CHAPTER FIVE

It was just after four as Lance finished his last autopsy for the day. He smiled at Jeremy, the ghost who haunted the Medical Examiner's Office. He'd died at the young age of twenty-four from a massive heart attack. Since then, he decided instead of moving into the light, he'd stick around and learn all about being a medical examiner. By watching over Lance's shoulder, he'd become quite good at diagnosing deaths. Sadly, Lance was the only one who could see or speak with him, and Jeremy couldn't do more than watch since he was a ghost.

"You have plans tonight?" Jeremy asked.

"No. Angus will probably work late. I'm just going to go home and do some laundry. Might mow the front yard if I find the motivation." Lance left the scrub room and headed to his office. Keeping his voice low so no one would think he was talking to himself, he asked, "You want to come over?"

"Not tonight. Going home for a bit." Jeremy walked through the wall of Lance's office.

Lance pushed his door open and joined him. "The offer stands. You know you can drop by anytime. Bethany and Ray are always happy for company."

"Yeah, I'll be there Friday. You said Cel is going to be there?" Jeremy appeared to lean against the wall.

"She's teaching me to make pepperoni pizza pasta. She says we eat too much pizza and need to find other ways to deal with our cravings." Lance grinned as he sat down. "It sounds interesting. So far, she hasn't had me make anything bad, so I have to trust her."

"God, I wish I could eat." Jeremy appeared to pat his stomach.

A knock on his door had Lance sitting up straight. "Come in."

"Hey, Lance. I hate to do this to you, but Sam is already gone. We just got a call for a pick up. Kyle will go with you." Carrie gave him a sympathetic look. "It's under the Fairway Bridge."

Lance groaned. "A jumper?"

"Sounds like it. I didn't get much info. They said to take the utility road on the south end. It's narrow, but you can get the van through."

"Yeah, I've been there a few times. Sadly, it's a common area for pick ups." He'd handled more than his share of suicides from that bridge.

"I'd go with, but it's my mom's birthday party tonight. I want to be there," Jeremy stated.

Lance ignored him since Carrie couldn't see or hear him. "Where'd Sam go?"

"He had a dentist appointment. He thought making it later in the day would be safe. Figures the one time he leaves early, we get a call." Carrie handed him the information she'd written down. "Kyle's out front. Ready when you are."

Lance made sure he had his phone as he stood. "Sooner we go, the sooner I'm home." He nodded to Jeremy as he left the office. He wanted to say goodbye, but with Carrie right there, he couldn't. "You staying late?" he asked Carrie.

"Not unless you need me to do the intake. I'll go as soon as Mack gets here." She glanced over her shoulder at him.

"Nah, I can handle that. No point in you hanging around. I'll do the intake paperwork." Lance grabbed the van keys from Carrie's desk. "Ready?" he asked Kyle who was leaning against the front counter.

"Yep, want me to drive?" Kyle asked.

"You been beneath the bridge before?" Lance asked, knowing the road there was tricky going down from the bridge.

"A few times. I'm good." Kyle caught the keys as Lance tossed them.

"See you tomorrow." Lance nodded to Carrie before following Kyle out to the garage and into the van.

"Hope you didn't have plans tonight." Kyle started the van and hit the button to open the garage door.

"Nope, laundry can wait." Lance doublechecked they had everything they needed, then clicked his seatbelt into place. Once they were on their way, he sent a quick text to Angus to let him know he was working late. When he didn't get a text back right away, he figured Angus was working late as well. He'd expected that. With two murder cases in the last twenty-four hours, Angus would be deep into investigations.

"I don't even want to think about laundry. I'm flying out to Phoenix Friday night and laundry is just one of many things I need to do before I go." Kyle focused on traffic which was heavy due to everyone getting off work.

"Another art show?" Lance had yet to see any of Kyle's paintings, but they had to be good considering the amount of time he spent at art shows.

"Yeah, this one is a pretty big deal too. It's invite only. I'll be back Sunday night late. I've already shipped the paintings there. I just have to approve their placement once I get there." Kyle sounded excited.

"We're going to lose you, aren't we? You'll go off and be some famous artist and leave the dead bodies behind," Lance teased.

"Not yet, but hopefully someday. Right now, I make enough painting to survive, but just barely. I need to keep my job at the morgue for now. I'm not saying I won't ever quit, but it won't be anytime soon." Kyle slowed for a red light. "This is two calls you've been out on in two days. That might be a record."

