Demonically Tempted (Frostbite) Read online

  I wasn’t in any mood to get into this with him. A change in topic was in order. “Have you seen a young girl around here?”

  “No,” he responded without haste.

  I nibbled my lip, considering that. “Not ever, or not lately?”

  “Never.”

  If Lizbeth died in misery, it made no sense that her ghost wasn’t here. Ghosts always lingered and needed help to cross over. Someone who committed suicide wouldn’t be a settled soul. And most of the ghosts I’d met returned to a place that had meant something to them. Considering Lizbeth was young when she died, I had assumed she’d come home. Where else would she have gone?

  “How long have you been here?” I asked.

  “I have no idea.” He paused, thoughtful, then said, “I think it’s been quite some time.”

  His response didn’t surprise me. Ghosts never remembered much except what they needed to, to move on. Seeing that this ghost would lead me nowhere, I figured I might as well try and help one ghost today. “Do you want to cross over?”

  He scowled. “Are you threatening me?”

  “Good God. You’re foul. I’m asking to be nice. I can help you, if you’d like.”

  “This is my house. I don’t want to leave. I want you to.”

  I grunted. “Trust me, I want the same damn thing.”

  He gestured toward the door in what might have seemed like a bow of respect, if his tight features hadn’t thoroughly flipped me off. “Best you see yourself out.”

  I had just about enough of his bad attitude. I pointed at him. “You better not go scaring Anna. She’s been through enough.”

  “I don’t scare her.” He scoffed. “She’s a lovely woman and I don’t mind her sharing the home with me.”

  “I’m glad to hear it, but if I find out you’re frightening her, I will Ghostbuster your ass. Got it, jacko?” I flicked my hair over my shoulder, not waiting for him to respond because frankly, I didn’t give a shit.

  I exited the bathroom, heard him grumbling something after me. I really couldn’t blame him, though. If I’d been dead since the eighteen hundreds, from the looks of his clothing, I’d be pissy too.

  Once on the front porch, I spotted Zach and Anna. They talked down by a creek that was completely overgrown with weeds, rocks lining the shore.

  On my approach, Zach glimpsed at me. I shook my head to indicate I hadn’t found Lizbeth in the house.

  He visibly sighed, turning to Anna. “Now that Tess has arrived, would you please tell us what happened?”

  I took a moment to scan the area, and listened hard to see if I could hear anything, but only the sound of rushing water and chirping birds filled my ears.

  The air around the home smelled so fresh, and thrived with nature, it was a wonderful contrast to the dust and mold inside the house.

  Anna drew in a long, deep breath. “It was a spooky evening that night. The fog settled above the water and the full moon provided a lot of light.” Her eyes glazed over, lost in memory. “I heard Lizbeth leave the house, so I went over to my bedroom window.”

  I glanced at the house. One lone window faced the creek.

  “I saw Lizbeth walking out to the water. She wore just her white nighty, and she was so frail.” Anna rubbed her arms. “She was all skin and bones.”

  “She came out here alone?” I asked.

  Anna nodded. “I didn’t see anyone with her, at the time. She stood by the water’s edge and was so pretty.”

  I had a hard time imagining anyone as pretty in the way Anna had described. But I wasn’t about to bring up that point and merely listened as she went on.

  “Lizbeth looked over her shoulder, and I’m still not sure how she knew I was watching her, but she smiled one of the coldest smiles I’d ever seen.” Anna hugged herself. “I’m sure that smile will haunt me forever.”

  I gulped, a sudden nervousness wrapped around me and icy fingertips ran up my spine.

  “What did she do after that?” Zach asked.

  Anna inhaled sharply, clearly pulling herself away from the horrifying memory. “She turned toward the water, walked in, and killed herself.”

  Had I heard her right? “Are you saying she drowned herself?”

  “I know that’s hard to believe, but the second I saw her walk into the creek, she submerged herself into the water. That’s when I ran out after her.”

  “What happened when you reached her?”

  “She was floating, head first, and so I pulled her out.” A tear slid along her cheek, and she wiped it away. “I tried to do CPR, but it didn’t matter, she was already gone.”

