Ghosts See Me, But I See You: Brothers Book One

GHOSTS SEE ME, BUT I SEE YOU by Kelly Lee PROLOGUE: October 28, 2018 Albuquerque, NM TANSY Luna tried to ignore the strange woman that kept staring at her. She took the coffee she ordered and walked out of the coffee shop. And, damned if the woman didn't follow her. She didn't need this... Just like she didn't need the huge reminders around her of the time of year. Things like the carved pumpkins, the scarecrows made of corn husks, the apples with their wooded sticks and caramel dipping sauce, the candy, the costumes... The same old tired symbols of the season. Meaningless symbols and ideas of a time long past. Of a time that really had nothing to do with the modern ideas of Halloween. She sighed. This wasn't the first time she had seen the woman, either. She had seen her three weeks before, at the Farmer's Market, muttering something about a sewer. Normally, she'd not wonder about such people, as Albuquerque had its share of homeless and mentally ill. But, the thing was, this woman was not homeless, nor was she mentally ill. What Tansy hated most about the woman's appearance was the blood So, that was what Tansy was trying to do. Ignore the poor woman until she could get somewhere private and communicate with her. As she walked out the door, she started down the small ramp toward the parking lot. Sewer... "Yes, I know," Tansy said to her under her breath. In the sewer... "Just give me a minute, will you?" SEWER! At the shout only she could hear, she stumbled. Right into someone as her coffee went all over his nice suit jacket. "Oh, God!" Tansy babbled. "I am so sorry!" He looked down at his blue jacket and cream colored shirt, and he frowned. Tansy was clearly still fussing over him; trying to clean up the coffee "I am! I am so very sorry! I stumbled, and..." She looked up into a pair of blue eyes that made her breath halt. "Oh..." she said quietly, felling her face heat up. The energy that flowed out of him was warm and inviting. It made her think of safety and protection. A slow smile came to his face. "Well, this is not how I wanted to take a bath, but I guess it'll work." His eyes twinkled. "Huh?" Tansy asked intelligently. She was stunned by his handsome face. A strong jawline framed in stubble, an addictive smile and those sea blue eyes. His hair was closely cropped and dark brown. "I'm joking," he said, still smiling that dazzling smile. If it was possible for her to blush any more, she did. "Oh! right!" she chuckled sheepishly. "Sorry." Then she looked back down at his clothes. "Oh, boy, I am so very sorry for that." His mouth quirked at the corner, making his smile a bit lopsided. "It's fine. I didn't like that suit anyway." In the sewer... Tansy let out a breath. "I didn't mean to ruin that one." Sewer... "Again, not a problem." The gorgeous man still smiled at her. "I'm Matthew Apodaca," he introduced himself. "Tansy Luna," she replied. He looked at her, those eyes still twinkling. "Can I get you another coffee?" Sewer... "Uh, thank you, but, no. I'm already late, Rain check?" She was trying to ignore the bloodied -- yes, bloodied -- woman again. "Okay," he said. "Meet me here tomorrow at eleven, and I'll get you that coffee." He moved just slightly, and that was when she saw the badge clipped to his belt, the glimpse of his gun in a shoulder holster. "Deal," she said. Tell him to find me in the sewer. It was the first time the woman had spoken a full sentence. I was dumped in the sewer. "You're a cop?" she asked. That explained the energies she was getting from him. He smiled at her. "Yeah" He eyed her. “Does that bother you?" Tansy shook her head "No," she said honestly. "I just want you to know," she began as she opened the door to her car, "that body you are looking for? It's somewhere in the sewer." She left him standing there, baffled, in his coffee stained suit. DETECTIVE Matthew Apodaca just stood there as the most beautiful woman he had ever seen drove away in her car. The body you're looking for is somewhere in the sewer. How the f**k would she know that? Surely she wasn't involved? But how would she know otherwise? He walked back to his own car and opened the trunk. Reaching into a duffel, he pulled out a Henley shirt, and proceeded to change clothes. Stuffing the soiled shirt and suit jacket into the duffel, he closed the trunk, then got into the driver's side of the Buick. He was still mulling over the news when his cell phone chimed in. "Apodaca," he said by way of answering. "Her name is Monica Ortiz. And she was last seen near Tramway and Montgomery," came Callum McGrath's Scottish brogue. "Someone identify her?" Matthew asked. "Th' photo we had th' news stations run o' th' purse? Her sister recognized it, called just moments ago." Matthew scrubbed a hand over his face. He really hated to say anything considering the announcement Tansy Luna had made threw him for a loop. "Okay, have the uniforms and CSI’s look into the sewers in that area. Maybe the body was dumped there." Callum whistled. "Jesus, Mary and Joseph...That would be fekking awful." "I agree. If she's not in the sewers, then she's buried somewhere." "Aye. I thought of that. But, why th' sewers?" Callum sounded confused. Matthew sighed "Just a hunch." THE NEXT DAY, Tansy