'You know, I connect with bodies. It might kind of ruin the Graceland experience for me.' On the other hand, it might answer a few questions. Tolliver was looking amused.
'So you see why we just drove by,' Tolliver said, picking up the thread of the narrative. 'We'd already cruised around the Pyramid and Beale Street. So, we went back to our hotel.'
I was glad I'd washed my shoes off this morning, and that the hotel laundry had our jeans.
'And the Fibbie came to see you first thing this morning,' Detective Young said. I was glad we'd mentioned it, since it seemed Young already knew about Koenig's visit.
'Yes. He wanted us to know right away about the body found in the grave. I'm guessing he wanted to get our first reaction.'
'And what reaction did he get?'
'Well, of course, we were sorry Clyde Nunley had been killed, or had fallen into the grave and hit his head, or whatever really happened to him. It's never good to hear someone's dead.' Though with some people it's less bad than with others. 'But it's not like we had any reason to want him dead.'
'You might have been a little upset, Mr. Lang, him manhandling Ms. Connelly like that. Specially in a public place. Specially since someone else had to help her, since you weren't there.'
Oooh. Low blow. But I thought Tolliver could stand up to it, and he seemed to be coping, if his slight smile was any indicator. 'Harper can take care of herself,' he said, which pleased me. 'Even if Goldman hadn't been there, she would have been okay.'
Since that hadn't worked, Lacey tried something else. 'Agent Koenig says he wants your reading of Nunley's body, and that you would like access to Tabitha's body.'
'That's not exactly what I said,' I told him. 'It wasn't my idea. He thought I might get more of a reading if I tried again, and I agreed that might be so. Of course I don't want to be around the child's body again—but if you have any idea I'd be a help, I have to make myself do that.'
'I have no idea what to believe about you,' Lacey said, his small blue eyes examining me again for maybe the twenty-fifth time. 'I never met anyone like you, and I swear I don't know if you're a fraud or a—I just don't know what you are.'
'Lots of people feel that way,' I said, because he seemed so uncomfortable. 'Don't worry about it. I'm used to it.'
'You two have kids?' Detective Young asked suddenly.
Tolliver and I stared at her blankly.
'Us?' he said, after a long pause.
She seemed to realize she'd put her foot in it. 'Sorry, I just assumed you two…'
'We've lived together since we were teenagers,' I said. 'Tolliver's dad married my mother. He's like my… brother.' For the first time, I hesitated before I said those words.
'I have two,' she said, obviously wanting to get off the subject as quickly as possible. 'I have a boy and a girl. If my child went missing, I'd want every stone turned to find that child. I'd deal with the devil if I had to. I'll ask the Morgensterns how they feel about you… visiting Tabitha's body again. We'll see what they say.'
I wondered what the two cops would say if I told them I'd talked to a ghost the night before. I wondered how fast they'd write us off as charlatans. I thought again of the hard hand gripping my arm, and I had to close my eyes for a minute. How could it be that Josiah Poundstone's ghost was there? I had thought I had the whole thing straight in my mind, the whole life-after-death procedure, but now I stood on shaky ground.
I noticed the traffic outside was getting heavier, and the sky was getting darker. As we sat in the diner with the two detectives, the afternoon had drawn to a close. I had an almost irresistible urge to go back to the cemetery, to see if the ghost was still there, what it was up to. What did ghosts do? Were they there when a human wasn't there to react to them? Did they materialize when they wanted to communicate, or were they always…
'Harper,' Tolliver said gently. 'Are you ready to go?'
'Oh, sure,' I said, hastily pulling my jacket back on. The detectives were standing, their coats zipped and buttoned, and from their expressions, they'd been waiting for me to respond for some time.
'Daydreaming,' I said. 'Sorry.' I did my best to look alert and normal, but that's not always my best thing anyway, and I don't think I was very successful. 'Maybe our run tired me more than I thought.'
Given a valid-sounding reason for my distracted state, the two cops looked a bit happier, though Lacey would never be my best friend. 'You need to go back to the hotel and get some rest,' he said. 'Don't go getting into any more trouble while you're here in Memphis. We'll get back with you after we've talked to the Morgensterns.'
'Right, thanks,' Tolliver said. After their car had left, we paid our part of the bill and left the diner. 'What was that all about?' Tolliver asked when we were in the car and trying to make a left turn into traffic to go back to the Cleveland.
I told him the questions I'd been asking myself.
'I can see where that's interesting, and I would like to know the answers, too,' he said. 'But from now on, you should have your thinking sessions when you're safe in bed, or something. You had a pretty strange expression on your face.'
'Did I look weird?' I asked, oddly hurt.
'Not strange-ugly,' he said instantly. 'Strange, as in, 'not there.''
'Oh,' I said.
Finally, he took advantage of a hole in the ever-swelling traffic going out of downtown. We were headed back toward the river before I spoke again. 'You know who I'd like to talk to again?'
'Who?'
