Logan frowned up at her and clenched his fists.
She had to look like a nut job. There was no disputing that. She was talking to ghosts in a cemetery.
She started walking back toward the parking lot, and he followed her. “Where to now?”
“We’re going to go talk to Kitty’s lover.”
He climbed into the car and grabbed the seatbelt. “Listen, this little field trip has been fun and all, but I have other cases to work on.”
She turned the engine. “You’d have four walls in a cell if it wasn’t for me, but I’ll take you back.”
Logan narrowed his eyes. “Blackmail doesn’t become you.”
She grinned. “Just like jailbird orange and bars don’t look good on you.”
Her cell phone rang, and she glanced at the caller ID before dropping her phone into the center console.
“You aren’t going to answer that?”
“Nope. Not yet.”
“Okay, as long as it’s not your boyfriend wondering why you’re dragging another man around in your car.”
“If I had one, he’d understand. Or we wouldn’t be dating.” She chuckled and turned out onto the major road.
Chapter 27
Ryley
“So, you do have a boyfriend?” Logan asked.
“No.”
Ryley couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a real date. Her love life had been hit or miss, since she couldn’t get real and raw with anyone while ghosts hung out all around her. When she was dating, she resisted any close intimacy, afraid one of the ghosts would pop in at the most inopportune moment. Even the easy questions in the start of a new relationship were tricky. Where are you from? What do your parents do? What hobbies do you have? Thanks to years spent dodging her father, all three of those were either lies or off limits except to a select few.
That list of people had grown tenfold just in the last few days. Oscar had done a family tree. Crews knew she could see and talk to ghosts, and now Logan knew she could zap them into the light if the need arose. Her life was getting more complicated by the minute.
Her priority had to be moving Kitty into the light. The accident in the bar last night proved that.
“During all that time you were following Kitty, did she ever seem violent?”
Logan snapped his gaze toward her. “Was it she who caused the damage to your face?”
Ryley shrugged. “I didn’t see which one was responsible for that, but I was the only one in the basement, and I was pushed from behind, so yeah and considering that’s not the first time, I’d lay money on her being the one.”
“Then why are we going to find her lover? Are you trying to piss her off?”
Ryley sighed. “It’s not that simple.” She put on the blinker and turned onto another street. “Rosalind Crews was my therapist, and she needs my help.”
“Damn,” Logan muttered under his breath. “I was hoping you weren’t friends with them.”
“Why?”
“Let’s just say, I avoid that family for a reason,” Logan said. “Do you have any idea where you’re going?”
“No. Am I going in the right direction?”
Logan chuckled. “You just missed the road for the non-profit, if you want to talk to lover boy.”
Heat claimed her cheeks as she did a three point-turn to head back the right direction. Driving around aimlessly wasn’t normal for her, although when talking to Logan, she was much more relaxed and following her gut.
They were similar in so many ways, jagged and broken.
He didn’t even have to explain. She could read it in his eyes. He just hadn’t figured out that she was a magnet for the damaged souls in need of repair. It wasn’t by choice; he was drawn to her. It was his unconscious necessity to fill the void. Just once she’d like to meet someone more…normal. Many of the living people she met were just as needy as the ghosts.
Logan pointed to the road to turn on, and she followed it toward the more desolate part of town where businesses were boarded up and the homeless seemed to congregate. She parked in front of a homeless shelter and killed the ignition.
“She worked here?” Ryley asked.
“Every Tuesday and Wednesday, she helped cook and serve meals.”
“Kitty Lynch? The woman that tried to crush me with alcohol, worked here?” It was almost too much to process. Had her volunteer hours been ordered by the court? Had she been a kind person and turned angry over her death?
“Kitty Lynch was quite the charity worker. She actually donated more than her money. She donated her time to various organizations like this one as well as teaching art for underprivileged children, and she did it all the while co-owning and running her art gallery.”
Could he really be talking about the same woman? This wasn’t adding up. Ryley’s experience with dangerous spirits was because the personality carried over in death. Had she somehow turned hateful and hard before her passing?
They stepped inside the homeless shelter. Fluorescent lights shone down on long rows of tables and plastic chairs filled with men, women, and children. A serving station that reminded Ryley of a lunchroom cafeteria was in the back of the room. Workers behind the metal serving area portioned the food onto the plastic trays as people shuffled past. Volunteers wore hair nets and gloves, and Ryley could see sweat beaded their brows. But they greeted each person in the line with kind words and warm smiles.
An older man with matted gray hair wearing a long, holey trench coat stood off to the side, glancing their way as he mumbled words to himself. To others, he might appear crazy. To Ryley, he was probably the one she related to best. He wasn’t alone. Nor was he talking to himself. The ghost speaking to him was watching Ryley and Logan, too.
“It’s not polite to stare.” Logan rested his hand on her back and prodded her forward. She hadn’t even realized she’d stopped walking.
Ryley
