The Dead Show Read online

  “Does that mean I can get out of here?” Cade asked with a hopeful smile.

  “Ready to leave me so fast?” he teased.

  “You? Hell no. A hospital room? Hell yes,” she answered, taking a tentative step forward. Ramon still had a hold of her hand, and he let her use him as support as she tested out walking. She didn’t lean on him much, which he was relieved to see. They walked around the room together at a slow, steady pace, circling back to the bed.

  “Okay, let me see your feet after that. Back in bed,” Ramon said.

  “How long have you been waiting to say that to me?” she said, joking. He made a face halfway between amusement and annoyance. She grinned in return and got back into the bed as Ramon knelt to examine her feet.

  “Excellent, nothing reopened,” Ramon said. He rose from his knees and smiled at her. “I think this means you are clear to go and return to duty. That should make both you and Snow happy.”

  “Well, I know it makes me happy,” Cade said with a smile. “How is everyone? Have you seen them at all?”

  “Snow and your brother Sam I see here almost daily. Mr. Croft has come in a few times as well. They seem to be doing well, but I know they have all been worried about you,” Ramon said. “As have I.” He leaned in and kissed her gently on the cheek.

  “So with this new gig you have here, being a doctor, are you stuck here all the time like you were at Lexington or do you get time off?” Cade asked.

  Ramon smiled. “I get time off. Though I’ve not left the hospital yet.”

  Cadence understood what he meant without him having to explain. When she awoke, he had been sleeping in the chair, holding her hand. He had been spending his free time in here, with her. “Well, now you’ll have to,” she said. “I won’t be so convenient to visit anymore.”

  “With your track record?” Ramon laughed. “You’ll be back here within two weeks.”

  “Hey, I can take care of myself very well, thank you. At least I could when I was alive,” Cade added with a sigh. She hated the fact that she kept getting hurt in this new life. It chaffed her to no end that Sam and Snow had to rescue her. She had never liked damsels in distress, and now she had been one.

  “Hey, you’re okay,” Ramon said as he lifted his hand to caress her cheek. He had known that this entire situation was not going to sit well with her. Her strength and stubbornness made it difficult to accept any situation in which she might need help. “You’re not even a year dead yet, and you’ve gone up against some very tough obstacles. Obstacles that had killed other people, both dead and alive. I think you’ve been doing better than anyone could reasonably expect of any spirit.”

  “But you’re not biased at all,” she said with a bit of a smirk.

  He smiled back at her, tenderness in his eyes. “Not at all.”

  Chapter 3

  Snow had gone back to his home as Croft had ordered, and his sleep had been dream free, which he was thankful for. He felt more rested than he had in several weeks. He felt ready to tackle the cases he knew they had pending. His thoughts ceased as he stopped short in the doorway to his office. There, seated at his desk was his partner, with her feet propped up on his desk.

  “It’s been so long, I forget. This is my desk, right?” Cade asked the question with a knowing grin. She knew it was his desk; she was doing it to get a rise out of him.

  To her mild disappointment, he didn’t even pretend to look irked. He seemed shocked at first, and then a large smile spread on his face. He finished entering the office and closed the door behind him. Cadence watched him as he crossed the room, keeping his silence but continuing to smile. He took a seat at her desk and folded his hands in front of him.

  “Oh come on,” she said. “I haven’t been able to be a pain in your ass for five weeks. When I finally can, you’re just going to take it?”

  “I am so happy to see you up and about, I couldn’t care less which desk you sit at,” he said.

  “Damn, you’re going soft on me, Ozzy,” she said. She knew the nickname would irk him, it always did.

  To her gratification, Snow rolled his eyes as he heard her call him that irritating name. “Why didn’t you let me know you were released?” Snow made a mental note to chastise Ramon for not letting him know either. “When I stopped by yesterday you were still out cold. Ramon said you hadn’t woken up yet.”

