Chapter 5

“It’s just a reluctant spirit, Michael.” Only Sam ever called him by his first name, though he gave his operatives permission to use it. Most everyone called him “Mr. King” or by his surname alone. It didn’t matter to him what his operatives called him, but he secretly welcomed the intimacy of his first name from Sam’s lips.

“Okay,” he said slowly, allowing for that truth. “But this spirit is just the most recent in a fairly long line of reluctant spirits.”

Michael reached out and tapped his tablet to pull up Sam’s workload. Each report the pair had logged flashed in sequential order, one after another, as he flicked through the pages. He had reviewed the information while he waited for the pair to come see him, but he counted through them again.

“Ten, in fact. Ten in a row where you’ve had to repeatedly go back to coax the spirit to cross. And each time, you’ve stayed dead longer and longer.”