Rockstar Ghost PG-13 Version Read online

  ***

  The first thing Ro noticed was that she felt warm, comfortable, and content. "Mmm?" The medium groaned as she came awake and turned her head to see Blake in the bed next to her. Ro slapped both her hands over her mouth to muffle her ensuing scream. Ro looked around the unfamiliar room she was in and realized that this wasn't Blake's penthouse. So then where the hell was she? Ro began to panic.

  "You're at Devon's apartment. You fainted and he brought you here. I think he's cooking you dinner." Blake answered Ro's unasked questions with a tinge of amusement to his voice.

  Devon's apartment? Fainted? Dinner?what?! Ro's eyes widened as she remembered what happened. Devon's bungee cord had snapped. She gave Blake a questioning look.

  Blake sighed and ran a hand back through his wild, platinum blonde hair. "Someone tried to kill Devon Decayn today up on that bridge. Someone connected to my parents' murder."

  Ro gasped. "So then Devon is?innocent?" Blake noticed Ro's hopeful tone and his eye twitched.

  Blake frowned and shrugged. "It looks that way?"

  Ro suddenly smiled brightly at Blake. "I'm so happy for you. Devon didn't betray you after all?!"

  "Tch." Blake let out a noise of disgust. "He's still a bastard for going out with Sadie?"

  Despite Blake's words, Ro's good mood would not be dampened. "Hmmm?maybe he has a good reason for that." Ro hopped out of the bed and turned a light switch on so that she could get a good look at Devon Decayn's bedroom.

  It was so different from Blake's cold bedroom. Devon's room was messy and had a 'lived in' feeling. There were framed photographs everywhere?on his dresser and on his bedside tables. There were band posters of Erotic Corpses on the blue walls?showing all four original members: Blake, Devon, Joey and Vincent. Ro spotted a football team poster that read: Oakland Raiders, and that had a scarred, thug-like football player on it with an eye patch and tattoos.

  Ro walked over to Devon's dresser and looked at the framed photographs curiously. She smiled. There were lots of funny photos of Devon, Blake, Joey and Vincent. There were shots of the boys at practice at the studio jamming together, shots of the boys eating out at expensive restaurants, shots of the boys at The Viper Room, of Joey break dancing, of Vincent wooing a girl with a bouquet of roses, of Vincent surrounded by a group of fan girls dressed in gothic outfits, of Devon playing his electric guitar and smoking, of Devon drinking, of Blake looking reluctant to have his picture taken with the others, of Blake singing, and pictures that showed Blake off to the side, alone?acting like a loner?

  "Have you ever been to Devon's apartment before?" Ro asked curiously.

  "Tch. No shit." Blake snorted as he crossed his arms over his chest.

  "Well, you never let your friends come over to your place so?I was just curious." Ro got down on the carpet and pulled out her murder suspect list. She whipped out a Hello Kitty pen and crossed Devon's name off the list. "So Devon is innocent. Now we just have to clear Vincent and Joey!"

  "Or discover their guilt." Blake countered grimly.

  Ro pouted at Blake's pessimism. "I think your band mates aren't guilty and I'll prove it. You'll see." Ro walked over to Devon's bookshelf and began to run her finger along the book's spines as she perused the titles.

  "Hey! What are you doing?" Blake asked giving the medium a worried look.

  "Snooping. Isn't that why I'm here? Master?" Ro said the last sarcastically as she continued to read the titles of the books until she found what she was looking for - a photo album. Ro placed her index finger on top of it and pulled back on the photo album to remove it from the shelf.

  Blake paled. "Put that thing away, beggar girl! Who said you could look at that!" The ghost groused.

  Ro laughed softly. "But I'm super curious. You won't tell me anything about your past. All I know is that Devon, Vincent and Joey were your friends since childhood but I don't know much else about them. This will be good for research."

  "I've already told you everything you need to know." Black crossed his arms over his chest and huffed. "They're not to be trusted!"

  "Right, right." Ro hopped up on the bed, crossed her legs, and put the photo album in her lap. Excited, she opened it to the first page:

  There, playing in a sandbox were little six-year-old Blake, Devon, Joey and Vincent! The boys had constructed a sandcastle and Blake had a bucket on his head as though he was pretending to be 'king'. Devon was rolling his eyes at Blake, Joey was crying for some reason, and Vincent was laughing.

  "Aww, you were so cute. Even as a kid you were spoiled and arrogant, huh?" Ro joked.

  "Hey!" Blake objected.