  “I woke up last night. It was late,” Cadence said with a slight shrug. “When Ramon brought me home Sam was fast asleep on my couch. I figured I would wait to let you guys know until this morning. Of course, I got up, and Sam was gone, but he left a note for me, so he must have figured it out. The closed bedroom door might have been a clue. I thought he would be here or be with you. Where is he?”

  “Ah, yes, there is quite a bit of catching up to do isn’t there,” he said.

  “Is there? What have I missed?”

  “Well, as you asked about your brother, I will answer that first. Sam has found a new calling.” Snow put up his hands to indicate that Cadence needed to let him finish. He could tell from her look of concern that she had not been expecting this. “He is a guardian now.”

  “A guardian? Of what, the galaxy?” she asked, referencing her brother’s favorite comic book when they had been young.

  Snow was confused for a moment then shook his head, realizing that she was confusing what he meant for something else. “No, he is like a guardian angel, I think that would be the closest thing to it. Sometimes spirits have connections with mediums and psychics and can become their guardians or guides. They protect the psychic from other spirits that would try to harm or overpower the psychic.”

  “So he is playing protector for a breather after spending ten years playing babysitter for dead co-eds,” Cadence said. “That hardly seems fair. How did this get determined, anyway?”

  “It was discovered that he has a natural and strong connection with someone,” Snow said, skirting around the topic.

  “So when I woke up a month ago, I think he was still following you around, right?”

  “Yes,” Snow said with a nod.

  “Well, in our time together, we’ve only regularly encountered one psychic. Wait, so you’re telling me he’s Lauren’s spirit guide or guardian?” Cadence took her feet off of Snow’s desk and sat up. She winced just a bit when her feet hit the floor, and the flinch was not missed by Snow.

  “Yes, that is exactly what I am telling you. Are you certain you’re alright to be here? You appear to still be in pain.”

  “Yep, Ramon cleared me to come back,” Cadence said in reply, waving away Snow’s concern. “I’ll probably be dealing with a little bit of pain for a while more, but it is nothing near as bad as it was. Ramon said he would let Croft know this morning that I was good to go. Now I seem to remember you saying that Lauren’s group had been contacted by a television show. What came of that?”

  “That is quickly approaching and one reason I am concerned about your still being in pain. Do you think you will be up to the task of policing an investigation in an old prison? Those areas are not known for having well-behaved ghosts.” Snow moved and perched on the corner of his desk, as they spoke.

  “I’m fine,” Cadence said with a nod. “As I said, am I sore? Sure. It’s going to take a little time not to be. But I am more than ready to go. Besides, you know Ramon. There is absolutely no way he would have cleared me to come back to work if he wasn’t certain it was safe for me.”

  “You are right about that. The good doctor wouldn’t put you in harm’s way if you weren’t up to the task of defending yourself.” Snow frowned a bit, his own concern for his partner showing, but he knew she was right in that Ramon would never have released her for work if he hadn’t thought she was ready.

  “So, you said the television show thing is quickly approaching. How quickly?” Cadence asked as she carefully rose from Snow’s chair and made her way around to her own desk. Her movements were slow and deliberate, and she had a limp, but she made it.

&n
bsp; “We’ll find out today actually. Our group of investigators is having a meeting at the shop this morning where they expect a phone call from the producer to give them the final information and confirm dates,” Snow said.

  “And Sam will already be there because he is Lauren’s guardian now, correct?” Cadence was more or less reiterating things to make sure she had what she needed to know locked down in her mind.

  “Yes,” Snow said with a nod.

  “What about Whitfield? Where is he?” Cade asked.

  “He should be at the meeting this morning. NHD work has been keeping him quite busy of late,” Snow said.

  “Anything we should know about? I mean we are still Croft’s pet project, right? The breakdown was supposed to be that he is with us unless we don’t need him, then he reports to the NHD, on loan from us, right?”

  Snow lifted an eyebrow as his mouth crooked in amusement. “One of these days I will be the one rubbing off on you, and you will finally use proper English. Yes, our unit is the same, with the same mission and the same personnel. But the situation with Whitfield seems to be fluid. Whitfield is on loan to us from the NHD, they apparently took exception to us outright taking him into our team. His work there takes precedence unless we have a case that could involve non-humans, which is why he will be joining us for the prison hunt.”

