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“Can you just leave it alone, please? It isn’t any of your goddamn business.”
    â€œIt is if you can’t effectively communicate with your team,” she said in a harsh whisper, the smile vanishing from her lips. “Flight’s about twenty-five minutes. Figure it out, Jack.” Shelby reached over and gave Jackie’s knee a firm squeeze and then got back to her feet, moving up front to sit with Nick.
    She heard Laurel grumble inside her head. She’s right, hon. Even if she’s being a bitch about it.
    Jackie slumped against the side of the plane and closed her eyes as the plane rushed down the runway for takeoff. At least we agree on something.

Chapter 6
    The brief squeal of wheels touching down jarred Jackie out of her doze. It seemed she had only just shut her eyes, but now it was time to get busy. The squirming, nagging fear in her gut had to be buried, pushed down into the depths where she could ignore it. Any luck and it would just go away.
    Jackie paused by Nick, who stood at the door of the plane as they all stepped off. She let out the breath pent up in her lungs. “Ready to roll on this, Nick?”
    He looked down at her in silence for so long, Jackie was afraid he might not bother to answer her. Finally, he nodded. “I am. You?”
    â€œNope. We’ll figure it out as we go,” she said and headed for the steps.
    A cold wind swirled around the airfield, little more than a single strip of concrete and one corrugated metal hangar. The ground was damp from an earlier rain. Jackie looked around, half expecting there to be a limo waiting for them.
    â€œDo we have a car?” she asked.
    â€œShould be by the main office,” Nick said, coming up behind her.
    â€œPretty out here—” Cynthia began.
    â€œGreat,” Jackie said. “Let’s go.”
    They all followed in silence, shoes splashing through the puddles on the tarmac. Once they reached the squat, flat-roofed main office, Jackie walked through the door and made her way toward the front. Outside, she spotted the rental car and walked over to the Ford Explorer to wait for Nick to bring the keys.
    You OK, hon? Laurel wondered.
    â€œI’m fine,” Jackie said quietly. “Just trying to ... shift gears here.”
    Just remember, this isn’t the FBI anymore.
    â€œNo need to remind me of that,” Jackie said. What they were, exactly, remained to be seen. When Nick got to the SUV, Jackie held out her hand. “I want to drive.”
    He dangled the keys over her outstretched palm. “You know where we’re going?”
    She snatched them out of his fingers. “Not really.”
    â€œOh, let her drive, babe,” Shelby said, and tossed her bag over the backseat into the back. “She needs to be able to control something .”
    Jackie pointed a finger at her as she opened the driver’s side door. “Not helping.” She did not need every last one of her foibles brought to light for them to discuss. It was bad enough that they all knew what they did.
    Once out on the highway, Cynthia rode shotgun and informed her, via the GPS, that they were about twenty minutes away from Thatcher’s Mill. Jackie took another deep breath. She was getting tired of trying to constantly relieve the tension in her gut.
    â€œSo, let’s go over what little we know and what we want to do,” she said. “Sound good?” When nobody offered up any other options, she continued. “We have a town with more than its fair share of ghosts, which obviously I’m not sure what that even means.”
    Nick cleared his throat. “Town that size, you would be lucky to find three or four at any given time.”
    That sounds about right, Laurel agreed.
    â€œSo, let’s say for the sake of argument that we’re looking at five times that number, fifteen to twenty ghosts. What could that mean?”
    â€œLikely an incident of mass death,”