He followed meekly behind her. Going by the photos plastered all over his house, Edna figured all his confidence had been stripped from him the moment his ghost had been ripped from his body. No doubt he was scared, confused, the same as any other spirit she dealt with. Young ones taken before their time though, Edna would always have time for. Instinctively she held the door for him even though he didn't need it and led him to where she'd left Gary in his bundle of wires, paper and dust.

“Is it here?” he asked quietly, scanning the room over the top of his glasses.

“Yes. He is here. His name is Daniel. He's prepared to work with us.”

“Ah, excellent. Welcome uh, Daniel.” Gary looked everywhere but the door where Daniel stood. Edna rolled her eyes.

“Ignore him,” she said to the boy, “Gary's just the nuts of bolts of this operation.”

Daniel nodded and stepped in - as best as ghosts are able to step - hugging himself and looking around the pokey office. Edna was no mind reader, but she could read Daniel's face like a book.

“Not very glamorous, I know. This is where the FBI put the only medium on earth, this room full of cold cases and trails left open.” She snorted and slapped Gary on the back. “And Gary helps me piece together evidence from cases in an attempt to solve them, usually involving summoning a spirit's presence here.”

Daniel looked alarmed. “You can do that?”

“What, did you think we chased around ghosts like Peter Venkman? My job is a go-between, I just talk to people really.” She shut the door behind Daniel and sat in the only free chair. Rifling through the papers that were clumped in a messy stack on the desk, she leafed out Daniel's case that sat near the top and began to read. “Gary, would you call reception and maybe get a couple coffees up here?” She looked up and gestured to the boy standing awkwardly to come closer.

“Would you mind just stepping there, just onto the um, the thingy over there?” Edna made cursory gestures to the only thing of interest in the room as Gary walked by Daniel and caused him to jump with the sensation of being walked through. He looked over to where Edna was pointing.

“What is that?” He looked nervous. Edna glanced up, and remembered his age as both a spirit and a boy. She stood and smiled.

“I'm sorry, it's been so long since I had a recent death in my case files. You're not used to the system around here. Not to worry.” She walked over to the contraption that resembled an air dryer you might find at the pool. “This helps me to hone in on your memories a bit better.”

“Will it hurt?” he asked, his face almost breaking into a smile as he watched Edna sucking his cheek in amusement. Of course it wouldn't hurt without a body. He nodded and took a tentative step into the machine. Edna returned to her desk, opening her laptop and typing furiously with one finger for a second. She'd never quite got the grasp of actual typing when she could type just as fast with her faithful right index finger.

“Just a second, need to set up the correct coordinates - oh, thanks Gary.” The younger man took a cautious look towards the machine as he set down the mugs of steaming coffee. “Is he in there?” he asked.

“Of course.” Edna didn't look up from the monitor. “Go and monitor from your laptop.”

“Y, yes, Ma'am.”

With everyone in place, Edna looked over to Daniel, who was bearing all the cadence of a lost lamb. He hugged himself in the empty space.

“Try and keep still, Daniel, okay?” He looked over to her and nodded. “Gary, you got the data running on the laptop?”

“Yup. Ready when you are.”

Edna hesitated for a second, ensuring all system were present and correct, and hit the execute button. Almost immediately there was a response.

To someone unable to see beyond the corporal world, the machine didn't appear to be doing anything, but to Edna and Daniel, it began to glow and ebb with light. The light didn't reflect off of anything outside of its enclosure, and, almost with a life of its own, wrapped itself around Daniel's translucent wrists before securing him in place. He looked at her, horror bleeding from his expression.

“This is just to help me pinpoint your unconscious memories. You have quite a few just before death because your case happened so recently.” Edna took a sip of coffee and stood, walking over to the machine which to her, appeared to now have glimmering walls. She pressed her left hand to it and it exerted pressure back, letting her know the process was going smoothly.

“I, I can't move,” said the boy. Edna smiled gently in an attempt to reassure him.

“That's perfectly normal. Try and keep still please.”

To anyone walking in, she would’ve looked like a freakshow mime doing a cheap parlor trick. She ignored her paranoia and shut her eyes, scanning the inside of the box with her mind, trying to locate those last few minutes before Daniel's death.

As always, they came to her loose and disorganized, like an untuned television. Edna began to sort the memories methodically in her head, the same as she might do to her sons’ homework schedules. She saw Daniel on the bridge.

Several others were with him, and the hour was late. They were behaving like any loitering teenagers: kicking the dirt, smoking weed, flirting amongst each other. Edna concentrated harder, counting the exact number of persons there.

Daniel was having a somewhat animated conversation with a boy who was broad and characteristically handsome with blond hair and tanned skin. Whilst the seven or so others were mainly talking in a wider, more general group, Daniel and his friend were just off to the side. There was no sound as she hadn't pinpointed the auditory memories quite yet: memory sifting was a long and arduous process.

After a short time, Daniel and the other boy gave a cursory look towards the group, and snuck off down the side of the bridge. Edna followed, somewhat of a ghost herself in her memory, and watched them climb down into the underside of the bridge on the embankment.

It didn't take long before the blond boy put his hand on Daniel's arm, in an intimate gesture almost anyone could interpret, and nipped at his neck. Daniel was more than happy to reciprocate, and his hand curled up the back of the boy as he too buried his face into his neck.

Edna looked up towards the bridge, towards the others. They seemed unaware of the scene transpiring just below their feet. She turned back only to feel a sharp pain in her head, and the world went white.

Daniel had booted her out. She staggered back from the machine, looking for purchase with her right hand. Eventually she felt Gary holding her from behind as the machine whirred down and Daniel stepped out, his cheeks flushed and ears pink.

‘Daniel,” Edna started, “It's important you stay still for me to find your body.”

“That's not where my body is, I told you, it must've washed downstream. You didn't say before you'd look at my personal memories.” He walked straight through the wall in a huff.

“Are you okay? What did he say?”

“I'm fine, next time I come in, I need to go to the bridge on the outskirts of town, near the high school.”