Page 80 of Girl, Haunted

And her.

Didn't make it any less dumb, playing Don Quixote. There was a fine line between bravery and bone-headedness. The only difference was which side the body landed on.

He pictured her face. Ella's face. Sometimes felt like that was all that got him through the ugly days – just knowing she was out there, fighting the good fight.

They'd had a good run, him and Ella. Beat the odds that said office romances never lasted. Defied all the naysayers who'd clucked their tongues and said it'd never work, not with two careers, two hard heads always butting.

If he had to go – and it was looking more and more like he did – he guessed there were worse last thoughts to have than her laugh, her smile. The way she looked at him when she thought he was being particularly dumb. Which was often.

The maudlin thought drifted up just as a new noise pierced the miasma.

Footsteps.

Luca froze as the tread drew closer. The crunch of something heavy on concrete. The deliberate pace of a man in no particular hurry.

He knew that walk. He'd heard it before, filtered through layers of drywall and bad reception.

And then, from behind, the slow clap of hands. Mocking applause for an audience of one.

‘Welcome to a real haunted house,’ the voice said. ‘Only difference is, nobody knows this one exists.’

And then a trickle of liquid seeped from an overturned barrel, and Luca realized then what he’d smelled earlier.

It was the unmistakable scent of gasoline.

CHAPTER FORTY ONE

Redmond dumped the cruiser half on the curb outside Ghostlight Books and Ella was out before the engine had cut. She didn't bother checking for traffic, because any car dumb enough to get in her way tonight would be wearing their bumper like a hood ornament. Her shoulder met the entrance to the bookstore a second later, and the thing ripped clean off its frame.

‘Police!’ she screamed. ‘Luca! Where are you?’

The store had the aura of a tomb. Ella moved fast through the darkness, trying to put herself in her partner’s head. She still had no idea how he’d found this place on his own, but that was a question for later. Redmond piled in behind her, one hand on his piece, the other pawing for a flashlight.

She hit the back wall. ‘Hawkins! You in here?’ Hush folded around her words. If Luca was in this shop, he wasn't in any condition to answer.

Redmond pushed past her, wormed his way behind the counter. ‘Dark! Blood. And…’

Ella sprinted over and saw it. A slick patch of crimson gleaming black in the torchlight.

And right beside them, a familiar glint of tech – Luca's cell phone.

‘Shit! Our guy figured we could track it.’

‘Damn snake,’ Redmond said. She snatched up the phone, swiped to unlock, but the screen stayed stubbornly black.

But then Ella’s gaze fell to the papers stacked beside a splatter of arterial spray. The wordsGhost Writingsstared up at her in handwritten scrawl.

‘The hell is this?’

Ella grabbed the stack and flipped through the pages.To be published upon my death,the second page read. Then came the stories.

The Cursed Teddy Bear Of Yamhill County.

The Glass-Eyed Woman.

The Hanged Man's Lament.

The Heartless Phantom.

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