  Ro flipped to the next page: Blake was putting a caterpillar in Joey's hair while Joey was crying. Devon was trying to stop Blake and Vincent was laughing. Off to the side there appeared to be a little girl watching Vincent from behind a tree and blushing.

  "Hey, you're always bullying poor Joey!" Ro accused as she tapped her finger onto Joey's crying face in the photo.

  Blake whistled innocently as if he hadn't heard her.

  Ro frowned. "Did you always bully him? I wonder if that's why he killed you? You sure know how to get people to feel resentful towards you."

  "What was that, beggar girl?" Blake growled.

  Another photo showed the boys around the age of twelve, in a circle playing hacky sack while Vincent was off to the side and kissing a little twelve-year-old girl! Ro's eyes widened at that. "How old are you guys in this photo!?" She demanded.

  "Twelve." The ghost grunted.

  "Vincent had his first kiss when he was twelve?!" Ro exclaimed.

  Blake laughed. "He lost his virginity when he was fifteen!"

  Ro felt faint.

  "When did you have your first kiss?" Blake asked Ro in an intent manner.

  Ro blushed as she recalled Dr. Cole's stolen kiss and then remembered the time that Blake had kissed her for fun at the 7-Eleven. "That time?at the 7-Eleven?" Ro would never consider Dr. Cole's cruel stolen kiss as her first one. If it was stolen it didn't count and Blake's stolen kiss was different because if she admitted it to herself she had liked it.

  "Huh? I can't hear you. Speak up, beggar girl." Blake yelled at her.

  "I said: at the 7-Eleven?when you?" Ro blushed and trailed off, biting her lip out of nervousness and embarrassment and was unable to continue.

  "Me?" Blake's eyes widened in shock when he remembered how he had kissed Ro to tease her and try to get some kind of a reaction out of the gloomy girl. "No way?" What the hell? At least Devon hadn't been her first kiss! Ha! Take that, Devon!

  "When was your first kiss?" Ro asked the ghost curiously.

  Blake sighed and ran a hand back through his rockstar hair. "When I was fifteen. I had already formed my band The Playboys with Vincent, Joey, and Damion, and a groupie jumped me-"

  "Jumped you?"

  "What can I say? I was that good looking." Blake shrugged, smug smile on his face.

  Ro flipped through the photo album until she came to a page containing photos of the early band: Blake was singing, Joey was playing bass guitar, Vincent was playing the drums and a boy with spiky black hair and dark eyes that had dark shadows beneath them was playing lead guitar. The teenaged boy looked very Goth with his face painted white and his all-black outfit. There was something disturbing about the look in his eyes. "Is that Damion?" Ro pointed to the depressed looking teen.

  Blake nodded.

  "He's the lead guitarist of The Necromancers now, right?" Ro affirmed.

  Blake nodded again in an almost listless manner.

  Ro looked at the photos of the original band closely. She found one picture of Damion smiling - only one - and he was looking at Blake with this admiring look.

  "Were you and Damion close?" Ro asked as he looked at the Goth teen.

  "Naw, he was just some kid I forced into our band because I needed someone who could play guitar and that punk Devon was too busy with his stupid clubs and sports! Damio
n was probably happy that I kicked him out of the band - it had all been a whim of mine to begin with." Blake shrugged.

  "You kicked him out of the band?" Ro recalled Chelsea saying something about that during the interview, but wanted to get the truth straight from Blake.

  "Yea, we were supposed to do this concert during one of our school's assemblies, and Damion was too high on pot to play guitar properly, and so I begged Devon to do it. He saved our butt that day. I was so pissed at that pothead Damion though. He really let us down that day. He couldn't be counted on because he was always high?always smoking or sniffing or injecting something. He had this stupid bong collection?." Blake said pensively as he remembered it.

  Ro quirked her head at Blake. "Bong?"

  "Ah, it's a device you can use to smoke tobacco or marijuana with. I smoked back in high school, but not too often. And just Marlboro Reds. I had to protect my voice after all. That's always been my number one priority..." Blake scowled, now that he was dead it all seemed rather pointless.

  Ro looked at a photo of the newly formed band Erotic Corpses next with Blake, Devon, Joey and Vincent. She wondered how Damion really felt about being kicked out of the band when ultimately he had gone on to become a part of The Necromancers. So Damion must have had a sincere interest in music at the very least.

  Damion was also a murder suspect.

  Ro flipped through the album and realized that after the picture of the newly formed band there were no other pictures that contained Damion. It was as if he'd just disappeared from their lives. Ro frowned. It seemed a little harsh. And since she had been on the receiving end of bullying in high school?she felt for the emo, Goth boy.

