Rocks & Gravel (Peri Jean Mace Ghost Thrillers Book 3) by Catie Rhodes Page B

of his nose. Ugly barked in the background. Eddie gave me a hard shake. “You okay? Want me to call the ambulance?”
    I forced myself to come to life. “No. No. Don’t want the ambulance or a doctor.”
    “Hush, Ugly, and come here.” Eddie held out his hand and the dog came to him. His horrid odor hit me like smelling salts. I woke up in a flash.
    “Didn’t see anything useful. Sorry.”
    “Don’t apologize. Jesus wept, your eyes rolled back in your head, and it scared the shit out of me. Never realized you’d roll up your eyes like that. Won’t never stop seeing it, don’t imagine.”
    I stood, wanting to get away from Ugly’s stench even though I usually loved him.
    “We’ll just focus on getting the box,” Eddie said.
    I nodded, my head swimming and my knees weak.
    “Give me long enough, and I’ll remember where I saw it or heard about it.” Eddie kept petting Ugly. I noticed his big hand shook. I had scared him, and I owed him an apology.
    “I’m sorry I scared you, Eddie.” My voice sounded sluggish like I’d been asleep.
    “Never apologize for doing what I asked you to do, Munchkin. You caught me off guard is all.” He tried to laugh. It came out flat and insincere.
    My cellphone buzzed, indicating I had a text message. It was from Hannah.
    Where the blazes are you? Dean is frantic you aren’t here yet.
    The campaign barbecue. People’d been reminding me all day. It was scheduled to start in ten minutes, and I looked and smelled like hell.
    “The barbecue,” I said to Eddie. “I’m going to be late.”
    He ushered me to the door and said something nobody but Eddie would have said or thought. “Just go like you are, baby. You look all right.” We hugged, and I gave Ugly a goodbye pat. “Tell Dean I’m feeling a little under the weather but I’ll make the debate, I promise. I’ll stay here and research and think on this box, see what I can remember.”
    We said our “I love yous” and I went to my car and looked down at myself. There was no way I could show up at Dean’s barbecue in dirty jeans and a t-shirt. I started my car and headed toward Memaw’s.

    * * *
    I hadn’t gone a mile before my cellphone dinged again. Couldn’t Hannah give me a few minutes to get it together? I’d have to wait to look at it. I pushed the button on the side of the phone so it wouldn’t keep alerting me.
    A sound came out of the phone’s speaker, a low hiss. Had I somehow turned on video or music? The message bell dinged again. Then again. And again. I whipped off the road, the car leaning on the gravel shoulder, and grabbed my phone. If this was Hannah Kessler acting a fool, I’d get her good.
    The hiss played again over the phone before I could get it up to eye level, so I went into my messages, automatically tapping Hannah’s name to get her message thread up. To my surprise, there was nothing since she’d asked where the hell I was. The messages button at the upper left of the screen indicated I had ten messages. 10? I clicked the button. All the messages were from an unknown number, and all of them were videos. I tapped one of them.
    The video started, and it looked like nothing more than static on a TV screen. I was getting ready to shut it off because I really did need to get to Memaw’s and get fixed up for the barbecue. Then movement in the static caught my eye, and I held the phone’s small screen close to my face, trying to figure out what I was seeing.
    The shadow moved toward me fast, its face coming into view and then too close for me to really see.
    “What the?” I yelled and flinched back from the phone, tossing it into the passenger seat.
    A wisp of shadow came from the phone, gaining in substance as it grew in length. The top of a head covered in some sort of shroud became visible.
    “No, no, no, no.” My voice sounded like a sick car alarm, blaring the same stupid sound over and over. I stopped shouting and got hold of myself. I had to get out of this car and away