Twilight: Bay City Paranormal Investigations, Book 3

table, Dean brushed his fingers over the back of Lex’s hand. “She talks a good game, but I really don’t think she’s dangerous. Not to your guests anyway. Me? She’d probably like to gut right about now. But I don’t think she was ever a danger to the customers.”
Carl’s brows drew together in a frown. “I think you’re right. But you’re also right that she’s extremely angry with you , Dean. She’s not happy with Sam and Bo either. And she’s out there, someplace. I’m worried about the three of you more than anyone else.”
Dean waved a dismissive hand. “I can take her.”
Torn between amusement and irritation at Dean’s casual attitude, Sam slugged his friend lightly on the shoulder. “How do you know she isn’t a black belt or something?”
“How do you know I’m not?” Dean shot back, crossing his arms and arching a challenging brow.
“Are you?”
“Well, no.”
“Okay then.”
“Okay.” Biting his lip, Dean leaned over to look at Bo. “Hey, y’all mind if I stay in your cabin tonight?”
Everyone but Bo laughed. He stared at Dean, dead serious. “I think you should, yes. I won’t worry about you if you’re with us.”
Lex sobered fast. “I’m going to have the rest of the staff move from their quarters into empty cabins, at least until Anne is found. Just to be on the safe side, since she has a key to the staff quarters. All the cabin keys are in our office, which is locked right now, so I’m certain she can’t get into the cabins.”
Sam smiled. “Don’t worry, Lex. I’m sure they’ll find Anne soon, and everything will work out.”
She nodded and returned his smile, but Sam could tell she wasn’t entirely convinced. Not that he blamed her. He wasn’t really convinced himself.
“Well. As long as we’re stuck here for a while, we might as well have some dinner.” Planting both palms on the table, Carl pushed to his feet. “Who’s hungry?”
    The night was long and restless. Voices and bobbing flashlight beams announced the arrival around one a.m. of the uniformed back-up Parsons had requested following a fruitless search for Anne. After that, Sam, Bo and Dean stopped pretending to sleep. Dean crawled into the bottom bunk with Sam and Bo and the three of them lay quietly discussing the case until the sky outside began to pale.
    They were just trying to decide whether to go on down to the dining hall to see if breakfast was ready when footsteps clumped up to their door and a sharp knock sounded. Dean, who was closest, rolled out of bed and hurried to answer it.
    Darren and Jerome stood on the top step. They both looked as tired and worried as Sam felt. “Hey,” Jerome greeted them, straightening his glasses. “Y’all want to come eat? Sandra and Lex have breakfast ready.”
    “We were just talking about that.” Dean glanced over his shoulder, a questioning look in his eyes. “Y’all ready?”
    “I am.” Yawning, Bo sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the mattress. “You and Darren don’t have to wait for us, Jerome, we’ll be down in a minute. Thanks for coming to get us, though.”
    “Naw, we’ll wait. We got something to tell you anyhow.” Jerome nudged Darren’s arm. “Can I tell ’em?”
    Darren rolled his eyes. “Why’re you asking me?” A thoughtful look crossed Jerome’s face. “Huh. I don’t know.” He strolled inside and sat on the chair by the window, eyes shining with the light of discovery. “We think the cops found something out in the woods.”
Bo raised his eyebrows. “What makes you think so?”
“Me and Darren were out on the trail a little while ago, seeing if we could find Anne. That Ramirez guy was standing guard by the path near the big boulder, and there’s a whole area of the woods roped off with police tape. More than before, I mean. And the place is crawling with cops. There must’ve been twenty of ’em.”
“More like five or six,” Darren corrected, looking amused. “But yeah, they’ve cordoned off more of the forest, and there are definitely more officers out there.”
“We heard them coming up the trail last night.” Sam scooted up to sit beside Bo, found his boots and began pulling them on. “I remember Parsons telling Lex and Carl she was calling for back-up, after they came back from looking for Anne.”
“Speaking of which, why were the two of you out looking for her this morning?” Leaning over Sam’s legs, Bo grabbed his boots. “Lex would worry, and I know Parsons wouldn’t