Free The Lost Bee by L. K. Rigel

pushed the trunk against the wall. As she picked up the saddle to replace it on top of the trunk, she thought heard a sound from overhead, like a snap, but there was nothing in the rafters but a few extra bundles of vine stakes.
    She hoisted the saddle on top of the trunk and turned to go. Another noise came from overhead, a creepy sound of metal sliding against metal. She looked up to see a several loose steel stakes shooting out of the rafters—and flying straight toward her.
    Kiss Me Hello
     
    L.K. Rigel
     
     

Table of Contents
     
    Prologue
     
    He Pushed Her
     
    Wake Up
     
    Where Are We Going?
     
    A One-Off
     
    Bonnie
     
    Dreaming
     
    Coffee Spot
     
    Skeleton Key
     
    The Journal
     
    Dinner, Dolls, & Dollars
     
    Lullaby
     
    Murder Weapon
     
    Snowdrops In May
     
    Ghost Screamer
     
    Issues Oriented
     
    Whispering
     
    The Opposite of Dying
     
    The Things We Think We Have
     
    This Old House
     
    Corazon
     
    Memorial
     
    We Can Have It All
     
    Intensive Care
     
    Some Rest in Peace
     
    Residual Effects
     
    Song of Songs
     
     
     

Kiss Me Hello
    L.K. Rigel

Prologue
From the Journal of Joss Montague
     
     
     
Lahaina, island of Maui, Territory of Hawaii December 6, 1941
     
Last night I won my soul in a game of chance.
At least that’s what the Chinese fellow tried to tell me. He offered up a broken brass bell as collateral when I raised the bet on a pair of jacks. The pot had swelled to almost three hundred dollars, more than enough to haul my trunk down to the port and go home to Olivia.
It didn’t hurt that the two boys had three pretty ladies on their arms.
The Chinese was the only one left in the game. The others—a pineapple plantation overseer and two naval officers over from Pearl Harbor—had folded.
The pot was mine; all I had to do was refuse the bell. No one would think me a bounder. It was broken, even if it was a pretty thing. But I allowed the bet, not because I’m such a great guy, and not because the Chinese was raving on with a sad story about the rape of Nanking, but because the bell was etched with snowdrops and it reminded me of Turtledove Hill.
I promised what gods there be that if I won the pot I’d head home the next day. It was time to face Olivia.
The Chinese had three aces, and he laid them out in gleeful triumph. The poor sucker turned white as a ghost when I turned my three ladies over on the two boys.
“That bell save your soul,” he said, so woeful I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
“I can always use a life insurance policy,” I told him as I raked in the pot. “Even if it’s just Oriental superstition.”
“Not save your life. You fool. That bell save your soul one day. You mark my word now.”
I’ve packed the bell at the bottom of my steamer trunk. Whether or not it saves my soul remains to be seen, but it will make for an interesting story in years to come.

1 - He Pushed Her
     
    “M r. Rochester pushed Bertha Mason, but it wasn’t murder.” The ghostly voice came from Sara Blakemore’s favorite student Mona in the back of the room. “It was temporary insanity.”
    Sara laughed with the rest of the class. She was getting a kick out of the lively debate: The Death of Bertha Mason, Accident—or Murder?
    Murder. Blood. Guts. Subjects sure to intrigue youthful passions while—Sara hoped—something of Jane Eyre’s devastating social commentary seeped through. That was her theory, anyway, and she was sticking to it.
    “It’s stupid.” David rolled his eyes. “Why didn’t the Prometheus guy just divorce the crazy lady in the attic?”
    The Prometheus guy.
    He meant Michael Fassbender, the actor who played Mr. Rochester in the 2011 movie version and who was also in the movie Prometheus .
    “The fabulous Mr. Fassbender notwithstanding,” Sara said, “no screenplay out there is entirely faithful to the novel’s narrative structure.” She cast a dubious eye over the class. “If you rely on a DVD to study for the final, I promise you