Page 81 of Ghostlighted

“For foisting two kittens on your godmother?”

“No. For being here. For both of us.”

“Enrique? Hurry, the pequeños need to eat.”

“Coming, Tia.”

With Avi still at my side, I hefted Gil in my arms and flipped him upside down as Ricky and Sofia disappeared into the house. After the door closed behind them, I glared down at Gil. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”

He did a slow blink, his front paws curled over his furry chest.

“I’m guessing he just saidno promises,” Avi said.

I sighed. “Probably.” We headed toward my back porch. “Do you think the kittens will help Sofia recover?”

Avi shoved his hands into the pockets of his chinos. “Help, yes. Completely heal? No.”

I snorted as we mounted the steps. “At least she won’t need to worry about Liam’s alleged allergies for another five to ten years, depending on good behavior. Andthat’sjust for the aggravated theft charge. Who knows what they’ll make of the fraud or the assault charge for swapping out her meds?”

We walked inside and I set Gil on his feet. Predictably, the first thing he did was scamper over to his food dishes and stare at me imperiously.

“Hey, it wasn’tmyidea for you to go on a three-day wilderness hike. What did you eat all that time?” I clapped a hand over my eyes. “No. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”

His kibble dish was full—maybe overfull, because I couldn’t keep myself from adding to it every evening, even though he hadn’t been there to eat any of it—but I broke out a can of people-tuna. As I was scraping the last bits into his bowl, Avi started to laugh.

I glanced up at him from where I was petting Gil as he chowed down on the chunk white. “What?”

“How long have you been in town, Maz?”

“I don’t… Oh, hey. It’s one month today.”

“And in that month, you’ve been held at gunpoint, gotten front-ended in the world’s shortest car chase, and been instrumental in apprehending two men who’ve been getting away with—in one case, literal—murder for years. Not incidentally, you’re also responsible for the first official beyond-the-veil communication in the town’s history, Thaddeus Richdale’s obsessive crusade notwithstanding.”

“Well, damn. I guess that’s true.” I stood, not bothering to brush cat fur off my hands, and shook my head. “Whoeverclaimed small towns were calm and slow-paced had obviously never been to Ghost.”

Maz, Avi, and the other Ghost townies will return! If you’d like more slightly goofy paranormal mystery in the meantime, check out the Quest Investigations series,beginning with Five Dead Herrings.