Coalescence (Camden Investigations Book 1) Read Free Page B

Jim,” the bartender announced. “That’s what I’m
here for, bar psychologist for the tipsy. So having ‘nothing to hide’ isn’t
really new for me. But I will admit I did eavesdrop . . . a
little.”
    Kassidy barked more than laughed. “So, you double as the
bar’s soccer mom?”
    Jim rolled his eyes at Kassidy, then stared straight at
Iris. “Now, what can I help you with?”
    “Oh, probably nothing,” Iris answered. “We’re ghost
hunters, and we came across some unusual circumstances this evening. It seems
we need the opinion of someone who fancies UFOs. But I suppose you wouldn’t
know anyone . . .”
    “You’re in luck.” Jim fished a cell from his pocket and
scrolled his contact list. “Yeah, this is the guy, Mitchell. He was in here a
few months back asking everybody about a report of lights in the sky. Nobody
here knew anything, but he left his number with me just in case. Anyway, he
says all reports are confidential. I guess most of his informants fear they’re
going to be taken away in nets or something.”
    The vision of the
lacrosse stick corralling the dial, or whatever this artifact might be, flashed
in Iris’s mind. Just how long could she contain this thing? In desperation, she
scrawled Mitchell’s number onto a napkin. Although she was perplexed and
probably dealing with something harmful, a small part of Iris felt as if she
had come alive again. For so long she had lived as a ghost, in the past,
wallowing in regret about DJ and Ron. For the first time, in a long time, Iris
Camden felt as if she was living in the here and now.

Chapter Two

 
 
    A SMALL VOICE in DJ Camden’s head spoke. It willed her to
believe what she perceived as reality to actually be nothing more than the
onset of another bad dream. DJ fought the voice as she did before. She was
certain an accident had left her mother dead. She was quite sure she’d
experienced some physical injuries herself as well as lingering mental trauma.
She was adamant the accident’s consequences had put her through hell the past
three months. In between the nagging voice, there were times DJ might consider
herself normal as any of her other co-workers who worked a job for a paycheck
and spent little time pondering the things that went bump in the night. The job
helped put the voice in her mind’s backseat. Reality was winning ever so
slightly in DJ Camden’s screwed up world. If she could keep it at bay, she just
might get over the anger of losing her mom.
    But what if the voice was right? What if there wasn’t a
car accident and everything was okay? She was just trapped in a dream state
where time and reality could be altered. What if she had repeated the dream
many times caught up in some sort of scenario resembling the movies Inception or The Matrix ? So, was her life real?
      No. She had
lived the past three months shaken from tragedy. DJ was certain of it. In fact,
if she wanted, she could break the hold of this state, move her body off the
bed and toward the garage where she would find the blue Chevrolet missing.
Missing because the insurance company deemed it totaled. Or, she could call out
for her Mom. Hear there was no response and even proceed to dial her cell
number. Leave a message and wait for it never to be answered.
    At least not in normal terms . . . Ah,
yes. That was it? She’d had conversations with her Mom recently. But those
conversations were ghost whisperings. Positive those conversations had occurred
in the paranormal state, DJ began to ignore the voice. She had been a medium
for far too long to be confused. In fact, talking to the dead was nothing new
for DJ—she started when she was six. But prior conversations with dead
strangers had never angered DJ. Chats with her deceased Mom were another story.
    DJ played along with the dream, allowing it to continue
like a movie. Maybe if she stayed here, she could learn something. Was the
small voice the child inside her pining for a means to change