Page 15 of Malice

“Nice house.”

“Thanks. It’s a fixer, obviously. What do you need to see?”

With his eyes still dancing around the room, he leans to the left to peer up the stairs.

“A quick tour would do, I think.”

“Sure. Follow me.”

I lead Aster through the house, pointing out the various rooms, but when we get to the kitchen, my stomach flips unpleasantly. Aster turns his head sharply.

“What’s wrong, Mr. Davis?”

Folding my arms around myself, I step to the edge of the kitchen. “Uh, it happened in this room. I still get a bad feeling whenever I come in here. Like reliving it. Sorry. That probably sounds insane.”

“Not at all.”

His voice weirdly soothes me. I watch as he puts his hand on my counter, still gazing around.

“There are a few cracks in the tile,” I explain, pointing to the spot that still turns my stomach. “I was planning to redo the floors anyway. Not sure if I should tell you that or not.”

Aster glances at me before kneeling down to rub his fingers over the dated avocado-green tiles that were new in the seventies. He tilts his head back to look at the light fixtures.

“What exactly are you looking for?”

Aster’s gaze shifts to me and he stands again. “Do you happen to know someone named Celine Bradley?”

I shake my head. “No, why?”

Aster blows out a breath. “Do you know someone named Chester Dillon?”

A shudder vibrates through me. “Yeah. He was my attacker. You didn’t have that in your file?”

Aster doesn’t answer me, choosing instead to walk around my kitchen, ducking his head into the old butler’s pantry and then the breakfast nook.

He’s being pretty weird for a guy who’s supposed to be looking at my floors. “Nothing else was damaged in the attack. Is this for the criminal investigation? Because Chester’s dead. There’s nothing to investigate.”

When Aster turns back around, he jumps and gasps. His face goes pale and I’m very aware that his eyes are focused just past me. I shiver as the room seems to drastically cool.

When I open my mouth to speak, I can see my breath fog before me. “Aster? What’s happening right now?”

With a deep furrow in his brow, he takes a step closer to me but stops short. “I don’t know how to tell you this but…”

“But what?” I twist around, expecting to see something awful, but there’s nothing there.

“Mr. Davis… Hudson…” Aster blows out a shaky breath. “I’m afraid you’ve got yourself a ghost.”

Chapter 7

Aster

It’s impossible to take my eyes off the eerie being glowing behind Hudson. He’s not fully formed like Crash, but he’s visible. At least to me.

“It can take some time for them to manifest fully when they’re new to it all,” Crash says.

“What the fuck do you mean I have a ghost?” Hudson asks, his voice trembling.

“I… I’m here to help you. I was assigned to your case.”

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