Page 24 of The Grave Robber

“Why?”

“Oh, my God.” She whirled away from me while I fought a grintooth and nail. “I don’t make the rules,” she continued. “I have Netflix. Iknow how this stuff works.”

I tilted my head in doubt. “I don’t know that you do.”

She turned back for the sole purpose of setting my face onfire with the heat of her glare.

“Look,” I said, letting her off the hook, “if there reallyis a departed attached to you, it would be attached to you. Like it would neverleave your side.”

“But Aunt Lillian,” she argued.

“Isn’t attached to me. She just likes my ass.”

“Constantine,” Aunt Lil admonished. Then she leaned towardme and giggled. “I mean, you’re not wrong.”

“And if a departed attached itself to an object you have,” Icontinued, “it would stick to whatever it is like Gorilla Glue.”

“Oh, that’s good stuff,” Aunt Lil said.

“Can the departed pop in and out? Yes, but not with the kindof constant haunting you’ve been experiencing for years. This is somethingelse.” Something I’d been racking my brain to figure out.

She sank onto the sofa and looked as if she were staringthrough the walls of the houseboat into another time. “But it has to be a ghost.I’ve seen him.”

I fought the urge to go to her. “What did you see? Exactly.”

“A ghost walking through my house.”

“This house?”

“Yes. No. Every house. He’s followed me to every house I’veever lived in. He was even at the hospital when my parents…when they admittedme for observation.” The gaze that met mine was so full of anguish anddesperation that it leached the breath from my lungs. “He’s followed meeverywhere for seventeen years. Ever since…” She stopped, her eyes wideningbefore she slammed her mouth shut as if she’d said too much. Her gaze darted tome, scrutinizing my reaction as though wondering if I’d caught on.

I did. “Ever since?” I prodded.

She lifted her chin, preparing to lie. It was her tell.

I held up a hand to stop her. “Never mind. I’ll find out formyself.” I stood and walked out, much to her surprise. I needed more info, andI was pretty sure I knew where to find it.

Chapter Five

“I’m gonna wing it.”

—Me about something I most definitely should not wing.

Half an hour after leaving Halle’s place, I was knocking onthe door of a lakefront mansion I might’ve been able to afford if I sold mysoul. And my internal organs. And my Harley. No way was I selling my Harley.

A man in his late fifties wearing a T-shirt and a thin pairof sweats answered. I’d felt underdressed until I saw him. Thanks to alate-night text from Jason, he knew I was coming.

“Mr. Nordstrom,” I said, greeting him with a nod.

He took my hand in a firm shake. A businessman, through andthrough. “Mr. Vause, call me Donald.”

“And please call me Eric.”

He gestured me inside. “I have it set up in my office, butif you have any questions—”

“I have several thousand.”

He pressed his lips together and nodded. “I thought youmight.” He led me down a long hallway with wooden floors to his home office.

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