Little Ghost Lost (Destiny Bay Cozy Mysteries Book 5) Read Online Free PDF

Stone?”
    She shook her head.  
    “You don’t like any of the police, do you?” I said, suddenly realizing that was a fact I’d been missing.  
    “No I do not.”
    I had to laugh. “Aunty, don’t tell me that you have an outlaw past!”
    “No, I do not have an outlaw past.”
    “Good. Then you won’t mind helping me with this.”
    She looked at me suspiciously, finally ready to deal with what I was trying to get through to her on.  
    “What is it?”
    “I had to go out to the Pennington Mansion today.”
    She made a face. “What did you do that for?”
    “I’ve been assigned to do an evaluation. Never mind all that. But I did pick up something as I left.”
    She was frowning fiercely and shaking her head. “You shouldn’t go there. That place is full of ghosts!”
    I stared at her. “You knew that?”
    “Sure. I hear things. You think I don’t talk to other spirits of all kinds?”
    “Wow. I should have talked to you before I ever went.”
    She nodded smugly. “Always talk to me first.” She looked concerned, noticing all my Band-Aids. “What happened to you?”
    I sighed. “I think one of those ghosts tried to knock me off a second story balcony.”
    She looked outraged, then her attention wandered again. “We didn’t have second story balconies on my house when I was growing up,” she mentioned vaguely.  
    I barely held back a groan. At times her ghostly habits were amusing, but this was rapidly losing its charm. I wanted to shake her. But shaking a ghost is not recommended. In the first place, it doesn’t work.  
    I set my jaw and went back to the subject. “Anyway, when I got into my car and came home, I found out I had a little hitchhiker. A little girl ghost was in the back seat.”
    Aunty was shocked. “What?”
    “Yes, the sweetest little girl….”
    “No! She has to go back. Right now.”
    “But…”
    “I mean it. You can’t keep her here. Some things just don’t work in the spirit world the way they do in your live situations. Most ghosts are meant to stay attached to their placeholder. You can’t violate that rule.”
    I frowned, suspicious. Was she just trying to get my goat, or was this really part of her ghostly world structure?  
    “How about you?” I asked archly. “What is your placeholder?”
    She blinked at me. “I can’t tell you that.”
    “Right.” Because you don’t really have one ? Could that be it?  
    But I didn’t want to argue. I just wanted her to come along with me and help me with the kid.  
    Sami meowed. I gave him a skritch behind the ears. His samurai hat had already fallen off, but no one seemed to care.  
    Aunty was frowning. “She has to go back.”
    I sighed. “I can’t take her back. She says they are cruel to her. She cried and cried when I said she had to go. And since I’m pretty sure one of the ghosts there tried to kill me, I don’t want to take her in there by myself. So I can’t take her back. Not tonight anyway.”
    “Tomorrow?”
    I shrugged. “Will you just come take a look at her?”
    She glared at me but nodded. “Alright.” And she did follow me, though she kept up a mumbling diatribe about how terrible it was that I had brought her here in the first place.  
    “She gotta go. Bad things will happen to this family. She gotta go.”
    I ushered her into the bedroom. “Look at how sweet she is.”
    Aunty looked at me as though she thought I was crazy. “Sweet! Didn’t she just twist you all around and make you bring her here? Hah! She foolin’ with you. That not sweet.”
    Mandy looked up at Aunty Jane and seemed to see right through her. She smiled at me, and when I sat on the bed beside her, she leaned her head against my shoulder and went back to watching her show. I looked down at her pretty face and felt my heart swell in my chest. I couldn’t help it. Maybe she was just being manipulative. If so, she was pretty good at it.  
    “What should I do with her?” I whispered to Jane. “How do I take