  Silence drifted around us. I welcomed it. This story needed some time to process, and even after a minute or so, I still came up empty.

  Anna gazed out at the water, as she cried. I couldn’t imagine what it’d be like to be here, staring at this water, and remembering what happened. How did she continue to live in that house?

  A nudge on my arm had me glancing over at Zach. He mouthed the words, “Is she here?”

  I shook my head.

  His brow puckered.

  Lizbeth’s lack of appearance seemed unusual even to me, but I hoped Kipp had better luck.

  Zach cleared his throat breaking the silence. “After you pulled Lizbeth out of the water, what happened?”

  Anna wiped her damp cheeks. “My mother and father came down and chaos erupted. They yelled, wanting to know what happened to her. When I told them, it was no surprise they didn’t believe me.”

  She brought up a good point. “Where are you parents now?”

  “Both, long dead.”

  Insert foot into mouth! “I’m sorry.”

  Anna sighed. “It’s for the best. Lizbeth’s death hit both of them very hard. My mother was never the same and my father became an alcoholic.”

  Saddest thing I’d ever heard.

  “I can’t find her outside.”

  I glanced over my shoulder and Kipp approached, lips pressed into a thin line. Seeing that I couldn’t answer him with Anna here, I simply gave a short nod to show I understood his defeat.

  “At what point did you see Hector?” Zach asked.

  I gasped, unable to hide my shock. “Someone else saw her in the water?”

  Zach nodded. “He’d been the main suspect in her death but—”

  “My statement ruled him out,” Anna interjected. “He probably would’ve been found guilty of her murder since he’d been the only other person present at the time of her death. But I said it then, and I’ll say it now, he didn’t kill her. I saw Lizbeth walk into the water and drown herself. I couldn’t make up what I saw.”

  “Ask her how she can be so sure,” Kipp said to me.

  I shook my head, which I tried to hide by shifting my stance. There was no way I would argue with Anna. Kipp hadn’t heard the rest of the conversation and I believed every word she said.

  Instead, I pressed on. “Did you know he was there when you first came out of the house?”

  “No,” Anna replied. “He showed up out of nowhere. I hadn’t seen him near the house at all and his arrival startled me. But I’ll tell you one thing, his eyes were exactly like Lizbeth’s.”

  My heart did that full skip-a-beat thing, indicating whatever she meant by that, scared me shitless. “They were?”

  “When Lizbeth smiled at me, Hector did the exact same thing when he approached. To say it was creepy is really putting it mildly, but it was as if I stared at Lizbeth again—or what Lizbeth had turned into.”

  The side of my temple hurt. I zeroed in on Zach. “So after they questioned Hector, they released him?”

  “That’s right. But he’s now serving time for an unrelated crime he committed a month after Lizbeth’s death.”

  I gave Zach and Kipp a knowing look, and they returned it. As much as Anna was sure of what she saw, I suspected she was wrong. A person in a state of shock might not be able to think straight. I surmised that’s exactly what happened.

  “I know what
y’all are thinking, but I know what I saw,” Anna said, adamantly. “Lizbeth walked into the water and killed herself. Trust me, I’ll never be able to forget it.” Sadness gone. Determination risen. “No matter how much everyone wanted me to retract my statement and pin it on Hector, I wouldn’t send an innocent man to jail for something he didn’t do.”

  Innocent, my ass!

  Zach inclined his head, as if he agreed with her, but I knew better. “Is there anything else you can tell us, Anna, that could help us?”

  “I’m sorry. That’s all I know.”

  “Thank you for talking to us.” I smiled, reached out for her hand and squeezed it. “We’ll do what we can to find out what happened to her.”

  Anna returned the smile, but on her, it was despaired. “I appreciate y’all working on this case again. I do hope that you’ll discover what truly happened to Lizbeth. If it’s all right, I’d like to go into the house now.”

  “Yes, of course. Thank you for your time.” Zach shook Anna’s hand, and then she started toward the house.

