Kasey comes to a stop before her grave. It’s dark out, and I would be kind of freaked out to be in a cemetery this late if I didn’t know a guy on the inside. Even with her here, my fingers are anxiously curled up in the pockets of my coat. Hopefully not in a noticeable way.

“So I came here earlier, and I was walking up and down the rows, looking at the names. Out of nowhere, it hits me - the grave is a tool we haven’t been using.”

“Uh.” I glance to her grave, looking for some hint at her meaning, and come up empty.

“Hear me out.” She points to the headstone. “Remember when Aiden came to my grave, and I felt something like a weird pull? I could sense that he was here. There must be some kind of connection between me and my grave. Which got me thinking - could the same be true of William?”

“Yeah,” I answer slowly. “Yeah! It could be, and if that was the case, maybe we could use it to call him! Did you hear what Aiden said, when he was at your grave? If he said anything, I guess?”

“No, but I wasn’t listening. I ignored the pull. I could have come back and listened to him, I just chose not to. But if we start talking to William, he would come, wouldn’t he? Especially if he needs help?”

“That’s true,” I answer, thinking hard.

“Anyway, I brought you here so we can test it. You sit on my grave, and I’m going to go back down the hill. Try and see if you can get my attention. I won’t come unless I hear you.”

“You’re just gonna leave me up here alone in the dark in a cemetery?”

“Well, if you don’t want to be alone for long, call me and tell me to come back!” she says, already striding down the hill.

“You jerk!” I shout after her, and she waves over her shoulder.

“Tell it to the grave! But give me a minute to get away!”

She bounds off and vanishes over the low cemetery wall. A few birds burst out of the trees with a rustle of branches and flapping wings. I jump on the spot, cursing. The night air is tinted a dark purple, the glow of the town visible below in the distance. The rows of headstones feel like they’re watching me.

“Oh, you jerk. You big jerk.” I turn and face Kasey’s grave, shivering. I wish I’d brought Aiden with me on this little excursion - his warm, oversized presence would be comforting right about now. It would be hard to explain everything, though. Like- by the way, there’s another ghost involved I forgot to mention. One who is totally a-okay with leaving her best friend to have a fear meltdown in a silent graveyard in the middle of the night. I lean over her grave. “You jerkface, Kasey!” I tell the headstone. “This is just like when you abandoned me at the carnival our sophomore year. The infamous abandonment.”

“For the last time, I left to get a funnel cake, dummy. I was gone for like ten minutes, and if you hadn’t been Sauvignon-snippy that night, maybe I wouldn’t have ditched your ass!”

“Jesus!” I whip around and press a hand over my chest; I did not notice Kasey back at my side. “You left to make out with that Brazilian exchange student and you know it.”

“Would you say I ghosted you?” she asks, her lips twisting.

“Oh, ha, ha. Does this mean that the experiment worked?”

“I felt it the second you said my name.” Kasey smiles brightly. “I’m pretty sure that means it did work. Which means we can call William!”

We both grin excitedly at each other.

“Which grave is his?” I ask, turning to face the rest of the cemetery.

“I don’t know,” Kasey says impatiently, “But we’ll figure it out. You start at the East side, I’ll start at the West side, we’ll be done by - I don’t know, sunrise?”

“What? Kasey, don’t be crazy. That’ll take forever. Aiden has probably already looked into where William is buried, we should just wait until tomorrow morning and ask him.”

“Oh, you’re right. It’s late. You don’t have to do it, I’ll just get started on my own.” She turns like she’s about to head off and begin right now. I quickly grab her arm.

“Kasey, come on. It’s so dark, I can barely even read your headstone, and the man died in the 1800s. His headstone is probably half-buried at best. Let’s go home. I’ll find out more from Aiden tomorrow.”

“I know, I know, you’re right, it’s just-” Kasey suddenly lets out a burst of bright, sparkling laughter. “I just can’t fucking wait to meet him! Someone else like me!”

Even with everything that’s happened tonight, it absolutely turns my heart to jelly to see her look so excited and happy. I can’t help but join in her enthusiastic laughter. She leans on her headstone, still giggling.

“What do you think he’ll be like?” she asks, running her thumb over the stone. “You think I’m getting excited for nothing?”

“Honestly, babe, I don’t know anything about what he’s like. But, uh, I can confirm he was a blondie. Aiden has a photo of him. Not a very good one. He’s like, all the way in the background. Too blurry to tell whether he’s cute.”

“Can I see the photo?” she asks immediately. “Or, no - maybe it’s better if I don’t look. I’m getting my hopes up too high. I need to take it down a notch. We might not find him, we might not be able to help him, he could turn out to be terrible, but - something about the warmth. I just have a good feeling about it.”

