"Shuttered," Father Dominic repeated. "The windows were shuttered?"

"Did we miss something?" Brad frowned. "When did Father D get there?"

"It's a scene skip, you moron. I'm sure Suze will fill us in any time," Jake said rolling his eyes.

"Well, not all of them," I said. I was sitting in the chair across from his desk, picking at my poison oak. The hydrocortisone was drying it out. Now, instead of oozy, it was just plain scaly.

"Lovely!"

"Just the ones in his office, or whatever it was. He said he's sensitive to light."

"And you say he kept staring at your neck?"

"At my necklace. It was his assistant who checked out my throat like he expected to see a giant hickey there, or something. But you're missing the point, Father Dom."

"What is the point?"

"That there's something fishy about Beaumont. Do try to keep up Brad, otherwise we will starve to death."

I had decided to come clean with the good father. Well, at least about the dead woman who'd been waking me up in the middle of the night lately. I still wasn't ready to tell him about Jesse – especially considering what happened when Tad had dropped me off the night before – but I figured if Thaddeus Beaumont Senior was actually the creepy killer I couldn't help suspecting he might be, I was going to need Father D's help to bring him to justice.

"The point," I said, "Is that he was surprised for the wrong reason. He was surprised this woman had said he hadn't killed her. Which implies – to me anyway – that he really had. Killed her, I mean."

"See?"

"I thought David was supposed to be the smug smart one not you?"

Father Dominic had been working a straightened-out coat hanger underneath his cast when I walked in. Apparently he had an itch.

Helen grimaced, but the boys all looked unbothered. She couldn't help but think with disgust, men!

He'd stopped scratching, but he couldn't let go of the piece of wire. He kept fingering it thoughtfully. But at least he hadn't gotten the cigarettes out yet.

"Sensitive to light," he kept murmuring. "Looking at your neck."

"The point," I said again, "Is that it seems like he really did kill this lady. I mean, he practically admitted it. The problem is, how can we prove it? We don't even know her name, let alone where she's buried – if anybody bothered burying her at all. We don't even have a body to point to. Even if we went to the cops, what would we say?"

"Hello officer, we are deeply disturbed people who see ghosts and solve their problems, a woman has been keeping me awake claiming that Red Beaumont hasn't killed her but I think he did really!"

"Bradley, I am warning you. One more sarcastic comment and you're back in that corner!"

"Yes Dad…"

Father D, however, was deeply absorbed in his own thoughts, turning the wire over and over in his hands. I figured if he was going to slip off into la-la land, well, then I would too. I sat back in my chair, scratching my poison oak, and thought about what had happened after Tad and I had got done laughing at each other's disfiguring rash – the only part of my evening I hadn't described to Father Dom.

Jake, David and Brad shared a wary glance. If it involved more half-naked Tad then they weren't going to survive this chapter.

Tad had gone and changed clothes.

A collective sigh of relief could be heard.

I had waited out by the pool, the steam rising from it warming my pantyhose-clad legs. Nobody bothered me, and it had actually been kind of restful listening to the waterfall. After a while, Tad reappeared, his hair still wet, but fully dressed in jeans and, unfortunately, another black silk shirt. He was even wearing a gold necklace, though I doubt he won his by writing a scintillating essay on James Madison.

It was all I could do not to point out that the gold was probably irritating his rash, and that black silk with jeans on a man is hopelessly Staten Island.

Everyone snorted. Trust Suze to criticise her date's clothes.

I managed to restrain myself, however, and Tad took me back inside, where Yoshi reappeared like magic with my coat. Then we went out to Tad's car, which I saw to my complete horror was some kind of sleek black thing that I swear to God David Hasselhoff drove on that show he did before Baywatch. It had these deep leather seats and kind of stereo system that Sleepy would have killed for.

Jake paused for a moment as he imagined the stereo system and inwardly groaned with jealousy. So not fair, the rich got almost everything.

And as I put my seatbelt on, I prayed Tad was a good driver since I would die of embarrassment if anyone ever had to use the Jaws of Life to pry me from a car like that.

The boys snickered and Helen was rather horrified at the thought of Suze needing to be pried out of a car because of an accident.