  Ro continued to look at pictures of Blake, Devon, Joey and Vincent during their high school days. In the photos Blake looked like some kind of handsome delinquent. The girls always seemed to be swooning over the singer in the background but he seemed to be ignoring them. In the photos of Devon he seemed to act cool and aloof while concentrating on his sports and then later the band. The photos of Joey showed the young bass guitarist running around laughing, always smiling, and playing pranks. The photos of Vincent showed the handsome Goth surrounded by the entire high school girl population. They probably thought they had their very own Edward Cullen within their midst!

  Vincent was always surrounded by a group of fan girls but there were three girls in particular that seemed to always be around Vincent - a fiery redhead, a cute blonde who dressed just like a Victorian Doll, and a mysterious, Asian girl with dark hair.

  Ro kept flipping through the album pages and noticed something. Blake appeared to be growing more and more distant from the others as time passed. There were less pictures that contained all four of them by their senior year, and there were mostly pictures of just Devon, Vincent and Joey by that time.

  Ro stopped flipping the album pages when she caught sight of a photo of Sadie and Blake. Sadie was clinging to Blake's arm in the photo and he was smiling. He looked genuinely happy.

  The medium frowned. Something didn't seem to add up about Sadie and Blake's relationship. Blake had told Ro that it had been a publicity stunt. That he and Sadie hadn't really been going out. But she also knew for a fact that they had had sex. Blake had also told Ro that he didn't care about Sadie, but had that been a lie? Ro removed two photos from the photo album and stuck them into her back jeans' pocket.

  "Hey! You can't just take those pictures, dummy! What if Devon notices?" Blake warned.

  "Let him notice." Ro said as she hopped off the bed and returned the photo album to Devon's bookshelf. She then tiptoed her way to the bedroom door and opened it as quietly as she could before stepping out into the hallway. Ro could hear the sounds of someone cooking in the kitchen. Ro took a deep breath and began to tiptoe down the hall and towards the front door of the apartment.

  However, Ro couldn't help herself from taking a quick peek at Devon's living room. The guitarist's apartment was amazingly decorated with black leather couches that had dark blue pillows on them, an impressive flat screen TV, posters of Erotic Corpses were on the blue painted walls, including posters of Bon Jovi, Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Haler - all electric guitarists that Devon admired. There was also a vintage poster of Marcus Allen, running back for the Oakland Raiders on the wall. Behind glass in a display case was a signed football of Roddy White.

  What caught Ro's eyes next was the gigantic world map that was on the right hand wall of Devon's living room. Several colored, plastic tacks were stuck in the map in different locations. Apparently, Devon liked to travel a lot. Ro couldn't stop her curiosity and so went up to the map. She found tacks in the following places: the Bermuda Triangle, Mt. Everest, Africa, and Australia. She shuddered. None of those were very safe places.

  "Do you like to travel?" Devon's voice came from behind her.

  "Ack!" Ro jumped and spun around. "Um?I've never been out of the country."

  "Idiot." Blake face-palmed. Was Ro trying at all to pretend to be rich?!

  "Really? We might have to change that?" Devon smirked as he came to stand next to her. "If you could go anywhere in the world where would you like to go?"

  Ro thought about it and answered. "New Zealand?isn't that where they filmed The Lord of the Rings? I recently got to watch that movie and I loved it. I love fantasy stories." Carrie had ordered the movie on Pay-Per-View back at Blake's penthouse.

  "New Zealand it is then. When are you free? I'll fly you there." Devon offered casually as he took out a cigarette, lit up, and took a long drag.

  Ro put her hands up before her and waved them back and forth. "Oh no, I couldn't possibly-" However-

  The doorbell of Devon's apartment sounded. The guitarist frowned as he let out a long stream of smoke. "Now who could that be..?" Devon sauntered over to the door and saw Sadie on the tiny monitor besides the door. "Ugh?" Devon murmured and pressed a button to speak with Sadie through the intercom first. "Come right in, babe." He said before unlocking the door.

  "Don't mind if I do." Sadie said as she opened the door.

  "It's Sadie." Devon turned around and informed Ro.

  Ro bit her bottom lip. "I should really get going." Ro headed for the door but Devon grabbed her wrist to stop her as she tried to pass him.

  Devon gave Ro a pleading look. "Please stay for dinner."

  Ro hesitated. "But I-"

  Sadie burst into the apartment just in time to see Devon with his hand on Ro's wrist. Her smile faltered for a moment before she controlled her expression and remained smiling. "Hello darling! What's she doing here?"

