She shook her head. "How can it not have meant anything? It's the ultimate form of intimacy between two people."

"Not always," he said. "Sometimes it's just two people searching for something. And a lot of times, they don't find it. We didn't find it, Kylie. Ellie knew it. I knew it. And the romantic relationship is completely over. It was a mistake and we both knew it."

"But you brought her back with you."

He flinched. "She's not a bad person, I couldn't leave her there at the commune. It was awful. She'd have been in a gang in a matter of weeks."

Kylie pulled her legs closer to her chest and tried to sort through the emotions bouncing through her. She felt hurt. She felt justified in her feelings of jealousy. And she felt ... relieved. The last one didn't make sense, though. Why would she feel relieved that Derek and Ellie had sex?

Then the truth hit. She felt relieved because now there was no reason for her to experience guilt over being with Lucas. Not that the truth still didn't hurt. And if she was completely honest with herself, she still felt a tiny wave of jealousy. But she pushed it away, because now, more than ever, she could accept it. She was Derek's friend. Just his friend.

"We're just friends," she said.

He looked at her. "Yeah," he said, but something about that one word didn't seem as honest as his earlier words.

"All I want to do is talk. To make sure you're okay. Give me ten minutes." He studied her frown. "Five. Hell, give me three minutes, Kylie. Is that too much for a friend to ask?"

She looked at the stream and then up at him. "Three minutes. Then this ends."

"Deal." He looked at his watch, and then, as if competing with the clock, he started talking. "How are you? What happened at the cemetery? I heard about it."

She gave him the really short version. Namely, that she thought the ghost was buried there. And she'd discovered her spirit might be a child killer.

He didn't flinch like the rest of them. "What are you going to do?" he asked instead. "How are you going to get to the truth?"

"I'm waiting for the ghost to come back. She hasn't visited me since then."

"She will," he said. "And don't worry too much. I'm sure you'll figure everything out. You always do."

Kylie gazed up into his gold-flecked green eyes. "How do you know I'm worried?"

"Duh, I can feel it."

"I thought you couldn't feel my emotions here?"

"I can feel them, but they're just at a lower voltage. Normal range."

Normal. That word seemed to be popping into Kylie's mind a lot.

She nodded. "Did you ever find your dad?" When he looked upset by her question, she added, "You told me when you left that you were going to try to find him."

He nodded and then swallowed. "I found him."

She felt his mixed emotions as if they were her own. "It didn't go well?"

"I don't know. I thought I'd see him and it would make it right. It's still not right. I still don't know if I want anything to do with him. I'm pretty sure I don't."

"Why? What happened?" Kylie asked.

"He offered me a hundred different reasons why he had to leave me and Mom. His life was a lie trying to live in the human world with my mom. He told me it hurt too much trying to stay in touch. He said he'd like to get to know me again. He said a lot of things. And not one of them meant a hill of beans to me. Maybe it will in time. I don't know. But right now, it just feels totally awkward."

"I understand awkward," she said, and offered him a bit of a smile. "Sara is supposed to be coming with my mom on Parents Day."

He reached for her and then pulled back. "I'm sure it'll be okay."

There was a moment of silence, then Derek started talking. "So, with your ghost ... have you figured out what to do? I mean, how can you find out who she is?"

"I don't know for sure. But my gut says that she's remembering more and more each time I see her."

He pondered her words and then said, "You know, I remember reading something years ago about how an old state cemetery was dug up and they found that about five percent of all the caskets had two bodies in them."

"Two bodies?"

"Yeah. The state was burying some of the really poor, homeless folks in with other caskets. Just slipping them in so they didn't have to pay for their own burial."

Kylie thought about it for a second, and it made perfect sense. Catherine O'Connell said she saw Jane Doe rise from the grave of Berta Littlemon. However, if Berta Littlemon was in there, too-and the legends about such things were correct-she would have already been snatched into hell. That meant only one spirit would have risen from the grave.

"I think you might have just solved my problem," she told Derek. "Thank you!" If things had been different between them, she would have hugged him.

He grinned. "You're welcome."

She suddenly realized that they had probably been talking way longer than his negotiated three minutes. She glanced down at his watch.

"Oh, one more thing," he said. "After we talked the other day about Red being strange, I did some checking. You know, just to see what I could find out. Contrary to the weird vibe we both got, he is vampire, or at least that's what everyone thinks. The only other thing I found was ... about his parents."