The Traveler: Book 5, The Eddie McCloskey Paranormal Mystery Series (The Unearthed) (30 page)

Eddie could do nothing. Except die horribly.

No, that little voice inside his head shouted. Just because he couldn’t do everything didn’t mean he couldn’t do
something.

Just one thing.

That reminded him of what he’d discussed with the shrink. Back in the guy’s comfortable office, where ghosts couldn’t psychically attack him and his friends.

The mind and the body were connected. He only felt the pain because the ghost was fucking with his mind. And he had control over his mind.

But Christie wouldn’t know how to…

Stop stacking,
the shrink said in his mind. Stop piling up all your problems till they seemed insurmountable. It was impossible to face them all at once. You had to take them down, one at a time. Deal with the immediate one in front of you. Move on to the next one. Accept that there would be more. There would always be more problems. More challenges. But that didn’t matter. Because you’d get to them when you could.

He’d gotten through many. More than most, actually. He’d always walked away. He would walk away here. This was nothing. This was some unpleasant thoughts, some bad images in his mind. So what? It wasn’t real.

The pain was crippling. But he could deal with it. He wasn’t going to die. Not now. Not here. The past was the past. The future would happen. All he could deal with was the present.

No more stacking.

“You don’t scare me,” Eddie said.

He forced himself to his knees. Took deep breaths.

“I’m responsible for my brother’s death.” He took another breath. “I accept that. I will live with that. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to him.”

Tiffany hissed again but it wasn’t as loud in his ears.

His chest wasn’t as tight.

“I’ve made up for all the horrible shit I did when I was younger. Now I help people.”

Tiffany suddenly looked pathetic to him. She scowled as the realization hit her. She couldn’t hurt Eddie. She wasn’t powerful enough.

“I’m not afraid to die,” Eddie said. “I made a lot of mistakes for most of my life, but I’ve made up for them.”

Tiffany hissed again, but no sound came out of her. She was losing her definition too. The sharp lines were hazing around her, forming that blue cloud of energy again.

Eddie stood. His legs were wobbly but he stayed upright. There was no point in trying to connect her to this place. She already was.

Which presented other problems.

The ghost became a blue outline. He watched in amazement as she faded. He had lived again. Somehow, some way.

He was alive.

“CHRISTIE!”

“She’s right here, Eddie.”

Eddie spotted Engel at the top of the hill. He was holding a limp Christie in his arms. She looked dead to Eddie.

“You motherfucker!” Eddie reached for the nearest branch to begin his ascent up the slope.

“STOP!” Engel ordered.

Eddie froze.

Engel said, “I brought Tiffany here. I didn’t know they were going to…they just told me they wanted to talk.”

Eddie didn’t say a word. His eyes kept drifting down to Christie. She wasn’t dead. Engel must have knocked her over the head.

“I told her I knew about the investigation and that I wanted to help. I promised her I could help because that’s what they told me. They were all in this together.”

Eddie took one step up the hill. Christie’s eyes were fluttering open. She was coming to. Probably concussed.

“I didn’t know they were going to kill her. That Stahl was going to.”

“Bullshit. She dies, you keep the business.”

“I loved her. Maybe I still love her.”

Eddie took another step up the hill. Only fifteen feet separated them, but the slope was severe and he’d be lucky to climb it at all, let alone fast.

“You didn’t kill her,” Eddie said. “She forced you to help her. We can still—”

“NO, WE CAN’T!” Engel was in tears. “You can’t help me at all! And even if you could, the minute you cut the link between me and her, the police will come after me as an accessory.”

Eddie knew Engel had made up his mind, even if Engel didn’t.

Eddie said, “You led us here. Because you knew she was already connected to this place. You wanted us to come here so you could get away.”

“I’LL NEVER GET AWAY!” Engel was really crying now. “My life is over because of this insane bitch!”

“I thought you loved her.”

