Page 26 of You'll Be the Death of Me

“Huh,” Cole said. “Interesting approach, although you are most certainly going to get us in trouble.”

“Will you stop with all the worry about getting in trouble?We have much bigger fish to fry at the moment,” she said with a glare over her shoulder.

“I’m just trying to follow the rules,” he defended, and hurried to keep up.

“Yes. I get that about you. Now, come on. The next part of my plan might not be so easy.”

Chapter 6

They walked the two blocks back from the park to find the exact scene Dell had feared. Her body being removed from the house in front of a small sea of reporters.

“No!” she yelped, and hurried up the street.

Robbie’s body refused to move at the pace she wanted it to. Used to buzzing through the world like a little worker bee, she felt like a giant sloth with loping arms and legs and limited lung capacity. This kid had never worked out a day in his life.

“God, walk faster, Robbie!” she muttered under her breath. His voice had gone dormant in her mind.

As they approached the scene, she noted it wasn’t Tommy out in front of the reporters doing his best to block their rubbernecking but her brothers and Jason. Evelyn had probably instructed her son to stay inside. Or maybe he was still giving a statement to the police. Either way, there would be plenty of photos of a body bag being wheeled from their house.

In a desperate panic, she called out to Jason. “Jason!”

He turned from the sidewalk scene at the sound of her voice—Robbie’s voice—but didn’t react when he didn’t recognize who’d called him.

“Jason, it’s me!” she wailed, and waved her arms.

“No!” Cole appeared and pulled them down. Apparently, he could still touch her despite her inhabiting a physical body. “You look like the kid, remember? He won’t understand at first.”

Dell paused, remembering what he’d said about prepossession haunting.Little things to let them know you’re there.

“Right,” she said. She took a breath and thought about how Robbie could use a breath mint and decided to change her approach. She casually walked up to the crowd outside her front steps and tried again. She tapped Jason on the shoulder.

When he turned, instead of the welcoming look she was accustomed to seeing on his face, he scowled. “Robbie? No, go away.” He turned his back again.

Not yet discouraged, Dell tapped his shoulder once more. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

He half turned his head. “This isn’t a good time, Robbie. Kind of a rough morning going on over here.”

“You’re telling me...” Dell muttered.

Jason whipped around again. “What was that?”

Thankful for his attention, she opened her mouth to speak again, but he cut her off with his meanest scowl. Dell shriveled. She’d seen him wield it on plenty of deserving victims but had never been on the receiving end of it.

“Listen, Robbie, I don’t know what you’re up to, but we’re dealing with an emergency, can’t you see? We’ve got enough uninvited eyes already, so goaway!” His voice snapped with an angry bite,which made Dell flinch again. It also rattled something loose inside her.

She reached for his arm and didn’t let go. “I really need to talk to you, and I need you to listen.”

“What are you—?”

She pulled him away from the crowd before he could finish asking. They stood off to the side, in front of her neighbor’s front steps. Mrs. Freeman wouldn’t venture outside to overhear them; she’d be too busy snooping through her lace curtains. They had as much privacy as they were going to get without Dell kidnapping him for a chat.

“Little things,” Cole said from where he’d joined beside them.

Dell cast him a glare, not needing his micromanaging but, at the same time, thankful to have someone there for support who knew what was happening. She turned her gaze to Jason, a man she’d looked at and talked to countless times, but never had she seen the alarmed unfamiliarity he looked at her with now.

“Jason,” she started calmly, trying to think of the best approach. Despite everything they’d been through together, she had no precedent for convincing her best friend she was a ghost. “I know you recognize me as Robbie from the park right now, and I am, but I am also me, Dell.”

Jason winced and glared at her. He shook his arm loose. “Is this some kind of sick joke? Go home, Robbie.”