Trudy Hicks Ghost Hunter
Case Two-The Kept
by Lori Zaremba
Date of Publication: May 28th 2019
Publisher: Limitless Publishing
Genre: Paranormal Mystery
Tagline: Secrets of the past are about to turn deadly.
BLURB
If anyone tells you hunting ghosts is less dangerous than chasing down real-life criminals, they’re wrong. Very, very wrong.
Case two takes us to a New Jersey Shore Inn. A beautiful, yet dead opera singer seems to be begging for help, but her pleas do nothing but terrorize the locals.
While trying to decipher the clues to her 1919 disappearance, uncovering hair-raising horrors, it becomes clear that Jason and I no longer see eye-to-eye.
Jason wants me to stop meddling with the supernatural. He wants me to stop risking my life by interacting with demons and spirits.
What he doesn’t understand is this is my life. These tortured souls need my help in order to move on. How do I walk away from that—from them?
But the better question is—how do I walk away from him?
Excerpt
The dog, who had been sleeping at her feet, let out a low snarl and stood at attention. His focus was on the window that faced the lawn by the pool and the beach beyond. Trudy pushed back her chair and stood stiffly and tip-toed quietly to the window, and peered out.
Her heart rose in her throat when she saw him and recognized him immediately from her dream. The stern face and cold eyes of the un-named uncle stared back at her. He stood just ten feet away on the lawn, illuminated in the moonlight and looking just like he did on the beach that day in her dream.
She turned and dashed out of the room, pulling her phone from the pocket of her shorts and heading toward the doors by the pool to chase the phantom down. Rocky, yapping and whining, was by her side.
Trudy padded lightly through the pool area and out the wrought-iron gate that led to the lawn and the beach beyond. She gave a command to the big dog for silence and directed him around the pool shed opposite her. The light from her cell phone illuminated the corner of the structure, Trudy knew if anyone or thing were hiding there, Rocky would flush them out toward her.
The night was still and humid. She felt a bead of perspiration trickle down her temple to her cheek and whisked it away. The crash of the waves on the other side of the dune was the only sound interrupting the silence.
The two-way radio on her belt sounded. “Where the hell are you?” came Jason’s voice.
She listened into the night for a moment then whispered, “By the pool shed,” before turning down the volume when she heard Rocky snarl.
Her heart pounded furiously in her chest, and she fought off the spell of dizziness that suddenly overcame her. Rocky’s bark was louder and more urgent. She pressed against the structure and made her way toward the sound.
The hair on the back of her neck rose, and a chill slid down her body while her knees went weak. She knew someone was just beyond her line of vision. She sensed it, her nerves screamed it, and the loud noise that was coming from the big dog a few feet away confirmed it.
Now at the end of the structure, leaning against the warm metal siding not only for cover but balance, Trudy gazed outover the lawn then ever so slowly peeked around the corner.
“What the hell are you doing?” Jason whispered harshly behind her, causing her to screech. Trudy stumbled awkwardly back when something white flew through the air directly at her head. She ducked, and the thing hissed as it catapulted over Jason’s shoulder and landed a few feet away.
“A cat?” The feline looked at them grumpily before darting up the nearest tree when Rocky gave chase.
“This is why you came out here? A damn cat?” Jason checked his shoulder where the feline’s claws tore his shirt. Satisfied that the skin underneath was not wounded, he looked up at her, waiting for her reply.
Trudy ignored his question and stepped forward to fuss over his shoulder, not trusting that it was unscathed, and ran her hand over the smooth skin. She avoided eye contact. Jason grabbed the hand on his shoulder and pulled her closer.
“So, Hicks, are you going to tell me what the hell brought you out here when I specifically told you to stay put?” He studied her face before dropping his eyes to her lips.
Trudy pushed back the heavy weight of her hair from her sweaty brow and brushed a kiss the scruffy hair on his chin.
“Umm, I think you should learn quick, Young, that I don’t do well with orders.”
Author Info
Lori Zaremba is a full-time Internet Sales Manager and writes Web Content as well as providing Copy Editing for businesses in the Greater Pittsburgh Area. Lori has published short ghost stories on Your Ghost Stories, as the Haunted_Cleaner and on her website lorizaremba.com
On her website, lorizaremba.com, Zaremba refers to herself as the ghost magnet and briefly describes her encounters with departing spirits.
Lori began writing her fiction story as a creative offering of why a ghost would haunt. Before long the story became a novel Case One: The Deceit in the Trudy Hicks Ghost Hunter series.
Lori currently lives in the suburbs of Pittsburgh with her husband Wayne and two fur babies Jaxson and Stewie.
