Twilight: Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Book 3

and myself? Are… Are we…”
He didn’t know quite how to phrase what he wanted to ask, but Parsons seemed to know. She gave him a cool look. “You and your coworkers are under no suspicion at this time, Mr. Raintree. However, I will ask that you not leave here until we’ve had a chance to question you all and take your official statements.”
Sam nodded. At the rate the snow was falling, they wouldn’t have been able to get down the mountain even if they’d wanted to. And they certainly weren’t ready to leave. Not with their own investigation still in progress.
“Darren, would you mind finding Anne and Jerome and having them meet us in the dining hall? Sandra should already be there. I’ll explain the whole thing to all of you at once.” Lex gave Detective Parsons a nervous look. “Will you and Detective Ramirez be coming to help me speak with the staff, or are you going to go ahead and start questioning Sam, Bo and Dean?”
Parsons raised her eyebrows at Ramirez, who shrugged. “We’ll come with you,” she said. “I want to set up a schedule for questioning your staff while we’re there. I think talking to them is the priority, since it seems the event in question most likely occurred before the team from Bay City Paranormal arrived here.”
It was all Sam could do to keep from whooping out loud in relief. Parsons must be fairly certain the person in the woods had been killed many days past, or she wouldn’t have said that. If she wondered why Sam, Bo and Dean had witnessed a slaying which happened before they arrived at the Lodge, she kept it to herself.
A suspicion had begun to worm itself into Sam’s brain regarding what they’d seen. Afraid to look at it too hard in case he was wrong, Sam pushed it to the back of his mind. If he was right, their observations tonight would hopefully tell the tale.
Sam fell into step with Darren as they left the common room. To his relief, the young man’s expression had lost its guarded look. It was good to know his first impression of Darren had evidently been right. He might not be comfortable with Sam and Bo being gay, but that fact would have minimal impact on his treatment of them.
“I’m heading down to the staff quarters to get Anne,” Darren said as they clumped down the steps behind Lex and the detectives. “You might as well come with me. Dean’s probably down there with her.”
“Yeah, probably.” Sam hunched his shoulders against a sudden gust of cold, damp wind. “Listen, I expect we’ll be up here another two or three days, so let one of us know if you think of anything that might be helpful to us.”
Darren grinned. “You’d make a good cop, Sam. You’ve got the lingo down.”
Sam laughed. “Thanks, I think.”
“Are you going out to Sunset Rock tonight?”
“Yeah. We want to try to see the phenomenon again, and see if it’s the same as before or if there are differences.”
“And that’ll help you determine whether or not it’s a portal?”
“Hopefully.” Hesitating, Sam tried to think of a succinct way to explain the process. He couldn’t come up with one. “I don’t know. We’ve only dealt with two portals before. We’re still learning the rules.”
“I hear you.” They reached the door to the staff quarters. Darren fished a key out of his jeans pocket. “What are the common factors you’ve found so far between the other portals?”
“Not many. In both of the other cases, the baseline electromagnetic field of the entire area was high. Not dangerously so, but higher than you’d normally expect. Around two and a half to three.”
Looking thoughtful, Darren turned the key and pushed the door open. He let out a surprised sound and promptly turned his back to the room, his eyes wide and startled. “Good grief.”
Darren was blocking Sam’s view of the room beyond the door. Leaning sideways, he caught a brief glimpse of what had startled Darren. On the other side of the narrow, wood-panelled room, Dean and Anne lay tangled together on a sagging red paisley sofa. Dean’s shirt was draped over the back of the couch. Anne’s sweater was hiked up to her armpits, revealing her bare breasts, one of which was covered by Dean’s hand. One of her hands was shoved down the back of Dean’s undone jeans, the other buried in his hair as they kissed. The scene revealed in the dim glow of the single beigeshaded lamp burned itself into Sam’s retinas in the split second before Darren slammed the door shut.
Still looking