Part 3 (1/2)

I blinked, and stood up straight. So you can hear me?

Dags winced and looked at me. He slowly pulled his hands away from his head. ”Say that again?”

I pursed my lips. I said, so you can hear me?

He nodded slowly. ”Yeah, well, no. Not really hear you.”

Huh?

Rhonda shook her head. ”What?”

”It's--it's more like I can suddenly see pictures. Images that kinda tell me what it is you're saying.”

Okaynowthatwasweird.

Jemmy reached out her hand and Dags took it, allowing she and Rhonda to help him off the floor. He looked a little pale--which only added to his striking eyes and dark hair.

”Lemme see,” Jemmy grabbed his left shoulder and pressed her palm into his forehead. He glanced over at me and sort of gave me a helpless deer look. ”Youse okay--but I'm afraid Zoe might have opened up your third eye.”

Dags nodded and stepped back. I was thinking he might bolt. And who could blame him?

”What do you mean by images?” Steve said from his perch beside Nona's chair.

”Well,” Dags held out his hands, palms up. ”I knew she was asking me if I could hear her. But what I saw in my head was a barrage of images of ears and then her face.” He glared at me. ”And I do mean a barrage. Please, don't yell anymore.”

Yell. I can yell?

I somehow felt comforted. Guilty. But oddly comforted.

Everyone took their seats again. I sat down and attacked my breakfast. It was cold.

”Zoe,” Rhonda said as an icebreaker. ”I'll handle it. You eat.” She turned to Dags and gave him a very nice reader's digest version of what had happened to us in the past month. From my meeting TC, to the Reverend Rollins, Hirok.u.mi, Daniel, Susan, Rai, and then the Phantasm.

I was a little surprised too. I'd told them all that? Wow. I'm a blabbermouth even when I don't have a voice.

Dags took it all in, finis.h.i.+ng up his coffee. I did notice he pressed his fingers into his forehead and temple a lot--like maybe his head hurt.

After Rhonda was done, Dags spoke up. ”Okay. So,” he turned and looked at me. ”You're a Wraith--whatever that is--and you can go out of body. That much I've seen.”

”And if you did see trouble around the Chief of Surgery,” Nona said as she b.u.t.tered a biscuit and then put it on my half-empty plate. ”What exactly is it you could do?”

”Nothing,” Dags said with a shrug. ”I was just told to watch and observe. I'm not an action hero, or an exorcist, or...,” he glanced at me. ”Or a Wraith. I'm just a guy that sees ghosts. But I was told to log in and report anything unusual.”

Rhonda put her hand up. ”So, you were also paid to watch Nancy's grandfather?” She frowned. ”By whom? Who is wanting to know about Bonville?”

He suddenly looked uncomfortable. ”I--I really don't know. Most of my clients come by the internet. And this particular one has been pretty interested in this guy for a while.”

”What do they ask you to do?” Mom said.

I wasn't as suspicious as Rhonda--h.e.l.l--my biggest client called themselves--themself?--maharba. So--who was I to judge?

”Well, to keep an eye on everyone around him. See who p.i.s.sed him off next and see if they disappear like all the others.”

”And the restaurant?” Mom nudged. ”The reason why you responded to Rhonda's response to Maureen's inquiry?”

Wow. She sounded all professional.

I watched him.

Dags' shoulders rose as he took in a deep breath and sighed. ”Mostly because I knew Maureen. We'd gone out a few times. After I started there as the loft bartender--I noticed she never came upstairs. I always had to meet her at the foot of the stairs. Then one day the manager was there in his office and arguing on the phone. Most of the staff grew quiet--and I waited until he'd left before I asked them what was up.

”Maureen and Toby--the main floor bartender in the evenings--both took me out back for a smoke--them not me--I don't smoke--and told me about the Shadow People.”

”Shadow People?” Jemmy spoke up.

Rhonda gave out the definition she'd googled before. Jemmy nodded. ”Oh I knows about them,” she said softly before setting back. ”But that's not what we calls them.”

I looked at Dags before s.h.i.+fting my gaze to Jemmy. I erased, scribbled. YOU SEEN?

”Not seen, but I have heard the stories. They don't like people much,” she said. ”When I was much younger, they was several of them lived in a house over on Clairmont, near LaVista. Beautiful old house--wrap around porch and a large attic. There was a little girl lived there about--oh--twenty years ago. Went to one of those schools nearby, went to the Lutheran church down from Moreland. I cleaned upstairs in the church three evenings a week after services and meetings.

”She used to sit out in the suns.h.i.+ne during the day when it was hot. Sweating. Wouldn't go inside in. Told me over a lemonade one day that the dark peoples lived in the shade. And they were mean.”

”She saw these dark peoples?” Nona said.

Jemmy nodded. ”She said they were in her house. Said they lived in the attic. And they hated her, and her family. Wanted them out of that house. She tried to tell her mama and daddy that, but no one listens to a child.”

I grabbed up my board and wrote on it. DID THEY KILL LIL'GIRL?

She nodded. I knew she would. ”Coroner said she fell down the stairs leaving the attic one afternoon.” Jemmy shook her head. ”That's not true. She'd never go into that attic. They did it--I don't know how. But I was always sure those dark peoples--or Shadow People--had something to do with it.”

”So are they lost souls?” Rhonda asked the room. ”Or demons? Why do something like that? What's their motive?”

Dags spoke up. ”Tim, Steve, have you ever seen them?”

Both of the ghosts shook their head. ”We're bound here,” Steve said and pointed to the ground. ”To this house. There have never been Shadow People in here. But if they exist on something other than the physical or the astral, then we can't see them anyway.”

”Not sure I want to,” Tim said.

Me neither. I was getting goose b.u.mps. Me, Wraith. Sucker of souls, hear me roar.

Mental Note: me-ow.

”So there are Shadow People in the restaurant,” Nona said. She picked up her coffee, and I noticed she'd done her nails. They were painted a light pink.

Since when did mom do her nails?

Dags nodded. ”I think there's a link between them and Dr. Bonville. I'm sure you already know that Nancy's grandmother disappeared a few months ago. And the seventh employee to disappear under Dr. Bonville's patronage was Maureen.”

Seven? I waved at Dags and held up two fingers.