Out Of The Dark Read Online Free

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    "Nona," Rhonda said.
    Okay. That explained a whole lot. Well--not
really. I knitted by eyebrows together and made the very obvious,
universal gesture for what the hell for?
    Mr. Bartender-man was back at the bed. "Your
mom left a message on my voice-mail. She was apologizing for
you--for what happened--"
    I pursed my lips at him. Rhonda moved past
him and grabbed my board. She tossed it at me and I caught it
one-handed. Not on purpose, but it looked cool. I scribbled on
it.
    APOLOGIZE 4 WHAT? UR THE PERV
    He looked down. His hair wasn't in a
pony-tail today and was loose about his shoulders. He was dressed
in a black leather pea-coat and jeans, a silver bracelet on his
left wrist. "I explained to her that it wasn't your fault. We
didn't exactly have the stall locked."
    "Did you realize who you were shagging in the
bathroom?" Rhonda piped up.
    "I knew about her grandfather, yeah. But
that's what I'm paid to do--dig up intel on what I refer to as the
unconventional conventional."
    Rhonda and I looked at each other and she
looked back at him with the biggest, dumbest grin I'd ever seen on
her face. Oh good grief. Was that a crush I saw coming? "We thought
you were a bartender and part-time orderly."
    "That too," he looked at me. "I honestly
thought you were dead. That's a very--unusual--ability you have
there. You always had it?"
    Erase. Scribble. LONG STORY. NEVERMIND.
    Rhonda spoke up. "Have you always had the
ability to see spirits? I mean, you saw Zoë at the bar that day,
right?"
    He looked at me and then back to Rhonda. I
wasn't sure if he was excited or frightened. His eyes looked darker
though--I could have sworn they were gray? "I saw her the moment
she came in. I also knew Daniel couldn't see her. He comes in once
or twice a week, has a coffee or a beer. We talk. Normal stuff,
really. I was working at the bar because of a report of ghosts," he
smiled. "I thought Zoë was that ghost until I realized she was
paying close attention to the cop. And then I realized she came in
with him."
    I erased and scribbled. WHY R U AT
HOSPITAL?
    "I was hired to keep an eye on the Chief of
Surgery, Dr. Allard Bonville."
    I erased my board and scribbled. BY WHO?
    "You mean whom?"
    Scribble. ASS WIPE.
    He smiled, undeterred. And then he shrugged.
"I don't know. I get all my freelance work through a secured site I
set up a few months back when I moved here from Savannah."
    Rhonda looked back at me again and then took
a step toward him. "You set up a secured ftp for jobs? How did you
do that? Did you use standard applications or was this something
you wrote on your own? How do your clients contact you--or how do
they pay you?"
    He grinned. "Well, first off I don't use FTP,
I use MTP, which is Managed File Transfers. I first learned about
it through a company called Communication Commerce, and then I
learned they were part of a larger conglomerate and I like bailed
as fast as I could. But I set up my own secured server using the
MTP transfers and then I have my own secure bulletin board."
    It was about that minute my brain tuned out.
It was pretty sure it wouldn't understand any of what was said,
much of it becoming the standard Charlie Brown adult speak of
"wonk, wonk, wonk-wonk" and well--
    But I did watch them for a few seconds. They
were almost exactly the same height, their hair was close in color,
though Rhonda's had the matt-black look of a spray painted car. His
was shiny and healthy. They were both kinda
gothy-emo-techno-babbly.
    Hum. Was she crushing?
    Not if I could help it. Did not want my best
friend involved with some bathroom-stall-romance-guy. Even if he
could see ghosts.
    Grrrr.
    No one noticed as I slipped out of bed and
headed to the bathroom. I turned the hot on full-blast and turned
to face some pale, strange woman in the mirror.
    Gee-zus. I had really let myself go. It was
one thing if Daniel saw me like this--I mean--he'd already seen me
at some of my worst moments. Even with my teeth un-brushed.
    But some strange