Free The Ambitious Card (An Eli Marks Mystery) by John Gaspard

asked softly as he opened the wallet and began sorting through the bills.
    Megan waved away his question with one hand, resting the other casually on her hip as she pushed a stray strand of hair out of her face. “Oh, nonsense,” she said. “I can’t charge for connecting people to the other side. That just wouldn’t be right.”
    A psychic who doesn’t charge money. Harry gave me a look of surprise and wonder. I shrugged. Although it hadn’t seemed possible, she just became even more attractive.
    Megan began walking Harry toward the front of the store, with me tagging along. “I just saw that poor spirit over your shoulder,” she continued. “Saw it the moment you came in, and it was just so persistent, I just had to help get its messages across.”
    “Well, thanks for that,” I said before Harry could answer.
    “You know, I’m amazed I could hear anything at all, what with all these new crystals I got recently,” she said, gesturing toward a display case filled with various stones, gems, and crystals. “Crystals can be so loud sometimes, don’t you think?”
    Yes,” I agreed, trying to sound sympathetic. “Yes they can. Rambunctious, even.”
    This produced a sidelong glance from Harry. I ignored it and drove forward, now that I had her attention. “I noticed that you’ve added a used-book section since I was last in.”
    “Yes,” she said, looking over at the corner that housed several makeshift shelves of old paperbacks and hardcover books.
    Two teenage girls were looking through the titles and exchanging conspiratorial whispers.
    “That’s working out well,” she said with a hint of pride in her voice. “It’s nice to be able to keep those books circulating to new souls.”
    “You know, I had an idea for a promotion that you could do,” I said, gesturing to an invisible banner that could hang over that section. “You could have a banner that says, ‘Used New Age Books—Any Book You Think You Read in a Past Life is Half Off.’”
    She gave me a long, questioning look and then burst out laughing, giving my shoulder a playful slap in the process. “You’re funny,” she said, looking me in the eye—finally!—and then turning to Harry. “He’s funny, isn’t he?”
    Harry was attempting to suppress a scowl and coming up short. “Hysterical,” he said without humor, his flat tone speaking volumes.

      
    “Could you be any more of a lovesick puppy?” Harry asked, not nearly as quietly as I would have liked.
    Harry and I stood outside the front door of Chi & Things in silence for a few moments, making sure that Megan had returned to talking with customers and that we were well out of earshot.
    “Me?” I squeaked, my voice hitting a higher range than I had intended. “What about you?”
    I did my best impression of him. “I think a reading would be just delightful ,” I said, drawing out the last three syllables into about six. “You old phony.”
    He gave a harrumph and I harrumphed right back at him and then we turned and started heading up the street to the magic shop. I realized that I was still holding the small notepad Megan had given me. I absently flipped through the pages.
    “Did she get even one solid hit?” I asked as I scanned my notes.
    “Nada,” Harry said.
    “You’d think that mere chance would factor in and help her out with at least one hit.”
    “You’d think,” he agreed, and then he stopped. “Wait, there was something. Something about dimes. She said it very quickly.”
    I paged through the notes until I found it. “Here it is. She said that your late wife is leaving you dimes. As reminders of her love.”
    I looked up to see that a cloud had crossed over Harry’s face. “What?” I asked.
    “It’s just,” he said, pulling on his beard thoughtfully. “When I first met your aunt, it was at a party. At someone’s house, I don’t remember whose. Anyway, at the end of the night I asked Alice if I could call her some time. And she said yes. She