Page 17 of My Blind Date is a Ghost

“Friends with benefits?” she says, wiggling her eyebrows.

“What is that?” I ask.

She laughs. “I think we need to have a little talk about dating in the modern age.”

CHAPTER 8

BECKETT

I know that Cora doesn’t want me looking into her past, into her death. I understand why she is afraid. But unfortunately, this isn’t just about her. After she and Sophia left to go shopping, I had a little discussion with Beverly.

“We have to know what happened to her,” Beverly said.

“She’s pretty on edge,” I said. “She’s been through a lot. I almost hit her with my car. She ran right out in front of me. She’s lost, disoriented. I don’t want to make things worse for her.”

“That’s commendable,” Beverly said, “but you are a police officer. Your duty is to this town.”

“I know what my job is, Ms. Barnes,” I said, a little annoyed that she would think I wasn’t doing my due diligence by the citizens of Mystic Cove. “But if Cora doesn’t want me looking into her case, what can I do? I have to respect her wishes.”

“This is bigger than just Cora, though,” Beverly said. “In all my years, in all my research, I’ve never come across a ghost returning to life. It’s unnatural.”

I chuckled. “Most of the residents of Mystic Cove are unnatural. Why is Cora any different.”

“The others have a cause, a history. We know why they exist and where they come from. Cora is…something altogether new.”

“New…and scary?” I asked.

“Maybe,” she said, rubbing her lower lip thoughtfully.

“But you can’t mean to send her back,” I said. “You heard what she said, she wants to live.”

“Of course I don’t want to send her back. Don’t be ridiculous.”

“What, then?”

“Whoever or whatever brought her back must be an insanely powerful source of magic,” Beverly said. “Think about it. Nothing like this has ever happened before. If someone is powerful enough to bring the dead back to life, what could that person do to the living?”

I sighed as I took a swig of coffee. “You think whoever did this is a threat to the town?”

“Maybe,” she said. “We at least have to find out who it was. Maybe they will use their power for good and not evil. But we have to at least know, one way or the other.”

“You know what I don’t understand,” I said, “is why Cora, of all people. She’s just a human, right? Not a witch or vampire. And she was just a bookseller. She wasn’t a town founder or anyone of real significance, right?”

“Well, she was a Barnes ancestress,” Beverly says. “But even that is not particularly special. Her mother was too. So, yes, why Cora?”

“What if it wasn’t a person who brought her back?” I said. “What if it just…happened? Mystic Cove sits on powerful lay lines, right?”

Beverly sighed. “I suppose it’s possible, but I don’t think so. It’s never happened before, and the town has been here for almost four hundred years.”

“A miracle four hundred years in the making?” I asked.

Beverly shook her head. “When you have eliminated all which is possible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

“I think you mean impossible,” I said.

“I heard what I said. First, eliminate all possibilities. Then, and only then, can I be convinced that this is some sort of natural phenomenon.”

“Fine,” I said. “What should we do first.”

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