Cain relaxed. He hadn’t realized how important her answer was. “Will you be finished by six?”
“Seven would be better.”
“Seven, then. I’ll be here to get you.” Turning, he walked back to his truck.
Women, he thought. But this one continued to intrigue him. No way was he ready to let her go.
* * *
The hotel was running smoothly. The police had released the crime scene, and while Jenny was away, Heather had taken it upon herself to clean up the bloody mess in room 10. The girl had spunk, that was for sure.
“Thank you for doing that,” Jenny said to her. “I didn’t expect it. I wouldn’t ask you to do something I would have trouble doing myself.”
Heather just shrugged. “Everyone sort of pitched in. The room seems pretty normal, but if you look hard enough, there are still some dark spots we couldn’t get out of the carpet.”
Jenny swallowed the bile that rose in her throat. “I’ll have to have it replaced before we rent the room out again.” She didn’t want to spend the money, but she didn’t feel comfortable having guests stay in a room where a murder had been committed, not until it had been completely redone. “Thanks for going the extra mile.”
“No problem.” Smoothing back her pink-streaked, dark hair, Heather returned to her desk in the lobby, and Jenny went to work. First, she checked on the kitchen, taking time to talk to Myrna to see if there was anything she needed. Then she spoke to the servers, Cassie and Molly.
Troy was in the bar, getting ready for the weekend onslaught. Friday nights were always busy, with people off work and ready to relax.
Troy was using a clean, white dishtowel to dry a stack of freshly washed glasses as she approached.
“Looks like you have things under control,” Jenny said.
Troy smiled. “You know me. Nothing but work, work, work.”
Not quite, but he did his share. “With any luck, the weekend will go smoother than the last few days.”
“With any luck,” he repeated, stacking the glasses on a shelf.
Satisfied that things were running as they should, Jenny headed for the office, passing the part-time bookkeeper on her way out.
“Everything’s almost up to date,” Betty said. “I’ll be back in for a couple of hours on Monday to finish up.”
“Great, thanks.” Jenny shut the office door and sat down at her desk. The computer was humming. She brought up Google Chrome on the screen, finally getting a chance to research the round sphere of blinding white that people called an orb.
A list of articles popped right up.Ghost Orbs Caught On Camera.Another link readVideo Shared on Internet Ignites Paranormal Debate.
Jenny clicked on that one and viewed the footage, which showed a strange white circle of light, but it looked different from the orb she had seen.
She tried another link.Ring Camera Reveals Paranormal Orb.That one was outside, just below the roof of a porch. It was white, but it could have been some kind of reflection.
Another piece of video taken by a camera inside the living room of a retired police officer’s home didn’t look quite right, but clearly orb sightings of different kinds weren’t uncommon.
She clicked on an article entitledWhat Is an Orb?and started reading.
Orbs are thought to be energy that can be seen by the naked eye. A true orb doesn’t have the spokes of light caused by a reflection, like a camera lens, the glass in a window, or just dust in the air. White orbs are usually thought to be positive energy, but they can also be an indication of a spirit that is trapped on an earthly plane where it doesn’t belong.
A chill slipped through her.A spirit trapped on an earthly plane.Was that possible?
Typically, orbs are seen at night in places where paranormal phenomena have been reported; the site of a sudden violent death; or places where many deaths have occurred.
The chill was back. One thing she knew about Jerome—in the town’s unruly past, sudden, violent death had been common, and a large number of people had died. There were deaths in the mining tunnels, in the fires that had rampaged through the city, in arguments that got out of hand. And murder.
Though the Copper Star was built of stone and had managed to survive four separate blazes, undoubtedly a number of deaths had occurred in the hotel.
She glanced up at the molded tin ceiling, thinking of the couple in the room in the new section, an idea forming in the back of her mind.
