“It sounds terribly rude,” Miss April commented. “No offense, Robert, but in my day one sat quietly during a recital.”
“If an audience doesn’t go nuts for you, you’re doing something wrong,” came a new—and oddly familiar—voice.
I whipped around. Standing there, in the middle of the upstairs gallery, was a tall, thin young man with long dark hair and a lopsided grin. His eyes were outlined in black, and his leather pants were so tight I could see the outline of his kneecaps—and more of him than I wanted—above his boots.
“Joe?” I couldn’t help the surprise that filled my voice. “What are you doing here?”
Joe Hard had been dead since before Lark and I entered our worlds. He’d been in some sort of rock band when he died. From what I’d heard he’d been slightly famous. He was a flirt, but he seemed fairly harmless.
He grinned at me—the sort of smile I’m sure he’d used to charm girls when he’d been alive. “Hey, Red. How’s kicks?”
I had no idea what that meant. “Uh, good.”
Noah stepped up to stand beside me. “Wren, would you mind giving me an introduction?”
“Oh, yes. Of course. This is Joe. Joe, this is Noah.”
They nodded, eyeing each other in that way that only men seemed to do.
“So, why are you here?” I asked again. I suppose I should have asked how as well, but it was almost Halloween, and I didn’t know Joe’s history. The last time I’d seen him was in the police station the night Mace and Lark had been arrested for trespassing on Haven Crest property.
Joe raised a skinny arm and pointed at the window. “That stage they’re building? It’s for a concert that Dead Babies is performing in my honor. Olgilvie came down to check out construction. You know I couldn’t resist coming with him.”
Just like some ghosts haunted places, others were attached to people or objects. Joe had attached himself to Officer Olgilvie, a cop against whom he had some sort of grudge. It had to be bad, because when Joe looked at Olgilvie he looked like he wanted to rip him apart, but he hated him enough that he wouldn’t do it. He wanted to torture him instead. I couldn’t blame him. Olgilvie had it in for Lark, which made him a jerk in my book. I hadn’t been around that long, but Joe was the first spirit I’d ever met who tethered himself to a person. Daria had been the second.
“Where’s that sweet sister of yours?” he asked.
“Home,” I replied.
“She coming to the concert?”
“Yes.”
“Are you?”
I frowned. “Yes. Why?”
He shrugged his leather-clad shoulders. “Just wondering. Do you suppose you could tell J.B. that I’d like to talk to her?”
J.B. stood for Jail Bait, and it was a term Joe applied to young women. Apparently he meant it as a compliment, even though it sounded vaguely criminal to me. “I’ll tell her.”
He smiled again. There was a sadness in Joe’s eyes that hurt to look at. It was like all of his pain was in his gaze, and every time he looked at me, an invisible iron blade cut me to thinly sliced ribbons.
“Thanks, sweetheart. Sorry to interrupt your party.” And just like he’d appeared in the room, he was gone in a blink.
“Who was that?” Noah demanded.
I stepped back from the anger in his voice. “I told you. His name is Joe.”
Noah’s eyes burned with blue flame, and his lips were tight. “What is he to you?”
I stared at him. Out of the corners of my eyes I saw the ghosts flicker out of the room, leaving us alone.
“Are you jealous?” I asked.
He stiffened. “Perhaps. Ought I be?”
If I hadn’t thought he’d be offended, I would have laughed. “No! Joe is... Well, I’m not sure. I don’t know him well enough to call him a friend. But calling him an acquaintance doesn’t seem right, either. He’s certainly nothing more.”
“Ah.” Noah’s posture relaxed a little. He looked sheepish. “I see. Forgive me for my loutish behavior. I thought he was someone you were once close to. He spoke to you in a very familiar manner.”
“I think that’s just Joe.”
“He must have been someone of great importance if this concert is to be held in his honor.”
“I think he was very popular, yes. I don’t know his music, though.”
“Who is this Olgilvie he spoke of?”
He was asking an awful lot of questions, and I would rather talk about him, or even myself, than all these other people and things. “A police officer. He doesn’t like my sister and our friends very much. I don’t think he’s a nice man.”
Noah took my hand in his, our auras blending together. “I don’t know how anyone could be anything but charmed by you.”
“You’re making up for being jealous very nicely,” I teased with a smile.
He smiled back. He was so very, very handsome. “I am glad to hear it. Now why don’t you tell me what brought you back here so soon. As much as I’d like to think you returned for me alone, I do not think that’s it.”
My smile faded. “I wanted to ask for your help.”