Bumpy Roads - A Mary O'Reilly Paranormal Mystery (Book 11) (The Mary O'Reilly Paranormal Mystery Series) by Terri Reid

in.”
    “Did you see anything else?” Celia asked.
    “Yes. I did,” Mary said, nodding slowly. “I saw her image,
like she was in a car in the pouring rain, going up the road until they
disappeared.”
    Celia leaned against the side of the bridge and started to
weep. She slipped down to the ground and laid her head on her knees as the pain
tore through her. “She’s dead,” she cried. “My baby’s dead.”
    Mary knelt down and put her arms around the sobbing woman. She
just let her cry for a few minutes, releasing some of the grief she was
experiencing. “I’m so sorry, Celia,” she finally whispered hoarsely. “I’m so
very sorry.”
    “No. Don’t be sorry,” Celia said, her voice catching. “At least…at least I know.”
    Helping Celia to her feet, Mary placed her arm around the
woman’s waist and they walked back to their cars in silence, Celia softly
crying into her tissue. When they reached the cars, Mary stopped next to the
red minivan. “Do you want me to come home with you?” she asked.
    Wiping her eyes, Celia took a deep breath. “No, but thank
you,” she said. “I need to be alone for a while. I’ll meet you at your office
tomorrow morning. Okay?”
    Mary hugged her once more. “Sure. But if you need to talk,
don’t hesitate to call me,” she insisted.
    “Thank you, Mary,” she said, as she unlocked her car. “I’ll
remember that.”
    Watching the minivan drive off, Mary ached for her new
friend. But she understood, better than most, the best thing she could do for
Celia is find the person who had killed her daughter.

Chapter Twenty-four

 
    “Chief Alden,” Bradley’s voice boomed in her cell phone.
    “Hi,” she replied. “Do you have a minute?”
    “Sure, what’s up?” he asked.
    “Courtney Rasmussen is dead,” she replied, her eyes filling
with tears.
    She took a deep breath and continued. “I saw her ghost in
the park.”
    “Damn it,” Bradley said softly. “Does her mother know?”
    Nodding, even though he couldn’t see her, Mary replied,
“Yes, she was here in the park with me.”
    “How’s she doing?”
    “Well, you know,” she said, her voice breaking. “It’s pretty
much the worse day of your life when you find out your loved one is dead.”
    She wiped the tears away with a swipe of her arm and took
another deep breath. “She’s upset. She’s crying and she says she needs to be
alone.”
    “And how are you taking it?” Bradley asked gently.
    “I hate it,” Mary replied, tears flowing steadily now. “I
hate telling people things that change their lives for the worse.   I hate making people cry. I hated making
Celia cry.”
    “Do you want me to be logical or just understanding?” he
asked.
    A soft gurgle of laughter escaped her lips and she sniffed
back some tears. “Understanding at first, then logical,” she replied, pulling a
handful of tissues out of the box on the seat of her car and blotting her eyes
and nose.
    “Okay, you’ve got it,” he said, a touch of sadness in his
voice. “It’s not fair that you have to tell people about their loved ones.   It’s not fair that you are given situations
where you can’t fix anything; you just have to stand by and watch bad things
happen. It’s not fair that you are so tenderhearted that every ghost you meet
and every person you help steals away a bit of your heart.”
    Sniffing again, she nodded. “That was very good,” she
replied.
    Chuckling softly, he continued. “But…”
    “Are you doing logical already?” she complained.
    “Yes,” he said, “Because you need the logic now. Let me ask
you, do we know more about Courtney’s death than we ever did before?”
    “Yes,” she agreed.
    “And now we are closer to catching the person who did it?”
    “I think so.”
    “And that’s true for all the people you have helped.   You didn’t cause the situation. But you are a
solution for people who are hopeless. You don’t cause the pain, Mary, you offer
hope.”
    “But it