Twilight: Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Book 3

face. He’d come up here expecting to face a monster from another dimension. He hadn’t expected to face the more familiar—and far uglier—human horror.
Lex stirred and seemed about to speak. Then the dining hall door flew open and Ramirez burst in.
Parsons looked up with a stern frown. “What the hell, Ramirez?”
The big man strode closer, and Sam noticed with a thrill of fear that his hand rested on the butt of his pistol. “We have a situation.”
Chapter Eleven
    In an instant, Parsons was on her feet. Her eyes were cold. “Explain.”
“I went up to the staff quarters to keep an eye on Anne, but she wasn’t there.”
Carl rose to his feet, throat working. “What do you mean, she wasn’t there?”
“I mean, she wasn’t there,” Ramirez growled. “She’s missing. The other employees are in the common room. None of them have seen her.”
Parsons reached into her jacket and pulled a pistol out of the shoulder holster Sam hadn’t noticed until now. She checked the safety, muzzle pointed at the ceiling and finger off the trigger. “Mr. and Mrs. Bledsoe, do you have any reason to believe Ms. Tallant might be armed?”
Lex’s eyes saucered. “No.”
“Good.” A muscle ticked in Parsons’ temple. “The five of you, stay here. Don’t anyone go off alone for any reason. We’ll be back.”
She and Ramirez rushed outside, shutting the door behind them. In the stunned silence that followed, Sam let go of Bo’s hand and instead wound an arm around his shoulders.
With a deep sigh, Lex planted her elbows on the table and covered her face with both hands. “I can’t believe this. I knew Anne could be an unpleasant person sometimes, but I never thought for a moment that she was dangerous.”
Carl rested an arm around his wife’s shoulders. “Maybe the detectives are just being cautious.”
Remembering the rage in Anne’s eyes not so long ago, Sam wondered, but he didn’t say anything. They were safe enough as long as they stayed together. There was no point in worrying Lex and Carl further with sheer speculation.
Lex gave Carl a fond smile. “You’re probably right.” Patting his hand, she turned her gaze to Bo. “What did you find when you reviewed your tapes?”
Bo shot a worried glance at the door through which Parsons and Ramirez had disappeared. “To make a long story short, we believe what you have here is a residual haunting.”
“What does that mean?” Carl dropped into his chair and leaned forward, looking curious.
“A residual haunting is like a recording,” Bo explained. “It replays an event over and over, and there is no interaction with the environment or anyone in it.”
“So there’s not a portal here?” Lex’s voice sounded hopeful.
Sliding a hand onto Sam’s knee, Bo gave it a light squeeze. “Sam?”
“Not an active one, no.” Rubbing his thumb over the fabric of the jacket Bo still wore, Sam tried to think of the best way to summarize. “There’s no way to know for certain, of course, but we think a portal opened very briefly in the area of that big boulder. If we’re right, it was only open long enough for something from the other side to get through and kill someone before it closed again.”
“We’re not sure exactly how the portal was opened, or how it was shut again,” Dean chimed in, unzipping his jacket and wriggling out of it. “Hopefully we’ll know more whenever the cops identify that body.”
“God, I hope that’s not Harry.” Sighing, Lex rubbed the back of her neck. “Well, it’s certainly a relief to know our guests aren’t in danger from an interdimensional portal.” She let out a bitter laugh. “If we manage to book other guests in time to keep the place from going bankrupt, that is.”
Bo hunched his shoulders. “I’m sorry,” he said, guilt written all over his face. “I hope your business can recover from this.”
Carl shook his head. “No need to be sorry, Bo. I’d rather lose business this way than let people stay here if their lives might be at risk. You can’t see into the future any more than we can. None of us could possibly have known there was no real danger.”
“No danger from a portal,” Lex corrected, her expression grim. “Who knows what sort of potential danger we’ve exposed people to by keeping Anne on here? I’m sure we’ve had many gay and lesbian guests before. It scares me to think what might have happened if Anne had found out and decided to make her feelings known.”
Reaching across the