“FUCK YOU!” Engel was a quivering mess. Christie was stirring in his arms.

“Do what you’re going to do, Engel,” Eddie said. “And quit being such a pussy.”

Engel screamed in frustration and for a moment Eddie thought the guy was just going to give up. Slump to the ground. Put his wrists out for the handcuffs. Quietly go to an isolated prison where Tiffany could continue to torment him forever.

But instead, Engel pushed Christie over the edge of the hill.

Christie woke as she fell. She flailed her arms but to no avail. On her way down she crashed into a tree, spun around, hit another tree, then went limp and started sliding.

Eddie climbed the hill and got between Christie and another tree. It was everything he had to keep her from sliding the rest of the way.

“Sumiko! Sumiko!” She was all slack. A lump was forming on her head, just in the hairline. He squeezed her and felt the weak pulse and her breathing. She was alive. But she needed to get to a hospital.

“Eddie.” She smiled dreamily up at him. “What happened?”

“You’re okay, sweetheart. I’m going to get you out of here now.” He looked up and to his surprise saw Engel still at the top of the hill.

“Eddie…” Christie’s eyes went wide and Eddie knew what was happening. He felt the pull of the dark energy again. Looking behind him, he saw Tiffany Engel coming up the hill.

“What is happening?” Christie’s hand went to her chest. He knew what she was feeling. The pain and tremendous pressure that would soon grow as her heart worked overtime, edging closer and closer to overdosing on adrenaline.

“Breathe,” Eddie said as calmly as he could. “Just breathe. You’ll be fine.”

“What is…oh God…” She clutched at her chest. “It’s horrible.”

“It’s nothing,” Eddie said. “Keep telling yourself that. It’s nothing. Everything will be fine. Just take things on one at a time.”

“Eddie…oh my God…”

He locked his fingers with hers. “I’m here, Sumiko. What you’re seeing isn’t real. It’s not real.”

She groaned. Eddie knew she was in trouble. He looked back up and Engel was gone now. He’d stuck around long enough to make sure the ghost attacked Christie, just long enough to make sure he could escape.

He had to get Sumiko away from the burial site. A moment ago he didn’t think he’d be able to climb it by himself. But he was out of options.

Christie screamed in pain and started crying.

“Come on, honey. I owe you one.” Eddie stood and plotted his course up the hill. There was no time. He had to get up the slope fast and he probably only had one shot before the ghost killed Christie.

He bent down and pulled one of her arms over his back. He snaked his other arm through her legs. Then he pulled and straightened up with his body and got her over his shoulder.

She screamed again.

She weighed nothing. But she weighed a million pounds to his ravaged body. His ankle couldn’t take all the weight. So he tipped himself forward a little to fight the slope of the hill and favored one leg and told himself he’d get up the hill no matter fucking what.

***

Each step threatened to ground him, or worse, send him all the way back down the hill. Tiffany doggedly followed them, inch-by-inch, as Eddie climbed. Christie groaned and wormed but he held her to him.

“I’m getting you up this hill.” He said it over and over.

Christie’s whole body was one clenched muscle as the pain racked her. Eddie told her it would be over soon. He used the same adrenaline that had almost killed him a few minutes ago to power up the impossible slope. He fought and struggled and clawed and kicked but always—always—he went up. He refused to give up any ground even though Christie was getting heavier by the second. His back bent at her weight and many times he thought he was going to slip and fall. But he fought through each step and made sure he stayed vertical and finally he crested the hill.

He fell forward and let her roll off his shoulder. She laid on the path just next to the stones. The ghost was behind him but she hadn’t come all the way up the hill. She
couldn’t.
He’d gotten Christie out of the danger zone.

He climbed the last few feet and kneeled beside her. Her chest rose and fell with shuddering breaths. He squeezed her hand, but her fingers were lifeless.

“Sumiko…Sumiko…Sumiko…”

He held onto her hand.

