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“No problem, Miss Stephenson. I’ll do what I can. Thank you for calling.”

I quickly fill the dishwasher with dishes from breakfast, which we had left in the sink because we dashed out early this morning. But to my surprise my phone rings before the twenty minutes I had expected to wait.

“Hello, Miri speaking,” I sigh because that sounds so formal, and I don’t usually speak like that.

“Hello, Miri. I understand Geri has died and you have the death certificate?” Mr. Clark quickly gets to the issue at hand.

“Yes, I have a copy which I can email to you.”

“Good, you do that. What does it say as her cause of death?” Mr. Clark asks.

“Heart attack from an underlying heart condition none of us knew about.” I say it with as much concern in my voice as I can muster, but I know this is a load of baloney because I watched her die.

“It just shows, Miri, we never know when our time is going to come.”

I feel like laughing at his remark, but in fact, he is right, we can die at any time. “I think it was quick, so she didn’t suffer for long,” I add, thinking holy hell, she didn’t take long to die with all the damn bullets that hit her.

“I can sort out her estate, Miri. There isn’t much to sort because I think Geri took the money and ran. It never had a chance to get cold in the account. What do you want me to do with what’s left, if anything? She left a will stating anything she had was to go to you.”

Now that surprises me, as I would have thought she’d leave it to Snake. “I want nothing, Mr. Clark. If there is anything personal, please sell it, and any monies give to a charity of your choice.”

“Are you sure, Miri?”

“I’m positive. I have a good life, Mr. Clark. I am sorry Geri has died so young, but there is nothing I can do for her. I need to move on, and let us be honest about the fact that we were not getting along well before she died. I’m going to do my best to remember the good times and memories I have of her,” I say it sincerely enough, but I’m thinking about her being a ho and having sex with other ghosts.

“Okay, Miri. I’ll do what is needed. But if you need me don’t hesitate to call. If I need anything from you, I’ll contact you. Oh, I nearly forgot about the payment for the funeral,” Mr. Clark quickly adds.

“Don’t worry about that, Mr. Clark. I’ll deal with that because I think we can presume Geri won’t have enough to pay for that. I’ll do it as the last thing I do for her.”

The call ends, and I spend the next hour checking that chores are done. Hearing someone knocking on the front door I quickly dash to it, and opening it I am surprised to see Martin, my elderly neighbor standing there. “Hi, Martin. Is everything okay?”

“Yes, we are both fine. I wondered if you were going to the grocery store today?” Martin looks embarrassed at asking me, but I quickly put him at ease.

“I am, do you want to come with me? Or I can bring back what you need.”

Martin grins right before winking at me, “We’ll come. We need to get out of the house for a while, and Cora needs to stretch her legs. She is using her cane this week, and we have noticed it’s since she has stopped walking as much. She doesn’t enjoy walking the street, mainly because Mrs. Godsworth always comes out and says something nasty about someone on the street.”

“I’ll get ready and meet you at the car. Ten minutes, okay?”

“Okay.” I watch for a moment as Martin rushes home. Rory had told me how good these people are, and I promised I’d look after them. Rory comes over to Martin and Cora’s every Saturday afternoon and spends time with them. I think it’s admirable and shows what a great person Rory is.

An hour later I am standing quietly, you know, minding my own business as I pick up fruit that Joker loves. When I hear a sneering voice behind me. “Oh, it’s the man-stealer.”

Spinning around, I see it’s Trix and Rita. Two club women who don’t seem to want to accept that Joker is off the market. “You showing yourself up again, Trix?” I ask calmly.

“It’s time you fucked off and left Joker alone. He belongs to us,” Trix snarls.

I can’t help the laugh that bursts out of me. “Belongs to you? I’ll be sure to ask Joker when I get home tonight. I might wait until we’ve showered, had our daily dalliance…Oh, that means sex, in case you don’t know what dalliance means. Then, when we are snuggled up, I’ll tell him he’s yours.”

Rita looks like she wants to make a run for it. I can’t help but think she should because Joker isn’t going to be happy about this.

“You need to get gone…”

“No, you need to get gone. I’ll be speaking to Joker myself when he comes home tonight. I’m more than happy to fill him in on what a prostitute has to say,” Martin calmly joins the conversation. Cora looks like she wants to punch someone, which surprises me as she is such a placid woman normally.

Rita grabs Trix’s arm and pulls her away, mumbling that she needs to be quiet and walk away.

“You are a man thief, and I’m not a fuckin’ prostitute,” Trix snarls at Martin.