Speak the Dead Read Online Free PDF

floor. Cold radiated from the shallow concrete landing as she wrapped her arms around herself and squeezed.
    What the hell was she thinking? How could that possibly be the correct license plate? The cops would be furious at her for wasting their time, but it had seemed so real…
    All she had done was touch the woman, and she had… what? Relived the last thing the woman experienced before she died.
    That didn’t make any sense. Sally had been working with the dead for years and apart from… Sally hesitated, remembering. When she had touched her dead mother all those years ago, she had still been warm, her life just ended. But Sally hadn’t left her own body and witnessed her mother’s death. Instead, her mother delivered a warning. She told Sally to run.
    And I’ve been running ever since.
    Maybe she’d inhaled too many fumes, Sally thought as she glanced across the room at the ancient exhaust fan sputtering in the far corner. That could explain everything.
    Feeling better with that explanation, Sally rose to her feet, shook off the chill, and returned to Mr. Lombardo. The poor man had been left alone with nothing but a plastic diaper to protect his dignity.
    The detergent from the sponge had evaporated, leaving odd-looking green chicken scratch on his stomach. Sally rinsed the sponge in warm water and gave the body a quick wipe to remove the marks.
    After drying him, Sally peeled away the thin plastic dry-cleaner wrap from around the fresh suit his widow had delivered and began the process of dressing him. As she feared, she had to slice the suit jacket down the back and stitch it together with safety pins to get just the right fit. But once she was done, Mr. Lombardo looked like a successful businessman who had fallen asleep on a stainless steel tray.
    The only exception, as is the case she found with most men, was his hands. Those could have belonged to a potato farmer.
    Sally stretched a kink out of her neck and glanced at the clock before picking up nail clippers and an emery board to make Mr. Lombardo’s hands match the rest of the presentation.
    She was just adding a final touch of metal polish to his gold wedding band—something his widow insisted be buried with him—when there was a firm knock on the rear door and a man’s voice called out her name.

7
    D etective Jersey Castle stood in the alley and knocked on the door once more.
    â€œYes?”
    Sally’s voice: firm yet tentative; soft but not defensive. A voice , Jersey thought, one could fall asleep to and still be thrilled to hear upon awakening . Seriously? he chided himself, you just met the girl. Snap out of it, man.
    â€œIt’s Jersey.” He made his voice firm and deep. Strong. Not soppy at all. “The Medical Examiner has removed the body, and I just have a few final questions.”
    â€œHold on.”
    When he heard the locks being turned, Jersey felt a joyfulness stir in his soul that he hadn’t experienced in far too long. Never married nor engaged, Jersey had contentedly lived his life, never contemplating loneliness until this exact moment as he waited in anticipation of the green-eyed woman behind the locked metal door.
    When the door swung open, Jersey wiped the excited grin off his face and replaced it with a serious, and what he hoped was a manly, for handsome was probably a stretch, expression.
    Sally held the door and looked up at him. She appeared worried.
    â€œIt’s okay,” Jersey blurted in an attempt to put her at ease. “It’s just routine.”
    â€œDo you want to come in?” Sally asked.
    â€œSure, that would be great.”
    Jersey winced at his own enthusiasm as he stepped through the door and followed her down concrete steps to the chilled basement below.
    At the bottom of the stairs, Jersey took in his surroundings: plain off-white walls, unimaginative linoleum floor in a speckled black-and-white gravel pattern, gleaming stainless steel