Tad, however, seemed to think the car was cool, and that in it, he was too. and I'm sure that in Poland, or somewhere, it is considered cool to drive a Porsche and wear necklaces and black silk, but at least back in Brooklyn if you did those things you were either a drug dealer or from New Jersey.

But Tad apparently didn't know that. He put the car in gear and an instant later, we were on the Drive, taking the hairpin curves along the coast as easily as if we were on a magic carpet. As he drove, Tad asked if I wanted to go somewhere, maybe get a cup of coffee. I guess now that we shared the common bond of poison oak, he wanted to hang.

I said sure, even though I hate coffee, and he let me use his cellphone to call my mother and tell her I'd be late. Mt mom was so thrilled to hear I was going somewhere with a boy, she didn't even do the usual things mothers do when their daughters are out with a boy they didn't know, like demand his mother's name and home phone number.

"That isn't right," Andy said, "You should have gotten his social security number, full identification and a complete background check completed by not only the police but also an experienced detective."

"Don't you think that's a little extreme?" Helen asked.

"Dear, Suze's last boyfriend tried to kill her and before that he tried to kill all of our sons. And this one now is apparently dead. I think I'm justified in being extreme."

Brad merely shuddered at the memory of Suze's ex. Both Jake and David nodded their agreement. They all knew about Suze's disastrous romantic life.

I hung up, and we went to the Coffee Clutch, a particularly favourite haunt of kids from the Mission Academy. Cee Cee and Adam, it turned out, were there, but when they saw me come in with a boy, they tactfully pretended not to know me. At least, Cee Cee did. Adam kept looking over and making rude faces whenever Tad's back was turned. I don't know if the faces were due to the fact that Tad's rash was plainly evident even in the Coffee Clutch's dim lighting, or if Adam was just expressing his personal feelings over Tad Beaumont in general.

"Most likely the latter!"

In any case, after two cappuccinos – for him – and two hot ciders for me, we left, and Tad drove me home. He wasn't, I discovered, a particularly bright guy. He talked an awful lot about basketball. When he wasn't talking about basketball, he was talking about sailing, and when he wasn't talking about sailing, he was talking about jet-skiing.

"How boring," Helen muttered.

"How cool, Suze has great taste," Jake muttered to Brad who nodded in agreement.

And suffice it to say, I know nothing about basketball, sailing or jet-skiing.

But he seemed like a decent enough guy. And unlike his father, he was clearly not nuts, always a positive.

"And clearly not all her boyfriends are?"

And he was, of course, devastatingly good-looking, so all in all, I would have rated the evening around a seven or eight, on a one to ten scale, one being lousy, ten being sublime.

"You know what?"

"What, Brad?" David asked tiredly.

"I bet only Jesse ever got a ten."

No one could argue that. For once Brad was probably right.

And then, as I was undoing my seat belt after having said goodnight, Tad suddenly leaned over, took my chin in his hand, turned my face towards him, and kissed me.

The boys grimaced. Helen squealed.

My first kiss. Ever.

"Oh gross!"

"How sweet!"

I know it's hard to believe. I'm so vibrant and bubbly and all, you would think boys had been flocking to me like bees to honey all my life.

Brad and Jake snorted.

Let's just say that's not exactly what happened. I like to blame the fact that I am a biological freak – being able to communicate with the dead and all – for the fact that I have never once been on a date, but I know that's not really it. I'm just not the kind of girl guys think about asking out. Well, maybe they think about it, but they always seem to manage to talk themselves out of it. I don't know if it's because they think I might ram a fist down their throat if they try anything or if it's just because they are intimidated by my superior intelligence and good looks (ha ha).

"The first one. Definitely the first one,"

"Is there something you haven't told us Brad?"

"WHAT? NO! EW!" Brad squawked looking horrified. "Some guys talk about her in the locker room. They're terrified of her!"

In the end, they just aren't interested.

Until Tad, that is. Tad was interested. Tad was very interested.

"Ick!"

Tad was expressing his interest by deepening our kiss from just a little goodnight one to a fully fledged French – which I was enjoying immensely, by the way, in spite of the necklace and the silk shirt – when I happened to notice - yeah, okay. I'll admit it. My eyes were open. Hey, it was my first kiss, I wasn't going to miss anything, okay? – That there was somebody sitting in the Porsche's tiny little back seat.

