Page 23 of Ghostly Bother
"Call your boyfriend," Eden insisted.
"He has a name." Lance glared at her as he started the car.
"I don't care about names. I want to know what happened to Lucas."
"Then you should have stayed with them when you saw him being arrested instead of coming here." Lance took a deep breath, wishing he could insist she get out of his car.
"But they can't hear me." Eden glared at him.
Lance wished he couldn't hear her. She'd been on his case all afternoon trying to insist he call Angus for updates. When he refused, she got even more annoyed, following him around and talking to him while he tried to talk to others. Since he was the only one who could hear her, it only made him look distracted as he tried to listen to others with her screaming beside him. She knew she was bothering him and seemed to think that would get him to do her bidding. Truth was, the more she bothered him, the less he'd do for her. "I'm not involved in the case. You have to listen at the police station to learn anything. Angus has his job, and I have mine. We don't call each other and share information on everything."
"But you could." Eden continued to glare at him.
"Why don't you go home and see your kids? Aren't you even a little worried about how they're handling your death?"
"The kids are fine. Michael is good with them. He'll make sure they're okay." Eden turned in the seat so she faced him. "I want to stay with you so you can talk to your boyfriend for me. I have questions."
"So does he. If you want him to answer questions, maybe you should answer some of his. Tell him who you were making deals with. Or better yet, who you refused deals with. They're the ones who probably wanted you dead." Lance pulled out of the lot, forcing his attention on traffic and not the ghost beside him.
"None of them would kill me. I worked deals with all of them. Sure, some got upset when I chose another company, but it's not as if I could give them all the same deals. I had to switch it up and only one company could get the contract." Eden shook her head. "They all lose money with me dead."
Lance couldn't imagine how much money a company would have to make in order to make it worth their while to bribe the mayor tens of thousands of dollars just to get the contract. "Who else knew what you were doing? The city council had to approve a lot of these deals. They had to know what you were doing."
Eden shrugged. "They trusted me. I'd tell them who to vote for and approve and they did it."
"I don't believe that for a second. They had to know what you were up to. How many of them will fold once the police start questioning them?" Lance was done being nice. He had a headache after having her follow him around all afternoon. The only time she left him alone was during an autopsy. Even then, she'd stayed near the doorway and hollered questions at him.
"They'll tell the truth. I recommended a company, and they agreed with my choice," Eden told him. "I'm not giving you any names after seeing Lucas arrested. I might be dead, but I still have a reputation to protect."
"Your reputation was ruined the moment the bribery investigation started almost a year ago." Lance's grip on the steering wheel tightened.
"If I was guilty, you'd think they would have done something in the last year." Eden sounded smug.
"You already admitted to me you were taking bribes. I'm sure the people investigating you were just making sure they'd gotten all the information they could. Someone is going to talk, especially since you're gone now." Lance glanced over at the ghost. "My guess is everyone you worked with is going to go down."
"I'm hardly gone." Eden huffed.
"I'm the only one who can hear you and I'm not going to do your bidding so yeah, you no longer have a voice. You can hang around all you want and watch everything you built crumble, but other than whine to me, there isn't a thing you can do about it."
"You can't be the only one around who sees ghosts. I'll find others," Eden told him.
"I'm sure there are others out there. Feel free to go look." He'd message everyone he knew who could see ghosts to avoid the mayor if she came around. He just wanted her to leave him alone. "I did your autopsy. My part in this is done and I'm not going to hound the police to share information just so you can continue to feel as if you have any control over things. The best thing you can do now is move into the light and see what comes next."
"But what if nothing is next or what if I don't like it? Maybe I'll go to Hell or someplace like it." Eden actually sounded a bit worried.
"You're not going to Hell. Ask any other ghost who has been around for a while, and they'll tell you that truly evil people don't get a chance to stick around. They're taken as soon as they die." Lance wasn't sure how it all worked, but he knew enough toknow someone who had been evil in life didn't seem to have a promising afterlife.
"Really? So, I'm not going to Hell if I cross over?" Eden's voice had softened, and she sounded very concerned.
"No, you're not going to Hell. I don't know what comes next, but you wouldn't have stuck around if you were seriously evil. I have no idea how bad one has to be before the option is taken from them, but the fact you're sitting beside me in ghostly form shows me that you haven't done anything gravely wrong. That's not to say you might not have to face the things you have done, it just means you aren't going where the killers and rapists probably are." He sighed. "Since you're sticking by my side, talk to the ghosts at my place about what they know about all this. They can explain it better than I can. I only know what they tell me."
"I'm not crossing over until I find out why someone wanted me dead. Besides, I want to be here for my funeral and see what people have to say about me." Eden stared out the window. "Do you know when my funeral will be?"
"I don't think it's been announced yet. We released your body to the funeral home. It will be up to your husband to work with the city council to plan what comes next." Lance hoped whatever was planned would happen soon. He wanted Eden gone. "Did you have arrangements made in case you died?"
"I have a will, and Michael and I bought plots a few years ago, but no plans really. I always thought I could trust Michael to handle things, but now, after your boyfriend told him about the baby, I'm not sure what he'll do." Eden made it sound like it was Angus's fault she cheated on her husband.
"I'm sure he'll do what's right if for no other reason than to not hurt the kids any more than they are already hurting." Lance wondered if Eden had ever thought about how her being pregnant with another man's baby might affect her children. Hepulled into the driveway and waited for the garage door to go up before pulling in. He wasn't surprised that Angus wasn't home yet.
