Supernaturally Kissed (Frostbite, Book One) (4 page)

Great! More cops to enjoy the show!

She pointed down the hall. “Just go straight down the hall and it’s your first door on the left.”

“Thanks,” I replied.

Kipp led the way to the interview room, but he didn’t need to. The cop who waited outside the door told me I went in the right direction. His cute face held a world of suspicion and his deep brown eyes examined me.

“I’m Detective Perez,” the Jersey-Boy cop said. “Are you Tess Jennings?”

I nodded. “I am.”

Eddie opened the door and I entered the typical police interrogation room with two-way mirror, steel table and plastic chairs. I only hoped Eddie would forget me after today, which I doubted would happen. He was a cop, after all—trained to never forget a face.

He followed me in, closed the door behind him and looked at me with a stern gaze. “What information do you have on the incident with Kipp?”

“Well…” The simple word marked the beginning of a one-sided conversation as Eddie sat and listened to me with an unreadable expression while I replayed the past events. “And that brings us to now.”

Eddie’s brow furrowed. “Let me get this straight. Our comrade, Kipp McGowen, is a ghost—here with you now—and wants to talk with his partner, Zach, about a cold case they were working on?”

Seemed so simple the way he said it, but it pleased me he understood. “You got it.”

The furrow on his brow slowly lessened and amusement showed on his face before he burst out laughing. “Wait here. I’ll return in a minute.”

The moment the door closed behind Eddie, I aimed a glare at Kipp. “I told you no one would believe me.” Not that I hadn’t expected to have the cops to laugh at me, but how the situation made me feel was far worse than even my imagination could have concocted.

Kipp smiled in a reassuring way. His attempt did nothing to ease my irritation. “Just give Eddie time. He’s never come across anything like this before and probably thinks you’re crazy.” At my deepening glare, Kipp cleared his throat and added, “We’ll show them you aren’t.”

The door suddenly opened, and to my utter horror, another cop joined the one I had the not-so-great pleasure of meeting. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”

“Have patience, Tess—we’ll show them,” Kipp said.

As if I hadn’t already been patient enough!
I huffed, watching the two cops take their seats at the table. The new man apparently dealt with the crazies, and I understood why. His warm chocolate eyes and kind smile were trusting.

“My name is Max Phillips, Ms. Jennings. Eddie tells me Kipp is here with you.”

I gave a tight nod, forcing myself to give the guy the benefit of the doubt since he hadn’t directly asked me the question, and held back my snappy retort. “Yes, that’s what I said to him.”

Eddie laughed.

Max hid his smile—not so well. “And Kipp has the answers to solve the disappearance of Hannah Reid.”

These men and their stupid questions were going to end my life. My patience hung on by a thin thread. “No.”

Max’s eyebrows rose. “No?”

“Yes, I mean, no.” I threw my hand up, exasperated. “What I’m trying to tell you is he doesn’t have information on her disappearance, but on her murder.”

“You do realize her body hasn’t been discovered?” Max asked.

I shrugged. “The papers said as much, but Kipp hasn’t told me that himself.”

Max cocked his head, studying me. “So what exactly has Kipp told you?”

“He said he thinks whoever shot him is also the one responsible for killing Hannah.”

Max frowned, leaned back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest. “Have you ever been institutionalized, Ms. Jennings?”

My blood boiled. I gritted my teeth. “No. I. Have. Not.”

Max didn’t appear swayed by my anger since his expression remained lax. “Do you have a history of mental illness in your family?”

“No.”

“So…” Max surveyed the room. “Kipp is here and telling you these things.”

If he didn’t care about making me feel stupid, I’d simply have to return the lack of curiosity. “No.”

Max glanced at me with an equivocal expression. “No?”

“He’s not…” I waved my hand around the room. “Everywhere you looked.” I pointed to the chair next to me. “He’s sitting right there.”

Loud laughter soared through the bland white room and their blatant amusement happened to snap the last string holding my control together. It was one thing to have them chuckle, another thing to see them smirk, but outright laughed at? Oh no, my limit had been reached and anger burned wicked in my body.

“Listen here,” I shouted, which caused both men to shut their traps. “Do you think I came here because I’m in the mood to look like a fool? Well, I didn’t.” I pointed to the ghost next to me. “Kipp will not leave me alone and I won’t even subject you to what he put me through to get me to help him. The only reason I’m here is because Kipp asked me to pass along a message. So either get on with your questions and ask me something important or I’m outta here.”

Wide surprised eyes gawked back at me. Both Eddie’s and Max’s mouths gaped open.

Kipp merely grinned from ear to ear. “Not only beautiful, but you’ve got some zest to you too.”

Before I determined if his statement flattered or annoyed me, the door flew open and Kipp stood. “Zach.”

“Thank the Lord Almighty.” I sighed. “Zach has finally arrived. Now this horrible day can end and I’ll put this memory into the vault, never to revisit again.”

Max blinked before he glanced at Zach. “Do you know her?”

“I haven’t a clue who she is.” Zach’s gaze zeroed in on me. “How do you know who I am?”

What a bunch of idiots!
“Well, maybe because Kipp just said your name when you walked into the room.”

Silence and blank stares were the only reply I received. I could’ve counted thirty Mississippis before anyone moved, blinked or did anything to show they were still alive.

Zach blinked, stepped further into the room and approached the table. “Leave her with me for now so we can have a little chat.”

Max and Eddie didn’t argue and left the room.

I gulped, watching Zach making his way around the table. If bodybuilders were my thing, then he’d be something to look at. His dark eyes showed a resolve that could, and did, shake me in my boots. The tight line of his lips declared he wasn’t the type of guy you pissed off and lived to tell about it.

He grabbed a chair across from me, spun it around and straddled the seat. “Now tell me what you told them.”

