A Ghoul's Guide to Love and Murder by Victoria Laurie Page A

kidding?”
    â€œNope,” he said curtly. “Like I said, I don’t know any M. J. Holliday.” There was a pause as I tried to figure out what to say to that, when Ayden suddenly said, “Now, I
do
know an M. J. Whitefeather. Would you be any relation to her?”
    I couldn’t help it; I busted out laughing, as did Heath and Gilley. “Funny, man,” I said to him. “You had us all going.”
    â€œWho’s us all?”
    â€œGilley is here, along with my husband. Heath Holliday.” I winked at Heath and he grinned at me, enjoying my little joke.
    â€œOh, yeah, I know those guys. Heath owes me a beer the next time he’s in town. I’m gonna hit him up for a double-malt scotch, though, ’cause he didn’t invite me to his wedding.”
    â€œNobody was invited,” I was quick to say. “Not even Gilley.”
    Gil narrowed his eyes at me. I could tell he was still miffed about it. “I think the thing to do is to hold a reception and invite all our family and friends,” Heath said. That was news to me, but I liked the idea. “After Gilley’s wedding, of course.”
    â€œAm I at least invited to that?” Ayden asked.
    â€œYou’re invited to both,” I said, ignoring Gilley’s pointed head shaking. I knew he already had a bajillion people he planned to invite, so what was one more?
    â€œAwesome,” Ayden said. “Count me in. Anyway, I figure you’re not calling me about the weddings so much as you’re calling me to talk about what happened at that museum tonight, right?”
    â€œAyden,
how
do you know anything about what went down at the museum?” I asked.
    â€œHey, I Facebook,” he said coolly. “And I’m a fan of your show’s page. It’s all over social media, how you two got married and there was some sort of crazy publicity stunt that nearly caused a riot. I was about to send you guys an angry e-mail when I recognized Oruç’s dagger in one of the photos posted before the lights went out. What the hell is that thing doing on display anyway?”
    Heath and I looked pointedly at Gilley. He gulped and said, “Hey, Ayden. So, in a moment of serious weakness, I agreed to loan out the dagger to the museum for the exhibit. It was stupid, but in my defense I personally loaded the room with enoughmagnetic spikes to build a railroad. There’s no way the dagger should’ve been active, and we’re still trying to figure out what happened and what to do.”
    â€œWell, for starters, how about taking the dagger out of that exhibit, like, right now?”
    Again we all looked uncomfortably at one another. “About that,” I said. “Ayden, the real reason we’re calling is because the dagger has been stolen from the museum.”
    There was a very long pause, and into the silence I even called out to Ayden to make sure he was still on the line. “I’m here,” he said. “Just taking that news in. And now I need details.”
    Heath filled him in and ignored the parts where Ayden cut loose a swearword or six. “So, one man dead, one missing dagger, and one loose spook and his demon, is that about right?”
    â€œYes,” I said. “Only, the Boston PD suspects that we must’ve had something to do with it, which is actually why we’re calling. We explained to them that we’re legit and that the dagger is super dangerous and we need to get it back, but they’re not buying it. We were hoping to have you—a former inspector with the San Francisco PD, vouch for us.”
    As I finished speaking I heard some distinctive clicking sounds in the background. “How about I do you one better, M.J. There’s a direct flight to Logan from SFO, no tickets available online, but I might be able to squeeze on going standby. It leaves in an hour and forty-five minutes and gets in at seven thirty a.m.It’ll be