Black-Eyed Moon (A Guinan Jones Paranormal Mystery #1) Read Online Free Page A

boyfriend, as though watching a good fight.
    Zeke cut his eyes in my direction. "You don't want to have this conversation, believe me."
    It was true. I didn't. But I wasn't going to be the one to back down. "Your problem is you think you're perfect. I've got news for you. Not even close."
    That got him to look me in the face. "I never claimed to be perfect. But I am normal, unlike you. Reading people's emotions, hearing dead people...It's weird. Some say it's evil."
    Dean cleared his throat. I felt him tense up. I took a deep breath.
    "Well, I am what I am. I'm certainly not going to let someone make me feel ashamed." Big talk, small lie.
    Tamzen slapped her hand on the table, making us jump. "Hear, hear! Let's get out of here."
    I rose from the table in what I hoped was a dignified manner and allowed her to guide me toward the door.
    Just outside the door, Adam Carver, one of Zeke's baseball teammates, stood with his cell phone to his ear. He frowned when he saw us.
    "Hey, something's going down at Jepson's Point."
    My heart skipped a beat. Jepson's Point and the land surrounding it had been in my family for generations, and a certain part of it was a make-out spot, to my grandfather's consternation.
    I dreamed about it last night.
    "What's up?" Dean said.
    Adam shook his head. "My brother's out there right now. He followed a police car. I think somebody's dead."
    I raised a hand to my mouth. Two fatal heart attacks in Ridge Grove in a couple of days? Not unusual, but worth discussing. I turned to Tamzen, opened my mouth to speak, and stopped. She and Dean stared at me. Zeke wore a smirk.
     

Chapter Four
     
    Zeke slowed the Jeep and pulled up on the side of Monsoon Road. In front of us were a line of twenty or so cars. To our left, several people milled around in the open field. Beyond it was Jepson's Point. A few yards away from the gathering crowd was a group of three—my grandfather, police officer Rory Davis, and county coroner Avery Stinson.
    All this for a heart attack?
    Tamzen looked back at me as though I knew what was going on, and I shook my head. It had taken us fifteen minutes to get here from Busby's, and every minute I'd grown tenser. Tamzen had been the only one talking, speculating about who the dead person was and how it happened. We found out before we left the car.
    "I hear it's Kate Mansfield," a boy passing by on foot said.
    The four of us looked at each other.
    "No way," Zeke said, climbing out.
    "I can't believe it," Tamzen said, her hand over her mouth. "Kate Mansfield is dead?"
    I leaned forward in my seat and f elt a dreaded sense of déjà vu. Kate Mansfield was a year older than us and a rising senior. Now she was dead? I felt Zeke's eyes on me, and I looked at him. His expression wasn't the usual sneering, condescending one, but of curiosity.
    "I just spoke to her the other day, " Dean said, his mouth agape.
    "Come on, let's find out what's going on," Tamzen said.
    I grabbed the top of the door with every intention of climbing out, but I hesitated.
    Tamzen noticed. "Let's go."
    Had I dreamed about the death of Kate Mansfield? I didn't want to find out. "I'll just wait here."
    Her eyes went wide. "Are you serious? Maybe you can see something important."
    I studied my lap.
    "Guinan —"
    "Leave her alone," Zeke said. "Come on."
    He and I maintained eye contact for the briefest moment, and I sensed an emotion from him that surprised me: compassion. The moment passed. He turned away, and he and Tamzen walked toward the growing group. She looked back at me resentfully.
    " I wonder why Kate was out here," Dean said. He was still in the Jeep with me. I knew he was dying of curiosity, too. "You okay?"
    I tried to sound casual. "Yeah." Zeke had removed the vehicle's top that morning. Sweat broke out on my face in the merciless sun and windless air. "I just don't want to see anymore dead bodies this summer."
    He nodded and gave me an understanding look. "I don't blame you."
    We sat in silence as cars