“Well, I trust your gut.” I can’t help but smile. “I will talk to Aiden first thing tomorrow. I have the day off from work, anyway.”

“I’m coming with you.” When Kasey speaks with that tone of voice, I know it’s final. It’s okay, I wasn’t going to argue. In fact, it might be good for her to spend some time around Aiden, see how he’s different. I want her to get to know him, even if he can only know her through me.

“Tomorrow,” I promise. “Should we go home?”

“I think I’m gonna stay here tonight.”

“Here?” I feel my eyebrows shoot up. “In the - graveyard? Come on, no. I’m not going to leave you here, that’s too - please come with me.”

“What if he’s here, what if he’s…”

“Kasey, come on.” I set off walking, and she reluctantly falls into step beside me. “I can’t, I’m sorry. I can’t deal with the mental image of you sitting alone in a cemetery all night.”

She pauses when we reach the gate and gazes back over her shoulder. I could read the hope in her eyes even if I hadn’t had my whole life to learn her face.

“That’s the thing,” she murmurs. “Alone… I’m not so sure about that.”

~~~~

I don’t bother to knock on Aiden’s office door, which I realize thirty seconds too late is maybe not appropriate when I’m showing up in the middle of the workday.

“Aiden,” I’d started saying, when I pushed the door open, “I think we caught a break in the case of our dead fr-”

I draw up short as both Aiden and Gabby turn to look at me. Aiden’s eyes are wide in warning, and Gabby’s eyebrow is arched. My brain short circuits while trying to pivot, and it’s with considerable horror that I hear myself say:

“Our dead - fr- uh, frog. Yeah, our dead frog.”

“Dead frog?” Gabby asks, glancing from me to Aiden and back again. Behind her, Aiden is clearly suppressing a laugh, his eyes closed, his lips pressed into a line. “You guys just, um- have a frog together?”

“Had,” Aiden corrects, pressing a hand over his chest and adopting a mournful expression. “We miss him every day.”

“Didn’t peg you two for weird pet guys,” Gabby observes, turning back to face me just as Aiden’s composure falters. “I always thought frogs were a little too slimy. Like if I have a pet, I want to pet it.”

“Reptiles are gross,” I agree automatically, and then immediately add, “Oh, except for our frog. He’s great. Was great. Um.”

“He was the best reptile in the world,” Aiden puts in.

“Frogs are amphibians,” Gabby answers, her eyebrow lifting again.

“Incredibly smooth,” Kasey mutters, from behind me.

“Anyways!” I step into the office and close the door; Kasey darts in around me. “What are you guys up to?”

“Gabby came by to see more of the photos.”

“I really find them fascinating.” Gabby peels off her gloves. “It’s good to look at where we started before I think about where we’re going.” She sets the gloves on Aiden’s desk and turns to face me. “Are you here to pick up Aiden for his lunch break?”

“Uh - yeah.”

“Well, don’t let me hold you back. Oh, but before I go - do either of you know if Kent will be home this evening? I finally got my rental and I can go over to drop off his pajamas.”

“We can drop them for y-” I begin, and suddenly Aiden’s elbow is in my ribs.

“Kent will be there,” he says firmly. I glare at Aiden as he speaks, rubbing my ribs balefully. “You can drop them off whenever, just send him a text first.”

“Cool,” says Gabby, who had been gathering up her bag and missed completely this brutal attack on my person. “See you guys later.” She scoops her phone up off the desk and pauses at the door. “Sorry about your frog, by the way. Poor little guy. What was his name?”

“Uh- Kent,” I say, before I can think.

“Your frog’s name was Kent?” Gabby asks, stopped with her hand on the doorknob.

“Yeah cause the frog was - a present. From Kent. So, we named it after him.”

Aiden lets out a barely perceptible sigh from behind me.

“That’s… cute.” Gabby lets out a little laugh and turns, shaking her head. “You two are weird, but I like it.”

I turn to Aiden and fling my hands up in the air when the door closes behind her.

“Great! Now I have to text Kent and tell him that he gave us a frog to co-parent that was also named Kent and that it’s dead already.”

“Happy with yourself?” Aiden crosses his arms, grinning. “You are the worst person I possibly could have chosen to be my partner in a stealth mission. Thanks so much for making me look so normal in front of my boss.”

“You’re the worst partner! You basically broke my ribs.”

“Mmkay, I gave you the gentlest nudge humanly possible.”

“And why, by the way? We could have saved Gabby the trip.”

Aiden shrugs.

“Give her a chance to see Kent again.” He catches the expression on my face. “I can just tell that he feels bad about not remembering her. You heard what she said, she doesn’t hold it against him. Maybe she’ll mention that if they talk again.”

