The Shem Bay Haunting (Jack Raven Ghost Mystery Book 3) Read online

  I don’t know if shaming him will change his ways this late in life but if needed, I’m certain another strong and determined female will set him straight. I just hope Mackenzie doesn’t push him off the cliff when she does.

  I’ve decided to drive home following the coastline through California in order to see the Pacific Ocean, the one I thought I was visiting. Actually, I just want to take the long way home. When I was busy doing absolutely nothing last night, Maybelle called.

  My grandmother is not a user of phones, so naturally I panicked. My first words were to ask her what was wrong, for which I got a five minute lecture about focusing on the negative and attracting darkness. Before I could protest or defend myself, she tired of her own words and told me that Levi was getting serious about that woman.

  Her name is Julia, I’d told her, and she told me I was throwing away my future and preventing her great grandchildren’s souls from reincarnating. As far as I know the woman doesn’t believe in reincarnation, but I didn’t want to get into a debate about it.

  When she said he could be engaged before I got home, I’d gotten a lump in my throat. Almost twenty six years I’ve known this man and loved him every day of all those years, though some days not nearly as much as others.

  I pick up a rock and ask it for a message then I toss it over the cliff. It bounces from one rock to the next then the next before it lands on the largest boulder. Believe in the impossible and think big. I like that message.

  Shame on you, the wind whispers.

  ∞

  Six days later, I pull into my driveway in Las Trebol, New Mexico. It’s after midnight and the air is crisp and dry; the house is cold and empty. I foolishly call out for my spirit roommate– Neil Franklin. He doesn’t answer, but the house has that nice Windex smell he’s fond of.

  “You know sooner or later, you’re going to have to tell me your story. I seriously doubt you can leave this world until you do. So if you want to crossover, you’re going to have to fess up.” I’m almost glad when he doesn’t answer and that’s just pathetic.

  While I’d been busy eradicating demons, Acker– my Texan detective– called on our designated day. He told me he was moving and my heart did somersaults until he told me he was moving to Florida. I’d asked him why Florida when New Mexico was so much closer.

  He said he’d gotten a better position and a condo on the beach. I’d laughed at that last one and told him to watch out for the waves. He said that he knew as someone who took their career so seriously, I’d understand. Then he said the condo was big enough for two and they allowed dogs. I wished him the best of luck, and we agreed to keep in touch. I know we won’t.

  After our hike in the mountains the next morning, Mojo is eager to go to the diner. He doesn’t tell me this, he just stands at the jeep and looks at me with those amber eyes. He’s decided all on his own that when we get home from a job, he gets a steak off Arthur’s grill.

  “You’re spoiled,” I tell him, but he won’t come in the house even when I leave him to go inside to figure out how I’m going to avoid my father and Maybelle and Levi, mostly Levi. I tell myself I don’t need their opinions on how I should live my life, though not even I believe me. Still things are going great these days or at least good most days. Actually, Florida sounds nice.

  When I check my phone, I see I have three messages from Char. I’ve known the woman since grade school and wondered most of those days why we are such close friends. She’s bold and… sparkly and carefree to the point of instability. She’d move to Florida in a heartbeat.

  I’m sure her call’s about a new business venture she wants for the two of us or her latest infatuation, maybe even her future husband– number four. She is the exact opposite of cautious.

  “What took you so long to get back to me?” she says, when I return her call. I don’t need to answer as most of her questions are rhetorical.

  “Meet me for lunch. I’ve done something you’re never going to stop thanking me for, my dear girl. You’re welcome. I need nothing but your eternal gratitude.”

  “Oh, no,” I groan. “What now?”

  “Lose the attitude, Jacko, and meet me at the diner in a half hour. Your destiny awaits.”

  “Not at the diner, it doesn’t.” She’s already hung up.

  Mojo’s lying beside the jeep when I’m ready to leave. He sighs when I open the door like he can’t be bothered. “Come on. Our destiny awaits. How would you feel about moving to Florida?” He doesn’t answer but takes his dear sweet time getting into the jeep.

  I troll the diner’s parking lot checking for Levi’s car. This is the last time I’m doing this; it’s just gotten too weird. The first person I see when I walk in the back door is Georgia. She’s behind the grill with my dad and they’re sounding like teenagers.

  I keep walking but Mojo is determined to get his steak. I’m filling customers’ coffee cups when I hear the woman scream. The wolfdog always makes such a dramatic first impression.

  “Jack’s back,” my dad yells, to everyone in the place. He’s at the front counter with a goofy grin and blotchy red face. When he sees Char come through the door, he pounds his chest like he’s trying to catch his breath then waves at nothing and disappears back to the grill. I fear I’m going to have to have the sex talk with my own father, and I don’t know if he’ll survive it.

  “You. Just the person I wanted to talk to,” Char yells.