Jake looked like he was constipated as he read the paragraph out loud. Brad had blocked his ears and chanted 'Ew,' repeatedly while Andy and David exchanged nauseous looks. Helen looked rather pleased. Until Jake read the next sentence out.

I pulled my head away and let out a little scream.

"Well that's a mood kill."

"I wonder what she saw?"

Tad blinked at me in confusion.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Oh, please," said the person in the back seat, pleasantly. "Don't stop on my account."

"A ghost? It better not be Peter or I'll bring him back to life just to kill him again!"

"Mom, it was just a kiss…"

"My baby's first kiss! An important moment!"

I looked at Tad. "I gotta go," I said. "Sorry."

And I practically flew out of that car.

I was barreling up the driveway to my house, my cheeks on fire with embarrassment, when Jesse caught up with me. He wasn't even walking fast. He was just strolling along.

Helen looked a bit taken back that it was Jesse who interrupted Suze's kiss, then suddenly grinned.

And he actually had the nerve to say, "It's your own fault."

"He's jealous!"

The boys groaned.

"How is it my fault?" I demanded, as Tad, after hesitating a moment, started backing out of our driveway.

"You shouldn't," Jesse said calmly, "have let him get so forward."

"Isn't that a little backward of him?" Brad joked.

"Brad, Jesse is from the nineteenth century. It was wrong to have such physical relations with someone until after marriage"

"Which means his love for Suze is honourable!" Helen almost swooned.

"And someone won't be laid for a long time," Brad muttered under his breath.

"Forward? What are you talking about? Forward? What does that even mean?"

"You hardly know him," Jesse said. "And you were letting him-"

I whirled around to face him. Fortunately by that time, Tad was gone. Otherwise, he would have seen me, in the glow of his headlights, twirling around in my driveway, yelling at the moon, which had finally broken through the clouds.

"Yes, that would be a little embarrassing."

"Oh, no," I said, loudly. "Don't even go there, Jesse."

"Well," Jesse said. In the moonlight, I could see that his expression was one of stubborn determination. The stubbornness was no mystery – Jesse was just about the stubbornest person I had ever met.

"Hmm...Who does that sound like?"

But what he was so determined about, except ruining my life, I couldn't figure out. "You were."

"We were just saying goodnight," I hissed at him.

Everyone laughed. "That's the worst and oldest lie in the book" Andy said. "I should know, Jake tried that one me when he was fourteen."

"I may have been dead for the past hundred and fifty years, Susannah," Jesse said, "But that doesn't mean I don't know how people say goodnight. And generally when people say goodnight, they keep their tongues to themselves."

More laughter.

"Oh, my God," I said. I turned away from him, and started heading back towards the house. "Oh, my God. He did not just say that."

"He did!" said Brad cheerfully.

"Yes, I did just say that." Jesse followed me. "I know what I saw, Susannah."

"He's sounding like a jealous boyfriend!" Helen said, just as happy as Brad.

"You know what you sound like?" I asked him, turning around at the bottom of the steps to the front porch to face him. "You sound like a jealous boyfriend."

"Looks like Suze has figured that one out too," David observed.

"Nombre de Dios. I am not," Jesse said with a laugh, "jealous of that-"

"He's jealous," Andy agreed.

"Oh, yeah? Then where's all this hostility coming from? Tad never did anything to you."

"Tad," Jesse said, "is a..."

And then he said a word I couldn't understand, because it was in Spanish.

"Probably something very rude beginning with a B," Brad said knowingly. "In English," he added hastily.

I stared at him. "A what?"

He said the word again.

"Look," I said. "Speak English."

"There is no English translation," Jesse said, setting his jaw, "For that word."

"How sweet! He doesn't want to ruin her innocence"

"I think he's a bit too late for that."

"Well," I said. "Keep it to yourself then."

"He's no good for you," Jesse said, as if that settled the matter.

"I agree," Andy said. "The boy has no common interests, doesn't have the courtesy to ask her name and appears to be a bit of a playboy."

