Ghost Hunters Read Free

disappointment. When his resources ran dry, he started spreading the risk around.
    Six rings. “The person at the number you are calling cannot take your call. If you’d like to leave a message—”
    Dick killed the call and shoved his phone back into his pants pocket. He’s taken out a few credit cards in the names of each member of his crew. This whole trip had been financed on plastic in their names, including the snazzy new camera and the van. The gamble looked good at the time. Lonny ( you fucking asshole, I’ll kill you ) had the whole thing lined up. They’d come out to Missouri, meet his contact, get some great footage, and be on the network right after winter hiatus. Running up the bills on the Social Security numbers his team had entrusted to him seemed like a sure bet. When they hit the big money, he’d ask them to pay him back for the money he’d fronted for the trip, and use that to pay off all that plastic. Hell, he’d be doing them a favor because he was sprucing up their credit history. They should fucking thank him.
    Except none of that was going to happen. He was going to lose his home and his family. He’d run up more than a hundred grand on cards that weren’t his, which he was sure was a big old felony of some sort. Dick turned away from the van and sucked in rapid-fire breaths, hyperventilating. Just thinking about prison made his asshole shrink three sizes. His life was over. Fuck , he screamed in the deep, dark reaches of his mind.
    Dick paced for another minute, chewing on the inside of his lip until he tasted blood. He had to turn this around before everything turned to shit.
    The van’s door slammed and shocked him out of his own thoughts. He swallowed hard and licked blood from his teeth then turned to face Amy.
    She gnawed on her gum, concern stamped on her features. “You okay?”
    Dick raked his fingers through his shaggy hair, creating a forest of spikes on top of his head. “No. Fuck.”
    Amy reached out to Dick and squeezed his shoulder. “That doesn’t sound so great.”
    For a moment, Dick thought about telling everything to Amy. He’d come clean, and the two of them would work it out with the rest of the crew. They were still a great team, and her perky smile and overflowing charisma could turn this around. Maybe they’d get some work on that animal network, film some lemurs playing hide ‘n’ seek or some shit. They still had the van and all the gear, they just needed to find another break.
    Then he remembered who he was talking to. Amy wanted to be successful. Amy did not want to be saddled with some loser who couldn’t get a hillbilly to talk. Amy would cut off his balls if she ever found out what he’d done to her credit. He struggled to put on a brave face. “Just a little setback. My contact doesn’t really want to talk right now.”
    Amy smacked her gum. “Want me to go in and have a chat? I’m pretty good with people.”
    Dick tried to imagine Nancy doing anything other than punching Amy in the mouth. Amy was cute and bubbly and looked like the poster girl for some high-end salon. If she went into that bar, Nancy’d probably cut her tits off and feed them to the drunks. “I, uh, I don’t—that’s not a great idea.”
    He threw his arm around Amy and walked her back to the van. Dick started spinning stories to keep Amy from heading into the bar and to convince himself his dreams weren’t crashing and burning around his ears. “These people are a little backward from what we’re used to. They don’t like outsiders, and they don’t want their neighbors to hear them telling tales out of school. When this place closes, I’m going to come back and have a chat with Nancy. She’ll be more willing to talk if it’s just the two of us in there.”
    Amy grinned and blew a bubble then sucked it back and chomped down on it. “Think she’ll be friendlier without an audience of rednecks?”
    Dick nodded, though inside he wasn’t sure that was going to get