The Ghost Exterminator by Vivi Andrews Read Free Book Online

back a laugh. She did like Jo. Absolutely no verbal filter and the most fascinating leaps of logic. Karma tried not to have favorites among her many extremely talented employees, but there were days when Jo made that pretty damn difficult. Of course, there were days when they each made it difficult, in their own ways.
    “Actually, he came around on his own. Some sort of incident involving a permanent marker, although I couldn’t quite make out exactly what happened. He was a trifle distraught.”
    “A trifle. Yeah, that sounds like him.” Jo paused for a loud slurp of coffee. “Was he clearing his throat a bunch? He does that.”
    “I didn’t notice. Would you care to tell me why you felt it was necessary to mention Ciara’s condition to him?”
    “What?” Jo’s confusion came through readily. “I didn’t…oh, wait, I did. He was giving me shit about my combat boots, so I volunteered to strip.”
    “Very professional,” Karma commented dryly.
    “Yeah, well, he was being an ass. I didn’t say anything about Ciara. Just that some of our people work naked.”
    Ciara Liung was an extremely sensitive psychic who specialized in finding lost and stolen items—sports cars, jewelry, you name it, Ciara could find it. Human lo-jack. However, the nature of her gift was such that, while she was working, the touch of anything on her skin, even her own clothing, was distracting to the point of pain. Her weakness was a well-kept secret at KC. The local FBI office had a man whose entire job it was to liaise with Ciara and even he had no idea that their best finder spent most of her time floating naked in her pool.
    “You aren’t going to tell Ciara, are you?” Jo asked, interrupting Karma’s musings. “If she’s pissed at me, I’ll never find my keys again.”
    Karma ignored the whining. “Do you have Haines’ office address in the dossier I gave you? I need you to get there as quickly as possible.”
    Jo followed the change in subject without missing a beat. “What am I supposed to do when I get there?”
    “Get his permission to re-inspect the house and remove the ghosts from his body.”
    There was a long pause, then Jo gave a thoughtful slurp and mumbled, “Huh.”
    “Jo? You can remove the ghosts, can’t you?”
    The extended silence that met her question was far from comforting.
    “Jo? Can you?”
    “Maybe,” Jo piped up finally. “Probably,” she amended, although if anything she sounded less sure. “I definitely have some ideas. This isn’t exactly well-charted territory we’re covering here. But don’t you worry. I’m gonna boldly go where no ghost exterminator has gone before.”
    “Been watching much Star Trek lately?”
    “Fell asleep watching the SyFy channel. It’s Trekkie month. This week is all Shatner awesomeness and next week the TNG kick-ass marathon begins. SyFy channel rocks my world. Even if they did stupidly change the spelling of their name. They are Trek-tastic so I must forgive them. How could I survive with only USA and TNT to quench my syndicated thirst?”
    Karma refrained from mentioning that she had never seen a single episode of Star Trek . She needed Jo out helping Wyatt Haines, not storming into the office to force Karma to view the Shatner awesomeness .
    “How quickly can you be at Haines’ office?”
    “Warp speed, baby.”
    “Good.”
    “No, no, Karma. Your line is ‘Make it so’.”
    Karma coughed to hide her laughter and then obligingly commanded, “Make it so, Banks.”
    Jo gave a squeal of delight and shouted, “I need more power , Captain!” in a terrible Scottish accent as she threw down the phone. Karma gave in to her laughter as soon as she heard the line go dead.
     
     
    Warp speed turned out to be eighteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds. Jo timed herself. Considering she had to throw on a fresh T-shirt and yesterday’s jeans, drive halfway across town, find parking, and take the slowest elevator on the planet up nine floors while