Living with the Dead

Fi

There were those who thought such powers came from the devil. His family dismissed that nonsense the way philosophers scoffed at those who saw an eclipse as a sign the world was being devoured by dragons. God granted some people the skills to become doctors to help the living. God had given their family the power to help the dead. It wasn't always conducive to a peaceful life, but no worse than a family doctor, called out on an emergency at 3 a.m.

Since moving to Los Angeles, though, Fi

And, Fi

And when he had been questioning that faith, Damon showed up. The first ghost who'd ever come back, let alone stuck around. And he needed Fi

Two hours later, Fi

"What are you hoping to find?" Damon kept his voice neutral, but Fi

"I need to find her," Fi

A door clicked down the hall. A woman stepped out. Noticing Fi

"Smart move," Damon said. "You're getting better at this."

The elevator doors opened and off stepped the super, with an irate tenant in tow.

"That drain isn't going to fix itself," the bearded man bellowed.

"I will fix it. But first I need to let this policeman into an apartment."

The tenant peered at Fi

Fi

"An investigation into the death of that Portia Kane?" he said, voice rising. "She was murdered, wasn't she?" He jabbed a bony finger at the super. "If there's been a murder, you'd damned well better tell us."

Fi

"I know my way around." Fi

He slid in before the super could stop him. Damon walked to the win dow and looked out. Fi

"I don't know where she is," Damon said after a minute, still looking out the window. "I know that's what you're wondering and I wish I did know, because you're right. She needs to come forward and get this cleared up."

Fi

He returned to the living room and found Damon still standing at the window.

Fi

"I never left." Damon turned around. "After I died, I was standing on the road, looking down at my body, thinking 'Ah, shit, so much for being home in an hour.' That's what you think, you know. Not 'Holy crap, my life is over.' Anyway, there I am, thinking of her, and then there's this…"

"Light?"

"Sorry. No light. Just a… pull. Like when you're deep asleep on a Monday morning and the alarm goes off and you can just barely hear it. I guess I wasn't ready. So I hit the cosmic snooze button."

"So that's it? You want to stay, you stay?"

"It's a little more complicated. I dug in my heels, though. I needed to stay a little while, make sure Bobby was okay."

"Bobby?"

"Robyn. That's what I called her, because – " He shook his head. "Anyway, I stayed to make sure she was okay, only she wasn't."

Damon was quiet a moment before continuing. "The thing about Robyn? She's always in control. Day before our wedding, the bakery calls to say they're overbooked. So what's she do? First she demands a refund and negotiates a free cake for my parents' thirtieth a

"So you've been following her. What did you see that night? At Bane?"

"I haven't seen Bobby since she got to L.A. It sounded like a great plan, sticking around, making sure she was okay, but it didn't take long to see some serious flaws in the logic. What if she's not okay? What the hell can I do about it? I can't talk to her, can't touch her. I can only watch her suffer."

He addressed the window again. "Whatever grand power let me stay also ran out of patience. When Bobby came to L.A., I lost her. Eventually I found out she'd taken a job with Portia Kane and, when I got over the shock of that, I figured finding Bobby would be simple – Portia Kane isn't exactly a recluse. But whenever I get close to her, something blocks me. If they can't make me cross over, they're going to take away my reason for staying."

"That doesn't seem to be working out too well."

A flash of white teeth. "Yeah, I'm stubborn. I know Bobby will get better; I just need to see it. So I – "

The super hurried in, breathing hard. "So sorry. He is always complaining. Not like Miz Peltier."

"I think I'm done here. Just one question. The bedroom closet door. It wasn't open when I came through here last night."

"Oh, yes, that was the girl. Miz Kane's cousin."

"Cousin?"

The super explained that Portia Kane's cousin had come by earlier to pick up a shirt Peltier had dry-cleaned for Kane.

"She talked to the other officers. They said it was okay."

The officers hadn't mentioned it to Fi

"So what did she take?"

"A blouse. A very nice blouse."

"From this closet?"

The super nodded.

"Was it in a wrapper from the cleaners?"

"No. Miz Peltier must have taken it off."

Fi

Fi