The Death Curse

Chapter 14: Searching

"So, have you tried searching the internet?" Rhys settled down in the armchair near my bed. After he dropped me off at my apartment, freshly back from the dead, he had disappeared for a little over an hour. But not before he performed a protection spell around the apartment to keep Silas's hitmen out just in case they managed to follow us.

In the time he was gone, I had taken a shower and gotten rid of my clothes from yesterday. All the while, Vivian poked and teased me about my reaction to the magic dart, while I pretended to have retrograde amnesia. When Rhys arrived back at the apartment he was sporting fresh clothes too, though his hair still had a fresh out of bed look to it. Now the three of us were putting our heads together to come up with our next step in solving why Vivian was murder.

My head tilted in confusion. "Search it for what?"

Rhys raised an eyebrow. "For Vivian. There has to be something on her. A missing person's report or an obituary."

"An obituary," Vivian echoed from on top of the kitchen counter. "That's a good idea. Why didn't we think of that?"

"Let me grab my computer." I retrieved my laptop from the nightstand on the far side of my bed before crawling onto the comforter and flipping it open. I did a search for missing persons in Portland, Oregon and clicked the first link for a website listing active and closed cases. "How long ago do you think you died?" I asked Vivian as I scrolled through faces and names.

"I'm not sure."

Vivian's voice came from over my shoulder, startling me. Damn ghosts.

"If I had to guess," she continued, "I'd say three or four months ago. Didn't the lady at the thrift store say it had been a few months since I went there with my sister?"

"Right," I said, remembering. "So sometime around the beginning of summer. Which make sense, you're dressed for the heat." I quickly scrolled to the June and July section and started scanning for Vivian.

"You think she is wearing what she died in?" Rhys asked.

I shrugged. "Isn't that how it works?"

Rhys shook his head. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"Well, I definitely wouldn't choose this outfit as what I would wear for the rest of my afterlife," Vivian said, gesturing to her shorts and flip flops.

"I don't know. It looks cute," I said absentmindedly, most of my attention devoted to my computer screen. "I found you!"

"Really?" Vivian jerked forward, part of her shoulder merged with mine and made me shiver.

Rhys leaned forward in the chair. "What does it say?"

My chest tightened as I took in the words on the page. "It says Vivian Ross was reported missing on June eighteenth and was found deceased on July sixth." I flipped the computer around so Rhys could see the photo of Vivian, smiling happily in what appeared to be a school photo.

Rhys skimmed the screen. "Can you search for her name?"

I turned the computer back around and typed in Vivian's full name. "Strange. There are no social media accounts." I searched a bit more before I pulled up the obituary section of a local newspaper. "I found the obituary but it doesn't say much. Just that she 'passed away' and where the service was held."

"Wow." Vivian sank down on the bed next to me. "I mean I knew I was dead but I never thought about my obituary. And look how horribly short is it is." She frowned at the few lines of text. "It's like nobody even cared."

"I'm sure that's not true," I reassured her. "It's just a formality in a newspaper. It doesn't mean anything."

Vivian wasn't listening to me. "I know where that is." Her eyes lingered on the screen.