Back at the Star, she relieved Troy and bartended the late shift. By eleven o’clock, when the saloon closed up, she was so exhausted it didn’t take her long to fall asleep. It wasn’t until well after midnight that a sound in the room nudged her awake and her eyes cracked open.
Her pulse beat faster. She glanced around but didn’t see anything. No orb, no ghostly faces floating at the foot of the bed. She relaxed and began to drift back to sleep.
Then she heard it. A gasping sound, followed by heavy, labored breathing. It seemed to be coming from inside the very walls of the room. Jenny clutched the blanket tighter around her. She wanted to close her eyes and pretend none of this was happening.
Maybe it wasn’t.
She heard the notes of a music box playing and what sounded like children’s laughter. Then abruptly, everything stopped.
The bedroom went eerily silent. All she could hear was the rapid beat of her heart pounding in her ears. For an hour, she lay awake, listening, waiting for something to happen.
Eventually, her tired body overruled her fears, her eyelids drooped, and she fell asleep.
Nothing disturbed her until sunshine streamed through the curtains at the windows. Jenny had never been happier to see the dawn.
* * *
She was meeting Nell Barrett for lunch at the Grandview, then she and Millicent planned to work on the grand-opening party. Cain wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. Jenny tried to pretend she didn’t miss him, but like it or not, Cain Barrett was rapidly becoming an important part of her life.
It wasn’t what she wanted. The thought of falling in love with him was nearly as terrifying as what had happened in her room last night.
She glanced at her watch. Though the dining room wasn’t officially open, Opal was cooking, trying out different daily specials, which she’d been serving to the construction crew. Schnitzel, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes topped today’s menu.
“I appreciate your joining me,” Jenny said to Nell, digging into the mashed potatoes, which were delicious. “I’m desperate to talk to someone who might be able to help me.”
Nell swallowed the bite of schnitzel she had taken and delicately wiped her mouth with a white linen napkin. Her fine white hair was neatly pulled back in a bun, and there were tiny pearl earrings in her ears. She always dressed well, perhaps a holdover from an earlier time, but Jenny thought the look worked exactly right for the older woman.
“Is this about the murder that happened in your hotel?” Nell asked.
“Yes, it is. I mentioned some of this to Cain, but he wasn’t exactly receptive to my thinking.”
“Which is . . . ?”
“That something evil exists in room ten.”
Nell’s snowy eyebrows went up. “Well . . . I certainly didn’t see that coming.”
“I’m hoping you won’t think I’m crazy, but I believe the man who was killed was under the influence of some kind of evil spirit or demon or whatever it is that lives in that room.”
“Based on what evidence?”
“Brian Santana attacked Leslie Owens, the girl he was dating, and tried to strangle her. It was totally out of character. He had no record of any former violence, nothing that would indicate he was capable of something like that. Leslie said it seemed as if he had turned into another man.”
“If you believe that, I’m guessing you’re no longer renting out room ten.”
“No. The thing is, Nell, this isn’t the first time something like that happened in that room.”
Nell took a sip of water from the short-stemmed goblet Millicent had chosen, a good choice, Jenny thought—elegant, yet it fit into the big stainless dishwasher.
“I know I’m getting older,” Nell said, “but I don’t recall another murder happening in the hotel. At least not while I was living in Jerome.”
“The other incident didn’t end up with anyone dead, but the attack came very close.” Jenny told Nell about the journals and what Mrs. Dennison had written fifteen years ago about her night in room 10.
“Mary Dennison described her husband’s behavior exactly the way Leslie Owens described Brian Santana’s. Both men committed vicious attacks on the women they were sleeping with in that room. I brought the journal so you could read Mary’s account.”
Jenny pulled the small, leather-bound volume out of her purse and set it on the table. Nell drew out a pair of silver half-glasses, slid them on, and settled them on her nose.
She took her time reading the entry, removed the glasses, and folded them up. “I can see why you’re concerned.”
