After a quick glance at her friend, Charley strolled closer to him, keeping the phone at her ear.

Her friend offered her a quick glance, but she clearly could no more see Reyes than she could see me.

“You’re not still mad about that putting-a-knife-to-your-throat thing, are you?” he asked without taking his eyes off the glass. “That was days ago, and not entirely my fault.”

“What part of I have a case are you not understanding?” Charley said into the phone.

He didn’t answer. With a smile that would charm the fur off a fox, he said, “Babies are cool.”

Charley smiled too and looked into the room. “They don’t even look real,” she agreed, squinting inside, her face full of admiration. “They look like dolls. Well, dolls with lots of wires and breathing apparatuses. Poor little things.”

He touched the glass with an index finger, pointing. “That one’s going to be professional football player.”

At first Charley laughed, but when he didn’t join in, she aimed a wary expression at him. “Do you really know that?”

Again, without taking his eyes off the infant, he said, “I really know that.”

“Oh, my gosh.” She looked at the baby with a new purpose. “But he’s so small.”

Reyes shrugged. “He gets over it.”

Charley gave a soft chuckle. “I hope so.”

I couldn’t look. I couldn’t bring myself to acknowledge what I’d done, the life I’d destroyed. The life I had to have destroyed.

“Don’t you want to know why I’m here?” Reyes asked after a moment. He’d crossed his arms over his chest and focused his sultry gaze on Charley.

“Nope.”

Taking a miniscule step toward her, he said, “Would you put that ridiculous phone down?”

“Nope again.” As she studied the tiny being behind the glass, Reyes lifted a hand and ran a finger over her jaw and down her neck, leaving trail of dark smoke to caress her skin. Charley took a deep breath, inhaling his essence, before shaking her head and stepping away. “Stop.”

He eased closer. “Stop me.”

She put a hand on his chest and he covered it with one of his own, a beseeching look in his eye, as though begging her. But she pushed him away and he vanished once again with a devilish grin, leaving a shadowy fog in his wake.

“What are you doing?” Charley’s friend asked. She was walking down the hallway toward us, a piece of paper in her hand.

“Oh,” Charley said, recovering, “I was... There was a bug.”

The nurse looked around. “And you were nudging it away?” When Charley just shrugged and closed her phone, her friend handed her the paper. “A woman died last night at St. Joseph’s hospital. She was pregnant.”

My heartbeat skyrocketed as Charley studied the paper. Or I think it did. Did I have a heartbeat?

“Do you have a time of death?” Charley asked.

“Nothing exact. Sometime early this morning.”

“Got it.” After scanning the paper again, Charley said, “Well, I guess I’m off to St. Joseph’s.

Thanks for the help.”

“Thanks for the mocha latte,” the nurse replied, pulling Charley into a hug. “And someday you are going to tell me what all this was about.”

“Someday,” she agreed, grinning at me over the woman’s shoulder.

We made our way across town to St. Joseph’s, neither of us saying much. The parking lot was deserted as light was just now cresting the horizon. But it was a light I could see, colorful and magnificent. Natural. We went inside and found the nurse’s contact, an RN named Jillian Lightfoot. Charley introduced herself and asked about me, claiming she’d been a friend of mine and had been worried sick.

“I’m not sure if it’s the same woman. What’s your friend’s name?”

Crap. I hadn’t thought of that. I looked over at Charley as she clenched the paper in her hand and cast a furtive glance my way before saying, “Jo. Jo Montgomery.”

That was my name! I recognized it instantly. I touched my chest, my face in remembrance. I was Jo Anne Montgomery.

Charley looked over at me and smiled sadly.

“That’s her,” the nurse said. “I’m so sorry for you loss. The family is here as well.”

“Can I see them?” Charley asked.

“Well,” she hedged, not sure what to do. “It’s still early. I don’t think anyone will mind that you’re not related, but I’ll have to ask them first. They’re with the baby.”

I stilled as everything came crashing back like a title wave of emotion.

Charley seemed to sense my distress. “I would appreciate that,” she said to the nurse, then laced a hand into mine and coaxed me into a nearby bathroom. “I’ll be right out,” she called before closing the door. Then she turned to me as I sank to the floor, knelt beside me as I could no longer hold my own weight, sparse as it was.

“Are you okay, hon?” she asked, her voice soft and soothing.

“I was falling,” I said, piecing together the last minutes of my life. “I knew something was wrong and I reached out for my phone, but I fell, blacked out. I don’t remember anything else.”

“Someone must have found you,” she said. “Were you at home?”

“Yes. Wait, no. I’d moved in with my parents. My mother!” I shouted, worry flooding every ghostly molecule of my being. “She’ll be so upset.”