  Devon let go of Ro's wrist and turned to face Sadie. He let out a sigh. "Ro fainted during practice and I decided to bring her back to my place since it's closest to the studio."

  Sadie stalked up to Ro and glared at her. "Fainted?" She sniffed. "You look alright to me?so why don't you get going?" Sadie did a little shooing motion with her hand.

  "I was on my way out." Ro agreed.

  "Sadie. Be nice." Devon chided. "Ro and I were just about to have dinner. She really should eat something before she goes. I suspect she's anemic." Devon argued. "So why don't we all sit down to have dinner ladies?"

  "The only lady I see here is, Ro." Blake put in making Ro have to suppress a smile.

  Sadie and Ro both seemed at a loss of what to do.

  "Please." Devon asked Sadie meeting her eyes with an intent look.

  Sadie sighed and relented. "Of course that's okay. You're making me look like I'm some kind of jerk, Devon. Ro and I are friends. Isn't that right Ro?" Sadie smiled sweetly at Ro.

  The medium smiled back tremulously at the female rockstar.

  Sadie grabbed Ro's arm and started to take her to the dining room table. "Come on Ro. Let's go sit down. We'll get Devon to serve us. We have so much to talk about. I barely know you and you're the new lead singer of Erotic Corpses! As a fellow female rock singer - I'm just dying to know more about you."

  Ro gave Blake a pleading lo
ok, which clearly said: 'help me'.

  Blake chuckled and shrugged. There wasn't really anything Blake could do except help Ro with her responses to Devon and Sadie's annoying flood of questions!

  "Ro, don't forget Sadie is a suspect too. The more information you can get out of her the better." Blake reminded Ro.

  Ah, that's right?Sadie is still suspect. But she seems?nice. Ro nodded to herself.

  Sadie and Ro arrived at the dinning room table and sat down side by side.

  "So Ro, you really fainted?" Ro nodded at her and Sadie gave her a pitying look. "My, that's horrible. I've never fainted before. I eat well though I'm this skinny because I have a fast metabolism. Some girls are blessed like that, I guess. While some girls just aren't. I don't know what diet you're on, but maybe you should eat more - you don't want to faint while up on stage! That would be just horrible. But I can understand that you'd want to lose a few pounds." Sadie looked Ro over with a critical eye. "You are about ten pounds overweight. Do you go to the gym?"

  Ro shook her head. She'd never been able to afford something like a gym membership.

  "Then we should join a gym together!" Sadie clapped her hands together excitedly. "I have a Bowflex at my house, and a rower and a stationary bike." Sadie ticked items off on her fingers. "But it's more fun to go to the gym with one of your girl friends, don't you think?"

  Ro just nodded, though she didn't know what it'd be like to go to the gym with a friend.

  Sadie gave Ro a penetrating look. "You're not very talkative are you? But it's just so weird. You're an incredible singer and you're really loud when you're singing. That's so strange?I would have figured you'd be the talkative type."

  "I don't know why but when I sing?I can lose myself in the music. I don't think and just feel the song and sing. I escape from reality. I don't realize it at the time, but I get louder." Ro admitted because this was actually the truth.

  "Oh, I get it." Sadie nodded. "I totally understand. I feel the exact same way. That feeling of getting lost in a song while you're singing it - the rest of the world just tunes out and doesn't matter."

  Ro smiled tremulously in agreement.

  Devon arrived at the table balancing three plates of pasta on his arms. "Sorry to keep you ladies waiting. I made you my famous seafood pasta." Devon set the plates down in front of Ro and Sadie, and on his place across from them.

  Ro looked down at her plate of extravagant-looking pasta - it had shrimps, pieces of lobster, crab, and mussels and vegetables like cubed yellow bell peppers.

  Sadie looked down at her plate, smiled, and breathed in deep. "Mmm! This smells and looks delicious! Doesn't it, Ro?"

  Ro nodded. She was in awe with Devon's cooking skills and she had never had lobster before. It was simply too expensive!

  Sadie looked at Ro slyly. There was something about Ro that just didn't add up and she decided to put one of her theories to the test. "Devon is a great cook. Did you know, he takes lessons? It's one of his other hobbies. He has a lot of them. He also likes going on adventure sports outings like skydiving. Personally, I would never do such a dangerous thing. It just seems?pointless. I much rather go shopping. Shopping is one of the things I'm very good at."

