The Haunted Bones Read Online Free PDF

store, the whole building. Three units."
    "You get paid good money for that kind of
job?"
    "Five grand."
    " Yowzah ." She pulled her leg up on the
desk and rested her heel on the desk's edge as she wrapped her arms
around her shin. "Did anyone else know you took pictures there
today besides the insurance company?"
    "Oh, they didn't know I was going to be
there today—" I suddenly remembered picking up the key. "Actually,
that's a lie. I went by the bank this morning to grab a key to the
place. But the only one there was Mr. Menivers."
    "He interested in the building?"
    I shook my head. "There was one lady who
showed up. Nice looking, a bit older than me. She was dressed nice.
Said her name was Mary Smith and used to come to the bar before her
husband died."
    "You think she was legit?"
    "I guess so. She didn't give me any reason
to think otherwise. She just wanted to come by and see it, and
found it was closed up."
    "You show her that picture?"
    "Yeah. And she saw the same weird thing I
did. But I doubt she has anything to do with hacking my account."
It was a far-fetched idea. And I'd only given her my basics. Name,
e-mail account, business name. From that, there wasn't much else to
gather. "Maybe it was whoever wants to buy it? They were trying to
see the interior?"
    "Straws, babe." She stood and stretched.
"Soon as you can, I want to see that picture, though. I swear I saw
a ghost in it."
    "So did I." I walked her to the door and
leaned against the frame. She stood outside. The rain had stopped
and the air was cold. "Thanks for stopping by. You always seem to
know when I need a cheer."
    "Nah. I just come for the food." She leaned
up and kissed my cheek. "Get sleep, Devan. Please. Don't stay up
too late. And take care of that hacker."
    I watched her go to her car, parked across
the way in the MARTA parking lot. Once I saw it drive off, I
stepped back inside and locked the door.

 
     
    Five
     
    Mary slammed her hands down on the keyboard
and let lose a stream of words her mother would have beat her for.
One of the key caps popped off the board. That just made her
madder. She lifted the keyboard and threw it across the room. It
struck the edge of her black marble bar and more caps flew off.
    How? How was it possible for her to hack
into that bastard's computer and not be able to delete the files?
Finding more about him on the web had been easy. Devan McNally,
former detective, shot in the head two years ago by the kid who
murdered that senator's son.
    She had to admit he looked good for someone
with a bullet in their brain. And that just set her off again as
she stood and kicked anything that got in her way as she continued
her tantrum.
    So close…. She'd seen the picture and it
creeped her out. It was as if her mother were pointing at her from
her tomb, taunting her. And some skinny-assed guy with a camera was
going to be the one to dig her up.
    The fact he shut the computer off and then
she was kicked out of whatever server he was using told her she'd
been discovered. So hacking back in was now out of the question.
And that picture—possibly more of them—were out there.
    She heard the door open and turned a hateful
stare at her stepson. Augustus Smith. Auggie to his friends and
buyers. The kid was barely twenty-two but he already made a small
fortune pushing drugs in local middle schools. The smaller kids
were where he felt he had the most to gain. Get them hooked early,
and you had a customer for life. Or at least, as long as their
lives would last once the coke got hold of them.
    He had two bags in his arms and a smug look
on his ugly face. "Wow, Mary. You look…pissed off." Auggie noticed
the bits and pieces of the keyboard. He groaned and set the bags on
the bar surface. "Dammit, I just bought that keyboard."
    "Do you know how, or do you know anyone who
can get me information off of a server and delete it
permanently?"
    He arched an eyebrow at her. "What, you got
some nudie pics out there you don't want anyone to