Free One More Bite by Jennifer Rardin

reason. Eventually Viv would have to figure out that she was a grown-up, and it was time for her to do what she needed to make herself whole again. Even if that meant she left Rhona alone, ranting about organizing ghost town so she could somehow achieve revenge on the shade of her husband’s killer.

    Cole stood up slowly and rubbed the kinks out of his legs. Without consulting either one of us he said, “We’ll do whatever you need, Viv. Just let us know your decision Anyour de, okay?”

    She nodded, tugging at the scarf around her neck like it was a noose. As I stood to leave, hefting the goddess lamp and scratching Jack on the head when he leaped to his feet, Vayl said, “I wonder if you would mind answering one last question for us. Floraidh seemed anxious to avoid discussing the man we nearly ran over in her lane. Are you sure you have not seen him walking in that area?”

    Iona said, “Actually I did, just as we turned in. I hated to mention anything earlier; Floraidh

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    seemed so disturbed by the idea. But he was standing on the corner with his hands behind his back, watching us rather mournfully. I pointed him out to Viv, but when she tried to get a glimpse, he’d gone. He seemed an old-fashioned dresser to me. Almost like an actor in a costume, wouldn’t you say?” she asked.

    Vayl nodded. “Indeed. The longer I think on it, the more I believe his suit was from a different era. Perhaps the late 1800s.”

    Cole asked, “How could you tell?”

    “I recalled his suit coat was buttoned only at the top. And his vest was cut straight across at the waist.”

    “So you’re into period clothing?” asked Iona.

    “We run into a lot of ghosts from that age,” I said. “Don’t know why. Just plenty of remnants from the 1880s.”

    “So we saw a ghost?” Cole asked.

    “Certainly this discussion has made me wonder,” said Vayl. “I suppose there is only one way for us to find out. We will simply have to set up our equipment. With Floraidh’s permission, of course.” He turned to Viv. “As for your issue, it is as Del, here, suggested. We will await your decision and act accordingly.”

    She nodded, the contemplation on her face transforming it into a beautifully fragile portrait. But I realized that behind that delicate picture lurked the soul of an Amazon. Those funky shoes proved it. And if she could just get through this terrible time, I had a feeling Viv would finally discover it for herself.

    Chapter Nine

    We left Iona and Viv with the agreement that we’d sit with them at GhostCon’s opening ceremonies, and split up in the hallway outside their door. Vayl and Cole went to track down Floraidh. Their plan: charm her into saying anything-you-like to setting up our cameras and various other phantom detectors, which, of course, detected no such thing. We’d already manufactured an excuse to flood the house with our Bergman-made goodies, all of them meant to help us track an assassin’s movements. But our experience on the lane had provided us with a better story, one Floraidh might buy. Especially when Vayl waved a few hundred-pound notes under her upturned nose.

    Since the guys had deserted us, I grabbed Jack’s supplies from my trunk and we trotted downstairs to the kitchen. Like the other rooms in the house, this one tried its hand at cozy. A farmer’s table holding a blue bowl brimming with fruit and surrounded by six tall chairs dominated the south side of the pea-green room. On the north side, a work island and white cabinets whose doors had been stenciled with red flowers connected by leafy vines gave it Fl„
    balance. Though when I began to imagine what all the coven members chopped on the hard maple surface of that island, the kitchen stopped seeming so quaint.

    The fake wooden countertops held your typical assortment of canisters, cookbooks, and small appliances. A refrigerator took