  “This is by far the weirdest situation I’ve ever been in,” I whispered to Kipp. “I’ve never experienced a missing ghost before.”

  “Quite unusual, to say the least,” he grumbled. “Let’s go to the station and fill Max in on what we’ve discovered.” He sighed. “Or not discovered.”

  Without hesitation since I was more than happy to leave, I headed to the truck with the boys following. Anna climbed the steps of her porch, and I remembered there was something I needed to tell her. “Anna,” I called.

  She turned.

  “You have a very grumpy old ghost in your house, but don’t worry, he likes you.”

  She didn’t appear nearly as surprised as I’d expected. Maybe she already suspected a ghost lived with her. Maybe not. But my job was done.

  Now on to finding a missing ghost…

  Chapter Two

  At the station, I followed Zach and Kipp in, cursing at myself for not finding Lizbeth’s ghost. My bank account had never looked better, and it seemed wrong that I received a paycheck but didn’t fulfill my side of the gig.

  Not to say that I wanted to return to my old boss, Dylan Cobb, Event Manager of Randall Marketing. He acted like a two-year old on good days.

  The look on his face when I quit still amused me. I might have felt a tinge bad for leaving him high and dry on such short notice. That is, I quit the second I reentered the building. If I cared, which I didn’t.

  Dora, the receptionist, was the only one I’d miss. But we kept in touch via email.

  We passed the main desk where Betty sat, and she gave me a wave, which I returned. Busy cops sat at their desks behind her, no doubt working on loathsome paperwork.

  Zach headed down the hallway and up ahead, I spied the cubicles where the detectives in the Homicide Division were located.

  At the fourth door, Zach entered the meeting room, but Kipp slowed and glanced over his shoulder at me. “Hold up a sec.” He cocked his head, studying me, and finally said, “You seem quiet. That’s not like you.”

  I shrugged, not wanting to go there, but knowing he’d never let it go. He’d proved a thousand times over he could be persistent and at most times got what he wanted. “I’m disappointed I couldn’t find her.”

  “Don’t do that to yourself,” he replied, soft and tender. “This job will eat you up if you let every failure get to you.”

  “It’s not so much of the not finding her that’s bothering me, but letting the team down, and I’m only just part of the team.”

  I’d been brought into the cold case squad as an adviser, and I still didn’t know how Max pulled it off. But I wasn’t about to question him. All he had said was, “a few important people know of your ability, which allows this.” That ended the conversation.

  “Why do you think you’re failing the team?” Kipp asked.

  “Ah, ‘cause I was hired to find ghosts, and on my first case, I found shit.”

  His brow creased. “You can’t hunt for something that isn’t there, Tess. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself.”

  I smiled, adoring my ghost, but shook my head at him. “I’m getting tired of you always saying the right thing.”

  He laughed. “Most women would love that about me.”

  “Well, I’m not most women, am I?”

  His laughter remained, as he skimmed my cheek with his finger causing a little shiver to speed through me from the icy embrace. “No, you’re certainly not.”

  “Would you stop with the endearing shit, Tess, and get in here.” Max’s deep voice sounded from inside the room.

  I winked at Kipp, and entered the room. Max, sergeant of the cold case squad, scowled at me. I saluted. “Ready to serve you, Sir.”

  He snorted. “Sit down.”

  I did, but smiled with attitude. Just because I worked for the man didn’t mean I’d take his crap. He knew it. And that’s all that mattered.

  Max’s deep brown eyes studied me as he pushed his dark hair silvered at the temple away from his forehead. “Zach said you didn’t find Lizbeth at the house.”

  My gaze flicked to Kipp. He nodded encouragingly. “He’s right. As weird as that is, she wasn’t there.”

  “But you expected her to be?”

  A big ole’ weight lifted off my shoulders. Max appeared uninterested that I found nothing and more interested in why. “I would have thought so. Even if she had killed herself, suicide is a traumatic death. Her soul would linger until she was settled.”

  Max sighed. “Do you have any theories of why her ghost would be gone?”

