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her face. “Somebody’s building a bridge, and they’d barely begun when the crew uncovered a skull and some bones, and tomorrow the UT physical anthropology department will excavate the rest. Which is why the sheriff’s cruiser is extremely irritating, because this would be the perfect chance to test my coronal aura visual media transfer device.… ”
    She started talking gadgets and I stopped listening. I was trying to sort through what Ben McCulloch had said in his litany of Goodnight offenses. Something about a bridge, one that they were building because Aunt Hyacinth wouldn’t let them cross the river on her land. Which didn’t sound like her, but I put that part aside. Maybe she’d explain if she emailed me back—
    And that was as far as I got, because Phin’s words had tripped my pay-attention-this-is-trouble switch.
    So this is the
perfect
opportunity to expand my research on the measurable paraphysical effects of supernatural phenomenon
.
    “Hang on,” I said when she paused to take a breath, and I pointed to the contraption on the table. “You mean this issome kind of ghost detector you’re planning to use over on the McCulloch property?”
    “Of course not!” she said in a huff. “It’s a spectral energy visualizer. Weren’t you listening?”
    I placed my hands flat on the slate table, hoping to channel some of that cool into my demeanor. “Listen, Phin. You can’t go around spouting off about supernatural phenomena. I mean, Austin is pretty open-minded, but we’re not
in
Austin. This is a small town. And you definitely can’t go ghost hunting or energy visualizing or whatever on the McCullochs’ place. We need to keep well clear— What are you doing?”
    She continued to open and close the workroom cabinets and drawers. “I’m trying to find an EMF meter in Aunt Hy’s things. I blew mine out in an experiment for my physics final.”
    “You don’t need an EMF meter. You need to pay attention. This is important.” I followed her around the room, talking to the back of her head. Maybe if I threw enough words at her, some of them would penetrate her skull. “The McCullochs are already peeved at Aunt Hyacinth. If they’re trying to build this bridge, and then this body turns up, and if the ghost talk is making it even harder to get business done, their tolerance for quirky girl ghost detectives is going to be really low right now.”
    “Aha!” Triumphant, she extracted something that looked like a ray gun from one of the drawers.
    “What
is
that?” I asked in spite of myself.
    “Infrared thermometer, of course. I knew she’d have one. Culinary equipment has made it so much easier to beprecise in cooking up spells.” She continued searching. “She’s got to have an EMF meter, too. It’s important to know where the electromagnetic fields are when you’re working.”
    I tried a more logical approach. “The ranch is about a bazillion acres huge. How are you going to know where to look for spectral auras or whatever?”
    She gave me a don’t-be-ridiculous look. “At the shallow grave, of course.”
    “Oh, that’s brilliant. Because the only thing worse than trespassing would be trespassing on a
crime scene
.” I slapped a hand on the cabinet door she was about to open. “Are you listening, Phin?”
    Finally she turned and faced me. “We wouldn’t be trespassing,” she said, as if stating something obvious. “We’ve been invited.”
    “By whom?” The only thing obvious to me was how much we would
not
be welcome.
    “By Mark.”
    “And who is Mark?”
    “One of the anthropology people. I met him in the hardware store. He’s the one who told me they’d be digging tomorrow, and he invited us to come and see.” She pulled at the cabinet door.
    I leaned against it. “Right. The dig. Tomorrow. Not ghost hunting tonight.”
    “It needs to be dark to image the Kirlian aura!”
Pull
. “Plus if we go tonight, I can get data before and after excavation.”
    Push
.