Page 77 of Hot Ghost Summer

I slam my hands over my mouth as bile threatens to spew. I thought it smelled like barbecue.

Hollis’s phone screen lights up.

If the dairy herd is the second entity, and Jim Bowen is the other, then that explains their codependent existence. But what happened to Mr Bowen that the police could never find him, and he ends up haunting Plot 47 with a sawn-off shotgun?

“I’ve no idea,” I whisper. “But the cows will be looking for safety, and they’ll be drawn t’ any human who they think could help ’em. I reckon that’s why we hear ’em first—and why it’s so loud—but then Jim…”

The ringtone from my phone blares loudly, startling me and abruptly ending my thoughts. I watch it bob about on the tabletop for another ring, ExorSquad’s caller ID on the screen.

Hesitantly, I press accept.

“Teddy, good evening, son, it’s Gerald. Do you have a minute?”

“Um…”

“Excellent. I was wondering how the case is going?”

My eyes cut to Hollis’s phone. Did he tell him that we’re working it?

No, he’s dead. He knows that they know he’s dead. He wouldn’t have done that.

“You said for me t’ stay home? So, I didn’t think that—”

“Ah, yes. Well. The client would like an update by Monday, so if you could work the weekend, that would be great. Remember, there’s a bonus resting on your discretion.”

“Um, but you remember that Hollis… And that I’m new. And he was going t’ train me. Will you… send me another partner?”

The laptop turns off, and the hum of static electricity comes from both our phones.

“No, no. You’ve been employed a week now, which makes you expert enough for this one job. I mean, with all due respect, Theo, the building isn’t even complete. How hard can it be?”

A manic laugh slips out. “Yeah, right. How hard?”

“That’s the ExorSquad spirit! Chin up. Don’t forget to bring the equipment back with you on Monday. We’ve had another job come in but we’re running low on stock. Don’t want to send someone out missing things.”

The line goes dead.

Hollis’s angry static makes the air taste like metal.

Ignore him.

I close my eyes and take a steadying breath. Brigid’s face forms in my mind’s eye and then warps and distorts behind a wall of hazy heat.

Dazed, I stand.

The other ghost is the herd. They’re looking for safety.

Mr Pickett wants the job done.

I search for the ExorSquad holdall that Hollis had me prep, and find it by the doorway.

Theo… where are you going?

“I can help the cows,” I say, but even to my own ears, my voice is flat. Lifeless. Like them.

Stooping to gather the fabric handles, I feel a presence. Cold hands close over mine. Hollis.

“You’re not going. It’s far too dangerous.” The vein in his forehead isn’t pumping like it usually does.