Dead Companions: A Jess and Libby Paranormal Cozy Mystery (Afterlife Issues Book 1)(Paranormal Women's Midlife Fiction)

Dead Companions A JESS AND LIBBY PARANORMAL COZY MYSTERY AFTERLIFE ISSUES BOOK ONE A.W. HARTOIN Contents Also by A.W. Hartoin Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Also by A.W. Hartoin About the Author Dead Companions Afterlife Issues Book One Copyright © A.W. Hartoin, 2023 Cover designed by MiblArt This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Also by A.W. Hartoin Afterlife Issues Dead Companions (Afterlife Issues Book One) A Trunk, a Canoe, and all the Barbecue (Afterlife Issues Book Two) coming soon Old Friends and Fedoras (Afterlife Issues Book Three) coming soon Mercy Watts Mysteries Novels A Good Man Gone (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book One) Diver Down (A Mercy Watts Mystery Book Two) Double Black Diamond (Mercy Watts Mysteries BookThree) Drop Dead Red (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book Four) In the Worst Way (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book Five) The Wife of Riley (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book Six) My Bad Grandad (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book Seven) Brain Trust (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book Eight) Down and Dirty (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book Nine) Small Time Crime (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book Ten) Bottle Blonde (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book Eleven) Mean Evergreen (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book Twelve) Silver Bells at Hotel Hell (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book Thirteen) Short stories Coke with a Twist Touch and Go Nowhere Fast Dry Spell A Sin and a Shame Stella Bled Historical Thrillers The Paris Package (Stella Bled Book One) Strangers in Venice (Stella Bled Book Two) One Child in Berlin (Stella Bled Book Three) Dark Victory (Stella Bled Book Four) A Quiet Little Place on Rue de Lille (Stella Bled Book Five) Her London Season (Stella Bled Book Six) Paranormal It Started with a Whisper Young Adult fantasy Flare-up (Away From Whipplethorn Short) A Fairy's Guide To Disaster (Away From Whipplethorn Book One) Fierce Creatures (Away From Whipplethorn Book Two) A Monster’s Paradise (Away From Whipplethorn Book Three) A Wicked Chill (Away From Whipplethorn Book Four) To the Eternal (Away From Whipplethorn Book Five) For Herb Because sometimes the best fathers are stepfathers Chapter One Three months ago, my life was perfectly fine. I would’ve called it normal. There’s a lot to be said for normal. I just won’t be the one saying it. Not anymore. Normal, average, fine—call it what you will—was never particularly appealing to me, but with the constant demands of ordinary life I forgot that, and a lot of other things too. It looked like my interesting days were behind me. No more harebrained schemes. No more trips where I didn’t know the exact destination. I knew what was real and what wasn’t. There were rules and I followed them. Facts were facts. I had a house, a workaholic husband, two boys with common-sense issues, and a waistline I’d learned to accept. My best friend Jess was to-the-core happy, and life was, if not easy, predictable. I’d accepted predictable. I thought knowing what was coming wasn’t so bad, even if it was boring. Then an ordinary day of golf turned all our lives upside down, and nothing would ever be predictable again. Now the only thing I knew for sure was that I didn’t want to end up mangled in a horrific accident, but our car was still barreling toward a bank of black clouds in the distance at fifteen miles over the speed limit, causing me to question my life choices. I’d been doing that a lot lately, but I’d hoped that day would be an exception. I should never have let her drive. What was I thinking? “Slow down, Jess,” I said. “This is the answer,” she said. “I feel great about this.” “Oh, really?” “Yes.” I crossed my arms. “You’re white-knuckling the steering wheel again.” “I am not.” “You are. Slow down,” I said. Jess did get us to a less terrifying speed, but her hands stayed bloodless. “It’s fine,” she said. “Everything’s fine.” I can tell. Jess stayed hunched over the steering wheel, wearing a threadbare college sweatshirt, with her usually sleek blond ponytail snarled up on the top of her head in an unruly knot. It looked like her hair hadn’t seen a comb in days or possibly weeks. I watched her and wondered when it would be time to say something. “This place is perfect. Wait until you see it,” said Jess. “We can’t afford to buy a house. The market is insane,” I said. “This is going to work. You’ll love it.” “People are getting into bidding wars over bungalows by the airport, and we need a five-bedroom.” “That’s why it’s perfect. Seven bedrooms, five full baths, and an enormous kitchen. We could start a catering business.” I bit my lip and watched my friend, who was glowing with purpose and a hint of hope. Since when did we want to start a catering business? Jess could barely handle making toast for the last three months, and I wasn’t much better. “Don’t look at me like that,” said Jess. “I know what I’m doing. I’m not totally losing it.” I bit harder. Jess wasn’t totally losing it because she’d already lost it when her super-fit husband dropped dead on the golf course two days after getting cleared to go mountaineering in Peru. Hal wasn’t supposed to die. The marathon-running, fifty-pushups-the-moment-you-get-out-of-bed guy was supposed to outlive everyone, but he had an aneurysm, and it