“Sorry, he’s busy,” she replied.
Before I could object, Zach opened the door wider, with the bed sheet wrapped around his waist. “What’s going on?”
I ran my gaze over the length of Zach, unable to stop myself. My interest might lie in Kipp, but I knew a good body when I saw one. Damn, we were lucky girls!
I dragged my eyes to Zach’s face. “Hannah came to see us. She remembers where she’s buried.”
“You’re kidding.” Zach laughed and shook his head to clearly compose himself. “This is the lead we’ve been waiting for. We cannot wait until the morning. If it means we’re closer to finding out who shot Kipp, then we have to proceed quickly.” Caley opened her mouth and he promptly clamped it shut with his fingers. “Playtime is over.”
Caley dared to look offended. “You’re just going to leave me here…” she looked down at the lower half of her body, “like this?”
Zach pulled Caley back into the room and shut the door while I heard her arguing with him. I followed Kipp to the living room and sat on the armrest of the leather chair next to him. I had the urge to give him a snuggle, but since I couldn’t, I just sat in close to him. A shiver ran down my back from the chilly air of him, but I welcomed it. The coldness meant he was still here.
Zach strode into the living room fully clothed, took a seat on the couch and ran a hand through his hair to get rid of his bedhead. “All right…” he lowered his hand and gave me a firm glance, “tell me what Hannah has said.”
He’d clearly gotten Caley to calm down. It impressed me she didn’t put up more of a stink. But I suspected she understood how important the case was, maybe Zach had filled her in on all the details, and apparently, he told her she couldn’t hear the fine details. But I wouldn’t have doubted in the least if her ear was presently glued to the door, listening. “Well, after…” I glanced at Kipp.
He grinned sultrily and his eyes sparkled in amusement. “You care to indulge him on our night of pleasure?”
No, I didn’t. But the mention of it brought memories back into my mind tenfold. His eyes—the nibble on his lip—my body warmed at the thought of it. Enjoyment flashed across Kipp’s face. Evidently, he’d been searching for just this reaction. I scowled, which he laughed at, then looked back to Zach. “Hannah came to us a little while ago. She said she headed out on a walk and ended up back at the area where she’s buried. Then the memory of when she woke came back to her.”
Zach’s eyes widened. His lip did a good Elvis impression. “Woke up—as in—where she was buried?”
My laughter hung right at the edge of bursting, but I remained a good girl and refrained. “You got it.”
His gaze remained glued with mine, an expression so serious on his face I had trouble deciphering his thoughts. He blinked. “Explain this to me, because I’m having a real hard time getting a grasp on exactly what you’re saying to me here. Hannah, the ghost, went for a walk around town, stumbled across the place she’s buried, then came to you—to tell us where to find her body.”
“No…I mean yes.” I shrugged. “She probably doesn’t know exactly where she’s buried, but she can give us a roundabout area.”
Zach shook his head, apparently trying to focus his thoughts. “And just how would she all of a sudden remember something so important?”
“Because that’s what happens.” Really, I grew so tired of repeating myself. If this ever happened again, which I would see it never did, I would have to write things down so I could save my voice from straining itself and just have them read it themselves. There had to be an easier way than this nonsense.
When Zach’s expression didn’t waver from his need for answers, I added, “It’s just what they do. Sometimes when they find me, they know enough to get down to business. But with others, their memories aren’t so clear and are held back from them. And it’s those times I usually need to give them a little push in the right direction or ask questions to bring the memory back up to the surface so they can,” I waved my hand whimsically, “cross over. But as always, with every circumstance, that push triggers more insight. Apparently Hannah knew more than she thought and could have been drawn to that area since it’s the reason for her inability to move on. It’s probably what led her there. You know, action without thought.”
Zach shook his head again. “If you say so.” He appeared far beyond mystified. “So then, tell me, where is Hannah Reid buried?”
Finally, we were moving on. The good thing about Zach, and one I surely appreciated, was he caught on quick. He asked the right questions to either prove or disprove and whatever way he decided, he went with it. I liked that about him a lot. “Meeman–Shelby Forest.”
