The Lost: Book Two, The Eddie McCloskey Series (The Unearthed 2) Read Online Free Page A

if I use yours?”
    “You don’t have a phone?”
    “No, Ana. I don’t have a phone. Can I use yours?”
    She rolled her eyes and thrust a defiant hip forward. “I’ve said sorry several times now. If you were a gentleman, you’d accept my apology. I don’t see what the big deal is, Eddie.”
    “I’m no gentleman. And you have no idea how much shit I’m in.”
    She tapped her hip impatiently.
    “Okay, apology accepted. Now can I use your phone, please?”
    She tossed him the phone. “His number’s highlighted.”
    Victor answered on the fourth ring. “Hey, Ana.”
    “Victor, it’s me, Eddie.”
    “Oh ... hey.  Is everything alright?”
    Eddie watched Ana tiptoe toward his sleeping bag and stoop to examine his pile of books.
    Eddie knew to keep the lie simple. “Something’s come up. My …”
    He stopped himself. That was the old Eddie about to lie.
    “Vic, look, there’s something I never told you.”
    “You’re an ex-con.”
    Vic hadn’t asked for his background information to do a screening when he’d come on. “How did you …”
    “I did my checking, just didn’t let you know.”
    “And you took me on anyway?”
    “Somebody had to give Jean Valjean a second chance, or there’d be no story.”
    “Vic, I don’t know what to say.”
    “What’s the problem?”
    “Marty Kindler. He’s squeezing me to help him. I don’t want to.”
    “So don’t.”
    “I have to leave town, that’s the only way.”
    Victor hesitated and his voice flattened. “Look, Eddie, I can get you two weeks’ pay.”
    “This was my third week—”
    “And I don’t know if you’re telling me the whole truth. I like you, I gave you a second chance, and I may be an old hippie but this isn’t my first rodeo.”
    Eddie bit his tongue. “I appreciate that, Vic.”
    Ana crept up behind him and whispered. “What are you doing?”
    The smell of her distracted him. So clean that smell, faint and flowery. Probably her shampoo. He shot her a mind-your-biz look.
    To Victor, he said, “Could I come by and get it? I want to get moving as soon as possible.”
    Victor gave Eddie his address and they hung up. He was so close to getting out.
    Eddie tried handing the phone back to Ana, but she crossed her arms and wouldn’t take it.
    “What are you doing? Why did you lie to Marty and say you were going to do this?”
    She looked so cute when she was angry.
    “I’ve gotta hit the old dusty trail, Ana. Thanks for the phone.”
    He offered her the phone again but she wouldn’t accept it so he laid it on the table next to her purse and went about gathering up his possessions. He could pack faster than a homesick freshman.
    “I don’t understand,” she said. “You could help us.”
    Eddie said nothing and started packing his books. He had more books than clothing.
    The whole time he felt Ana’s eyes burning a hole in his back. The second duffle bag he stuffed to the gills with his books. When finished, he left both bags on the floor and went into the tiny bathroom to retrieve his toothbrush and shaving gear.
    “I said I was sorry,” she called after him.
    He came out of the bathroom holding his toiletry kit and packed that away. Then he grabbed the last book off the kitchen counter. It was the one that had started this chain of events. Eddie held it up, cover forward, so she could see it.
    “When’d you realize?” he asked. How long were the odds she’d have read the book and made the connection to him?
    “Yesterday. I read it cover to cover on my day off. You were in some of the pictures in the middle of the book.”

Eight
     
    Eddi e frowned. Long odds. Very long. He looked at the cover of the book again. The dust jacket was getting a little ratty, the spine cracked. He’d always thought the title heavy-handed:
    The Unearthed.
    Five years ago, Eddie and his brother Tim had investigated a cluster of paranormal events happening in a house in their home town. The investigation had turned up a lot of good finds,