Read Online Notes from Ghost Town by Kate Ellison - Free Book Online Page A

quickening, a duel sense of relief and terror surging through my bloodstream. He
is
real. He must be.
    He nods. “Yeah.”
    Questions fire suddenly through brain, out my lips. “Do you remember what happened? How you were killed?” Ichoke a little on the words. Stern. My Stern—here. Real and yet not real. Still not back, and still not mine.
    Stern rubs his forehead, looking troubled. “No.”
    “Then how can you be so sure my mom is innocent? How come you can remember where she hid her
caramels
, but you can’t remember what happened the night you were killed?”
    Stern’s mouth flattens. “That night is just … dark. Almost
all
of my memories are dark. But I just …
know
. I can still, I don’t know,
feel
certain things. I can feel you. And I can feel that there’s something wrong about my death. It must be why I’m here, right? Unfinished business. The memories I have are sort of random—I don’t know where they come from. I don’t know why I get some and not others. Nothing makes a lot of sense right now, but I think that’s part of it—of dying. Of pushing your way back in, when you’re not really supposed to. I can’t access most of it. It’s slipping away.”
    He lifts his eyes to mine, and for a moment we stare at each other.
    I take a deep breath.
Let’s just play along for a second. Let’s just see where this goes
. “Okay … let’s start with the basics. What
do
you remember?” I ask.
    My door flies open just as he opens his mouth to respond.
    Dad.
    I turn instinctively back to my best friend, to my love, to my Stern, but he’s gone. Disappeared. I don’t know whyI’m so shocked—he’s a ghost. A real ghost, with weird ghost powers.
    I don’t know why I feel so empty, too.
    “Christ,” Dad says, breathing air hard through his nostrils. “I was worried sick. You could have been dead, or
kidnapped
, or something.” He puts a hand to his head, shuts his eyes for a moment, still catching his breath. “I told you to
wait
for me. What happened? Did you forget to tell me you had better things to do?” Sweat beads against the ridge of his salt-and-pepper hairline; he pats it off with the hanky in the pocket of his suit jacket he always carries around. Mom always called him old-fashioned because of it.
    I stare back up at him, defiant, even though he’s right: I blew him off, bolted when Stern showed up. “You didn’t leave me the key to your office so I just left the files.” Thankfully, lying is a skill of mine. “Sorry, but I wasn’t just going to wait around for you and Heather to finish up meeting with wedding caterer number 973.”
    “I cancelled my meeting with Mr. Pomeroy. I told him I had to make sure you weren’t lying in some ditch in Liberty City. He drove all the way from
Key West
for the meeting, and I had to send him back during rush hour.” He sighs, fiddling with his old fashioned hanky. “You can’t
do
that, Liv. I’m trying to get a business started up here. You might have cost me a client.”
    “You didn’t
have
to cancel.” I scratch at a hard spot in the carpet, trying to push back a guilty feeling. “It’s not myfault you freaked out. I’m not some defenseless two-year-old, okay? So, just stop worrying. Focus on your clients and your blushing bride … I’m fine. I’m
golden
.”
    “I know you’re not fine,” he says, quietly. “The hearing’s coming up, and I know you’re damn scared about it, and so am I. So don’t you pull that crap with me, Olivia. You’re
sixteen
, and even if you think that makes you old and wise, you’re still my baby,” he says. He re-pockets his hanky, his gaze softening. “You will always be more important to me than any client. You know that, don’t you?”
    I nod. “I know.” But the truth is: I don’t. Not lately, at least.
    He starts to duck back out into the hallway, pausing first, turning back to face me. “By the way, who were you talking to?”
    I stare at him blankly, and he prompts: “Just