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be able to sort out this whole mental and emotional mess she was starting to drown in. Otherwise, there was no telling what kind of wreck she would be tomorrow morning.
    * * * *
     
    “What does the J stand for?”
    J grinned into her glass of water. They were at a small diner she had never visited, but whatever was cooking in the kitchen had made her stomach rumble the moment they’d come through the door. Kiel led her to a booth, but had taken his seat opposite, next to his brother. Not knowing the menu, she’d asked for a simple BLT with water when the waitress came to take their order.
    “Why do you ask? Lots of people use an initial as part of their name. Like TJ or GW.”
    Sitting in front of the men, and able to see them both side-by-side, she was surprised to see the difference in their auras. Dead people didn’t have an aura. They had an emptiness devoid of color or light surrounding them. An emptiness that was still detectable, like a gaping hole waiting to swallow them. That was how she knew they were dead. She knew that from experience. But Kiel was a totally different entity. Sam’s aura was strong, literally flaring in huge, dark purple arcs over his head. Yet the man next to him made him seem pale in comparison.
    There was a glass of water in front of him. He hadn’t ordered anything to eat, which hadn’t surprised her. Occasionally he would lift the glass to his mouth as if to take a drink, in an attempt to keep up appearances.
    “Let me guess. If I guess correctly, will you admit it?”
    “Go ahead, Rumplestiltskin. Do your worst.”
    “Janet. Jane. Julie. JoBeth. Janice.” He grinned to where she could hear the chuckle in his voice. “Janine? Juliet? Oh, I know! Jezebel!”
    Giggling, J leaned back against the cool seat back. “Enough, Detective. Let’s call a halt for now.”
    “For now,” Sam wryly commented over his cup of coffee. “You don’t know how persistent my brother can be when he sets his mind to something.” There was a slight pause, then he continued in a more cautious tone. “If you don’t mind me asking.”
    “What’s a girl like me doing the kind of stuff I do?”
    “Well, if you want to put it that way, yeah. Have you always had the ability to see this kind of stuff before?”
    “Kinda, I think.” She took another sip of water to calm herself. “My mother quit teaching after my parents discovered I was blind. They were in their forties when I was born. They had pretty much accepted the fact that they wouldn’t be able to have children of their own, so they adopted a little boy. He was two when they got him. And then, boom. Mommy found out she was pregnant with me.” She smiled. “Like they say, a sure way to make it rain is to wash your car. And a sure way to have kids is to adopt one. Anyway, from as early as I can remember I saw things. Not always unpleasant stuff, but most of it was. Like the time our cat darted out into the road and got hit by a car. I remember screaming and crying, and Douggie trying to get me to hush.”
    “Douggie?” Kiel asked.
    “My brother. My parents named him Douglas. Anyway, my mother came running out of the house to see why I was making such a fuss. They tried to tell me Snickers was okay. The next day Snickers ran into the street and was hit by a car, exactly as I had told them. After that, I didn’t see things often, but when I did, I always told Mommy.” She sipped at her water again. During the lull their food arrived. She wasn’t prepared to be as hungry as she was when she took her first bite.
    They quietly ate for a few minutes, until Kiel gently asked, “Where are your parents now?”
    “They’re dead. So is Douggie.” Wiping her mouth, she laid her sandwich back on the plate. It still hurt to talk about the accident, even twenty years later. “We were taking Douggie to summer camp. I didn’t want to go. I kept telling them there was a big truck that was going to hurt us if we went, but Mommy and Daddy told me