"But he is well-mannered, friendly, polite and very kind," Helen pointed out.

"He's father is a nutter that has a unhealthy interest in Suze's ability!"

"But that is sort of expected, Dad. There's many scientists in say Area 51 who will have a great interest in Suze's ability."

"I think Jesse is better for her,"

"Only because she won't get laid."

"Bradley, I'm warning you!"

"You don't even know him."

"I know enough. I know you didn't listen to me or to your father when you went off tonight by yourself to that man's house."

"Yeah but that's not about Tad,"

"Right," I said. "And I'll admit it, it was very, very creepy. But Tad brought me home. Tad's not the problem there. His dad's the one who is a freak, not Tad."

"The problem here," Jesse said, shaking his head, "Is you, Susannah. You think you don't need anyone, that you can handle everything on your own."

"Eh..."

Everyone was a little confused. They all thought the problem was that Jesse saw Suze kiss a boy that wasn't Jesse. Not that Suze was a stubborn independent woman who wanted to do things her way.

"He's grasping at straws," Helen said.

"I hate to break it to you, Jesse," I said, "But I can handle everything on my own." Then I remembered Heather, the ghost of the girl who almost killed me the week before. "Well almost everything," I corrected myself.

"Ah," Jesse said. "See? You admit it. Susannah, this one – you need to ask the priest for help."

"Fine," I said. "I will."

"Fine," he said. "You had better."

"Like an old married couple" Brad muttered to his brothers who both nodded.

We were so mad at each other, and had been standing there yelling so hard, our faces ended up only a few inches apart. For a split second, I stared up at Jesse, and even though I was totally mad at him, I wasn't thinking about what a self-righteous jerk he is.

"Oh, God!" the boys groaned.

Instead, I was thinking about this movie I saw once where the hero caught the heroine kissing another man, and so he grabbed her and looked down at her all passionately and said, "If kisses were what you were looking for, little fool, why didn't you come to me?"

And then he laughed this evil laugh and started kissing her.

"Who does that? Seriously in real life who the hell does that?"

"Language, Jake… But I agree."

Maybe, I couldn't help thinking, Jesse would do that, only he'd call me querida, like he does sometimes when he's not all mad at me for Frenching guys in cars.

And so I sort of closed my eyes, and let my mouth get all relaxed, you know, in cased he decided to stick his tongue in there.

The men snorted as Helen leaned forwards with a hopeful look on her face.

But all that happened was that the screen door slammed and when I opened my eyes, Jesse was gone.

Instead, Doc was standing on the front porch looking down at me, eating an ice-cream sandwich.

Helen glared at David who cringed. "Sorry Mom," he muttered.

"Hey," Doc said between licks. "What are you doing out here? And who were you yelling at? I could hear you all the way inside. I'm trying to watch Nova, you know."

Furious – but at myself more than anybody – I said, "Nobody," and stalked up the stairs and into the house.

Which was why the next day, I come to Father Dom's office first thing, and spilled my guts. No way was Jesse getting away with accusing me of thinking I don't need anyone. I need a lot of people.

"He knows how to get to her, doesn't he?" Andy said bemused.

And a boyfriend would be number one on that list, thank you very much.

"Ick!"

"Sensitive to light," Father Dominic said, coming out of his thoughtful reverie. "His nickname is Red but he doesn't have red hair. He was looking at your neck." Father Dominic opened the top drawer of his desk and took out his crumpled, unopened pack of cigarettes. "Don't you see, Susannah?" he asked me.

"Err...no."

"Brad your name isn't Susannah. Unless there's something you haven't told us?"

"Shuddup!"

"Sure," I said. "He's a whacko,"

Everyone snorted.

"I don't think so," Father Dom said. "I think he's a vampire."

"A vampire!" Helen squawked. "It's bad enough that my baby has to put up with spooks that get her hospitalised but now creatures that bite, drain blood and could turn her into the living dead!"

"She's already the living dead," Brad muttered.

"That's it, corner, Bradley!"

"But Dad, it's his turn to read." Protested Jake.

"All right then, after this entry you have to sit in the corner."

"But-"

"No buts, Bradley."

Sulking, Brad took the book and turned the page over and began to read.