Ghost Town Read Online Free PDF

a thoughtful look. “Your dream.”
    She nodded. Then the three of them leaped up from the table and rushed out of the dining room.
    Mitch Sagers was half-dozing in his car when the VW Bug screeched to a halt in front of the Eternal Sleep Bed and Breakfast. He watched the driver hop out and run inside. She was a black chick, not bad-looking, but he didn’t like her fake red hair. He didn’t know why she was in such a hurry, and truth was, he didn’t much care. But he was glad that something had happened to wake him up. He had been sitting across the street in the driver’s seat ofhis Chevy Impala for more than—he glanced at his watch—twelve hours now, and the woman’s arrival was the first interesting thing that had happened in all that time.
    He yawned and stretched, groaning as his muscles protested. His neck was especially stiff that morning, and he whipped his head from right to left to pop the vertebrae. He felt as much as heard the crack, and the stiffness eased. His tongue felt as dry and rough as sandpaper, and his breath was sour from all the coffee he’d had the night before. Empty drive-thru coffee cups, four in all, littered the passenger-side floor, along with several crumpled sacks from fast-food joints. Acid churned in his stomach, and a small burp rose up, bringing with it a burning sensation at the back of his throat.
    At first, the idea of doing a stakeout had sounded kind of cool to Mitch, as if he were a character in a cop show or something, keeping an eye on a dangerous suspect. But the reality was anything but glamorous. Not only did his body ache and his stomach hurt, but he felt a headache coming on, and he had to take a piss so bad he thought his bladder might explode. He wished he had thought to bring along several empty liter bottles to pee into, like truckers did when they didn’t want to take the time to pull into a rest stop. But then, he hadn’t really planned out his trip to the freak show that was Exeter, Indiana. It had just kind of happened.
    A few moments later, the black chick came back out, accompanied by an old guy in a gray suit. She ran to her car and started it up, but the old man took his time getting into the vehicle, almost as if he were moving slowly on purpose just to piss her off. Once he was inside, the woman put the car in gear and hit the gas, and the VW peeled away from the curb and roared off down the street.
    Despite its name, the Eternal Sleep Bed and Breakfast looked normal enough from the outside—if you didn’t count the sign inthe yard shaped like a small black coffin, the business’s name painted on it in wavy white letters. Mitch figured the sign was supposed to look half-spooky and half-cute, but he thought it just looked all-stupid. The building was an older one, high and narrow, two stories, painted white, with green shutters, a black roof, and a couple of small spires that made it look a little like a castle. The attic had probably been made into extra rooms. At least, that’s the way he would have done it. Not that he had ever stayed at a bed-and-breakfast before. Nicest place he had ever stayed at was a Motel 6. But then, he didn’t make the kind of money Amber’s new boyfriend did. A goddamned psychologist. It figured she would hook up with a shrink. She needed therapy bad enough—not that she could afford it. Maybe Doctor Love was taking his fee out in trade. Mitch could picture her underneath him, naked, sweaty, and writhing. They would screw like rabid weasels, and just before she came, the doc would glance at the clock on the nightstand, pull out of her, and say, “I’m sorry. Your hour is up.”
    Mitch ground his teeth together at the thought of Amber having sex with that guy . . . what had she said his name was? Drew something. It wasn’t so much that he wanted her as that he didn’t want anyone else to have her, although in Mitch’s mind, they