How to Kill a Ghost (16 page)

“Call him,” I pleaded, hovering invisible but near enough to Monica for her to hear me.

She stabbed the keys like a madwoman and shoved the phone against her ear. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears as she waited, and I wrung my hands. “No answer.”

“Call my old number.”

She did so. Still no answer.

“Why would she even do this and not come to your house?” Monica speculated.

“Because she’s terrified of—” I cut off my words. In this case, Monica and Agnes agreed. They both feared Ian. Agnes wouldn’t have come near my house with the threat of Ian showing up again. She was a clever woman to have thought of the phone. Everyone carried a cell phone. Well, everyone except ghosts, which had worked in her favor.

“Let’s drive around and look for her,” Monica suggested. “Maybe she’s still in town. Wait, you said you sense your body, right? Can you feel her?”

I shook my head. My panic started to rise. “If I can’t feel her, she might have left town. Or…worse.”

“Don’t think that way. You’re upset. Emotions are probably messing with you right now.”

I had to agree. An idea to call for Ian hit, but then I remembered it was broad daylight. He wouldn’t be any help. The only plus to that meant we weren’t in imminent danger of Tevin attacking either.

Monica snapped her fingers. “Clark!”

“Yes,” I echoed. “The police can do that GPS deal on her phone.”

Monica clambered into her car, and I joined her, doing my best to calm down enough to materialize. “You’d better try harder than that before we get there,” she said, pointing at my transparent legs.

I frowned at myself and went through the motions of taking deep breaths even though I didn’t need to breathe. As each second ticked by, I became more visible. Monica gave her approval when I looked normal.

“We have to think of an excuse to give him,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“Monica, we can’t say I’m missing and we can’t find me.”

“Ohhh.” She gave a dry laugh. “Yeah, I don’t think that will go over too well. How about we say Mason doesn’t want to bring Jake back?”

I stared at her, but she refused to back down.

“I know it sounds terrible, Libby, but we can clear everything up after we find them. If Agnes does have them, well, we’ll think of an excuse for why she has your face. Meanwhile, the police will act faster if they think Mason took Jake from you.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Do you have another idea?”

We drove to the police station, and Clark saw us right away. Monica explained what we needed, but I cut her off before she could blame Mason. “Do you have a way to track Mason’s phone, Clark?”

He eyed me. “What makes you think he’s in trouble?”

“I…”

“He won’t give Jake back,” Monica blurted.

“That’s not true!” I groaned at his look of incredulity, realizing even if I denied it, Clark might be more inclined to believe my friend over me, given my track record.
He
didn’t like Ian either, but I knew that had more to do with jealousy than anything Ian might have done. He wouldn’t trust my judgment. I moved toward him and grabbed his arm, a plea in my gaze as I peered into his face. “Please, Clark, can you just do it and don’t ask questions? I promise you it’s important.”

“It could be a matter of life and death,” Monica threw in for good measure.

He grumbled and folded his arms across his chest. “You know I don’t like information withheld from me, Libby, but I’ll do it because it’s you. Afterward, you
will
explain.”

“Ah, of course,” I said.

The triangulation of Mason’s phone didn’t take long. I ignored Clark’s command to wait at home and hopped into his squad car. Monica kept up with him driving her car behind. Soon we pulled onto a road just outside Summit’s Edge, and I spotted Mason’s car. I half phased, half opened the door to jump out, and Monica slid to a halt in front of me. I was ready to pass through her when she called out to me.

“Wait, Libby,” she whispered. “I think you better calm down.”

I glared at her, but she pointed out semi-transparent state. I gasped and spun to face Clark, but he had already started walking toward Mason’s car. “Oh, boy, thanks.”

After I managed to get control, I followed Clark. He stood with his hand on the hood of the car. “It’s cold. Been here a while. Is this…?”

“It’s Mason’s,” I croaked.

I moved to jerk the passenger door open, but Clark caught my hand. “Hold on before you destroy possible evidence, Libby.” While I ground my teeth, he managed to get the door open. Neither Mason nor Jake was inside. My world titled upside down. From a distance, I heard Clark speaking and Monica’s voice. After a few moments, they came through clear to me.

