“You want the truth, right?” Cain repeated.
“Yes. What is that stuff?”
“I have no idea. Whatever it is, they’ll be looking for audio feeds, video cameras, things like that. They need access. If they do any damage, I’ll pay to have it repaired. Deal?”
Jenny set a hand on her hip and glared at him. “There is no way that murder in room ten was caused by a couple who got in a fight. Not after what I read in the journal and what Leslie said. Think about what happened to you in that room, Cain. You don’t believe that was real?”
“I don’t know. Let’s find out. Room ten hasn’t been rented since the murder, right?”
“No, it hasn’t been rented.”
“Fine, we’ll start there.” He walked over and dismissed Will for the day, then motioned for Max and the others to follow him and led them through the saloon into the hotel lobby next door. Jenny walked behind them, clearly pissed off.
Cain turned back to her when they reached the front desk. “We’ll need keys to the empty rooms in both sections.”
Jenny’s sigh held resignation. “All right, fine.” Heather stood by as Jenny sorted through the room keys, checking to be sure which rooms were unoccupied, and handed them over.
“The cleaners are working up there,” she said to Cain. “I’ll go up with you and explain what’s going on.”
Cain just nodded, and the two of them headed upstairs, trailed by Max and his crew. Cain knew Max Bradley from Scottsdale. They’d been introduced by a friend who was trying to convince him to make some commercials. It would improve Barrett Enterprises’ image, his friend had said.
Cain hadn’t been interested, but he’d liked Max Bradley, respected his professionalism. With all the trouble happening at the Star, Cain had phoned, explained to Max what he wanted, and Max had promised to bring in some of his best people.
The group stopped outside room 10, and Cain opened the door. It smelled musty and closed-up inside. The carpet had been stripped, the bedding replaced. Still there was something eerie about the space that bothered him.
“See if you can find anything unusual in here,” Cain said, hoping like hell they would.
“We’ll take a good look,” Max promised, and his crew set to work. Jenny watched for a moment, then went down the hall to explain to the women cleaning the rooms that guests had checked out of that morning.
“I’ll leave you to it,” Cain said to Max. “The room keys have numbers. Dig around, poke some holes in the walls, do whatever you need to. I’ll take care of the repairs.”
“All right.”
“I’m particularly interested in this room. Let me know what you find. Jenny and I will be downstairs.”
An hour later, Cain glanced up to see Max walking toward him. Cain rose when the man reached the table.
“Nothing so far,” Max said. “And believe me, if there was any kind of equipment in the room, we would have found it. We took a look at the electrical, tested for something in the walls, knocked a hole in the ceiling, and looked up in the attic. Nothing.”
Jenny walked up just then. “I heard what you said. Are you sure, Max?”
“As sure as I can be without tearing the whole damn room apart.”
She flicked Cain a sugary smile, but spoke to Max. “Thank you, Max. I don’t think that’ll be necessary.”
“Nothing in there, but we’re just getting started on the rest of the hotel.” Max left to go back upstairs, and Jenny went back to work, staying mostly where Cain could see her. That was something, he supposed.
Irritated with the results of Max’s search, he sat back down in his chair. He’d been sure they’d find something in that room.
He amended that. After the things that had been going on, including the disturbing sounds he had heard in Jenny’s room last night, he wasn’t sure of any damned thing.
But there was something about room 10 . . . It took a lot to scare Cain. He’d been afraid that night—afraid of himself. Half of him was sorry it wasn’t all fake. The other half was relieved to discover that whatever had happened, he hadn’t been played for a fool.
He took a couple more Advil and was glad when they finally kicked in.
An hour later, Cain was going through his email and text messages on his phone when he looked up to see a grinning Max walking toward him.
“You need to come see this.” Max glanced over at Jenny, at work behind the bar. “You both need to come.”
