Page 53 of It takes a Psychic

Not that Oliver was paying any attention to her. He was focused on the rez-screen.

“Did you turn it on?” Oliver asked.

“No.”

“I didn’t turn mine on, either.”

She opened her hand to show him the crystal. “Roxy had this when she returned a moment ago.”

Oliver’s eyes glittered. “Think we could get her to show us where she found it?”

“Maybe. I don’t know.” She glanced at the rez-screen. “I wonder if something went wrong at the local broadcasting station. A technical glitch, maybe. But how did they manage to rez the screens in our rooms?”

“Got a feeling this bit of unscheduled programming is designed to reinforce the rumor that Vance haunts the inn.”

“It’s not a ghost,” she pointed out. “It’s an old video clip from one of Vance’s recruitment rallies.”

“Yes, but you have to admit that playing it unexpectedly at one o’clock in the morning on a channel that went off the air hours ago makes for a dramatic presentation.”

She shivered. “Yes, it does.”

Footsteps and muffled, excited voices sounded out in the hall.

“I’m not getting a reading from that room,” a woman said. “Try the next one. Hurry. There’s no way to know how long the manifestation will last.”

“Give me a minute to adjust the gauge,” a man responded. “It’s set too low. We need more sensitivity.”

“That does it.” The woman’s voice quickened. “I’m picking up a cold spot in room two-oh-three. See if there’s anyone inside.”

“We’re about to get company,” Oliver said.

He ran his fingers through his hair and crossed the room. Leona was aware of a whisper of energy. By the time he reached the door, he had somehow camouflaged the specter-cat beneath the surface. Even without the aid of the black-framed glasses, he was once again Museum Guy.

He opened the door, startling the man on the other side, who had his hand raised to knock.

“Oh, sorry,” the man said, taking a quick step back. “Didn’t mean to alarm you.”

The woman moved to stand behind him. “We heard the rez-screen so we assumed whoever was in here would be awake.”

Leona recognized the couple as the two people who had checked into the inn earlier that evening while she and Oliver and Roxy had been eating pizza in the diner. They were no longer wearing their stylish country-casual attire. Instead, they were bundled up in bathrobes, slippers on their feet.

“We are awake,” Oliver grumbled. “Do either of you have any idea what is going on here?”

“As a matter of fact, we think we do,” the man said, waxing enthusiastic. “First, we should introduce ourselves. I’m Baxter Richey. This is Darla Price. We are paranormal investigators who specialize in hauntings and apparitions. We have a website, a podcast, and a video channel. The brand is Messages from the Other Side. Maybe you’ve heard of us?”

“No,” Oliver said. “Are you telling us you’re ghost hunters?”

“Realghosts,” Darla clarified quickly. “The supernatural kind. Spirits, phantoms, revenants. Not the Unstable Dissonance Energy Manifestations that appear in the Underworld.”

“You can’t be serious,” Oliver said. “No one believes in that sort of nonsense.”

“You’d be surprised,” Baxter said, very earnest now. “A lot of people prefer to keep an open mind when it comes to ghosts. They want to know the truth. That’s why Darla and I are in business.”

“We’ve checked out a number of properties rumored to be haunted,” Darla said, equally intense. “Most were dead ends, but we have identified a few genuine manifestations.” She tapped the device she held in her right hand. “We got a strong reading in my room a few minutes ago when the rez-screen suddenly came on.”

“We decided to walk the halls with the detector to see if we could pick up any more data,” Baxter added. “We’re getting a strong reading from this room. It’s very exciting. Would you mind if we came in and took a closer look?”

“Well—” Oliver said.

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