  “I guess she could have found her peace and crossed over.” I shrugged. “Or maybe her suicide was really what she wanted.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Kipp asked, just as Zach said, “Explain that further.”

  I wanted to roll my eyes at them since they continued to ask the same questions all the time. Considering the subject matter, I ignored my amusement. “Sometimes people do things before they think. I’ve seen that in suicide victims before.”

  At the blank stares around me, I added, “As in, they thought it was a good idea, that they had no other alternative, but at the time they actually die they regret the decision. Those souls linger. If Lizbeth had been content in her suicide maybe she wouldn’t have had any remorse and her soul could move on.”

  Max dropped his head, thoughtful.

  Zach cleared his throat. “I hate to bring this up, but would a person who committed suicide be allowed to cross over?”

  To Heaven was left off, but clearly implied. “If you’re asking me the rules about Heaven you’re going to be waiting a while since I have no idea. But I’ve helped a ghost who committed suicide before and she appeared to cross over. I didn’t see Satan and his pitchfork come and take her away.”

  Zach chuckled. “I should hope not.”

  “So, I’d imagine, like I’ve said before…” I stared pointedly at Kipp since I’d told him the same thing. “…that the rules aren’t what we all think they are.”

  Max leaned back in his chair, lacing his hands behind his head, and his stare became focused. “So our theories are, she has either found her peace or is missing?”

  I nodded. “And don’t even think about asking me which one because I know as much as you do.”

  “Know what?” Eddie asked, stepping into the room, coffee cups in hand.

  I reached out. “Gimme, gimme, gimme.”

  His baby blues twinkled in amusement. He took one cup out of the box and handed it to me, as his brown hair fell over his eyebrows. “You are easily pleased, woman.”

  “Yeah, right,” Kipp retorted.

  I ignored him, too interested in the rich aroma filling the air calling to my drained energy. I took a couple sugar packages out of the box then dumped them into the coffee, and swirled the cup to mix it.

  “There is the fact, too, that Anna is adamant that Lizbeth committed suicide,” Zach said, reaching for his own cup. He
didn’t bother with sugar and raised it to his mouth for a sip.

  Max grunted. “I read that in the file, but I can’t see how it’s possible. How would a woman drown herself?”

  “Anything is possible…” Kipp said, eyeing our coffees and licking his lips. Touch and smell weren’t the only things he missed as a ghost. The taste of coffee on his tongue made him long for a cup, or so he told me a hundred times. “If someone wants it bad enough.”

  I sipped my coffee, a bit guilty for not being able to share with him. “I’m with Max. It’s one thing to hang yourself—and even that is…” I shuddered and gripped the cup tight. “But to hold yourself underwater and take a big deep breath to drown yourself does seems impossible.”

  Max said, “Whether she was capable or not, or that her ghost is gone, we need to explore the possibility that Anna is right. There is a lot of doubt around this case.”

  I hadn’t looked at the file yet because, well, I had no interest in this part of it. Maybe because I suspected I wouldn’t understand it anyway.

  Now, though, I held enough curiosity about Lizbeth to force myself to reach forward and grab one of the files in front of Max.

  Kipp arched an eyebrow at me.

  I smiled, restraining my blush, and scanned the file. I flipped it open to see a young dark-haired woman, which I assumed was Lizbeth at her prime since the smile on her face looked all too happy. “Geesh, how old is she?”

  “She was twenty-three when she died,” Max replied. “Quite young. I remember this case, vaguely. It was just after I joined the force.”

  I gasped in fake surprise. “That long ago?” Max’s eyes narrowed. Everyone laughed, as did I. “Just kidding. Sorry. Go on.”

  “As I was saying...” He sneered at me before he turned to Zach. “From what I’ve read, her parents said she was a well-adjusted young lady and never showed any signs that killing herself had been on her mind.”

  “Until she did kill herself.” I retorted. “Parents don’t know everything that goes on with their kids.”

  “True,” Zach said. “Did she have any close friends?”

  “None said anything at the time as to why she would do this,” Max replied. “But what I found interesting in the file was that there appeared to be a suspect.”