Lance laughed. "No, when Sam's on vacation I've been busier, but it is rare I'm out this much when he's around. I can't complain. He's good about taking all the calls so I don't have to. I don't mind picking up the slack when I need to. I'm not looking forward to this one though. Jumpers are never fun, but hopefully there won't be family around to have to deal with."

"I'm just hoping this one hasn't been there for days." Kyle grimaced.

"Yeah, me too." Lance didn't want to deal with a body that had been in the heat for days. His phone dinged and he smiled seeing it was Angus letting him know he'd be a few more hours as well. It would probably end up being one of those nights where they got home just in time to slide into bed and say goodnight to each other.

"Must be Angus. You always get that silly grin when he messages," Kyle teased.

"I hope the day never comes when I don't smile at his messages. I know we've been together about a year, but I still feel the same as when it was new." Lance was happier than ever now that they were living together.

"That's the way it should be. Do you think you'll get married someday?"

"I'd like to, but we haven't really talked too much about it. I think he'd like to as well. I wouldn't mind adopting a kid or two down the road and doing the whole family thing." Lance liked the idea of having kids running around the house and yard.

"I can see that for you two. You'd make great dads, though with your careers, you'd both be over-protective."

"Probably. I know how easy it is to die doing stupid, simple things, and Angus knows how easy it is to go down the wrong path into a life of crime. We'd probably never let our kids leave the house." Lance laughed. "Maybe we should stick to having a dog instead."

"You only have the one dog, right?" Kyle turned off the main highway onto the small utility road that would take them to the area below the bridge.

"Yeah, she's enough for now. I hate that we aren't home more often to spend time with her." He wasn't about to tell Kyle about the ghosts who kept his dog, Haunt, company when he couldn't be there. Thankfully, animals could see and interact with ghosts. "Long way down." Lance arched his head to look out the window at the bridge.

"Yeah, I hate suicides, but jumpers are the worst. I wonder what they're thinking as they drop. I'm so scared of heights I wouldn't walk across that bridge, let alone jump from it," Kyle said.

"Yeah, same." Lance took in the bridge. It was an old railroad track that was no longer used. The train used to pick up and drop off at an old refinery that had been abandoned when Lance had been a kid. He'd been to the bridge as a teenager, drinking a few beers with friends as they looked over the area. Beneath it was a narrow gorge, the riverbed dry. He'd only seen water in it a few times in his life when the area saw heavier rain than normal.

Kyle slowed the van, parking behind one of two police cars. "I'll grab the gear."

"Thanks." Lance climbed out of the van and headed toward where two officers stood talking to a man dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. A baseball cap hid half his face from view, but Lance was pretty sure he didn't know the man. A few feet from them, the body of the jumper lay crumpled and bloody on the hard dirt, blood soaking into the ground around a massive head wound. What he didn't expect was the ghost of a young girl pacing back and forth beside the body. He nodded to the men as he came to stand beside them. As badly as he wanted to talk to the ghost, he couldn't with others around.

"This is our M.E.," one officer said to the plain clothed man, then looking at Lance he continued. "This is Terry Williams. He saw the girl jump and called it in."

"I didn't jump! I was pushed," the ghost girl cried. "I didn't jump!"

Lance's eyes widened just a bit as he glanced her way, but he quickly looked back at Terry and offered his hand. "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"I couldn't believe what I was seeing." Terry shook his head. "I was just out for a walk and happened to look that way. I saw her falling. I hurried over here, praying she was okay, but…" he trailed off as he looked at the body.

Kyle walked up, bypassing them and going directly to the body. Lance watched as he parked the gurney and then set the bag down on the ground. Lance was sure Kyle could do everything himself if he was allowed to, but without a license, Kyle could only assist.

"If you could see if she's got any I.D. on her, that would help." One of the officers turned to glance at the body.

"I'll see what I can find." Lance left the group and headed over to where Kyle was. He needed to speak to the ghost but couldn't until he was alone with her or was sure no one was watching them. Having heard her say she was pushed, he was going to look at this as a murder, not a suicide. Not that it would really change anything he had to do, but since there wasn't a crime scene team looking around, he would do what he could to look for any evidence.

"She looks young." Kyle stared at the woman's body. Her long brown hair was now coated with coagulating blood, and her legs were both broken with compound fractures. "Looks like she landed on her legs, then her head hit that rock." Kyle gestured to a bolder a few inches from the woman's head.