  “There are non-humans at the prison?” Cadence asked in surprise.

  “It wouldn’t be out of the question given all of the negative energy and deaths that took place there,” Snow said.

  “Good point,” Cadence said with a nod.

  “There is one more thing you should be aware of before we get too far caught up in our normal day to day emergencies,” Snow said. He took a moment to gather his thoughts. He’d had a month to figure out how to explain this to her, but it still seemed just too crazy to be real.

  Cadence frowned as she saw Snow hesitating. “Spit it out, Ozzie.”

  “The whole thing with Overton and his demon that he was trying to summon is apparently part of a larger scheme.”

  “What kind of larger scheme?” Cade leaned forward a little as she asked the question.

  “According to Alistair, there has been a plot afoot for a while to have spirits retake the earth in a way. To possess willing breathers and use non-human creatures in servitude to our kind to force other breathers to comply.”

  Cadence blinked as she processed this, and then shook her head. “That’s crazy.”

  “That’s what we said too when he informed us of it,” Snow said.

  “When did he tell you all about this?”

  “As we were putting together the plan to save you from Overton’s prison. We’d not yet had the chance to really brief you of what we learned yet,” Snow said.

  Cadence blinked again, her eyebrows lifting high as she tried to rationalize what she had just been told. “Okay, so this bad guy or guys want to free non-humans and somehow leash them like they were dogs. These guys want our kind to possess people, and any breather who tries to fight back or refuse, they turn their pet non-human on, until the breather cooperates. Is that about the gist of it?”

  Snow nodded solemnly. “It sounds like you have a good grasp of it, yes.”

  “It’s insane,” she reiterated. “How long has this plot been going on? How long has Croft known about it?”

  “Longer than you’ve been dead,” Croft said, his deep melodious voice coming from the office doorway behind Cadence.

  “That doesn’t take much; I’ve been dead less than a year,” Cadence said, her tone dry. “And how is it you always manage to show up at the right time?” she added, half turning in her chair to face him.

  Croft smiled, and his white teeth were a sharp contrast to his dark brown skin, spreading his hands as she shrugged. “Why do you think I’m the boss?”

  “That wasn’t an answer,” Cadence said, her tone hinting at grumpiness at the lack of response.

  “Our good Doctor Suarez came to see me,” Croft said, choosing to ignore Cadence’s mood. “I was relieved to hear him say you were not only awake but clear to come back to work. We have great need of your talents, Detective Riley.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Cade said, her voice and tone quiet as her mind was still chewing on what Snow had told her.

  Croft moved into the room with the grace of a cat and stopped in between the two desks to speak to both of them.

  “As far as I am aware this plot has been going on for a few decades now. Whoever is leading this plan has been patient, they have been quiet, and they have been slow, so we only found out about it a couple of years ago. That is one reason why you two hold the position that you do now. What the two of you have managed to accomplish in less than a year is astounding. You manage to keep thwarting this group’s plans.”

  “Are you saying the chaos thing at Lexington Hills was because of these people?” It was Cadence who voiced the question.

  “Given that this so-called Wolf was involved in both cases, and we know he was working with Overton who was a ranking member of this cause of theirs, yes,” Croft said.

  “So should we just start tailing Wolf?” Cadence asked.

  “Do you know how to find him?” Croft countered.

  “Oh,” Cade said, deflating a little as she leaned back in her chair. “No.”

  “So, for now, keep going as you are. I’m sure this television case will prove difficult enough, and I don’t know that you are up to squaring off against Wolf or any of his superiors just yet,” Croft said. He reached out and put a hand on Cade’s shoulder. “I am glad you are well, and that you are back with us, Cadence.”

  “Thank you, sir,” she said with a smile. “I’m glad to be back.”