“Shouldn’t you be searching for clues?” Monica said. She stood in front of me, blocking Clark’s view and pointing to the car.

Clark glared at her. His shoulder radio crackled, and he confirmed his location with whomever he’d spoken to while I zoned out. I pushed fears of Jake’s safety far enough to the back of my mind to appear alive and watched as Clark searched the car. Mason’s phone lay on the floor in the front, and Jake’s overnight bag sat on the back seat. Mason’s car keys hung from the ignition.

“There’s something more going on here than what you’re telling me, Libby,” Clark said. “I want to know everything that happened between the two of you recently.”

I started to speak, but other officers arrived. Clark briefed them and then ordered them to fan out to search the area. After he was done, Clark pinned me with a demanding glare. I twisted my fingers together like a child. Nothing but the truth filled my thoughts.

“What’s wrong, Liberty?”

I couldn’t answer Ian, and I knew it was too early for him to help me. My fear had awakened him from his slumber. “Clark, you won’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try me.”

“Chief, I think you better get down here!” Will stood in a ditch off the side of the road. We couldn’t see what he saw with all the overgrown brush, but I prayed it wasn’t my worst nightmare.

“What the heck is going on here, Libby?” Clark demanded as he crouched over the body.

I clenched my teeth together, sick and so desperate I was willing to wink out in front of him. Monica grabbed my arm as if she guessed what I intended. “Is she dead?”

“No, she’s unconscious.” Clark felt around at the back of Agnes’s head, and his hand came away clear of blood, if a bit dusty. “Do you have a twin?”

I shrugged. “You know as much as I do about my family, remember?”

He made a sound like he considered what I’d said but didn’t believe me. With my body right here and Agnes knocked out, I was so close but so far. I wanted to question her and demand to know where my son and ex-husband were. Monica and I followed the ambulance to the hospital, Clark easing up for the moment, thinking I worried about a family member who might be a long lost sister. I had managed not to cry out, “Never!” Technically, I supposed if she were to be believed, Agnes
was
family.

Once we arrived at the hospital, Clark earned my gratitude when he demanded Agnes be given a private room so she could be protected as a possible witness to a crime. Hospital staff moved like lightning, and soon a doctor bent over Agnes’s bed, examining her. I stayed close, and Monica remained by my side, each of us eager for news.

“We won’t know anything more decisive until she wakes up,” the doctor said, “but so far she’s fine. I’ll need you to fill out forms. If you could go to the triage area?”

Monica frowned. “She’s not—”

I grabbed her arm to shush her. To our relief a nurse hurried the doctor off to another patient, and we were left alone. I approached the bed, unsure of what to do. Monica wasn’t so shy. She marched to the door and closed it.

“Who knows how much time we have, Libby. Get in there.”

“Easier said than done.”

“Just try it, and hurry up.” She peeked out the door again. “Clark’s down the hall. I think he’s going to tell Will to watch her, so we don’t know how long we’ve got. Do something, girl.”

“Okay. Here goes.” I don’t know why I was so nervous. I’d possessed others before, even though I hated it. This wasn’t another person. This was my body—
me
. I owned it, and Agnes was the squatter. Surely, that meant I had the right to be there, and she should just vacate without an issue.

I faded from view and stepped forward. The way I had possessed Clark while he slept, I lay down beside him and scooted over until I aligned my form with his body. I did the same this time, but the moment I tried to “scoot” into my body, something blocked me. I willed the alliance with all I had in me and all I had learned over the last few weeks about occupying space and the few times of possessing people. Nothing worked. I tried stretching my hands out and pushing into my body, thinking I would connect with Agnes’s spirit. No amount of pressure made her budge, and I floated up from the bed to stand beside it.

“Libby?” Monica crept toward the bed, squinting at my body.

“No,” I said, and showed myself at the side. “I can’t get in. She’s so strong. It’s like she’s holding on even unconscious.”

“How can that be?”

“I wish I knew. Monica, we’ve got to talk to her. What if…”

“No, don’t think like that. We don’t know where they are.”

“They could be in danger.” All kinds of scenarios ran through my head, the horror stories from TV shows Monica and I had watched. They were clever until a loved one met the same fate. I felt my mental capacity for rational thought crumbling, and I had to act.

