Read Online Rocks & Gravel (Peri Jean Mace Ghost Thrillers Book 3) by Catie Rhodes - Free Book Online Page A

decidedly weird circumstances. I set the magnifying glass aside and stared at the picture again. For some reason, it seemed different than it had the first time I’d viewed it as a whole. From outside, the caw of a large bird reached my ears, and it hit me. There was a big, black bird in the background of the picture. It was perched on some sort of stand. While I watched, it flared out its wings and slowly moved them. Then it flew away. I jerked in my seat.
    “What happened?” Rainey’s voice, for all her trying to convince me I should get more in touch with my supernatural side, sounded panicked. “Did you see something?
    “Probably not.” The pulse of energy coming out of the black opal and soaking into my skin said different. Rainey’s narrowed eyes suggested she heard my lie. I waited for her to call me on it, but she didn’t. Instead she reached for the picture.
    “Do you mind if I take a picture with my phone?” I couldn’t explain why I wanted to so badly, but I did.
    “If you’ll promise to keep thinking about contacting the spirit on the video and if you’ll think about what I’ve said here today.”
    “If I figure out where Joey stored the stuff Hannah saw, I’m breaking in to see if the journals are there.”
    Rainey made a face. “But you’ll also consider contacting the ghost?”
    Agreeing to think about contacting the ghost felt like a commitment I didn’t want to make, but I nodded anyway. I wanted my copy of the picture of Priscilla Herrera enough to do it. She set the photo back on the coffee table, and I snapped my picture.
    Rainey saw me to the door and followed me onto the stoop.
    “See you in a couple of hours at Dean’s barbecue.” She took one look at my face and assumed the expression she seemed to reserve especially for me—half-lowered eyelids, lips pressed flat with one corner quirked under. “You forgot didn’t you?”
    I ran for my car, not bothering to answer.

    * * *
    I hurried out to my car and drove away from Rainey’s house, through her upscale subdivision, and past the guard shack. How could I forget Dean’s campaign barbecue? He told me at least once a day that voters needed to see us together in social settings.
    My mind raced with all the getting ready I needed to do. Dean would want me wearing tasteful makeup and the delicate jewelry he bought for my birthday. My dress needed a last minute touch up with the iron.
    My cellphone buzzed with the tone I selected for text messages. I took my eyes off the road to steal a glance at it, fully expecting a message from Hannah about what she planned to wear tonight. Instead, I saw a picture, sent from a blocked number. I drove a few more seconds, but curiosity got the best of me. I pulled my car onto the shoulder and opened the message.
    “Weird,” I muttered. The text consisted of nothing more than the picture of Priscilla Herrera I snapped at Rainey’s. I could even see the edges of the coffee table around the picture. Why would a picture I took come to me as a blocked text message? I hoped my smartphone wasn’t malfunctioning.
    I tried switching to the smartphone’s main menu. Nothing happened. The picture stayed there on the screen, Priscilla Herrera’s dark eyes boring into me. I sensed, rather than saw, a movement in the picture. The raven perched behind Priscilla moved its head ever so slightly. Underneath the hum of my car’s engine, I heard other sounds. Muffled voices talking. Horse’s hoofs clopping on a hard surface. I smelled something frying. Priscilla Herrera’s image blinked, and she tilted her head in my direction. The car faded away as I slipped fully into the vision.
    “Come with me, Peri Jean Mace.” She stepped toward me. I cringed because there was no way to get away from her. I saw the tattoo on her shoulder without the filter of a hundred-year-old photograph. It was a black bird—a raven or a crow—same as mine. A light, dizzy feeling spread through me, and black spots appeared in my