"I didn't feel the pain." The ghost of the girl stood behind Kyle.

Lance glanced up at her and gave a small smile.

Her eyes went wide. "You see me?"

He barely nodded.

"But the others don't, do they?" She walked closer to where Lance was pulling on his protective gear.

"No," he whispered.

"You have to tell them that I didn't jump. I didn't commit suicide." Her eyes glistened as if filling with tears.

Lance had seen this before. There were no tears to fall, yet the ghost appeared to have tears in her eyes. It was the strangest thing. He glanced back at Kyle, making sure he wasn't paying attention to him. When he was sure he wouldn't be heard, he whispered to the ghost. "Stay with me. I can help, but not here." He pulled what he needed from the bag and went to the body. He looked at Kyle. "Glance around and make sure nothing flew off the body when she hit. Look for a purse or something. Maybe jewelry."

"On it." He stood and started wandering the area around the body.

"My wallet is in my backpack. I don't know where it ended up." The ghost's voice broke with emotion. "He hit me when I was getting into my car after work. I came to as he was dragging me onto the bridge."

Lance glanced up, surprised at what she was saying. It was the middle of the day. Who would be brave enough to kidnap someone from their work, then drag them unconscious to a public bridge? Sure, the area was quiet and didn't have a lot of people around, but still, it would have been risky. Someone could have seen them. Lance was sure there were cameras on the bridge. At least there had been a few years back when he'd dealt with another suicide case.

He finished the exam and then checked her pockets to see if he could find any I.D.. As the girl had told him, there was none. She had a small notepad in her pocket along with a pen that now leaked ink all over Lance's gloves. "I need an evidence bag."

One of the officers hurried over and held one open for him to drop the notebook in. Then opened another for the pen so it didn't leak ink onto the notepad. "That it?"

Lance nodded. "Didn't find any I.D. The notepad appears to have a bunch of numbers written in it. I didn't see a name anywhere. Hopefully, her prints are in the system, but as young as she appears, it's doubtful."

"Should I go into that light?" the ghost asked.

"Not yet!" Lance said loudly, then cursed himself for speaking out loud.

"Not yet, what?" Kyle asked.

"Was just thinking out loud." Lance laughed at himself. "Sorry." He ducked his head as he prepared the body to be moved, only glancing up once Kyle had moved to pull the gurney closer. Lance met the ghost girl's stare. "No light. Not yet. I need to talk to you first." His voice was barely a whisper, but she nodded, letting him know she'd heard.

The light was something every ghost saw. Most walked into it directly after dying. He was told it was warm and welcoming and called to a ghost to enter it. He figured it was the portal to whatever came next. Not every ghost went into it. Like those who lived with him, they ignored it. The light never went away, but he heard it got easier to ignore it the longer you went without entering it. It was something he couldn't see.

Kyle helped him get the body into the bag, then onto the gurney. Lance took a moment to look around the area before saying his goodbyes and following Kyle back to the van, making sure the ghost was with them.

Once they had the body loaded, Kyle climbed back into the front seat. "I hate suicides, but when they're young like this one, it's even worse."

Lance nodded, though he was aware this was a murder, not a suicide. The issue would be how to prove that without any evidence. They couldn't use a ghost's testimony as official evidence. He was going to have to pray he could find the area she'd been hit and knocked out during the autopsy and that it would show she was injured before falling from the bridge. The likelihood of that was going to be slim with the amount of head trauma there was.

Lance quickly pulled out his phone and sent a text to Angus.

Lance: I have a ghost who claims she was murdered. Appeared to be suicide. I'll be at the morgue another hour or so. If I don't see you there, I'll bring her home with me.

Angus: On my way to your office now .

Lance: Doors are locked. On my way there. Meet me by the back garage. About ten minutes away.

Angus: Thumbs up emoji.

Lance smiled and set his phone back into his pocket.

"Must have been Angus to get you to smile like that." Kyle grinned.

"It was. He's meeting us. Hopefully, once I get this intake done, he and I can grab dinner and head home. He's got two cases that have kept him busy. I'll take any time with him I can get." Lance hated that he was just about to add a third case to Angus's pile, but he couldn't ignore a ghost's claims. It was something they had to investigate.

He settled back, taking the time to relax, because something told him that the rest of the evening wasn't going to be as easy as dinner and kicking back at home.