Chapter One

“The Chief just called for a collective meeting. Each unit’s attendance is mandatory.”

Darren Cox tried to ignore the voice of his young, overexcited partner and focus on completing the paperwork from their last assignment, but it was a difficult task when the object of his irritation was leaning one slender hip on the only open space on his cluttered desk. He stubbornly tried to avoid eye contact in the hopes that the kid would be able to read his body language for once.

“It must be something important if the Chief wants everyone there, don’t ya think?”

Darren sighed and rubbed his weary eyes. He had been focusing on his latest report for close to three hours without a break. Having been dead for over a decade now, he did have the advantage of not needing to eat, sleep, or use the bathroom. The disadvantage was he couldn’t use any of those bodily functions to escape the annoying,  male teenage presence that was void of the knowledge of personal space.

He had been partnered with Tanner Simms for a little over a month now, had gone on ten assignments with the kid, and had been unable to convey his full dislike to the cheerful nuisance. It usually only took a week for his partners to take the hint and quit trying to befriend him. In another week they usually requested a transfer out of his department into another in the agency. For the life of him, ha-ha, he couldn’t figure out what made Tanner such a slow learner. He wasn’t treating the guy with any more warmth than his twelve previous partners, and yet the nuisance followed him around like a puppy, practically worshipping every foul word that left his mouth.

“I have an idea, Brat. Why don’t you shut up and wait for the Chief to explain what’s going on when we get to the meeting?” Darren barked in his best pissed off voice. It didn’t take much considering his voice was gravelly from not being used in hours.

Usually his rudeness would end any conversation and result in the person getting angry and storming off or retreating into a hurt silence. Tanner did neither of these things. He smiled and continued to swing his legs and perch on his senior partner’s desk.

“Sure he’ll explain, but its fun to try to figure out the mystery before he comes out and tells us. Maybe this time we’ll need to retrieve the soul of a lounge lizard who died before confessing his love to a certain senorita. He might be standing below her balcony right now, serenading her with his ghostly ballads. Or it could be a drug dealer who died before delivering his last big shipment and fleeing to safety across the Mexican border. Maybe we’ll even get caught in the crossfire-”

Darren pushed away from his desk and stormed towards his supervisor’s office without looking back to see if his young partner was following. He bet the kid was still rambling on, even though there was no longer an audience. Darrem often heard Tanner talking to himself as he wandered around the office, performing whatever menial duties had been assigned to him. It was a good thing the kid was already dead, because he would rather talk than live.

The plaque on the Chief’s door read “Malcolm Reed, Retriever Division Supervisor, Agency of Afterlife Activity.” Darren opened the heavy metal door to find the rest of his division operatives seated around the Chief’s desk, apparently waiting on him and Tanner. His partner sauntered in right behind him and flounced into a chair with a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

“Told you I could get him in here in less than five minutes.”

Continued in First Section