The Traveler: Book 5, The Eddie McCloskey Paranormal Mystery Series (The Unearthed) (31 page)

Eddie hurried up the hill soundlessly by staying off the rocks. He saw Stan squaring off with Engel as the ghost appeared behind his friend. Almost immediately, Stan fell to his knees and Eddie realized he had no time.

He brought the revolver up. He was thirty feet away but with the way they were positioned, he could shoot at Engel without fear of hitting Stan.

He took a breath. After Oregon he’d vowed never to kill anybody again. But he didn’t think twice about breaking that vow. His best friend was in trouble and he had no qualms with putting a bullet in Engel. Even if he’d been forced to help his wife, he’d taken an active role in trying to kill Christie and Eddie.

Eddie took another breath and steadied himself. He sighted Engel and squeezed the trigger.

Engel’s body jerked. He’d gotten the guy in the back. It was a good, clean hit that would probably bleed out if Engel wasn’t looked at. Engel went down and sprawled on the Stone Trail. The gun he’d been holding went flying. Eddie saw it land in the brush on the side of the trail.

Eddie hustled up the trail. His ankle was screaming at him but he could rest it in another minute.

Engel writhed in pain. “You fucking shot me.”

“I wish I could draw this out, Engel, but your bitch of a wife is over there trying to kill my best friend.”

Engel stopped writhing and went very still. He looked up at Eddie. His eyes were full of pleading. But Eddie was fresh out of sympathy.

“Before I shoot you, I want you to know something,” Eddie said.

Engel’s lower lip started quivering. “You can’t shoot me.”

“Self-defense, motherfukcer.” Eddie looked up and saw Harney at the top of the hill. The cop had his gun out and watched Eddie, but didn’t move in to stop him.

Eddie looked back at Engel. “You took Christie’s gun, which was smart. But you didn’t search her for a back-up piece. Which was pretty fucking stupid.”

Engel said, “I’ll help you, please let me help you—”

“You’re going to die because you made a mistake, Engel. Just wanted you to know that.”

“Please!”

Eddie looked over at Stan. The ghost hovered over him and he clutched at his chest.

“Shoot that asshole,” Stan said.

Eddie had no choice. Just like he was back in Oregon. And he realized, suddenly, he would always be able to make the difficult decision when forced. He might pay for it later. But that was okay.

Because he was a good man in a storm.

Tiffany was trying to kill Stan. So Eddie put a bullet in Engel’s head.

Later that day, Wallace Schubert woke in the hospital. His younger brother, Jon, was sitting there, awake, holding a Bible. He drummed his fingers on the book and smiled at Wallace.

“Good to see you, brother,” Jon said.

Wallace grunted. His head hurt. He hadn’t liked his younger brother ever since the guy had gotten serious religion, but right now, he was so glad to see him.

Wallace started crying. Jon reached out and the brothers held hands. Wallace had fallen so far since Tonya’s death. He didn’t know if he’d ever get his life back in order, but lying in this hospital bed with his brother, he knew he wanted to live.

It was a start.

***

Star came home the next week and found King in bed with another woman. When she confronted him, he shot her right in front of the other woman. After the murder, King fled the scene but was eventually captured without incident just outside of Rariville at a gas station. Detective Kinz closed the case in record time, getting a confession from John Lange, a.k.a. King, within thirty minutes of the arrest.

***

Meade was arrested two months later. He’d finally managed to convince another woman to come back to his apartment. But he’d forgotten to put the pictures away. The woman had used the bathroom and seen the pictures and thinking quickly on her feet, had feigned a sudden illness. Heart in her throat, she got out of the apartment and called the police from her car. Within twenty minutes, Harney arrived on scene and pretended to be following up on the Perks’ angle of the prior investigation. Meade, still not even realizing he’d left the pictures out on the toilet, had invited the cop in so it appeared like he was cooperative. Harney found the pictures and Meade was immediately arrested. Later, Meade tried to claim that all the women had consented to sex with his friend, Perks, so no crimes had in fact occurred. But several of the victims were more than willing to testify and Meade was going to prison for a long time.

***

In the weeks following Engel’s death and the ghost’s “confinement” to that little hollow just off the Stone Trail, ghost hunters from all over traveled to Rariville with designs on getting Tiffany to permanently dissipate. Eddie and Stan decided they’d done enough on this case and wanted no part.

To this day, no one has been able to permanently dissipate Tiffany Engel. Though, people that have encountered her report she is a shell of her former self and is slowly losing her power.

“Harney got our backs,” Eddie said. “He told Internal Affairs that Engel came after me while the ghost tried to kill you. He said I had no choice but to fire.”

On the other end of the line, Stan said, “You didn’t have a choice. Why the need for the lie?”

“It was a half-lie,” Eddie said. “And good for the department. They wanted the case closed without anybody poking around. Besides, Engel was a murderer. I’m not losing any sleep over shooting the fucker.”

“You sure?” Stan said. “Because after Oregon…”

“Oregon is Oregon,” Eddie said. “I made it out alive and I’m here now. I wasn’t going to let anybody kill you, dude. It was an easy decision.”

“Remind me to never get on your bad side then.”

Eddie laughed. Through the phone, he heard Stan’s daughter, Maddy, wailing in the background.

