Seeing the Light (A Marie Jenner Mystery Book 1) Read Online Free

obviously been hiding in there until I was alone.
    “Hi Farley,” I said, hoping I didn’t sound as disappointed as I felt.
    He didn’t answer, he didn’t smile, and he wasn’t dancing any more. In fact, he looked kind of horrible.
    “Did you have a bad night?” I asked.
    “You know what I miss?” He walked to the front of my desk and leaned into it as though he couldn’t stand upright any more. “I really miss beer. Especially the first one of the night. And televised poker games. They’re pretty entertaining—or they were, when I had enough beer.” He sighed, deeply and melodramatically.
    Oh.
    “That sounds nice,” I said, even though it didn’t.
    “And taking a crap,” he said. “I miss that, too.”
    “Farley!” I giggled and gasped at the same time, sounding like I was twelve years old. Not the best way to handle a ghost having a crisis. Luckily he was still ignoring me.
    “It was the most satisfying bodily function I had left.” He sighed again. “I cried like a baby for two days when I realized I wasn’t going to be able to take a crap ever again.”
    “Farley—” I said again, trying to sound more adult. Then I stopped. I had no idea whether what he was doing was normal or not. Maybe I needed to let him talk this kind of stuff out.
    But really? Drinking beer and going to the bathroom were the two things he missed? Really?
    He glanced at me. “Ever again sounds like a hell of a long time, doesn’t it?”
    “Yes, it does,” I replied.
    “When my wife took our kid and left, my life became this blur of sameness, know what I mean? I worked, I ate take out, I drank beer and watched TV. When I drank enough beer, I’d fall asleep until I could go to work the next day. Taking a crap was the high point of my day.” He grinned, without one drop of humor in it. “No wonder I miss it.”
    “Farley,” I said, determined to get control of the conversation this time, for sure. “We need to talk about how to move you—”
    “Move me out?” he said, his smile back, frantic, and a teeny bit scary. “Oh man, that would be great—”
    “Out of what?” I asked, then shook my head. He was not hijacking this conversation again. “No, I mean moving you on.”
    “On?” A frown formed between his eyebrows and leaked to his mouth, pulling the corners down so that he looked angry and bitter and old. Definitely old. “On? What the hell does that mean?”
    “It means moving you from this plane of existence to the next,” I said, my voice going high and tight. I took a breath and blew it out to calm myself. “That’s what you need to do. And I should be able to help you.”
    I hoped.
    The frown deepened. “Are you talking about heaven and hell?”
    “No. Yes.” I sighed impatiently. “Sort of. It all depends on what you believe.”
    His mouth worked. “Well, forget it. I’m not doing that.”
    “But you have to,” I said.
    “Why?”
    I stared at him, flummoxed. I couldn’t exactly tell him he needed to move on so I could enjoy my new job, now could I? No, I couldn’t. And I really didn’t have a better reason at the moment. I was pretty sure Mom had mentioned the “why” of moving on to me at some point, but mostly what I remembered were the fights.
    “Just because,” I finally said. “All will be revealed.”
    All will be revealed? Holy crow, now I was sounding like a fake gypsy soothsayer at a carnival or something.
    He stared at me for a long moment as though he was thinking exactly the same thing, and then shook his head. “I don’t care if all will be revealed,” he said. “I told you I just want to find a way through the barrier thing holding me in this building.”
    “A barrier?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Wow.”
    I didn’t remember him saying anything about a barrier holding him in the building. But then, I’d kind of freaked out about the whole “accidental death” thing, so maybe I’d blocked it.
    What I did know was, my mother had never mentioned dealing with