The Dead Girls Detective Agency by Suzy Cox Read Free Book Online

they did when David held my hand. If I could just make this work, then he could see me. I could appear to him one last time and let him know that I might be dead, but I was okay. And that he would be okay someday too.
    My toes felt warm. Then my calves. Then my knees. Then that balmy perfect-bath feeling traveled all the way up my body—like the sensation you get when you drink a mug of hot chocolate on a winter’s day—until, eventually, all of me was nice and toasty.
    I examined my fingers, wiggled them again. They felt buzzy like the top of a stereo speaker. And they were pink! Pink! Had I made them apparite? I turned back to Nancy and Lorna expecting to see them smiling all encouragingly because I’d done it. I’d made my hand appear!
    But both of their mouths were on the floor. Not literally. But they were looking at me like I had three heads.
    “Charlotte, whatever you do, don’t move,” Nancy said, edging toward me. “You’ve somehow managed to … You, well, you … It seems you have a gift for apparition.”
    What was she talking about? I’d done what she asked, right? My hand was pink, just like hers had been. “Nancy, what’s wrong with you?” I asked. “Since I got to the Attesa, I’ve done everything you’ve asked of me,” I waved my hand around and up in the air. “And it seems all you can do is …”
    Um, hang on a minute. What was that? I waved my arm again. It was glowing. All of it. My fingers, my forearm, my elbow. Like a neon party sign. I looked down at my other arm, my legs. Same story.
    Uh-oh. Somehow I hadn’t just made my hand visible to the Living—I’d done my whole body. Which meant that people—human, not dead people—could see me and …
    “Miss, can I see your ticket?” A security guard in a uniform was standing in front of me. I swiveled around, desperately hoping there was some alive girl behind me who he was talking to.
    “Miss?” Darn, there was no one but two preppy guys in dorky pastel polo shirts and khakis. Which meant he had to be talking to me. Which meant—oh, help —he could totally see me. And he was looking at me very strangely indeed.
    “Er, I think I lost it when I came up here,” I said. My voice sounded strange. Like it was lower than normal and had a bit of an echo. Now he could see me, could he hear me too?
    “Lost it?” He parroted back. So we’d established that, yep, apparition made my voice audible to the Living too. “And where do you think you did that exactly? You do need a valid ticket to be up here, I’m afraid. Plenty of signs told you that before you got in the elevator. Where do you think you lost it, miss? Your ticket?”
    Oh, crap. Should I just make myself disappear? Or would that make him madder? Actually, I didn’t even know how to do that. Nancy had stuck me at the wheel of a speeding car and forgotten to point out the brakes. Come to think of it, where was Nancy?
    Then I saw her. Behind the security man, she and Lorna were waving madly. They kept pretending to hold something in the air, then miming that it had fallen out of their hands and … where were they pointing?
    What was with them? This was not the time to start playing charades. I was knee-deep in smelly stuff here and I needed their help. Nancy pointed over the edge again.
    “What? What are you trying to say, Nancy?” I asked, feeling myself getting annoyed.
    Security man looked behind him to the spot where Nancy stood. Where I could see her. But he could just see air.
    “Have you been drinking, young lady?” he asked, starting to get stern with me now. He obviously thought I was wasted—why else would I be asking the air behind him questions? “Because one thing we at the Empire State Building do not allow is any person under the influence of any alcohol …”
    Lorna giggled. Nancy was too busy madly pointing to find it funny.
    “Now, you’ll have to show me your ticket or I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
    “Sir, I told you: I lost it,”