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

I pleaded. He was so not buying this. “It went …” I looked back to Nancy, who was waving at me—she did her little mime again, something in her hand, it flew out and over the edge. Oh. I got her now. I turned back to the security guard and gave him the same polite smile that I usually reserved for David’s mom.
    “I did have a ticket, but when I got up here there was a big gust of wind and it went over the rails.” I pointed to the street below, like that was going to make him believe me any more than he already didn’t.
    “That may be,” he said, his cheeks getting redder by the second. I shouldn’t have added the polite smile. It never worked on David’s mom either. “But if you don’t have your ticket now, you’ll have to leave. If you’ll just follow me to the elevator …”
    He turned his back to me and started to lead the way off the observation deck and back into the building. Ohmigod, what was I going to do? What if he tried to touch my arm? He’d go right through it—just like Nancy’s arm had gone through the wall in the Attesa. Or worse, he was going to take me in the elevator, where there weren’t as many lights, then he’d see I was glowing. Glowing . He’d get all freaked out. And call the police. Or maybe Ghostbusters. I bet they had a number for that here. I can’t have been the first spook to show up. What if they caught me with some ghost ray and locked me up in a special, secret prison and I was stuck in there forever and ever and …
    “Quick! Charlotte! This is your chance. Blow!” Nancy said.
    “What?”
    “Don’t think about it, just as hard as you can blow—blow all the energy out through your mouth and you’ll disappear.”
    Blow? Blow. I didn’t think, I just did what Nancy said.
    Cold crept down my body. Quicker than the warmth had come. It made me wince, like a milkshake headache did.
    “Miss, if you’ll just walk this way …”
    The security guard turned around. And around again. I hadn’t moved an inch, but—please—it seemed as if he could no longer see me.
    “Miss? Miss?”
    I looked down at my body. It was washed out and pale again. No glow. Result!
    “Well, I …” He stomped off into the building. No doubt to find a colleague to come and hunt for me. Or—worse—so he could look at the security camera footage. Now that was going to make for interesting viewing. Now you see me, now you don’t. Was that how it went? Did apparitions even appear on camera? Maybe he’d think he’d fantasized me. That I was just a figment of his imagination. He’d probably had a long day after all.
    I turned back to Nancy and Lorna. “That was a close one, hey?”
    “That’s one way to put it,” Nancy said, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
    “How did you do that ?” Lorna asked, her blue eyes wide. “It took me weeks to even make my little finger glow and you—you made your entire body go on your first try. You’re even better at apparition than Nancy!”
    Her Geekiness scowled.
    “I have no idea. I just thought of how much I wanted it and bam! there I was. Weird.”
    “Wait a minute,” Nancy said, looking uneasy. “He’s coming back.”
    She gestured behind us. We turned to see the security guy striding over—with another guard. Even though I knew I was invisible again, what if I hadn’t blown hard enough? What if they could still see my foot or my ear?
    “She was here. Just here ,” the guard told his friend. “Then poof! She was gone. Like she disappeared into thin air. Where can she have gone to? There’s only one way out.”
    “Guys, we should get out of here,” Lorna whispered. She seemed to have forgotten that the security men couldn’t hear her either. “We don’t know when Miss Apparite here”—she pointed to me—“will get her glow on again.” Lorna walked in between the two men, who were busy arguing about my whereabouts. “And these guys look, like, ancient. I don’t think either of their hearts could take