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did she? Think back, Tara, remember your aunt when you were young. Was she really any different?”
    Her aunt had just always been her aunt. Tara closed her eyes and pictured her first memories. Aunt Kathy explaining the rules when she was little, then again at regular intervals all the time Tara had been growing up. And each time she looked the same. Even her aunt’s hair had never changed although Tara could never remember her going near a hairdresser.
    She rubbed her temple with the tip of her finger, then pressed hard against her closed lids. She opened her eyes to find Christian still watching her. “What do you think happened?”
    He crouched in front of her and ran a finger down her cheek. She shivered, his touch cool against her heated skin. Then his thumb brushed over her lower lip and she felt it as a caress low down in her belly. He was so close. If she leaned forward just a little bit…
    He straightened and backed a step away. “What do you know of the supernatural?”
    The question caught her off balance. “You mean, ghosties and ghoolies and…” She frowned. “I seriously hope you’re not trying to tell me my aunt was a ghost.”
    “Actually no, I don’t think your aunt was a ghost. You could touch her couldn’t you? She ate and drank like a normal person?”
    “Yes, she ate like a normal person. Because, you know what? She was a normal person.” Albeit a rather strange one, but Tara pushed that thought to the back of her mind.
    “Tara, your aunt was far from normal.” He gestured to the photographs. “However much you dislike the idea, you have to acknowledge that something strange was going on.”
    Tara forced herself to calm down. “Okay, tell me what you think happened.”
    “The body of your aunt was never buried.”
    “Yes it was, I was there at the funeral.”
    He sighed. “I mean twenty years ago.”
    She felt a spark of hope. “Well obviously it wasn’t buried, because she wasn’t dead. They made a mistake.”
    “There was no mistake. I’ve seen the death certificate and the coroner’s report—she was dead twenty years ago. The body disappeared before it could be buried. There are reports , they’re all in the file.”
    “You’re telling me I was brought up by a dead person. That Aunt Kathy was some sort of zombie?” She could hear her voice rising.
    “Not a zombie, no.”
    “Well, thank goodness for that.”
    “There are other ways to reanimate a corpse.”
    Tara bolted from her chair. “I am not listening to this.”
    “You have to. The woman who brought you up has been dead for over twenty years.”
    She stared into his face, sure she must have heard him wrong, but no, he seemed serious. Suddenly she was furious. She took a step toward him and poked him in the chest. It was like stubbing her finger on a lump of rock and she winced. “You are so not funny.”
    She blamed her cat for this. Trust Smokey to pick the one nutcase private investigator in the whole of London. “And by the way,” she added. “You’re fired!”
    She grabbed her purse and stormed away. She’d almost reached the door when he spoke again.
    “Tara—”
    She whirled.
    Somehow, he was right behind her and she almost slammed into him. She put up her arms to ward him off and her palms flattened against his chest. He leaned forward and kissed her.
    She stood there, hands splayed against his chest , while he touched her only with his lips. The kiss was slow, erotic. He tasted her with his tongue, and she let him do whatever he wished. It was over far too soon, and he stepped back.
    In a daze, she opened the door and was just about to step through when he called her again. She stopped and turned.
    He handed her the file, his expression sympathetic. “When you’ve read this, calmed down, and are willing to listen, come back.”
    “When hell freezes over.”
    She tried to calm herself as she rode down in the elevator, but bitter disappointment clogged her throat. She’d been so hopeful a