“Boomer, honey, are you okay?”
Skye was shaking, but the dog’s tone shifted back into the familiar whine that said her brother was around. And then another voice shocked her.
“Have you already given some strange guy access to your apartment?”
Boomer bolted past her.
Barely breathing, she looked into the living room. There, next to the fireplace, stooping toward his dog, was her supposedly dead brother. The sun suddenly came from behind the clouds and through the bay windows in a shimmering wave of light worthy of a resurrection.
A weight lifted from her. She couldn’t breathe and pressed her hands to her chest, as if she could keep her heart from exploding with joy.
“Shade, you’re alive!” She started toward him. “What’s going on? Why did you let everyone think you were dead? Why did you let me believe I’d lost you?”
Her body felt electrified as she flew forward to fling her arms around her brother...
...and met nothing but air.
Was she going crazy, imagining him? Skye choked back a sob. Then Shade stepped toward her into the sunlight and his form lost its substance. She could still see him but he was translucent now.
Crying out in despair, she put out a hand to touch him.
Nothing.
Her eyes stung.
Shade was here but not.
How could this be? Had she lost her mind? she wanted to believe he was here with her.
“I don’t understand.”
“I don’t either. I should be gone.” Shade looked upward. “You know, with the big guy. I should be up there getting busy in his service, doing whatever it is he wants.” He frowned. “Maybe there’s something I left undone here.”
A wave of enervating emotion swept through her. Maybe she was imagining his being here simply because she wanted it to be so. Her pulse tick-ticked as she tried to think clearly. If she wasn’t imagining things and Shade’s ghost was here, there was a reason he was appearing to her.
“What happened, Shade? Who shot you?”
The smile faded and his expression turned grim. “Don’t know. I don’t even remember what I was doing.”
He was pacing the room, Boomer next to him. The dog’s love and happiness at being with Shade swept through her.
Ghost. Her brother was a ghost. Not so strange considering they’d always had a psychic connection and had communicated without words.
Without words.
“Wait a minute. That guy who broke in here. I heard his thoughts.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like he was talking to me. Only his lips weren’t moving. I don’t hear people, you do.” Suddenly, Skye realized she should be doing something about the break-in. “Wait! What am I doing?” She felt for her cell phone. “I need to report it—”
“Whoa, not so fast. Let’s see what he took first.”
Getting to her feet, she led the way to his bedroom. Drawers hung open. Shade’s things were scattered across the dresser. His diamond tie clip was still there. A gold ring. A couple hundred in cash.
Skye shook her head. “I don’t get it. Why would a thief leave this stuff behind?”
“Maybe he was looking for something connected with the case I was working on. Maybe that’s it. Maybe I’m not supposed to go anywhere until I remember. You’ve got to help me figure this out.”
This situation was surreal. Skye feared she was going to blink and Shade would simply disappear.
“Where do we start? Ethan gave me your personal things, but no casebook.” Shade always had his casebook on him. “Maybe Dad has it.”
“You know he’ll never give it to you. What about her cell phone?”
“Maybe Dad has that, too.”
“You know he doesn’t believe in full disclosure to anyone but another cop. Hmm, my online calendar.” Shade walked into the bedroom that held a desk and a couple of bookshelves.
In something of a daze, she followed. Her mind was spinning with this new development. She was still having trouble believing she wasn’t imagining it all.
Her ghostly brother tried to open the lid of his laptop. When his hands went right through it, he swore under his breath.
“Let me,” she murmured, sliding into the desk chair and flipping open the lid.
She went through the motions, but her mind wouldn’t focus, kept going back to the fact that this had to be impossible, that Shade couldn’t be here, that she was imagining him out of her grief. But every time she looked up, he was still there, either focused on his computer or on her with a worried expression.
Finally, she found his online calendar, and together they deciphered his notes going back a month. Several entries were marked DF at 10 p.m., but each entry cited a different location.
“DF...” Shade murmured. “DF... DF... DF...”
“Dogfight,” she said. “You were at one the other night. No actual dogs were fighting, though. More like wild animals. And where the heck did they come from?”
“Sorry.” He shrugged. “I don’t remember. Maybe Ethan would know something.”
“I doubt it,” she said, thinking of his denial at the cemetery, “but I can try again.” she started out the door and up the stairs, then turned back one more time to see Shade standing in the doorway, his expression frustrated. “Are you coming?”
“It seems I can’t leave.” He illustrated by trying to enter the hall. Any body part he tried to move through the doorway simply disappeared. “Seems I’m trapped right here. I guess you’ll have to see Ethan alone.”
She wasn’t looking forward to a confrontation with Shade’s partner, who, like Dad, would want her to stay out of anything that was police business.
~
Skye found Ethan at his desk at the Area North offices, photographs of murder victims before him. His rugged features were gathered together in a tight frown as he studied them, as if he could determine the murderer if he simply tried hard enough. That was Ethan. Focused. Determined. Believing he could make things right for everyone. And he usually did. All reasons why she cared for him like another brother.
She had to clear her throat to get his attention. He whipped his hard gaze to her, then his eyes softened to a warm light brown when they met hers. “How are you doing, Skye?”
She took a deep breath. “I’ll be better when my brother’s murderer is brought to justice. Someone broke into his place tonight.”
Ethan lunged out of his chair as if he wanted to inspect her for injury. “Did he hurt you?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“You’re sure?”
When she nodded, he stepped back, but his expression didn’t relax. His deep voice filled with worry as he asked, “You called it in, right?”
“No. Nothing seemed to be missing, but the intruder was looking for something.”
“You did see him?”
“I chased him out.”
He stood there for a minute staring at her. “This worries me, Skye. I can’t let anything happen to you, too. I’ll send a team over there to dust for prints, see if they find anything else that could identify this guy. Maybe you ought to move in with your dad for a while.”
She knew Ethan had an incredible sense of responsibility whether it had to do with the job or with a friend. “That’s not going to happen. How about giving me an update?”