I sat up and forced my eyes to acknowledge the day from the wide expanse of windows, and the rain pounding against them. I’d missed the rain while living in Texas. Today somehow, it comforted me.
“So where are we at this morning?” I asked, jamming on my work boots to head toward the kitchen where coffee needed making.
“Today, Dan and Liza are expected back from Tacoma. We need to find a way to get them to talk to you, Stevie. You’ll have to really lay on the charm.”
I wandered into the kitchen to find coffee had already been brewed. Astonishment didn’t stop me from sniffing the delicious odor of cinnamon and a dark roast. Did Win have the ability to touch things? Move them?
“Can you actually maneuver things on this plane?” That would be incredible, a feat very few spirits could accomplish.
“Not yet, beyond the newbie ghost tricks, but I’m working on it. Enzo made the coffee.”
I tightened the hold around the neckline of my ratty T-shirt and looked around. “He’s here?”
“He was. He’s gone to pick up a delivery, but he’ll be back soon.”
“How did he get a key? He can’t just wander in and out whenever he likes, Win. I’m a woman—primarily alone. Are you crazy?”
“You’re a woman with a spy always on standby. And Enzo won’t hurt you anyway. He’s one hundred percent trustworthy. I told you, he’s an artist. He comes and goes as he pleases, when he pleases. That’s how he works. In fact, sometimes he’ll be gone for days, looking for inspiration.”
“In what? His hot dog at the Yankees game?” I found a clean ceramic mug sitting beside the coffeepot and filled it.
“Still as funny as you were five minutes ago. The agreement was—”
“I know, I know. All renovations have to be at your approval. I shut up and show up when necessary, no commentary from the snarky peanut gallery. But I never agreed not to tell you you’re nuts for hiring someone who shows up when the moon is in its seventh sun.”
“In the end, this will all be a memory we’ll laugh over.”
I wondered about this memory we’d laugh over. How long did Win intend to stay on the plane he currently wouldn’t leave, and why? Was the restoration of this house that important to him that he wouldn’t cross over? MZ’s unresolved murder wasn’t the only thing keeping him here.
“So another cryptic message from Madam Zoltar today,” Win said, interrupting my thoughts.
My ears perked and my spine tingled. “Where is she? Is she okay?”
Win sighed, suggesting he was frustrated. “She’s been floating about from plane to plane in a complete tizzy, but she keeps saying one thing. Fish and chips. I’d have to guess she’s referring to me. I am British. It’s one of the things that come to mind when you think about England.”
“Cluck-cluck and fish and chips. Maybe this is some sort of food-related message? Maybe a chef killed her? What does this have to do with her son Dan?”
Win blew out a breath of air. “I don’t know, but there’s an obvious connection.”
I shook my head, stumped. “None of this makes any sense. But I wish she’d cross over. Maybe then she’d find peace.”
“I hope she will when we catch her killer. I’d like this special hell to end for her.”
I leaned against the plywood counter and looked out at the stormy Puget, sipping my coffee. “About the end…gonna ask you one of those sensitive questions you get all uppity about.”
“I don’t get uppity.”
“You do, and you get snappy and curt, but I’m going to ask anyway. Why don’t you want to cross over, Win?”
He paused, and I thought surely I’d stepped in it, but then he said, “Because I like the in-between. There’s no commitment here, but I understand what it’s about. I don’t, however, know what’s on the other side. Maybe I won’t like it. And seeing as no one’s ever come back to tell us what it’s like, I’m not willing to risk it.”
Usually people lingered in the eternal waiting room for unfinished business reasons. My instincts said that had more to do with this than making a final commitment to cross.
“You do know you have to make a choice sometime, don’t you?” I kept my tone accusation free, but that didn’t seem to reach Win.
The air around me grew cool when he asked, “Do I? By whose authority?”
My finger shot up in the air. “There’s that uppity thing. I was just asking a question. I suppose you could stay there forever, if that’s what you want. I’ve never heard of anyone doing it, but go you for ignoring trends. You can stay in the in-between for as long as you’d like, Win. It’s no skin off my nose. Now, I’m going to get dressed and then we’ll see if we can’t get Dan or Liza to talk to me.”
I took my coffee and skedaddled out of the kitchen and up the stairs, unsure why it bothered me so much that Win wouldn’t confide in me. He’d been in my life a total of two days now, and I was grateful for all he’d done, but I couldn’t help the feeling in my gut—he was at war with his death.