The Ghost Exterminator Read Online Free PDF Page B

there in the first place.”
    “How many juvenile ghosts were present initially?”
    “Over a hundred.”
    Karma’s eyes widened fractionally, but her voice remained coolly unmoved. “So you exterminated a hundred ghosts last night. Quite an accomplishment.”
    Jo shrugged. “Should have been one hundred and two.”
    Karma made a humming sound acknowledging that and tapped one finger on her desk phone. “I’ll contact Mr. Haines and inform him that we will exterminate the ghosts in his diaphragm. Free of charge, of course.”
    Jo stiffened, even though she’d known walking in that she was going to have to deal with Wyatt Haines again. “I don’t think he’ll be terribly receptive. He didn’t exactly believe me when I said there were spirits in his stomach.”
    “I’ll speak to him,” Karma said, as if that settled it. In a way, it did. “You will need his permission to return to the house. You can obtain it when you exterminate his ghosts.”
    “Return to the house?” Ignoring for a moment the fact that Wyatt had run from her last night like she was a leper chucking spare body parts at him, Jo focused on Karma’s second improbable request. “It’s clean.”
    “It will be clean once we’ve adequately explained the anomalies present at last night’s extermination. You will determine what happened and why. With the client’s permission and assistance. Now, go get some sleep. You look like death.”
    “I’m supposed to look like death,” Jo said cheerfully as she rose and strode toward the door. “I’m Goth now.”
    When she turned back with her hand on the knob, Karma was eyeing her sunny blonde roots.
    “Let me know how that works out for you,” her boss said dryly, already lifting the phone from the cradle to dial the haunted CEO.
    Jo left her to work her magic. Maybe Karma could convince Wyatt that he was haunted. And that he believed in ghosts. And that he was deliriously grateful to the ghost exterminator who had cleaned out his house.
    Hey, it could happen. For all Jo knew, mind control might be one of Karma’s mysterious abilities.
     

Chapter Five: The Horrible Haunting of W. Haines
     
    Wyatt did not have time to be possessed. Or haunted. Or whatever the hell she called it. He was a busy man. He had the Grand Opening of a new inn to launch, the remodeling of the Victorian to oversee, and the daily operations of a multimillion-dollar corporation to head. There was no time in his life for ghosts in his stomach.
    In his stomach , for Christ’s sake. Had she actually expected him to believe that?
    After the debacle at the house, he’d gone home, drunk enough scotch to drown any ghosts in his stomach, and passed out in his bed.
    At least, he thought he had passed out in bed. He’d woken up sprawled on the floor in front of the television with the SyFy channel blasting at an unholy volume. He never watched the SyFy Channel. He didn’t even know which channel it was. CNBC, ESPN, sure. But SyFy?
    Wyatt had scoured the condo for signs that someone—perhaps a certain sexy Exterminator—had broken in to play a prank on him, but his scouring skills weren’t at their best, given the fact that he was still somewhat drunk from the fifth of scotch he’d swallowed only hours earlier.
    The scotch provided an excellent explanation. Drunk and prompted by the previous day’s so-called ghost activities, he must have followed some subconscious cue to stop at a channel playing The Twilight Zone or The X-Files . Why he’d gotten out of bed to go watch television in the middle of a bender was still a mystery, but no cause for concern.
    It didn’t mean he was possessed.
    He’d been late into the office, which had his entire staff gaping at him in shock, including his flaky, new-age secretary who peered at him as if in fear for his soul. Since it was her usual expression, this morning it was actually somewhat comforting.
    He’d grabbed the morning profit-loss reports and shut himself in his office with