“The hell?” Mr. Klink muttered as he satup.
I stepped into his line of sight. “Hello, my name is Helen Reaper. I’ve been appointed by the Midnight Cove court systems to seek the truth concerning your last will andtestament.”
Watery blue eyes stared at me. His brow crinkled. “The hell?” he muttered again. Mr. Klink looked around the room, then down at himself. With a squawk, he scrambled to make sure he was covered. “Where amI?”
“You’re in the judge’s office,” I said. I held up a hand when he started to climb off the table. “You will stay where you are. This is a temporary raising. Once the questions have been answered and confirmed to be truthful, I will send you back to your final restingplace.”
Mr. Klink froze in place. The dead could not disobey the necromancer’s commands. He frowned at me. “I’m dead?” His tone was confused. “The last thing I remember…” He abruptly trailedoff.
It was the boobs that killed him. Had tobe.
“Yes, Mr. Klink, you are deceased. Are you ready to see yourfamily?”
He made a dismissive gesture. “The best thing about dying that I don’t remember is not seeing themagain.”
A ghost of a smile flitted across my mouth. “Mrs. Klink is here to see you aswell.”
His frown deepened. “That gold diggingtrollop?”
The door abruptly opened and the family poured in. I gave them a look of displeasure. My contract also stated they would wait for me to call them in. I mentally added another two hundred dollars to theirbill.
Mrs. Klink trotted in on her too high heels and flung her arms out. “Pookie!” she yelled. Or kind of did. It was hard to tell with that mangled British accent and ridiculous whisperlisp.
“Don’t!” I yelled, but it was too late. Yet another reason why families weren’t supposed to come in before I was ready. There were things I needed to brief themon.
Mrs. Klink ran right into the invisible barrier separating her from her pookie, and it was like something out of a horror movie. Her boobs were the first thing to hit the shield. They smooshed against the barrier and splayed wide causing Mr. Klink to get the gags and his children to burst into uproarious laughter. I stood there in horror watching as she was flung away from her husband and slammed into a bookshelf on the back wall where she promptly slid down to the floor. The look of confusion on her face was absolutelypriceless.
“Mrs. Klink, you are not permitted to interact physically in any way with your spouse. This is for both your protection and his.” I held my hand out to help herup.
She sputtered and smacked my hand away. “You should have told methat!”
“The judge went over all of the instructions before you stepped outside the room. The most important instruction being not to enter before I gave youpermission.”
“Well,” she hiss whispered before she stood back up and tried to recover some of herdignity.
“I can honestly say I never want to see that again,” said Mr.Klink.
I reached for my notebook and pen and tried to stifle my massive sigh of annoyance. “Now then,” I said, “shall we getstarted?”
What feltlike two days worth of questioning turned out to be only a couple of hours. By the end, the room had devolved into screaming, shouting, and tears. Some of them mine. I was so frustrated with everyone that I finally yelled at everyone to shutup.
The judge looked at me like I wasinsane.
“My contract is clearly outlined, Judge Sinclair. The courts hired me to do a job, and I cannot do it if everyone is interfering. While I do understand how emotion can get in the way, we are here for simple yes or no answers. I haven’t been able to gather a single response either way from Mr. Klink because of the total chaos of thisfamily.”
Said family huffed and puffed and Mrs. Klink muttered something under her breath. Funny how I thought the kids were the decent ones here. Turned out all of them werenuts.
“I respectfully request the family be escorted out of the room and the testimony be witnessed byyou.”
Judge Sinclair frowned but finally nodded acceptance. “Fine.” She made a shooing motion, but as soon as the family started to grumble, she threatened to kick them all out of thecourtroom.
Once they had finally shuffled out, I let out a deep sigh and shut my eyes at the blissfulquiet.
“Ms. Reaper?” Judge Sinclair askedquietly.
“Yes. Sorry.” I stood up straighter, feeling drained at the sheer amount of power I had to expend to keep the bindingsheld.
“Do you see what I had to deal with?” he grumped. “It was like that all the time. The bickering, fighting. Ain’t a one of them loved me. They just wanted what Ihad.”
