Free The Frighteners by Michael Jahn Page A

lowered his voice. “Folks don’t have respect for the law unless you look like a TV cop.”
    Frank was still looking at Ray. The gravediggers had begun to fill in the hole. Dirt was piling up around Ray’s chest.
    “Frank!” Ray said worriedly.
    Ray was in danger of being buried, but Frank was powerless to help as long as he was under the sheriff’s gaze.
    “Did you ever hear of a guy called Milton Dammers, Frank?” Perry asked, speaking up and beginning to sound official.
    Frank shook his head.
    “He’s some psychic freak the FBI is sending to help us out. These deaths are causing a lot of concern. Ray is just the latest one. They look like heart attacks, but when the coroner opens them up, the arteries are as clean as a whistle.”
    Perry lowered his voice one more time and continued, “But there’s been this tremendous pressure on the heart. It’s like it’s had the life crushed out of it. Any theories, Frank?”
    Now panicked as the dirt continued to pile up on him, Ray yelled, “Frank!” He was up to his neck in soil, and still too uncertain of his emanation powers to get himself out.
    Bannister said to the sheriff, “I have to go, Walt. I want to pay my last respects to Ray before they finish filling him in.”
    Sheriff Perry nodded and stepped respectfully to one side. When he did so, Frank bent down and grabbed a handful of dirt. He tossed it onto the rising pile of dirt in the hole. As part of the same movement, he grabbed hold of Ray’s arm and hauled him out of the hole. Then, as subtly as he could, Bannister marched the just-rescued emanation away from the dispersing mourners.
    If Bannister hoped to get Ray clean away, he was disappointed. For Lucy Lynskey spotted him and called out, “Mr. Bannister? Can I talk to you?”
    Frank and Ray spun around at the sound of her voice. They saw her walking away from her parents toward Bannister.
    Ray was excited. “Oh God, she can see me!” he said excitedly. “Lucy!”
    He broke away from Bannister and held his arms straight out as Lucy arrived. But she walked straight through him.
    “Mr. Bannister,” she asked, her voice carrying a hopeful tone, “did you want to see me?”
    Frank looked wary.
    She continued, “When I saw you here, I thought perhaps . . . you might have a message from Ray.”
    Ray was excited. “Tell her, Frank! Tell her I’m here,” he cried.
    “Everyone says you’re a fraud,” she continued, “but I’ve seen what you can do.”
    Bannister didn’t know what to say, caught as he was between the deceased and his widow.
    Ray screamed, “Frank!”
    Lucy had a different reaction to Bannister’s silence. She looked sad.
    She said, “You must think I’m very stupid . . . Excuse me.”
    As she turned and began to walk back toward her parents, Frank thought quickly, then said, “Ray says he loves you very much.”
    Lucy spun around. She could see only Frank standing there, looking a little awkward.
    She looked at him, then back at her parents, who were glaring at Bannister. Of course, she couldn’t see Ray at all, even though he stood right beside Frank.
    “He told you that?” she asked, lowering her voice.
    Frank nodded.
    “We have to talk, but not here,” she said.

    Lucy looked especially beautiful in the candlelight of the corner table at Bellisimo’s, the restaurant that had been her and Ray’s favorite. She was watching nervously across the crowded room for Bannister, who was late, as usual. When he finally did make his way between the other tables to reach her nook, she noticed that he was unusually well dressed. He had found a better suit in his closet, and for this occasion managed to locate a tie that didn’t look like it had been run over by a truck. Ray, too, had spiffed up for the night. His hair was slicked back, and he had wiped off as much excess ectoplasm as he could. He lagged behind Frank, looking as nervous as a teenager on his first date.
    “Hi,” Frank said, quite taken with the sight of