Page 8 of Ghostly Bother
"That implies there is other stuff you don't believe me about." Eden frowned.
Lance shook his head. "I'm about to start her autopsy. I can't put it off. I can call you once I'm done and see if she'll talk to you."
"I'm not talking to anyone if you do an autopsy on me," Eden warned him. "Leave my body as it is."
"It's the law. I have to do an autopsy," Lance argued back at the woman.
"Woah, I know. Go ahead and do it. We can meet for lunch later today," Angus told him.
Lance took a deep breath. "Sorry, that wasn't at you. I was talking to Eden. She says she won't talk to any of us if I do herautopsy. She doesn't seem to understand that it has to be done. Nothing she says can stop it from happening."
"Sounds like she's worried you'll see something." Angus laughed.
"My thoughts as well. Let me get the autopsy done, then I'll call you. I can't go out for lunch since Sam's not here, but we can eat in my office."
"Sounds good. Franks and I will grab burgers and head over when you call. Hopefully, she'll stick around and talk to us despite you doing her autopsy. Either way, we'll need to talk to you about your findings. So far, we're hitting a lot of brick walls."
"Not sure what I can give you, but I'll do my best. Love you," Lance said softly.
"Love you too." Angus ended the call.
Lance tossed his phone back in the desk drawer and stood. "Okay, let's get this done."
"You can't." Eden stood directly in front of him.
"I can." Lance stepped through her, opened his office door, and walked out, hoping she wouldn't follow.
"You can't do this. You have to stop." Eden was suddenly in front of him, trying to block him from walking down the hallway.
Lance sighed and continued through her. He hated the cold chill that went through him each time his body passed through hers. Hell, he lived with two ghosts and didn't feel them as often as he'd already felt her today.
"He won't talk to you or acknowledge you outside of his office. The others don't know he can see you." Jeremy was floating beside Lance. "Just let him do his job. Let's go over to the City Center and see what's going on in your office. I'm sure you want to know what people are saying about your death."
Lance was grateful that Jeremy was trying to get Eden out of the building, but he could tell by the determination he saw in her eyes that she wasn't going to go anywhere. As much as hedreaded listening to her while he worked, it would hardly be the first upset ghost he'd had to ignore. He had a job to do, and no matter what, he was going to do it.
CHAPTER FOUR
Lance was glad to see Carrie had the body ready by the time they walked into the room. All evidence on the body had been collected. Eden's fingernails had been scraped to find out what was under them. Her clothes were bagged and would be closely evaluated, and her body had been washed and x-rayed before being draped and ready for Lance to do the internal autopsy.
"Stop this." Eden moved in front of Lance again, trying to block his advance to her body.
"Ready to start?" Lance ignored her, again stepping through the ghost to his position beside the body.
"Initial visual exam shows bruising around her neck." Brayden pointed to the darkened lines on Eden's body's throat. "Bruising is consistent with what we usually see from someone strangled with an object."
"No chance of pulling fingerprints from the skin?" Lance asked.
"None of the bruising appears to be from someone's hands. She came in with a dark blue scarf around her neck," Carrie informed him. "No idea if she was already wearing it."
Eden now moved so she stood inside her own body, directly in front of Lance. "I was wearing my pink suit. I would never add a dark blue scarf to that outfit." She stared directly at Lance. "Now stop this. I don't need an autopsy. You can see the bruises. There is nothing more you need to worry about."
Lance wanted to scream at her to move, but he couldn't, since only Jeremy and him could see Eden. With a deep sigh, he reached through the ghost and lowered the sheet that covered her body so that the head and neck were exposed.
"Stop. Please don't do this. I don't want an autopsy." Eden tried to push at Lance but her hands just went through him.
"You need to stop that," Jeremy told Eden. "He's got to do this. It's the law. You just need to step away and let him do his job."
"I'm not moving. I won't let him cut into my body." Eden's ghostly form jumped up and down, then back and forth.
