Free ENTANGLED by Jennifer Estep, Cynthia Eden, Allison Brennan, Dale Mayer, Lori Brighton, Liz Kreger, Michelle Miles, Misty Evans Edie Ramer, Nancy Haddock, Michelle Diener Page A

what?”
     
    “I do not know, but it is not safe out there. I must rest.”
     
    With that, Angelica disappeared. She didn’t fade or waft through a wall or the ceiling as she had last time we met. She vanished faster than I could blink.
     
    “Safe?” Patti said, her voice squeaky. “Is Angelica threatening us?”
     
    “Heavens, no,” I said bracingly. “Angelia says the sofa is in the right place, and to put the tall white lamp on a table by the wall. The rest of the accessories you can arrange as you like, and your things will be safe from her.”
     
    “Really? The haunting is over?”
     
    I smiled, nodded, and made all the right noises as I helped Patti finish rearranging the sunroom, but I knew in my gut that somewhere else, a haunting was just beginning.
     
o0o
    The late October wind blasted through my open windows and tousled my short black hair as I drove my Accord south on Avenida Menendez along the bay front. Not so much a cold wind as, well, wild. Unsettled. The town spooks I spotted as I cruised past appeared to be as restless as Angelica had been, flitting from their usual haunts to the sea wall and back again. Major weird.
     
    Then I got stuck on the restored Bridge of Lions that links historic downtown St. Augustine to Anastasia Island and saw a sailboat cut through what first looked like low lying fog. But no, fog and wind don’t mix. Those gray-white forms were ghosts hovering over the waters of the Matanzas Bay, shifting around the ship’s bow, and giving me a major case of the crawl-out-of-my-skin heebie-jeebies.
     
    I noted the activity in the spiral notebook I kept on the passenger seat. The same spiral in which I also wrote reminders such as the house insurance and taxes being due soon. Another hit to my pathetic bank account, and Patti Coleman’s check wouldn’t boost my bottom line that much. Taking on roommates last year hadn’t put me completely in the black either, though Pilar and Jaime had become good friends who put up with the quirks of my household.
     
    How did people get financially ahead and stay there? I shook my head as traffic began moving on the bridge. I inched my way along, seeing ghosts still churning over the white caps of the bay waters. When I reached the apex of the span, a mighty screech coming from the metal bridge deck made me slam on the brakes. A second later, three ghosts shot straight out of the Accord’s hood. What the hell?
     
    I don’t know how long I sat frozen, my clenched hands trembling on the steering wheel, but a horn honk made me hit the gas hard, and the car leaped forward. I eased into the right lane on Anastasia Boulevard as soon as I could, still shaken by the freaky ghost behavior that was sure new to me.
     
    Clearly the native spirits were restless, but why? Sure storms could stir paranormal activity, but this was a simple windy day in October. Wasn’t it? And, yes, we were a scant day away from Halloween when the veil between worlds thinned, but I’d still never seen spirits act like they were jumping out of their own ectoplasm.
     
    Luckily, I had a direct source of advanced ghost knowledge at home, and I’d question him pronto.
     
    And just maybe I should return the call to my least favorite ghost investigator. Give him a heads up on the bizarre ghost activity, and let him choose to believe me or not.
     
    Five minutes later I eased up the incline of my narrow street. Jaime’s jeep sat by the mailbox, but a huge black van almost blocked the turn in to my brick driveway. Damn renters across the street threw more parties than the Romans had orgies, and their guests were never considerate. I edged between the vehicles, and drove through the ten-foot stone pillars flanking the drive.
     
    Eight-foot high walls of stacked stone and coquina enclosed my acre tract of land. The property teemed with live oaks and magnolias, their limbs twisted into fantastical shapes by the sea winds and draped with Spanish moss. Yes, having an acre of