I shrieked in frustration and dropped my face into my palms. “If I have to say this one more time, I’m seriously going to lose my mind.” Kipp laughed and I raised my head to glare at him. “It’s not funny.”

He nodded. “Yeah, it kinda is.”

“I didn’t laugh,” Zach said.

The continued insinuations I was slow or somehow mentally instable was irritation in its top form. “I know you didn’t laugh.” I pointed at Kipp. “He did.”

Zach’s gaze followed my finger. He looked around the room a couple times. “And the
he
you’re talking about is Kipp?”

I huffed. “No, I’m talking about Casper the Ghost.”

Zach sat straighter in his chair and laced his hands behind his head. “Your story is that Kipp, who is a ghost, has come to you and said he knows how to solve the Reid cold case.”

“Precisely. Do you believe me or not? Because if you don’t, I’d like to go home.”

“You won’t be going home,” Zach retorted. “As to the matter of whether I believe you? That remains to be seen. The only way to discover if you’re being truthful is to ask you a few questions.”

“Get on with it then, I’d very much like the show to end.”

Zach lowered his hands, placed them on the table and stared at me intently. “So Kipp is here with you now?”

I smacked my forehead. “Oh my fucking God.”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.” Zach raised his hands in surrender. “All right, if he’s here with you, ask him what we did last Sunday.”

“Watched the football game,” Kipp responded.

“First of all, I don’t have to ask him. He can hear you and he said you watched football together.”

Zach’s brow furrowed, but he shook his head and relaxed his features. “Too easy. Sunday night football, everyone watches that.”

“Ask something more personal. This isn’t rocket science.”

Zach looked at his hands on the table, stayed silent a moment before raising his gaze to mine. “What do I take in my coffee?”

“Two sugars,” Kipp replied.

“Two sugars.”

Zach’s expression flashed with surprise, but he removed the shock in an instant and settled back into a focused look. “Who was my last girlfriend?”

“He doesn’t have girlfriends,” Kipp said.

“You’re gay.”

Zach’s eyes widened. “Pardon me?”

Kipp burst out laughing.

I shrugged. “He said you don’t have girlfriends, so I thought it meant you were gay.”

“He plays, not stays,” Kipp barely managed to say through the spurts of laughter.

“Oh oops, you’re a player.” I couldn’t help but think of Caley. She’d be smitten over Mr. Muscles and the two could play each other to death.

Zach’s firm expression wavered. Clearly I’d broken through his disbelief. “Tell me the name of the last woman Kipp took to his bed?”

The question made my stomach tighten into knots, but I clamped down on that bit of silliness. I shouldn’t care one bit who Kipp’s previous lovers were.
Then why do you?

I glanced over at Kipp, awaiting his answer, and he stared at me curiously, which made me wonder if my reaction showed on my face. I waved my hand for him to get on with the answer.

“Candi,” he said.

I snickered. “Candi! You cannot be serious. You slept with a woman named Candi? Let me guess, she’s a stripper, right?”

“There’s nothing wrong with the name Candi.” Kipp shifted in his seat as if uncomfortable. “She was a lovely lady.”

“I bet she was a
nice
lady, to
you
.” I gripped my middle as my stomach muscles clenched. “Candi, that’s priceless.” I sighed away the laughter, wiped the tears off my cheeks and happened to look at Zach.

He leaned in toward me with a steady gaze. “On the last cold case Kipp and I solved, what did we find with the body?”

“Only the cops who worked the case know the answer.” Kipp’s voice lifted with excitement. “Tell him we found an old antique doll.”

I mirrored Zach’s movement, leaned in and met his gaze dead on. “A doll.” One second I sat in a chair, the next Zach dragged me from the room by the arm, while Kipp chuckled behind me.

“I told you we’d get them to believe,” he said.

Within mere seconds, I’d been pushed out the front door of the station and tossed into the passenger seat of a truck. “Hey! What the hell?” I struggled to sit in a more comfortable position as Kipp appeared in the backseat.

Zach slid into the driver’s seat and looked at me sternly. “Tell me everything and leave nothing out.”

Chapter Three

The drive through Memphis went by in a blur since Zach tore the hell out of the street, traveling at insane speeds with his truck. He stopped with a squeal of his brakes and pretty much pulled me from the seat as abruptly as he put me in it. I glanced around the suburban neighborhood, stunned at the beautiful homes. Even the garden looked well-tended.
A bachelor lives here?

“Come on,” Zach said, snapping me out of my wonderment.

I followed him up the porch steps and entered the house to find an open-concept modest home—gray painted walls, bamboo hardwood floors and sleek contemporary black leather couches.

The nice design astonished me. The neatness and lack of dust made my mouth gape open. “You live here?”

Zach shut the front door and walked past me. “No, Kipp and I live here.” He gestured toward to kitchen. “Want a beer?”

“I’d love one.” A hundred of them to wash away the past hours sounded even better. I settled down on the couch, quite pleased to note that neither laughter nor tears were on the brink. I had caught Zach up to speed on the past events on the drive over and he never doubted a word I said. Feeling less crazy gave me a newfound strength.

“What about the house surprises you?” Kipp asked, sitting down on the leather recliner across from me.

“Um, that men live here.” I laughed.

“Pardon?” Zach called out from the kitchen.

“Kipp and I were chatting about how your house surprises me.”

Zach smiled, striding back out from the kitchen holding two frosty beers. “A good surprise?” He handed me one.

I nodded and took a big gulp of the beer, almost sighing in pure pleasure. The crisp taste swept across my tongue and tasted so damn good. I lowered the bottle and shrugged. “You have great taste.”

Zach downed half his beer and wiped the remnants away from his lips. “Not me.”