The woman smiled. “It’s just George, the resident ghost. He’s a friendly one, don’t worry.”
“Friendly, sure, I’ve heard that before,” I said. She gave me an odd look and I didn’t bother trying to explain myself. The day I met a friendly ghost was the day I came up with better analogies.
Both of our rooms were on the third floor, overlooking the street, with a shared balcony connecting us through French doors.
Perry and I tossed our bags on the bed and surveyed the quaint room. It was a little too old lady-ish for my liking, like the receptionist decorated it, but Perry seemed absolutely enthralled. I guess there was a romantic, girly-girl somewhere beneath that Mastodon t-shirt.
“I guess the bastard wants to keep an eye on us,” I told her.
“I heard that,” came his muffled voice through the wall. Oh great, and the walls were paper-thin too. Though that made me extremely glad that I’d remembered to pack something.
“What’s so funny?” Perry asked.
I wiped the smile off my face. “Nothing, just trying to look on the bright side. Shall we unpack?”
“No time,” Maximus said from the doorway. Shit, he was just everywhere, wasn’t he?
“Can’t you just give us a few minutes alone?” I asked.
“Sorry I’m such a cockblocker—”
“At least you’re apologizing this time.”
“—but there’s someone I want you to meet and I’m not sure if we’ll miss her or not.”
I raised my brow. “A…a her? You’ve had contact with the female species? I don’t believe it.”
He pointed at Perry. “I’ve had intimate contact with this one.”
“You son of a bitch,” I snarled, ready to jump him.
“Guys!” Perry yelled, putting her arm out in front of me. “Dex, calm down. You, ginger balls, you shut the fuck up.”
I laughed. “Ginger balls, that’s my girl!”
He smiled venomously at her. “The very balls you—”
Before I had a chance to knock his face in, Perry was there first, kicking him right in the shin with her Doc Martens. Her violence surprised even me, and I stood there, shocked and impressed. And maybe a bit scared.
Maximus was shocked too, groaning and rubbing his leg. “Have you gone fucking crazy, Perry?”
She put her hands on her hips. “Maybe I have. If you say another fucking thing about what happened between me and you, I’m going to show you what else I can do to your balls, you hear me?”
“Jesus,” he swore, straightening up, “all right, all right. You’re not much of a little lady after all, are you?”
“I never was. Now tell us where the hell you want us to go and who the hell you want us to meet and why.”
Maximus looked at me and I shrugged. I was going to let Perry do her thing. This inner bitch of hers was giving me a hard-on.
“All right,” he said, wincing a bit as he shook out his leg. “There’s a girl I used to know, our contact. I want to see if she still works at the bar, the one I used to work at. It’s just here in the Quarter on Royal Street.”
“So let me get this straight,” she said slowly, “this girl is our contact and you don’t even know if she still works at the same place. Haven’t you been in contact with her?”
“Not since I left.”
I frowned at him. “Maximus, you do know what the term ‘contact’ means, don’t you? It generally means you’ve been in contact with the person.”
“Yeah, well I reckoned there wasn’t time. Besides, we don’t need her, we can investigate the haunted house on our own. I just thought we should get her involved.”
“Why?” Perry asked, leaning back on one leg, full of attitude.
He slowly tilted his head back and forth, considering the question. Finally he said, “Because she’s a lot like you guys.”
“What do you mean like us?” I asked warily.
“She sees ghosts, too. She’s…pretty special.”
“And what’s her name?” Perry asked. “This special ghost girl?”
“Rose,” he said, almost sadly. “Her name is Rose.”
And with that, he turned and left the room, heading down the staircase. I had a feeling that Rose was more than just a contact to him. How much more, well I guess that was something we were about to find out.
I nodded at Perry. “Grab your purse. At least we’re going to a bar.”
I think we were all going to need a drink at this point.