Read The Dead Girls Detective Agency for Free Online Page B

do it. And you will get the hang of it.”
    “Um, Nance,” I said. “Is it wise doing this here? There’s so many peo—I mean, so many of the Living hanging about. Won’t they freak out if they start seeing free-floating hands while they’re trying to make the telescopes work?”
    “Actually this is a perfect place to practice,” she said, all trust-me and breezy. “I always bring new recruits to public places. Everyone here is so busy gaping at the city, no one looks at what’s happening next to them. Look, I’ll prove it.”
    She walked over to a young couple who were snuggling up like newlyweds. Miss Snuggler was pointing in the direction of Brooklyn, while her guy spooned her from behind and whispered the kind of sweet nothings in her ear that made me want to barf. Wait until one of you dies before your time, I wanted to say to them, you won’t be so smug and huggy then. Because one of you will be down there in the city probably crying your eyes out and looking at pictures from last semester’s trip to the Smithsonian while the other one of you will be floating around somewhere inappropriate, like the top of the Empire State, learning how to make her pinky finger reappear just to scare humans.
    Nancy stood next to Spoon-a-lot and a look of extreme concentration filled her face. She stared hard at her hand and slowly, like a glass filling with cherry soda, her fingers changed color. They began to look, well, more alive again. Until that moment I hadn’t even noticed that she—we—could have auditioned to play one of the Cullen family, but now Nancy’s hand was back to full rosiness, it was beyond obvious. So that was what happened when a part of you became visible to the Living again. Her hand glowed with a pinky hue.
    Nancy looked back at me, then back to Hug-boy and smiled. If he stopped paying attention to his date and did a 180, he’d see that there was now a neat little hand floating right by his ear. A hand without a body. No body that he could see, anyway.
    Nancy waved her visible hand about for a few seconds, before putting it behind his head and making a bunny ears sign. Neither he nor his girlfriend noticed a single thing. They were far too busy planning what sights they were going to see the next day. Or which street corner they were going to make out on next. Yuck.
    As usual, Nancy was right. Busy places were actually perfect to practice my new skills without upsetting the Living. I hoped I didn’t suck at apparition as badly as I did at chem.
    “Your turn,” she said, relaxing as she put her hand back down by her side. It paled until it matched the chalky color of the rest of her body. “Try it out. Make your hand appear.”
    I held out my fingers in front of my face and stared at them hard. In fourth grade, my piano teacher told me I was lucky to have such long, thin fingers. Apparently I could have been a natural. Like Alicia Keys or something. That was if I’d ever bothered to practice and Dad hadn’t canceled the lessons after two months on account of me missing three to watch cartoons with Ali instead.
    Right, apparition. How hard could this be? My fingers were ready. All I needed to do was find my energy. I could do that. I’d watched enough yoga shows on the Fitness Channel. (Admittedly while eating cookie dough ice cream on the couch, but still …) I patted my stomach. Maybe my power was hiding in there. I strained and clenched and stared at my hand. Boy, was this unattractive. I strained again. Nope, nothing. My hand still wasn’t going to be seen by any breath-takers tonight.
    “Relax, don’t try so hard,” Nancy said. Which, actually, was so not helpful. I smiled through my clenched teeth at Lorna, silently thanking her for hanging back and letting me take my time.
    I lifted my hand again and stared at my fingers. This time, instead of thinking about my stomach, I thought about them and how much I wanted them to appear. To look the way they used to when I was alive. How