Zach sighed deep, annoyance flashing across his face, which caused it to darken considerably. “Of course she’s somewhere like a forest. Why should I have expected anything different?” He dropped his face into his hands.
What did I miss? Shouldn’t this all be good news? We had the location of Hannah’s body, which was a good thing, and her family would have answers, also a good thing. So what had him all huffy? “What’s with the grumpy face?”
He slowly raised his head and his gaze connected with mine. “Do you have any idea of how large the forest is?”
Of course I did. It’d been great hiking destination here in Memphis—a wonderful way to get far from the busy city. Anyone and everyone from around these parts had camped, hiked or canoed there. “Er…yeah, it’s pretty big. Isn’t that what makes it so great?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Doesn’t that answer your question?”
I glanced at Kipp, looking for a bit of clarity. “He doesn’t know Hannah has pinpointed the area her body is in. I think you confused him when you said she didn’t know exactly where he placed her body. He assumes we’ll have to search the entire forest.”
“Oh!” I finally got a clue. “You don’t need to worry about it, Hannah said she can point us in the right direction. She doesn’t know…” I raised my hands and quoted with my fingers, “the exact place, but she knows the area she’s located in. She’s pretty sure she can show us how to get there on a map.”
“You’re fucking kidding me?” Zach exclaimed.
His outburst startled me. “No, I’m not kidding—what’s so funny?”
Kipp laughed. He apparently understood what had Zach’s face lighting up as if it was Christmas morning.
“You’re honestly telling me Hannah has agreed to take us to the location of her corpse?”
He didn’t have to spell it out more than he had. I got the humor in this all too quick. “Um…yes.” Now thinking about it, it sure sounded right up there in crazy town. I got the reaction I expected, Zach burst out laughing.
Kipp followed and I quickly joined them.
The whole scenario showed itself, and for all the strain we’d been through these past days, it came out in a fit of laughter. To think that we actually found Hannah, informed the cops of my ability and the bar incident—now the implication we were about to go hunting for bones was so absurd, none of us could control our emotions.
My eyes filled with tears as my stomach tightened from the force of my laughter. We’d been so wrapped up in it all, been through so much together, the reality just hadn’t set in. Now it had.
Zach keeled over, busting a gut. “You talk to ghosts—they tell you about their deaths.” His voice sounded strangled through loud, deep gasps of breath. “That’s fucking insane.”
“I know,” I managed. “They never shut up, always wanting something—I’m dead, where do I go, who am I?” My breath released in loud pants, my tummy ached from my muscles contracting with each laugh and tears streamed down my face.
Zach gripped his stomach as his face turned the shade of a tomato. “Oh, hey—by the way—I know where my corpse is.”
I barely caught my breath. “But don’t worry, I’ll take you there.”
Kipp dropped down onto his knees, laughing too hard to speak a word. For a few moments, no sound came from his mouth. His laughter crippled him.
“My body is in a forest, buried under the ground.” Zach hardly got the words out. “Would you mind digging me up?” He fell onto his side on the couch, trying to gather air into his body.
“But I can’t go—can’t be there to see my bones—’cause that’s just too weird.”
Drool dribbled down the side of my mouth. I sucked it back in, wiped my lips and cried out in laughter. I tried to get a grasp on reality again.
It didn’t happen. Not for at least five more minutes until we all gathered a sense of ourselves again. And decided the craziness of it all didn’t mean it wasn’t going to happen.
Zach returned to a sitting position, wiping the tears from his face, and sighed. “Fuck, if anyone just heard our conversation, we’d be committed.”
I smoothed the hair away from my face. “Why do you think I try to avoid ghosts in general? I like my freedom, thank you very much.”
Kipp had recovered enough to gather himself up to sit back on the chair. “No matter how insane it all is, it’s ours to deal with.”
