3 From the Ashes by K.J. Emrick Page A

about seeing three others. Jon was wonderful, no doubt, but she didn’t want to push her luck. “What I did see was a picture of Angelica.”
    “Oh? How did you see that?”
    Darcy went on to explain to him about Sarah arriving at the cemetery, about seeing Millie’s grave and about the photo Sarah showed her.
    “I told her it was just a coincidence, but now I don’t know. Why would Millie be in the photo with Angelica? What was the connection there? Is it possible that Sarah and I are related?”
    “I don’t know,” Jon answered with a shrug and a very pleasant motion of his thumbs under her right big toe. “I guess you could ask your mom. I mean, she’s in town.”
    “Yeah. That reminds me.” She gave him her other foot to do the same heavenly things to as she dropped her news. “We have a date to have dinner with my family tomorrow night.”
    Jon’s eyebrows rose. “In the middle of all this? Are you sure now is a good time?”
    “No. With my mother, I’m never sure. How about you? Aren’t you still busy with that case?”
    He shook his head and ran his finger up her foot, making her twitch and giggle. “Grace and I finished it today. Bernard Munson was stealing scrap from around town for resale. So my night is free. I meant the stuff with Sarah and her mom.”
    “I know what you meant,” she said, sinking lower on the couch to brush her foot around his chest. “I figure I can spare a few hours for my family. How about you?”
    He smiled at her. Then he caught her foot and brought it up to kiss her toes. “I would do anything for you.”
    Yup. He was wonderful.
    ***
    Darcy went to work from Jon’s apartment the next morning, leaving him snoring in bed as she snuck out before seven o’clock. She wanted to get to the bookstore early so that she could talk to Millie uninterrupted. It had occurred to her last night that she could just go to the source with her questions. She might not be able to find Angelica to ask, but she had Millie.
    She locked the door behind her and then stood in the middle of the store. “Millie?” she called out. It took only a few seconds for the vague shape of her great aunt to materialize, sitting in one of the reading chairs. She smiled at Darcy as if she was encouraging her favorite niece.
    “Hi Millie. Can you help me with something?”
    Her aunt nodded, moving her hands in a rhythmic motion that looked like she was knitting. Darcy remembered how she used to talk with her great aunt for hours at a time about everything under the sun while the woman would sit and work her knitting needles. The memory made her smile.
    “You know Sarah? The woman I’ve been trying to help? Are we related to her at all?”
    Millie shook her head no. She tapped a finger to her nose, and Darcy got the feeling that there was more to tell. Talking with spirits was beyond frustrating sometimes. Some wouldn’t stop talking. Some never spoke at all. Millie was the second kind.
    “Do you know anything about Angelica being alive?” Darcy tried. Millie shook her head again, her face shifting from surprise to sadness and a host of emotions inbetween.
    “There’s something going on here and I need to know what it is.” Darcy took a few more steps toward Millie. She wished she could just reach out and hold her aunt again. She twisted the ring on her finger. Millie looked down at the motion and smiled. Darcy could tell she was pleased.
    “Can you help me with any more information?” Darcy asked. She watched as Millie’s ghost rose and floated to the back of the store, where the office was. At the desk, Millie reached up to the shelf on the wall and with a wave of her hand spilled everything on it to the floor.
    Her aunt turned to her with a smile and a wave, and then she somehow turned sideways and disappeared.
    “Thanks. That was a lot of help,” Darcy said sarcastically, bending to clean up the mess. The shelf had been where she put her personal books, ones she had read and planned to