“Breathe, baby. Just breathe. You’ll be okay. You’ll be okay.” Like a mantra, he repeated everything. Again and again. She had no color in her face. Her golden skin was a ghostly white.

“Sumiko…please…please just breathe. It’s not real. It’s not real...”

Then her fingers squeezed his back. “He’s got my gun.”

Her words reminded him of their earlier conversation in front of Daria’s house. And he smiled.

Stan saw Engel coming up the Stone Trail as fast as his feet would carry him.

“Stop!” Stan yelled. He wished he’d brought his gun with him. “Where are Eddie and Christie?”

Engel stopped where he was, about forty feet away. He hesitated before answering.

“The ghost got them…I’m just trying to get away.”

Stan said, “Where are they?”

“They’re already dead,” Engel said. “We need to get out of here. It didn’t work. The plan didn’t work.”

Stan’s heart dropped. He’d finally reconnected with Eddie, one of his best friends, and now the guy was dead? He didn’t want to believe it.

“What happened?” Stan said.

Engel started up the hill. “Where’s Harney?”

“Stop walking and tell me what happened,” Stan said. He balled his fists. Engel didn’t scare him. Stan worked out religiously and took up boxing many years ago as one of his hobbies. He could handle Engel one-on-one. But he had more than Engel to worry about.

Engel slowed, but didn’t stop. “We went to where she’s buried. And she attacked both of them.”

Stan didn’t believe the guy. He shifted his weight to the balls of his feet. It was good he had the high ground too. If it came to a fistfight, he could use the grade of the hill to build up momentum and then tackle Engel. The guy would probably go down easily and then Stan would beat the living shit out of him.

Engel smiled. “I’m so glad you’re okay. But we need to get out of here.”

“Stop walking,” Stan said.

Engel was ten feet away when he reached behind him and whipped out a gun.

Stan froze, absolutely terrified. He was unarmed and up this close Engel wouldn’t miss. Even if he was a piss poor shot.

“I don’t want to use this,” Engel said. “I’m no killer.”

“Right,” Stan said. “You just let your wife do the killing for you.”

Engel kept the gun steady, center mass on Stan. “I’m walking out of this forest, then I’m getting into one of the cars, then I’m leaving. Forever. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You helped your wife kill all these people. That makes you a killer, even if you didn’t do the heavy lifting.”

“I had no choice.”

“You won’t get away. You realize that? You won’t get away.”

“I know.” Engel grimaced. “But hell, I’m going to try.”

Stan held his hands up. He didn’t have anywhere to go. He could dive out of the way but Engel was so close. Even if he missed with the first shot, he wouldn’t miss with the second. He thought of Moira and Maddy again. Right about now, Maddy was probably going down for her nap. She’d come down with a cold right before he’d left, and she was still too young for cough medicine. He had to get home to his girls.

The best Stan could do would be to dive, grab a rock, get situated, and throw the rock at Engel. In the confusion, he might be able to distract Engel enough to either get away or attack.

But he knew, deep down, that if he attacked he would die. Engel had a gun and he was just too close.

Maddy was a good napper, but with the cold she might not be napping. Moira was probably trying to rock her to sleep right now…He had to get home to them. Engel would be caught later.

Stan kept his hands up and stepped aside. “Okay, Engel. You win. You can go.”

“Smart.” Engel drew near. “But I’m afraid you know too much now.”

He stopped and leveled the gun at Stan. They were only six feet apart. Just far enough Stan couldn’t dive for him, or dive out of the way. He was dead.

“Coward,” Stan said.

“It’s true.” Engel’s hand was shaking. “I am.”

Then the hair on the back of Stan’s neck rose. And he knew they weren’t alone. The ghost had found them.

“That’s why my wife is going to kill you,” Engel said. “So I look innocent.”

She appeared next to him and Stan felt that terrible pain in his chest. Immediately, images of little Maddy’s mutilated corpse came to mind. The blinding pain sent Stan to his knees.