Voices sounded in the hall, and Monica ran over to the door. She glanced back at me. “I’ll stall Clark. You… I don’t know. Figure it out, Libby, for our baby.”

I nodded, and she ducked out the door. I leaned over my own body and brushed the hair off my forehead. My chest constricted, and I uttered a tiny wail at the mark still there, proof that Agnes had assured my death. I recalled what she’d told me about our kind living longer, maybe thirty years after we had been marked, but I hated the uncertainty. I hated that she’d stolen a good portion of my life, and yet she held onto my body.

Were we really immortal? Could a person like me truly walk from body to body indefinitely? I had to think there was more of a catch than just a two to thirty year limitation for one life. Agnes had said her mother had made a mistake and ended up dying. What had that been?

A bump on my body’s forehead caught my attention, and I frowned. I recalled Clark examining the back of my head and wondered what had happened. Did Agnes try to attack Mason and Jake, and Mason knocked her down? Jake would have been upset had that happened. Maybe Agnes flagged them down, and Mason saw no reason not to stop. When she tried to take Jake, Mason might have pushed her and run. Agnes might have tried to chase them and fallen into the ditch.

I paced and considered it over and over. Somehow the way I pictured the scene seemed unlikely. Mason wouldn’t run from me. In his mind, I didn’t present a threat. In fact, he had called to tell me we would have a talk about why Jake believed I was a ghost. I had heard his anger on the phone and been the brunt of it many times in the past.

I stilled. One person could have done it, the person who wanted to draw me to him and would do anything to get me away from Ian. Tevin. My sudden realization almost brought me to the point of despair, but just in time I jerked myself under control. Ian would sense my panic if I didn’t calm down. I already knew he couldn’t kill his brother. I needed to do it, and it had to be done without Ian there.

I let Monica know I needed more time, and she could go. Then, I willed myself to Nessa’s house and found it in the same sorry state it had been in when Ian and Tevin fought. So many holes and windows let in light from all directions. I searched the house, looking inside every door, but there wasn’t a basement and no hidden, closed off rooms that I could discover. Tevin might have originally had plans to stay in this house, but it was impossible to as it was now.

I considered blinking into Ian’s house, but I was pretty sure, now that he’d been cleared of suspicions of murdering Nessa, he would have returned to his own home. He would sense me inside his house if he had lowered the barrier for me to enter in the first place. I tried thinking of where Tevin might hide out, but nothing came to mind. I would need to wait until sundown, risky since Ian would also be able to move.

I willed myself to my home to find Monica pacing and dialing on her phone every couple of minutes. She whirled around at my voice. “Where did you go, Libby?”

“I was checking on a few leads.”

“What leads?”

I hesitated to tell her but decided not to keep any more secrets. “I think Tevin has Jake and Mason.”

“No!” Tears sprung to her eyes and ran down her cheeks. “We have to call Clark and tell him everything! Silver bullets, right? He can give some to his men and—”

“Silver bullets?” I wrinkled my nose. “Isn’t that for werewolves?”

She wobbled, and I rushed to support her. “You’re telling me they’re real too?”

“No!” I helped her to a chair. “I don’t know anything about that. I’m just talking about the legends.”

Monica tugged on a dreadlock and rocked back and forth. Her fingers shook as well as her shoulders. I hugged her to me. What was I going to do? “Listen, sweetie, I want you to get some rest. I’m going to handle everything, okay?”

“No, Libby, you can’t.”

“This time, trust me, Monica. It’s the only way. Tevin wants me. If…” I struggled for words, and she cried harder.

“Don’t go, Libby. If nothing else, let that other thing go kill him.”

I flinched at her calling Ian a thing. Torn between the man I loved and my best friend, I felt lost. Now was not the time to figure out what to do about either of them. “Monica, I’m going. I know you don’t like it, but I have to. I can’t leave Jake there, and I won’t leave it to the police.”

“You’re taking Isabelle?”

I turned away. “No. I won’t put her or you in danger anymore.”

Monica scrubbed her eyes. “I feel like I’m failing you, Libby. I can’t…I just can’t…”