Yes, there was that little fact. Before I could say anything, Zach interrupted. “So, what am I to do, get a map or something?” His chin shook, but to his credit, he held back his laughter.
“Sounds good to me,” I said, looking up at Kipp.
He nodded and his smile was still prevalent in his eyes. “A topographical map would be best. It’ll show us little details that Hannah might remember, such as hills and the lake she mentioned.”
I relayed the information to Zach.
He nodded and stood. “I’ve got one in the truck.” He glanced around and suddenly his eyes went cold with shame. He leaned down closer to me and whispered, “Hannah’s not here with us, is she?”
My smile came quick, but I restrained my laughter, as he had done. “No, she said she’d meet us at the main gates of the park.”
“Fair enough.” Zach’s expression shifted to relief. Obviously, his kind heart crumbled at the thought of hurting Hannah’s feelings. Yup, a good match for Caley in every way. Maybe he’d teach her some manners. Without another word, he spun on his heel and headed off toward the kitchen.
“Where are you going?” I called after him.
He glanced over his shoulder and no hint of amusement existed in him now. “I’m calling Max.”
Huh? I figured we’d just go to the park and Hannah would show us her location on the map. Then, in the morning, Zach and some other police officers would head out to take a look. “Why does he need to call Max now?” I asked Kipp. “Won’t he be pissy for waking him?”
“Just gathering the troops, is all. It’s protocol to let him know what’s going on,” he replied, running his frosty touch down my cheek with a sweet smile.
I enjoyed the chilly breeze that danced across my skin and I closed my eyes. Guess the whole not heading out tonight flopped. At least hearing there’d be others gave me positive thoughts. “Oh good, so there’ll be lots of you, which means I can stay in the truck.”
“That’s doubtful.”
I opened my eyes and moved away from his touch. “What’s doubtful?”
Again, Kipp smiled, which showed he enjoyed when anger burned in my blood. “I imagine you’ll need to come with us.”
Oh hell no, I would not! Go in the middle of the night, walk through a scary, dark forest on the hunt for a dead girl’s grave? Not likely. “And just why will I need to do that?”
Kipp shrugged. “Simple, how will the others converse with me if you’re not there?”
“But, but, but I don’t want to go out in a dark forest in the middle of the night.” Sure, I pouted, but I didn’t care, I didn’t want to have any part of this.
Kipp arched an eyebrow. “Not sure you have a choice here.”
He just stepped over the line from being a ghost to a bossy ghost. “I always have choices and this is one where I’m saying no.”
“If Hannah knows the location, we’ll just have a look around the area. I’m sure the forest is thick and anything disrupted will be an obvious sight.”
“But she’s been dead for five years,” I retorted. “It’ll be overgrown by now. How are you even going to see anything?”
“It’ll be less overgrown than the rest of it.” After I opened my mouth to continue my rambling, he raised his hand. “Listen, I know the idea of going out there to her grave frightens you, but you’ll be kept safe. Don’t you trust me enough to know that I wouldn’t put you in danger?”
“Of course I trust you.” He smiled. “But what the hell is trusting a ghost going to do?” He frowned, but that didn’t stop me. “What are you going to do, spook someone to death?”
“Yes.” He paused. “Well, I’ll do something. Besides, Zach will be there and he has a gun. Does that ease your worries?”
It’d ease me more if I didn’t have to go at all. But I’d learned enough so far to know fighting him was a losing battle, so why bother. “We’ll just look around and we’re out of there, right?”
He nodded. “Right.”
Zach reentered the room with a grin worth a million dollars on his face. “Well, Tess, hope you don’t mind a little dirt under your fingernails, because we’re about to go grave digging.”
Dark night, scary forest, crazed murderer, hidden grave—help!
Chapter Eight
As Zach drove through Meeman–Shelby Forest, shadows and gloom settled across the land. I wasn’t normally jumpy—spirits were real, what else could scare me? Still, my nerves were rattled. We weren’t searching for a spirit—we were looking for a body buried five years ago. My stomach flipped and flopped at the images swimming through my mind.