little nuggets. “They’ll love you more.”
Stacey hunkered down to talk to the dogs, thanking them for their help.
“That way, in the trees, I believe, just beyond the cozy little garden sitting spot...where no one ever sits,” Tim told Raina.
“Fine. Let’s see what these boys can find.”
They moved in. She gave the dogs their freedom.
Brutus, nose sweeping the ground in front of him, headed right for the area that Tim had indicated.
Butch did not. He ran farther into the forest.
“I’m after him!” Stacey said, heading after the dog like a bolt of lightning, calling out, “It’s good he likes me.”
“No! Not alone, you’re not!” Keenan yelled after her. “Even with the dog!”
But she was moving. She knew he would race after her and be glad that he had very long legs.
They didn’t have to go far.
The dog was on to something.
A corpse, Stacey thought. Because Butch wasn’t fully trained, but he did know what he was looking for.
Butch was already digging furiously in the ground.
Stacey watched him.
The dog was barking and barking. Stacey glanced back at Keenan and then at the dog. “Oh, we have to stop him! It’s a—”
Crime scene.
“Butch!” she said firmly, walking forward to grab the dog’s lead. “That’s enough, boy. You’ve done your duty! Good dog!” She petted him and praised him and gave him some of the little dog treats that were his reward for a job well done.
The dog whined and obediently sat.
Keenan strode forward to the spot where the dog had been digging.
“I think that Tim knew where their bodies were,” Stacey said. “But Butch hasn’t graduated yet, so maybe—”
“Butch did just fine,” Keenan told her.
“Well, I mean, of course he did. He’s a dog, and—”
“Stacey, no,” he told her, redirecting her attention. “There’s more than one burial site here. Look.”
And