  Chapter 4

  Lauren stood at the counter in her New Age shop, cordless phone pressed to her ear beneath her fluffy brown hair. The Rubenesque woman who was getting closer to middle-aged every day had a pad of paper on the glass-topped counter in front of her, and the pen in her hand was leaving hurried notes on the paper in blue ink. Aidan, who looked just as he had five weeks ago, with his shaggy brown hair and goatee, leaned against the counter, straining his ears to eavesdrop on what he could, watching the notes appear on the paper. Sam was unobtrusive and unobserved by the breathers as he stayed near Lauren as well. All of them looked over when the chimes by the window made music, signifying the presence of spirits.

  Snow walked past the chimes with Cadence limping along with him. Sam had been aware that Cadence had been released from the hospital; he had peeked into her room and seen a sister-sized lump covered by blankets in her bed. What he hadn’t known was that she had been cleared to return to work. Sam’s face lit up as he saw her and he was beside her in an instant, giving her a huge hug.

  “Hey, just because we’re dead doesn’t mean you get to squeeze the life out of me all over again,” she said, her voice squeaking a bit from the force of his hug. Snow chuckled at the exuberance of the younger Riley sibling.

  “I’m just happy to see you. Are you good to be working through? I see you limping,” Sam said, worry creasing his brow.

  “Yeah, I’m okay. You think Ramon would let me out of his sight if I weren’t? It’s just going to take a little time for me to get all the way back to normal,” Cadence said, tousling her brother's bright blonde hair for good measure.

  “Did Snow tell you what I’m doing now?” Sam asked.

  “He did, and I’m proud of you,” Cade said with a smile. She reached over to ruffle his hair again, and he ducked back, out of the way, to avoid it. “We’re here for work though right now,” she said as she pointed over to where Lauren still stood behind the glass counter on the phone. The three spirits made their way over to where Lauren and Aiden stood.

  “Right, Barrington Prison,” Lauren said with a nod, writing it down. “Wait, this weekend? I thought you guys weren’t coming here for another couple of weeks.”

  There was silence as Lauren listened, and while the other three who were
eavesdropping could hear a muffled male voice on the other end of the line, they couldn’t make out the words. The person spoke for a while as Lauren listened and took notes on dates and times, noting a hotel name and number as well.

  “No, that’s fine. We’ll be there.” Lauren paused as she was asked a question. “Three: Myself, Aiden, and Derrick.” There was another brief pause. “No, no, he passed away a few months ago. Yes, thank you.”

  Aiden winced as he heard her answer, knowing that could only be a question about Dan. Aiden went behind the counter and into the back room, getting the spirit box out. He knew that they had a bit to talk about with Snow, and Cadence if she was back yet. As he made his way out of the back room and towards the table in the back of the store, the bells of the door rang out as Derrick, the youngest of the ghost hunting group, walked in.

  “Yes, I have your number, we will call if we have any other questions,” Lauren said as she nodded a greeting to Derrick. “We’ll see you soon.” She hung up the phone and looked at her piece of paper with its notes. With a sigh, she picked it up and took it over to the table, following Derrick to the back of the store.

  Derrick noted the spirit box as Aiden set it down on the table. “They’re here?”

  “Think so,” Aiden answered. “The chimes Lauren has set went off. But before we talk to them, I want to find out what the guys on the phone were saying.”

  Lauren took a seat and placed the pad of paper neatly before her, the pen to one side. “Well, they’ve moved up the schedule. Apparently, some other place opened up to them but only during the weekend they had initially set for us here. So they moved us around on their schedule. They’ll be here this weekend. So if you had anything else going on, cancel it. We’re going to be up to our eyeballs in work.”

  “I thought they just wanted us as guest advisors,” Aiden said, folding his tall, lean body into a chair. “To interview us and then move on.”

  “That’s changed too,” Lauren said with another sigh, irked at how chaotic this had become. “They’ll be here Thursday night. They want us to meet with them at the restaurant in their hotel that night for dinner and to go over plans for the next day. Friday they want to do exterior shots and our interviews. Then they want us at the prison with them on Saturday night, helping to investigate.”