  Ro nodded as Devon came over with three champagne glasses and a bottle of champagne.

  "I thought I'd break out the bottle of Krug Brut Ros? Champagne that I purchased recently. It's not every day a guy has two beautiful female rockstars gracing his pad with their presence." Devon popped the cork and began to pour the champagne.

  "Oh, a Krug Ros?. That cost around two hundred and fifty dollars per bottle, right?" Sadie exclaimed just as Ro was taking a sip-

  Ro immediately began to choke and tried really hard not to spit the champagne out. Two hundred and fifty dollars?!

  "Idiot?" Blake shook his head at Ro. "I give up?"

  "Oh, are you okay, Ro?" Sadie slapped Ro's back, which only made her cough harder.

  Devon sat down and raised his glass. "A toast to?punk rock!"

  "To punk rock." Sadie agreed with a smile and raised her glass. "And heavy metal." She murmured softly to herself.

  "To punk rock." Ro softly agreed and raised her glass. They all clinked their glasses and took a sip of the bright orange-pink champagne.

  "It's sweet." Ro smiled softly to herself.

  "That's why I chose it. At The Viper Room you mentioned you had never tried an alcoholic beverage before so I chose this particular champagne with you in mind, Ro." Devon explained in his drawling tone as he gazed at the medium through his dark lashes.

  Ro looked up at Devon in surprise. "Oh?thanks." That was kind of sweet of him?

  Sadie whipped her head back and forth between Devon and Ro, and began to grit her teeth in irritation.

  "Let's dig in, ladies." Devon said as he began to twirl his fork in his pasta.

  "Oh, let's!" Sadie agreed and began to twirl a petite bite. Sadie put the pasta in her mouth and moaned with obvious delight. "Mmm!" Sadie began to groan in pleasure. "Mmm?Devon your cooking makes me hot!"

  Ro blushed at the indecent noises Sadie was making, and silently ate her pasta.

  "Yes, oh yes!" Sadie cried out, "Devon's pasta is simply?divine."

  Ro began to choke on her next bite of pasta at Sadie's comment. Sadie smiled a cat's paw smile to herself.

  "Ah, here. It's better to drink water if you're choking." Devon quickly poured Ro a glass of water and handed it to her.

  Ro drank the entire glass of water before smiling to herself. Devon was being so nice, and she was so glad that he wasn't Blake's murderer either.

  Sadie was getting pissed off that Ro was receiving extra attention from Devon. "This pasta is good, but I can't wait until Ro leaves so that we can have our dessert." Sadie purred to Devon and reached across the table to put her hand on his.

  Devon smiled at Sadie and nodded. "That's right, babe. We'll have our dessert?" He squeezed her hand and then pulled his hand back. "But you're being rude to our guest. You know how I feel about PDA, Sadie."

  "PDA? But that's my middle name, darling!" Sadie laughed looking amused. Devon let out a sigh. Sadie leaned back and looked satisfied as she gave Ro a haughty look as if to say: 'You see, that hottie is mine, so back off punk'.

  Ro felt a little embarrassed by their suggestive conversation?but was happy for the couple, so she smiled at Sadie. Though she did feel inexplicably hurt for some reason. But Sadie was right, she didn't belong there with those two incredible rockstars. Ro wasn't a rockstar. She was a fake. An outsider.

  After dinner, Devon began to clear the dishes and Ro abruptly stood up. "I've imposed upon you long enough, Devon. I really need to get going." Ro said in a low dull voice as she quickly made her way to the door.

  "Hey, Ro wait-" Devon called after her. He hadn't even gotten to properly thank her for saving his life, but with Sadie there he couldn't say anything.

  Sadie got up from the table and latched onto Devon's arm. "Let her go?now we can have some fun. Just the two of us." Sadie purred, turned Devon's head to face her with her hand and then kissed him hungrily.

  Devon responded and kissed her back fiercely. Devon pushed Sadie against the kitchen island as he began to succumb to his lust, and she wrapped her legs around his waist boldly. He picked her up easily putting his hands on her tight butt, and put her on the kitchen island and leaned her back. Sadie purposefully knocked the empty wine glasses off the counter with a sweep of her arm, and they fell to the floor shattering loudly.

  "Oh yes?yes! You're such a beast, Devon!" Sadie moaned at his every heated caress and racked her nails down Devon's back.

  As the door shut behind Ro, she heard the wine glasses break and Sadie's moans of pleasure.

  Her face turned beet red. Violent rockstar sex?! She couldn't help but think and gripped her head in her hands. Ah, someone get the images out of my overactive brain!