“Oh, wow.” Kasey, standing a foot or so behind Aiden, shakes her head. “Who is this?” She leans around him to wink at me. "And you're right, by the way, he looks good."

“That’s sweet of you, looking out for Kent," I say, pointedly ignoring Kasey.

“Did you come here for a reason, Jamie, or just to entangle me in your absurd web of lies?”

“I did come for a reason. Do you know where William is buried?”

“Uh..” Aiden’s brow furrows; he starts folding the photographs back into their protective sheets. Kasey moves over to the desk and runs her eyes over the ones he hasn’t gotten to yet. “Actually, I don’t know where his remains are. I looked into it when I first started hunting.”

“You couldn’t find him?” I ask, flopping into Aiden’s desk chair.

“I went through some records and got a list of everyone buried at the cemetery on the hill - Memory Gardens, I think it’s called? William’s name wasn’t on the list. In fact, there weren’t any life dates in there from before the 1900s. I figured that the records and the tombstones are missing, and that William and the others are probably buried around Memory Gardens, just. You know. Lost.”

Kasey turns to look at me, and I expect to see gut-wrenching disappointment on her face. Instead, it looks like a lightbulb just went off behind her eyes.

“Jamie!” she says, rushing over to grab my hands, “I know about this from researching for my thesis! There was an old cemetery in Ketterbridge, before Memory Gardens. I don’t remember where it was, but I swear, I saw it on this old map. It was just for like a second, but - I’m positive! There’s another one!”

“You okay?” Aiden tucks the photos back into their folders and flips off the dim lamp. “That was an unnaturally long moment of Jamie-silence.”

“I’m fine!” I lurch up out of the chair, Kasey dancing triumphantly to my left. “Couldn’t William be buried somewhere else? There had to be another cemetery in Ketterbridge before Memory Gardens.”

“I didn’t come across any records indicating that,” Aiden says slowly, turning to face me. “But I haven’t done too thorough of a search. I guess I didn’t think of it.”

“The maps, Jamie!” Kasey hisses.

“Are there any old maps in the archives, Aiden?”

“Shit, yeah, there are!” His face brightens. “I haven’t started on them yet, they’re still in the basement, but we could go take a look! Hang on, I just have to pop over to the main office and get the keys. I’ll be right back.” He pulls open the door and turns to smile at me. “Brilliant idea, Jamie!”

“Oh, wow,” Kasey says, as the door closes behind him. “Cool to know that despite never actually getting my Ph.D., I get the full academic experience of a man taking credit for my ideas.”

“I’m sorry, what would you have liked me to say?” I plant a fist on my hip, leaning against Aiden’s desk. “Kasey thought of this, she’s here right now, round of applause? You created this situation!”

“You couldn’t think of some lie where I at the very least inspired the idea?”

“I’m not good at coming up with lies on the spot, have you met Kent the Frog?”

The door opens and Aiden pokes his head in.

“Let’s go!” He leans back as I step out into the hallway, with Kasey right behind me. We set off towards the far end of the building. “I don’t know how accurate these old maps are, or what markers might be gone. But I bet at the very least we can get a general idea of where we should be looking.”

“Kasey really inspired the idea,” I tell him. “Because she was smart about history and she knew a lot about this stuff.”

Aiden glances at me, a sympathetic look.

“Well, it’s cool to put her knowledge to some good use,” he says, stopping to unlock an unmarked grey door. He pulls it open to reveal a set of stairs leading into darkness. I follow him down into the chilly room. At the bottom, he flips on a set of dim yellow lights to reveal rows and rows of closed metal cabinets. They’re all different shapes and sizes, and Aiden leans us directly across to a specific one. It only comes up to my waist, but it’s wide, with rows and rows of narrow drawers.

Aiden leans down, opens a drawer, and extracts a large, flat black case, which he sets out on top of the cabinet. He lifts his hand, and it starts to glow. I watch as the light gently rolls out of his fingertip and into a tiny, free-floating golden ball. It hovers over the case, making a circle of quiet light. My heart skips, the way it always does when I see him do that. To my left, Kasey's eyes widen, watching the shimmering little orb. This is her first experience of Aiden's magic, and I wonder if it's taken her breath away, the way it did mine. From the look on her face, I'd say yes.

“Ready?” Aiden asks, laying a hand on the case.

“Ready,” Kasey and I answer at the same time, leaning in close.

“Alright.” Aiden unzips it slowly, carefully. “Let’s find a missing cemetery.”