Meanwhile, Back in Deadwood (Deadwood Humorous Mystery Book 6) by Ann Charles Page B

across the mostly empty parking lot toward the Picklemobile.
    I pulled free after we reached the old truck and crossed my arms over my chest. “Dane R. Nyce, you tell me what happened in there right now.”
    He glanced back at the door, as if to make sure nothing was following us. “There’s a new presence in your office.”
    Splendid. As if one pissed off freaky entity wasn’t enough. “Is it as nasty as the other one?”
    “I’m not sure.”
    “Why not? Did it pass through you too fast to pick up any details?”
    Being that I was a total dud when it came to seeing, hearing, or smelling ghosts, I had only a very sketchy idea how this sixth-sense stuff worked. Usually, the ghost moved through Doc, and he saw a glimpse of how the person had died. Then it went on its merry way and Doc spent a day or two figuring out whom he’d shared a moment with in history.
    “No.” He scrubbed his hand down his face. “I picked up a few hints.”
    “So what’s the problem then?”
    “Violet …”
    “Don’t play cryptic medium with me. Just lay it out there and let it wiggle.”
    He gripped my shoulder, his eyes shadowed as he stared down at me. “Jane’s back.”
    “Jane?” My brain made a loud beeping sound, like it was performing an emergency broadcast system test. I shook my head to clear it. “You mean Jane Grimes, my boss?”
    “Yes, that Jane.”
    My knees weakened, but Doc held me upright. “What? How? Why would … ?” I licked my lips and breathed in a steadying breath. “Are you sure?”
    “Positive.”
    I shivered in the cool evening breeze. “What is Jane doing back?” I whispered, as if her ghost might hear me across the parking lot.
    “I don’t know.” He tucked me into his chest, wrapping his arms around me. “But from the intensity in Jerry’s office and what I picked up,” he said over my head, “she’s pissed as hell about something.”

Chapter Six
    Meanwhile, back in the land of the living …
    Later that evening, I sat on the edge of my bed while the kids argued in the bathroom over teeth brushing etiquette.
    Jane was back.
    That was some mind-numbing, ectoplasmic shit.
    I buried my face in my hands, trying to come to terms with what Jane’s return from who-knew-where meant to those of us still breathing oxygen.
    Did I tell Mona? Jerry? Ray?
    No, definitely not Ray. That would just be more ammunition in the war raging between us.
    It was probably a bad idea to mention it to Jerry, too. If he didn’t fire me on the spot for temporary insanity, he’d find a way to use Jane’s presence to boost ratings on that blasted TV show.
    That left Mona, who once had told me she believed in ghosts. But would she believe that it was Jane? Would she wonder how I had figured out Jane was paying us a visit? I couldn’t let Doc’s secret out, not even to Mona. It was his business to tell, not mine.
    I could tell Harvey about it, though.
    Aunt Zoe, too. I hadn’t mentioned it earlier when she’d called home after settling into her room at the conference hotel. She’d sounded tired. For Reid’s sake, I hoped it wasn’t from staying up all night horsing around under the covers with her traveling buddy. I’d been too chicken shit to dig for details about her love life and had kept it to chatter about the kids and work, asking only about the convention and how her pieces had faired on the trip down.
    What about Cooper?
    Cooper … Hmmm. Doc and I had told our secret about playing patty-cake with other worldly beings to the detective a couple of weeks ago, but Cooper hadn’t said a peep to me about that conversation since he’d walked away that night. How would he react if I told him Jane was back? Would he laugh? Or would he understand what her return could mean in figuring out how and why she’d ended up in the bottom of Homestake Mine’s ?
    I needed to let that one sit on the back of my tongue for a while and see if it started tasting bitter.
    “I think they’re coming to blows in