Stan said, “We’ll figure out dinner when you get here.”

“Sounds great. And, Stan?”

“Yeah, man.”

“I wanted to say it again. Thanks.”

“It’s no big deal. I was just happy to help.”

Eddie nodded. That was Stan, to a fault. Always happy to help.

Eddie took a deep breath. “I’ve been thinking.”

“Finally.”

Eddie laughed. “Fuck you.”

“Get all the bad language out now, before you come over.”

“I want you to be my partner.”

“Dude! I’d love to!”

“Moira too,” Eddie said. “I think it’s time we got the band back together. I need you guys to keep me honest. And to keep me sane.”

“That’s great, Eddie! Tonight we’ll celebrate.”

“Sounds good, brother.”

They hung up and Eddie tossed the cell phone on the counter. He couldn’t get over how clean his apartment was. Not that he was a slob, but now it practically shined. And actually smelled nice.

The bedroom door opened and Sumiko came down the hallway. He watched her the whole way. She had on a pair of jeans that rode her tiny hips and knee-high boots and her walk was a strut that made his knees weak.

“Hello there,” he said.

She stopped two feet away and held her arms out. “Well?”

“You look like a million yen.”

“Eddie! That’s about eight thousand dollars!”

“Oops.”

She laughed playfully and came a little closer. Her eyes were gorgeous and she had a tiny, pouty smile on her face.

“What time do we have to be there?” she asked.

“An hour.”

“We’d better leave then.”

Eddie smiled. “I think we’re going to be late.”

“Is that right?”

He nodded.

She stepped forward and slowly unbuttoned her shirt, revealing a lacy black bra he’d never seen on her before.

“You like?”

He nodded.

She smiled lustily at him. “Eddie, I really think you’re going to be trouble.”

“A man’s got to be good at something.”

Normally this is where I ask you to please leave me a review on Amazon. (Fear not, that’s coming on the next page). But I’m mixing things up here because I felt the need to say thanks.

So:
THANK YOU FOR READING!

The Unearthed
series is truly a labor of love. New York publishing rejected the first book and I nearly abandoned the story there. But a few years passed and along came self-publishing, and I decided to dust the story off and let readers, not agents or publishing houses, tell me if it was any good.

Even more ridiculously, I decided to make a series out of Eddie’s adventures. That’s right: I wrote two sequels (
The Lost
and
The Accused and the Damned
) that nobody asked for, to a book that nobody had read.

Anyone evaluating my decisions objectively would rightly proclaim me crazy. But I did it anyway. I believed in the stories and decided to put them out there for the world to see. Like I said, I wanted readers to have the final say.

And so far? Readers are enjoying the series. I’m both humbled and amazed at how many emails I’ve received asking when the next book will be out. Believe me, I wish I could type more quickly…

I’m so grateful for your support. As an avid reader myself, I know how difficult it can be to give a new author a chance. But you did just that with me, with Eddie, and with this series. And for that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I love connecting with readers, so don’t ever hesitate to shoot me an email at
[email protected]
. I welcome feedback and take it very seriously as, ultimately, you are the customer and I want to deliver a quality product. Also, I have this bad habit of giving away free stories to readers that email me…

Part of me still can’t believe that this series is now five books long. And you are a huge reason why.

I am in the early stages for Book #6 right now, which will be called
The Dream Machine
. I know I sound like a broken record because I say this about every book, but this next one will be very different than the others.

Happy Reading,

Evan Ronan

March, 2015

Then please leave me a review on Amazon.

Good, bad, indifferent, it doesn’t matter because I take all reader feedback very seriously (except for the trolls) and use it to improve my craft. Also, it is next-to-impossible for an indie author to get noticed on Amazon without reviews. More reviews leads to more sales, which in turn makes it possible for me to write more books.

Thanks for your support!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Evan Ronan's stories don't always fit neatly into one genre. He reads widely and tries to write as widely. His paranormal thriller series,
The Unearthed
, features his favorite protagonist, Eddie McCloskey, a man who's constantly underestimated and always finds a way to beat the odds through a little hustle, a little brains, and a lot of hard work.

Evan loves historical fiction and has co-authored
The Tomahawk and Saber
series with Nathanael Green. The first book in the series is called
Language of the Bear.

Evan also writes in the YA, sci-fi and mystery genres. He lives with his family in New Jersey, in the same town Eddie McCloskey grew up in.

For more information, visit his website:
www.ronaniswriting.blogspot.com
.

ALSO BY EVAN RONAN

THE UNEARTHED SERIES

The Unearthed

The Lost

The Accused and the Damned

The Hysteria

The Traveler

The Dream Machine (in the works)

#7 (in the works)

THE TOMAHAWK AND SABER SERIES (collaboration with Nathanael Green)

Language of the Bear

Through the Narrows

#3 (in the works)

SHORT STORIES

Morale Was Down

Effective Immediately

Not Safe For Work (in the works)

In The Blood

In The Blood #2

In The Blood #3

Harm

Frontier Justice

OTHER NOVELS COMING SOON

Undo (YA / sci-fi)

The Eighth Man (sci-fi noir)

OtherWorld (middle grade fantasy)

KWAHLAH

E (prequel)

Kwahlah, Season One (will be available in 2015)