The Stuffing of Nightmares (The Mysteries of Bell & Whitehouse Book 7) Read Free

and we can’t keep this under the radar the way Brian can. If word gets out about this, our names will be mud.” He pointed to Fee. “Your family bakery will be the subject of extreme scrutiny and might have to close its doors. Reece will become the laughingstock of Hollywood and will never work again. And Alice…” He eyed Alice with hesitation. Since Alice didn’t have a career, it was hard to see how she would be impacted. “Well, your uncles won’t like it that their niece is now a ghost-hunting maven. As for myself, my career will be over when my editors find out.” He shrugged. “Not many people are believers. They might go and watch the new Ghostbusters movie, but that doesn’t mean they believe in ghosts. They’ll just think we’re a bunch of crackpots.”
    Alice found herself nodding automatically. Rick was right. If word got out about their mission, it was game over. They’d be known far and wide as the four idiots who thought they were the real-life version of Scooby Doo’s gang.
    “He has a point,” she finally said, defying Fee’s death-ray stare.
    “Yeah, I think so too,” Reece chimed in. “If my agent knew I was into ghost hunting, he’d probably drop me like yesterday’s boy band sensation.”
    “Come on, you guys,” Felicity cried, visibly incensed. “We made a promise. We said we were going to do this. Just think how much good we can do with this unique gift. How many lives we can touch.”
    “If we’re the world’s joke nobody will even listen to us,” Alice muttered.
    Fee threw up her arms. “But they won’t find out! We’ll just have to be... discreet!”
    “It’s hard to be discreet about something like ghost helping,” Rick pointed out. “Talking to dead people tends to draw attention. Brian has connections. He can make sure we’re not exposed. But on our own? No way.”
    “I’m not so sure about that,” said Felicity, shaking her head stubbornly. “Brian has money, sure, but no amount of money will keep a person quiet if they really want to talk. It only takes one person to spread the word, and the result will be the same. Without Brian, that’s the risk we’ve got to take.”
    But before they could discuss the matter further, the doorbell clanged, and Spot, Rick’s ghost Pomeranian, started barking his little head off, while Gaston, their red tomcat, disappeared under the couch. He abhorred visitors.
    Brian Rutherford had arrived. Time to expose his lies and deceit.

Chapter 3
    T he moment Brian stepped into the room he experienced a peculiar tingling sensation along his spine. His intuition was well-honed and had saved him from harm more than once in past times, and it now told him that something was afoot. This particular sensation was nothing new. Ever since he’d risen to his current position as head of the Wardop Group, he’d been facing tough opposition from the members of the board. A snot-nosed lawyer taking the reins of the biggest group in the States was unheard of, and the press had had a field day when it was revealed he was the legal son and heir of Peverell Wardop, the group’s deceased iconic president and founder.
    The members of the board had tried to shift him from his perch by overt and covert means, and when that didn’t work, had started digging into his past, hoping to find something they could use as leverage to kick him out on his keister. If they only knew that Peverell was still running the company and that Brian wasn’t the founder’s son but merely chosen for his ability to communicate with the old man’s ghost, they’d be quick to dismiss him.
    But so far they hadn’t, and he was still firmly in charge. The only danger to his position now lay with these wraith wranglers. He’d launched the team to help out ghosts—to use his gift for good, in spite of the risks involved.
    All Wraith Wrangler operations were handled strictly off the books, no one able to trace his involvement. And yet… with the board breathing down