"Why not?" The Chief asked. "Frederick seems like a nice guy. Ivy sure got a
lot more out of the auction than me!"

"The auction." Zack mused. "Josha, where were you?"

"For your information, I was at the auction. Frederick outbid me." Josha
answered.

"What?" the Chief asked. "You bid on Ivy?"

"You didn't know?" replied Zack.

"No! I can't believe Ivy didn't tell me!"

"Oh, good. She doesn't know, either!"

"You're kidding!" the Chief laughed. He then said to Josha, "You've been
sweet on Ivy and you've never told her?"

"Easier said than done, Chief."

"I know, Josha. You're co-workers. It's an awkward situation." quipped Zack.
"But still, you shouldn't be jealous."

"Jealousy?!" cried the Chief. "Someone told me long ago. There's always a
calm before the storm. It's been calm for some time. Uh oh! Calm merging into
storm! Calm merging into storm! Going down! Didn't that sound convincing?"

Zack tried hard not to snicker. "Come on. Frederick doesn't seem that bad.
The only flaw he has is that when you shake hands with him, you lose all the
feeling in your arm."

"Really?"

*                                            *

Carmen sat in her bedroom, thinking about her decision. Suddenly, a voice
jarred her thoughts. "Are you all right?"

Carmen stifled a gasp. Standing across the room was Francesca! "How did you
get in here?"

"I'm a ghost, remember? I can float through walls." Francesca waved that
aside. "Something's troubling you. I can sense it."

"I can't reach a decision. I've been a loner for so long. And I'll have to
give up my pursuits and dissolve VILE and....." Carmen sighed. "I'm in a
mess. This is even worse than my tangle with Malcolm Avalon."

Francesca listened carefully. "Well, Martin hates to be alone."

"Don't you miss him?"

"I do. And he misses me. But he's still has a lot of time left in the world,
and so do you, Carmen."

"Do you feel like you're being replaced?"

"Of course not." Francesca stop to laugh. "In fact, it thrills me to see
Martin so happy. He's so elated, he's whistling. In the six months I've been
gone, he's been wrapped up in his practice."

"Why don't you visit him?"

"Oh, that's a bit of a rule. Actually, it's just recommended. We ghosts
should never visit our still-alive family. Brings back floods of painful
memories for them."

Carmen reluctantly conceded the point. "So, you've decided to haunt me
instead."

"For lack of better words, yes."

"You're a hard woman, Francesca."

"When it concerns the living, Carmen, I'm as hard as concrete. And don't you
forget it."


In a house on the hillside neighborhood of San Francisco, Zack and Josha were
trudging up the hill. "Man, Ivy's going to kill me when she finds I swiped
her address book!" whined Zack.

"We're lucky that she wrote Frederick's address in it."

The pair reached the house and knocked on the door. A woman answered it. "May
I help you?" she asked.

"Is this the home of Frederick Payne?" Josha asked.

"We sort of met him at, um, er-" Zack attempted to supply.

"College!" Josha quipped.

"It's odd you should say you know my son, Frederick." the woman replied.

"Why?" asked the two detectives in unison.

"Because Frederick's been dead for nearly a year."

To be continued.....