Page 39 of Grave Expectations
"Gus!" I fell to my knees beside his body.
He moved, thank God, and groaned. "I'm alive."
I glanced up at Mrs. Webb. She looked even paler, if that were possible, and her hands shook. "You almost killed him!" Blood seeped through the rent in his sleeve near his shoulder. "He has to see a doctor."
"He has to stay here." She waggled the pistol at us. "Summon my husband, Miss Holloway. Do it now, or I will shoot again."
I swallowed. Gus protested, but I shut out his voice. "Reginald Rochester Drinkwater, I summon your spirit here to this realm. Come to us."
The mist came from a different side of the room from which Gordon had arrived. It flew past us, dashing back and forth like a frightened rabbit, before regaining control and settling nearby. Reginald Drinkwater was of middling age with a slender build and intelligent eyes behind spectacles. Intelligent, cool eyes. If I didn't know he'd been shot, the gaping hole in his chest would have told me how he'd died. He smiled when he saw his wife but it quickly slipped away at the sight of the pistol. He frowned at her.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Drinkwater," I said to the spirit. "My name is Charlotte Holloway and I'm a necromancer."
"A what?"
"Necromancer. I can raise the dead."
"You summoned me?"
"I did, at your wife's request. She forced me to." I indicated Gus, now sitting up and trying to inspect his wound.
His eyes widened. "Merry?"
"She can't hear you. Only I can."
"I underestimated her." He smiled. "Didn't know she had all this in her."
He was proud? I swallowed down the bile as it threatened to rise up my throat again.
"Tell him that he must search for his body," Mrs. Drinkwater said.
"I don't need to repeat what you say. He can hear you."
"Reginald." She didn't quite look directly at him, but near enough. "Listen to me. I had you summoned so you could avenge your death. I know you must want to."
"Oh yes." His tone chilled my blood.
"You must find your body and…go into it. Then you'll be able to walk around again as a living man."
Reginald eyed me. "Is this true?"
I stood very still.
The ghost swooped at me. "Is. This. True?"
Mrs. Drinkwater pointed the gun at Gus again.
"You will be able to walk around," I said. "But you'll still be dead, not alive. The body is merely a vessel for your spirit."
As soon as he disappeared to find his body and Mrs. Drinkwater left, I'd give the order to send him back. I didn't need to be within hearing range of him.
"You're buried in Old Brompton," Merry Drinkwater went on. "It was a beautiful ceremony." She smiled sadly. "Go, Reginald. Go and find whoever it was who did this."
He lifted a hand and patted his wife's shoulder. "Good girl." She felt nothing and simply stared straight ahead.
"Mr. Drinkwater, tell me who killed you," I urged. "There are people looking into your death. I can pass on the name or description of your murderer—"
"The police are incompetent." He flew up the stairs to the door.
