Rocks & Gravel (Peri Jean Mace Ghost Thrillers Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

to me at all. Rainey’s reminder this room was filled with my friends stopped me. I needed to at least hear them out.
    “All right,” I said. “I’ll watch.” I ate the last two antacids from my roll and washed them down with water, mindful of Eddie’s worried gaze lingering on me.
    Hooty took the DVD from Hannah and plugged it into a combo DVD player/TV sitting on a converted antique sewing table. The video began to play, and I sat back in my chair, wondering how I’d gone from wanting to step away from the crazy to sitting here watching its tendrils sneaking into my life.

    * * *
    T he scene showed the long oval table in the museum’s main classroom, each chair taken by a museum board member.
    Felicia Holze and her father-in-law Sheriff Joey Holze both wore sour expressions. It probably rubbed their asses raw to attend the meeting, but I bet they’d allow their fingernails to be yanked out before they gave up their spots on the museum board. They got their jollies making other folks miserable.
    Amanda King sat at the table, ignoring everyone else and tapping on her cellphone. It surprised me not to see her animated and socializing. Maybe she got enough of it at the salon.
    Eddie Kennedy and Julie Woodson sat huddled together, smiling and whispering. The two dated on and off but wouldn’t commit to each other. It made me feel sorry for Eddie because I thought having someone to come home to would do him good.
    Hooty sat with a battered book in front of him. Its cloth cover had worn away in spots, revealing the cardboard underneath, the page edges faded to yellowish tan. The book reminded me of the picture-book sized ledgers I sometimes saw in antique stores, and I could almost imagine the dry, musty smell coming off it.
    Rainey sat next to Hooty, staring at something she held out of sight in her lap. I assumed it was a cellphone until she raised it to table level and saw it was a card-sized photograph. I couldn’t make out any details. She leaned over to Hooty, and the two had a whispered discussion. Rainey shook her head and slipped the photograph into a padded envelope and put it in her purse.
    “Okay, Hooty, we’re ready,” Hannah said from somewhere off screen.
    Hooty nodded and opened the journal to a marked place and began to speak. The door opened before he could, and Benny Longstreet rushed in.
    “Sorry y’all. Had an emergency at the plant. Almost thought I wouldn’t make it.” He glanced around the room, embarrassment dawning slowly on his long, homely face. “Oh. Y’all done started, ain’t you? Lemme just set down.” He pulled a rolling chair away from the wall and sat next to Amanda who scooted away from him. I didn’t blame her. Benny turned my stomach, too.
    “Okay, then,” Hannah said. “Hooty, please continue.”
    “All right. First I’d like to introduce what I’m about to read.” He held up the journal. “This journal belonged to Hezekiah Bruce, the first of my family to settle in Burns County. His parents were slaves freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. They instilled a sense of entrepreneurship in him. He saved his money, came here, and opened a general store. He was the first black business owner in Burns County. He used these ledgers to record the goings-on he saw.” The barrel-chested man’s voice boomed through the room, and it sounded like he was getting ready to deliver a sermon at church. Hooty took a deep breath and began to read from the journal.
    “When I settled in Burns County to raise my family, I knew I would run into some of the same problems my parents suffered in Mississippi. But I never expected to see the horror I saw last night.
    Around dark time, men came on horses and rode past our store and home. Usually nobody rides past because the last house on this road is that of Priscilla Herrera and she is thought to be a witch. My children ran out to see the commotion, but my wife shooed them back inside. I told her to hide them. Everything about these