sat at an outside table at the coffee shop. She figured she was probably being stupid, after all she told him something that made him gape at her. Maybe even made him question her sanity a little. But, no, there he was, coming toward her, looking every bit as delectable as he did the day before. Today, however, he wore a frown on his handsome face. "Tansy," he said in a stiff tone. She smiled at him. "Something wrong?" The same energy she got from him yesterday was still there, but today, she felt a tinge of anger laced in it. "Not really," he replied briskly. "Unless you want to tell me just how you knew where Monica Ortiz's body was." Tansy paled a bit at that. How does one explain the fact that a ghost told her? Yes, the woman was a ghost. She also wasn't the first ghost she had seen... Tansy had always heard the ghosts. But it wasn't until her father had died a few years ago, that she began seeing them. That was a bit unnerving and shocking at first. It took her father's death to make her gift stronger and allow her to see the spirits rather than only hearing them. Her mother's death magnified the power even more. Sometimes, when she saw them, they appeared clean, coiffed, well dressed, just as they would be in life. Other times, however they appeared as they had died; pale, sick, even bloodied from murder. Those were the ghosts that really got to her, the ones that haunted her. When they manifested bloodied and in the manner that reflected their death, well that’s when Tansy wished she couldn't see them. That was how Monica Ortiz had appeared to her. Bloodied, beaten... "Did you find her?" was all she could manage to meekly ask. "We did." Detective Apodaca eyed her. "But I am still wondering how you knew." She shrugged. "What would you say if I said she told me?" He looked at her. "She told you? The deceased?" His left eyebrow arched. His eyes, however didn't hold doubt or scrutiny. And, his tone had softened. Tansy nodded. Okay perhaps this was a bad idea. Meeting him for coffee, thinking she'd met a nice guy. "She said, and I quote, ‘Tell him to find me in the sewer. I was dumped in the sewer’, " The detective rubbed a hand over his shadowy stubble. "Okay... this is a new one" But the remark was more to himself that to her. Like he knew what she was saying or trying to explain. Tansy sighed in exasperation. "Look" she said in an equally exasperated tone. "I know it sounds crazy. But, honestly, I am just telling you what she wanted you to know." She suddenly wanted to leave, to be away from those blue eyes that bore into her. To be away from the hurt that crept into her heart. Away from the hurt that always came when people didn't believe her. Detective Apodaca raised an eyebrow "What do you mean by that?" But even as he asked that, she could tell that he was just being honest. Almost as if... Almost as if he does know what I'm talking about. Tansy frowned at him. People like her and cops didn't usually mix. In fact, mediums and most people didn't mix. She had tried, most of her life, to keep her gift under the radar because of what most people thought about things like that. That and people didn't know what to do with that bit of information once they found out. They would either laugh at her, avoid her like a plague, or get a little too fascinated by the idea. So, she kept it secret. She looked into his blue eyes, bright and warm. She saw sincerity there. But he was a cop, and cops could fake sincerity. "I could hear her," she said at last. Detective Apodaca just blinked at her. And, there it was, the disbelief. Her heart sank somewhat at that look in his eyes. She was about to get up and leave, when he said, "Did you see her, too?" Of all the -- Tansy came that close to slapping him, a police officer. But, then she saw something. Something she hadn't noticed until then. He believed her. Not out of sympathy or tolerance; But really believed her. That belief was not faked. "Yes" she said at las.t "And, no, I didn't know her." A slow smile crossed his lips. "You realize I am going to have to look into that, right? Even though I believe you." Anger flashed in her eyes. Oh the nerve... Even though she saw the belief in his eyes, it still irked her that he had to say that. All her life she'd some form of that reaction; belief yet disbelief. She immediately stood and glared down at him. "Do you? Or are you just saying that to get more information out of me?" she huffed. The detective actually looked chastised. "I am trying to get more information out of you, but, yes, I do believe you." THEY DID indeed find Monica Ortiz's body in the sewer off of Tramway. Once the body was recovered, the murderer came forward and turned himself in. Stan Ortiz was her cousin. The cousins had argued because she wouldn't give him any money for booze. In his anger, he pushed her, causing her to hit her head. But he wasn't through. No, he had to pummel her to death. When he realized what he'd done, he opened one of the sewer drains, and threw her in. Guilt ate away at him for the two weeks she was missing, until, when the police recovered her body, he couldn't take it anymore, and turned himself in. After much debate and investigation, Tansy was cleared of anything to do with the case. And she didn't see Detective Apodaca again.