  Ro opened her eyes and met Blake's pensive stare as the sound of someth
ing else breaking was heard from within Devon's apartment. Ro raised an eyebrow at Blake as if to ask: 'Is that normal?'

  Blake chuckled at Ro's worried look and nodded. "Sadie Skellington is a wildcat in the sack." But even as he said this jokingly Ro couldn't help but note the sad, bitter and almost wistful tone in which he said this. "She used to leave scratches all down my back." Blake complained and chuckled. "That slut?"

  But even then to Ro's keen ears, Blake's voice sounded strained. Her cheeks became tinged with pink as unbidden images of Sadie Skellington racking her claws down Blake's back filled her mind.

  Blake's laughter changed in tone when he noticed Ro's embarrassment and became more lighthearted. Ro was so fun to tease. Just look at that face she's making. It's priceless. She almost makes me forget?

  ***

  Several hours later?

  Ro sat at a round table that was next to the long bar that was inside of the The Viper Room. Blake had woken her up in the middle of the night to inform her that he had seen Leila and Harper leave Wraythe Records together suspiciously, and go for a drink together at the The Viper Room. Since Blake thought this was the perfect opportunity for Ro to spy on the two of them and see if she could learn something about his murder he forced Ro out of bed, made her get dressed and drive to the The Viper Room.

  Ro stifled a yawn as she raised the menu in front of her face to hide as she inconspicuously watched Leila and Harper doing shots at the bar. She would have thought they were celebrating something but their expressions were unhappy. Ro watched intently as the stylist and the driver clinked two shot glasses together before tipping the glasses back and drinking the shots back in one gulp.

  "Ah!" Leila slammed her shot glass back down onto the bar counter. "I can't believe that punk Sadie! She actually crushed a cigarette out on my arm! She's crazy. Look at what she did!" Leila rolled up her shirtsleeve to show Harper the small round burn scar that Sadie had left there.

  Harper winced, having sympathy pains. "That's horrible. Sadie is so cruel."

  "I know, right? Blake may have been difficult to work with, but he never physically hurt me." Leila said. "Sure we got into some yelling matches but?Sadie yells at me all the time and gets jealous if I give too much attention to Damion. That girl is so in denial. It's obvious she likes Damion but she's going out with Devon?God knows why! She looks all cute and sweet on the outside, but she's a devil on the inside. At least Blake didn't have some split personality?" Leila shuddered. "I resigned today."

  Harper was nodding. "Mr. Wraythe fired me today." The driver informed Leila in an equally morose tone.

  "What? No!" Leila sounded surprised. "How come?"

  Harper let out a defeated little sigh. "He said that the band having a limo was a waste of money - that Blake had been totally overpaying me and what my services are actually worth. Mr. Wraythe said that'd it'd be cheaper to buy a van for the band and have Manager Brody drive the band places where they needed security or to be incognito." Harper explained.

  "How much was Blake paying you?" Leila leaned forward, licking her lips, with an interested look on her face.

  "$100,000 a year. He always gave me a huge Christmas bonus too." Harper put his head in his hands.

  Leila gave Harper a sympathetic look. "Blake was paying me $90,000 a year and he dropped another $50,000 into my bank account after he fired me. I hadn't even realized it until I checked my account?"

  "Mr. White was the best boss." Harper said in a wistful voice.

  "I know, right?" Leila agreed and picked up a new shot glass and held it up to Harper. "To Blake White!"

  Harper picked up a new shot glass and clinked it against Leila's. "To Blake White! He shall be missed." The stylist and driver drained their shot glasses. "Why did he have to commit suicide? Why? Blakeeee." Harper moaned, pounding his fist on the bar counter.

  Leila patted his back consolingly. "There, there?I should have been more considerate about Blake's allergies to synthetic fabrics and fur. I guess you never know what you've got until it's gone. If you're out there somewhere Blake - I'm sorry!" Leila burst into tears.

  Blake's jaw dropped.

  Ro put her menu down in shock as she watched Leila and Harper crying and hugging each other. They continued to console each other about Blake's suicide while they both spouted more reasons why they missed him and the he was a great boss. Ro got out her list of murder suspects and crossed out Leila and Harper with a crooked smile.

  Blake was floating next to Ro and looking at Leila and Harper in astonishment. An embarrassed look came over his face. "Nice to know, I'm missed. Or at least?my money sure is missed. Heh."

  Ro rolled her eyes at the sarcastic ghost. She knew that it wasn't the money these two people missed but Blake himself.