  Her usual blue hair is orange and she’s dressed head to toe in flowery spandex with a cleavage cut out and six inch purple heels with tiger spots. I’m in jeans, a black tee-shirt, and biker boots. Why do I even know this person?

  “That’s probably why you called me to meet you here,” I say, sliding into a booth.

  “Lose the attitude. You know you’re just attracting dark energy. Sort of like that outfit you’re wearing.”

  Georgia’s come to hover over us. Her and Char are new best friends. “Welcome home, Jack,” Georgia says, looking as guilty as my father. What are they up to? She’s smiling way too wide. I fear it’s too late for the sex talk.

  Arthur comes rushing to our booth, trips over a chair leg and almost falls, face first, on the floor. It’s beyond too late for both of them.

  “Bring us the usual,” Char says, although I don’t know what that would be. “Jack and me have business to discuss, and I’ve got to be back to the clinic in thirty minutes. No time for chitchat.”

  “Work? I thought you wanted to talk about my destiny,” I say.

  “Girlfriend, the way your life is going, work is your destiny. I’m here to change all that. It’s time to turn work time into playtime.”

  I roll my eyes. “What now?”

  Georgia brings us salads, something I almost never eat. She pats me on the shoulder and winks at Char.

  “First off, you’re welcome. Second, I met the new owner of the all-talk radio station. You know, KCRQ? He just bought it and moved to town, has family here too. He bought a house, on Rayo Drive.”

  She stops to raise an eyebrow. Rayo Drive’s the high rent district. “He was a little sore from all the heavy lifting after moving into his new house.” Another eyebrow raise.

  “Get to the point,” I say.

  “Point is I enjoyed giving him his massage as much as he enjoyed receiving it.”

  “No details, please.”

  “Anyway,” Char says, stabbing at her lettuce. “I was giving, he was receiving, and I told him about you.”

  I don’t like where this threesome is going.

  “He’s interested.”

  “Char, stop messing around. You have a massage client in fifteen minutes, and I’m leaving in ten.”

  “Shhh. He, Dan, wants to do a psychic call-in show. And guess who he thinks will be perfect for the job?”

  “I have a job. Stop trying to pawn me off on innocent employers.”

  “Trust me, he’s not so innocent. But I told him about your wanderlust compulsion, and he’s willing to work around your sch
edule.”

  “I’ll think about it,” I say, pushing my salad away.

  “Think quick because the six of us are going out to dinner tonight.”

  “What six of us?”

  “Me, Steve, that attorney in town I told you about? You, Dan… and Levi and Julia.”

  “No—

  “Oh, come on. I had to invite them. Dan is Julia’s cousin. What a coincidence, right? It wouldn’t be polite not to invite them.”

  “Still no. I’m going over to Maybelle’s. Enjoy your dinner.”

  “Maybelle’s gone.”

  “What do you mean gone? Where?”

  Char crunches her nose then gives me a clown smile. “She said she told you.”

  “What, Char?”

  “Her and TK Booker?”

  “Yeah?”

  “They went to Vegas… for a quickie… wedding?”

  The End

  ∞

  Book 4 in A Jack Raven Ghost Mystery Series

  The Eton Bluff Haunting

  Release: June 2017

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  For her next job, Jack is headed to Eton Bluff, Minnesota. Four young, tech-savvy partners have invested their meager savings in a new social media startup called Spider.

  The enterprise’s founders, Rice and Alice Silver, are tech clueless, but have over sixty years of combined experience selling used cars. They buy an old barn, patch the holes, and move their new partners in while they go in search of wealthy business investors.

  The partners experience unexplained events that they are convinced are supernatural. After partner Morgan Nordquist falls to his death, the others blame a vile spirit they’ve named Charlie. When a local paranormal group goes missing after spending a night in the barn, the remaining partners convince Morgan’s cousin to hire Jack.

  Blanche Coleman, a detective with a troubled past, is assigned to the case. She suspects Rice and Alice had everything to do with Morgan’s death, especially after she discovers the Silvers bought life insurance on each of the four entrepreneurs.

  The more Coleman investigates, the stranger things get. She’s sure the remaining three partners are at risk, but they refuse to give up on their venture. When she meets Jack, Coleman sees her as an unwitting accomplice to cracking the case and redeeming her own tarnished reputation.

  Charlie has other plans.

  Is dark energy haunting you? Take the quiz and find out.

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  About the Author

  Animal lover, yoga doer, vegetable eater, Chardonnay drinker, and resident of the Twilight Zone. Possibly extraterrestrial. I grew up in Southern California and now live in the Pacific Northwest where I write spooky fiction with humor, mystery, drama, and sometimes horror in a world gone mad.

  Visit my website robingaustin.com and sign up to get my current free offering for subscribers, notices of new releases and promotions, and be automatically entered to win my next release. Find me on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and Amazon.

  If you enjoyed this book, please leave a review.

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