Page 3 of Mack's Horribly Hellacious Ghost Town
“For a whole fucking town?Naw, mate, that’s not on.”
“I don’t like it either, but we’re short-staffed.”
He hummed. “Let me call a cousin. Davina is in the States already. She might be able to go with. She’s got a touch of Medium skills.”
“I will pray she says yes.” I was not kidding.
“Text you in a few. Wait, give me the location.”
“I’ll text it to you. Just let me know if you can come. Our goal is to be there in two days.”
“Aye aye. I’ll make a call and let you know.” He ended the call.
I now felt a lot better about life. Mack glanced up from his phone, beaming. “I’m excited to play with Lachlan again. And meet the cousin.”
“Oh, for sure.”
Mack’s head tilted a little as he listened to our ghost neighbor. Then he rolled his eyes. “Of course he’s a handsome Highlander. Sword, kilt, and all. Brandon, you got a picture of Lachlan on your phone?”
“I’ve got several.” Mostly from us touring Loch Ness.
I pulled one up and handed the phone to Mack, who immediately tilted the screen for the ghost to see. I couldn’t see or hear her reaction, but from Mack’s grin, she’d said something amusing.
“She says if she wasn’t already in a relationship, she’d make a play for him,” Mack relayed.
Lachlan wasn’t really my type, but I could see how he’d appeal.
“What did Beau say?”
“He hasn’t responded yet. Eli’s excited we’re coming, though. Oh! I should tell her Lachlan’s coming.”
“You should. All right, enough drooling, let me go inside and buy flights.”
Mack handed the phone back to me and I went inside. I sat at the table with my laptop to buy the flights, as that was just easier all around, then remembered I’d left dishes half done and got up to finish them.
The entire time I scrubbed pots, I thought about what this job would entail. How much time it would take, what equipment we’d need—not that I could bring much of anything. We only had so much room in a suitcase, and I had a feeling we’d need to bring a lot of clothes. We’d probably be there a while and wouldn’t have much time to do laundry.
When buying this house, I’d known we’d need to be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice, so I’d set up automatic withdrawals for bills, and we had a timer on our watering system for the plants so a friend wouldn’t need to do it.
All said, though, we did have food in the fridge that would just go to waste. I decided to call up Mom.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Hi, sweetheart. I can tell from your voice you’re up to something.”
“More like the job has called us in.” I briefed her on the particulars before finishing with “The hell of it is, we just bought groceries yesterday. Can I off-load some food on you?”
“Sure, I’ll take it. I think Psy is up to their necks in some crazy case. Garrett came by begging for something not takeout.”
“Oh, ouch, that’s a sign all right. Sounds like you need the groceries to keep the two bottomless pits fed.”
I referred to Garrett and Don. Garrett, despite being half our size, could outeat Don and me on a regular basis. Pretty sure he was hollow on the inside.
“I’ll certainly take them. Heaven knows they’ll be happy to see food. But Brandon, it sounds like this job you’re going into will be just as insane. Surely it’s not only the two of you?”
“God, no. I’m not sure who all will come, but so far, we’ve got Eli and her husbands, Lachlan and his cousin, who I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting yet, plus another couple we’ve worked with before, Falisa Tate and her husband, Ken.”
“That does sound better.”
