The Dead Tell (Magical Temptations Collection) by Jaycee Clark Page B

felt his warm fingers brushing her hair off her forehead, tracing her nose, rubbing across her cheek.
    “ No…Please…” Mike.
     
    * * *
    He carefully parked the car in the backwater cemetery.
    This one was way out of the way.
    He’d rushed the girls, he knew he had, but there hadn’t been a choice. He knew Paige’s cop would be looking for her, looking for him.
    His larger slides from the bellows were carefully packed in the back of the car, all the digitals saved to a flashdrive.
    It only took him half an hour to get the other one dressed, her hair and her make-up done. A few minutes to load her into the car he’d rented. Paige was so slight, and she was already dressed, that it took him no time to load her. Now, now he could set the scene in this abandoned cemetery.
    He didn’t like being in a hurry. This was a great photo op and he had to rush. He would probably forget something. Quickly, he unloaded his camera and the equipment he’d need.
    The other one, he decided to lay down, as if she were sleeping. One arm tossed above her head. She was dressed in a period costume, the only one he’d had that would fit her. This woman had been in wonderful shape. He arranged her just so, her head turned over her right shoulder, her left arm up, the right tossed over her abdomen. Her legs covered in the thick heavy skirts. Her hair was perfectly coiffed.
    Then he went back and carried Paige. Giddy now, he hummed as he arranged her as well. The tombstone read about a loving wife and mother. The one beside it read about a life cut short.
    Her right hand was on the doll ’s chest, but her left was curled and tucked under her chin. She’d either be in a relaxed state, playing with her doll all worn out, or maybe visiting her mother’s grave with a doll. Or she’d be waiting for her friend to awaken so they could play.
    He took several photos of her and the other woman as they lay together side by side on the cool ground, tall grasses standing on either side of them. He checked his watch.
    He had a bit more time.
    He wondered what he’d title this piece.
    Paige looked so very young and innocent. Maybe innocent was what he should go with for her and worry about the contrast to it all later. Then again, if she represented the innocence of childhood the contrast would be the location itself. Or the fact the doll was, in fact, a dead woman.
    Her own life -size mommy doll. He grinned when he looked at the doll, happy with the makeup and clothing. He took several photos in different lighting, took three with the bellows camera, and two with her phone, after he replaced the battery and turned it back on. He ignored the missed calls, the texts. Instead he pulled up her gallery, chose the photo he’d just taken and sent it via text to Mike Killian. Her sweetie. Man would not take long in getting here.
     
    * * *
    Paige was sitting in a cemetery, and not one she knew. It was quiet here, so quiet she could hear herself breathing.
    “Finally,” a voice said. A voice she knew.
    Paige turned and saw the woman in white, her red scarf bright in the foggy air around them.
    “Where am I?” she asked, looking around.
    “The between,” Harvey Girl answered.
    Oh, the between. Paige frowned. “What does that mean?”
    “Means he’s given you a shitload of drugs, hope help arrives pretty quick. Man can’t figure out his meds,” another woman said. The one dressed in the forties dress.
    “Am I dead?” she asked them.
    “Not yet. ”  They all looked into the fog.
    “Bastard,” someone else said. A shadow from the back. 
    Paige didn’t want to die. She tried to stand but her legs wouldn’t work.
    “You won’t get around here, in the in between. You’re still too alive,” the lady in white told her.
    Paige tried not to panic. “How do we stop him? Can’t we do anything? Can’t you do anything?” she asked them.
    “What?” one of them asked .
    “I don’t know, get pissed, get solid, do something to