The Trouble with Tinsel: A Jess and Libby Paranormal Cozy Mystery (Afterlife Issues Book 4) by A.W. Hartoin

Author:A.W. Hartoin [Hartoin, A.W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-10-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

The traffic had gone completely berserk by the time we got close to Number Eight. It took nearly forty-five minutes to get to our driveway because the Tudor scary singers had parked themselves in front of our house. A crowd of about fifty people were videoing their performance, and as beautiful as it was, I wanted to yell, “Get off my lawn” like some crabby old geezer.

While inching toward the driveway at the speed of slugs, Pam asked, “What happens now?”

Since I was trying not to yell, I found it hard to answer and looked to Jess for comforting words, but she was snoozing against the door. A good thing, I know. She was upset, and maybe a few well-placed whiskey sours were just what she needed. I wouldn’t have picked that, but I rarely got to pick.

I took a breath and said, “We’re going to introduce you to our ghost. Leo. We told you about him.”

“I don’t know. Maybe you can just tell me how it all works.” In the middle of her sentence, Pam’s voice changed, and I glanced back. She was her little girl self, wet and dripping.

“I would if I could, but I’m no expert,” I said.

“You must be. You investigate ghosts.”

“That’s a new thing, and we’re still learning. I suspect we will always be learning. It’s a big, unpredictable ghost world out there.”

Pam’s voice went higher. “I don’t like that. There should be rules.”

“There are, but ghosts are individuals. You’re a therapist. I imagine you know that better than most.”

“I suppose,” said Pam, but she didn’t sound convinced in the slightest.

“Leo will help. He’s great. The absolute best. Our kids love him.”

“Your kids can see him?”

“They can and my mom, too.”

“Will they be able to see me?” she asked hopefully.

I got the car around a minivan that was parked in the middle of the road by going up on the sidewalk, which didn’t go over well with the walkers, but a mom’s gotta do what a mom’s gotta do.

“I think they will once you get control,” I said as I got stopped by a dad pulling a wagon.

“It doesn’t seem like I can control much.”

“Not yet, but you will. Do you mind telling me what’s up with the wet?”

I watched Pam look down and get startled by her own appearance. “Oh, my goodness. Why does this keep happening?”

“Leo will know, but what happened?”

“When?”

“When you were little and wet?” I asked. “Do you remember yet?”

“Oh.” She thought about it. “I guess I do.”

Pam told me a tale that was obviously a scarring experience but also an accidental one. In elementary school, she’d been in a club that met after school for a few hours. One Tuesday in January, the club let out after dark and all the other kids got picked up, but Pam didn’t. Her mother was in a minor car accident on the way to get her. The weather turned, and Pam got soaked in the downpour in gale-force winds. It took two hours in the dark at the school before her father realized what had happened and came to get her.

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