Suddenly Psychic (Glimmer Lake #1)(36)

“Malware thing?”

Monica waved her hand. “Wait, this is better. Twenty ways to summon spirits.” She frowned. “We don’t have a Ouija board.”

“I’m not going to use a— Monica, seriously?”

“It’s at the top of the list!” She pointed to her phone. “Okay, summon a witch, don’t need that. Summon a demon, definitely don’t need that. Summon the grim—you know, there’s not actually much about summoning ghosts. Google, you’ve failed me.”

Robin stood and brushed her hands off on her pants. “Okay, clearly I don’t know much about being a medium.” She turned around. “So why don’t we just…”

A man stepped out from between the trees.

Robin froze. “Monica?”

“I think a Ouija board might be the—” Monica yelped when Robin tugged on her hair. “Ouch! What are you looking at?”

“Ghost.” Robin’s voice was tiny. “Seeing the ghost.”

“Oh wait.” Monica scrambled to her feet. “Like right now? I don’t see anything.”

“Nothing?”

“She can’t,” the ghost said. “But you can. I wasn’t sure. I thought I’d imagined it when you saw me in the water.” He stared at Robin, who was still frozen. “Sorry you were waiting so long, but it seemed like an important conversation, and I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“Considerate for a ghost,” Robin murmured.

“I try to be.”

“Robin?” Monica asked. “What are you seeing?”

“Billy,” she murmured.

The ghost smiled. “You know my name.”

“Yeah.” Robin stepped closer. “Why did you save our lives?”

The ghost shrugged. “Seemed like the thing to do. No use letting you drown in the lake. Drowning isn’t a fun way to die.”





Chapter 13





“You drowned,” Robin said. “Val—our friend, the one with the short hair? She saw you. She touched…” She winced. Did the ghost remember the chains? Was it rude to bring up how he’d died to his face? Did ghosts get offended? “She touched something and saw that you were trapped and water was coming.”

Billy’s ghost looked remarkably human. There was a faint glow around the edges of his body, but she wouldn’t have even noticed unless she was looking for it. He looked solid. Tangible. If she reached out, could she touch him?

Robin could see a swollen lump on the side of his head, but his dark hair hid the blood from the wound. He was wearing the same jeans and flannel shirt as the first time she saw him in the lake.

“Thank you.” Monica was looking the same direction as Robin even though she couldn’t see Billy. “Thank you for saving us. Me and my whole family are very grateful.”

“You’re welcome, ma’am.”

“He says you’re welcome.” Robin kept her eyes on Billy. “We found your picture in the paper. You helped build the dam.”

His expression darkened. “God help me, I did.”

“You regret it?”

“The dam killed everything. The animals. The forest. The farms.” Billy shook his head. “And me.”

“What’s your last name? It starts with a G.”

“Grimmer.” Billy smiled. “They named the town after my grandpa. We had a big ranch back in the day.” He glanced at the lake. “Of course, that’s all gone now.”

“His name is Billy Grimmer,” Robin said to Monica.

“Oh! Like the founder of the town?”

“He says it was his grandfather.” She turned back to the ghost. “If you hated the dam so much, why did you work on it?”

“Trying to make my mama happy. The government needed the electricity the dam would produce if it was gonna keep powering those factories for the war. So everyone had a choice.”

“What kind of choice?”

“If you worked on the dam, you wouldn’t get drafted into the army. I didn’t mind signing up, mind you, but I was the youngest. My mama already had four boys in the war, and she couldn’t bear to let me go. When I turned eighteen, she told me, ‘Billy, you better stay here. You work on the dam so that war don’t take all my boys from me. They’re gonna build it with or without you.’” He offered Robin a small smile. “I might have had better luck in the army.”

“He worked on the dam to keep from getting drafted during the war,” Robin said, conscious that Monica could only hear one side of the conversation. “He was the last of his brothers left, and his mom insisted.”

“That sounds like something my mom would do too,” Monica said. “Is he Catholic?”

“Are you Catholic?” Robin asked. “Wait, I don’t think that’s important.” She looked at Monica. “Is it?”

“You think I know?”

“I don’t need a priest,” Billy said. “I don’t think.”

“Why are you still here?” Robin asked. “Do you know?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Do you remember what happened when you died?”