“Is it a good gig?” I asked.

“It’ll be better when I’m getting paid, but it was the right thing to do. Especially since Maddy and Marley don’t have the touch.” They were her older sisters, who apparently hadn’t inherited the necromantic gift. “Anyway, I’ve got an opening later,” she said, and gave me a time and an address. “Be punctual.”

I sent a message to the team, advised them Ariel had agreed to the séance as part of her community service. Petra and Theo—who demanded to be included—would meet us at the location, which I realized after searching was an apartment complex in Schaumburg. Ariel’s new apartment, I guessed.

“You still want to tag along for that, too?” I asked Connor.

“I do.”

“Then don’t fluster Ariel. I think she still has a crush on you, and she’ll need to concentrate.”

“I have no interest in flustering anyone but you.”

I humphed, found a rather ecstatic message from Roger: rose sent message using our code. she feared capture at gate so made run for it. laying low until she figures out her next move.

“Well, that’s good news,” Connor said.

“Yeah,” I said.

Connor looked at me. “Why do you sound suspicious? She used the code word.”

“I’m not entirely sure,” I said. “Occam’s razor, right? The simplest answer is usually the correct one. We didn’t hear any other vehicles at the gate, and Gwen found a path through the grass. So I can buy she walked out on her own. She didn’t know us and took a chance when she could. But that’s it? After everything that went down, she waits nearly a day to tell Roger, and then doesn’t explain what happened? And there’s no apology for getting us mixed up in it?”

“I’m not a cop, but I don’t think criminal informants are known for their empathy. And she’s laying low. Maybe she didn’t have time for details.”

“It’s a text message,” I pointed out. “She can send a text while hunkered down. It’s not like she has to traipse over to the telegraph office.”

“Would one traipse to a telegraph office?”

I smiled against my better judgment. “I don’t know.” I sighed and tried to shake off the suspicion. “I should be grateful—Rose is safe, so we didn’t fuck up our mission last night.”

“You didn’t fuck it up either way,” Connor said. “But her being alive also means her gangland friends didn’t get her—and they’re going to keep looking. They may have more ghosts in store.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I thought of that.”

He leaned over, kissed my forehead. “We’ll get you a coffee. Then we’ll go talk to vampires and dead people.”

Because—and I can’t stress that enough—those were two very different things.

* * *

Since I was feeling less guilty, we grabbed coffee from a Leo’s drive-through. It was my favorite coffee place, and I was well and thoroughly addicted. It had also been one of my best ideas—and greatest victories—to request an all-you-can-drink card from Leo’s as a “signing bonus” when I’d joined the Ombuds.