Page 102 of Spooked

When Brax rolled over, one arm flung out to the side, I took advantage of my new-found freedom to go breathe some fresh air on the balcony. Well, it was more of a terrace, but on the second floor. A walkway ran underneath, and just in case anyone got the urge to do laundry, there was a drying rack with—

I froze.

Someone was out there.

I heard the quietcrunchof footsteps on gravel, the murmur of voices.

My mouth began to open, ready to scream, but then I realised the voices were female.

Who was in the yard?

I leaned over the stone balustrade, squinting into the darkness as Jerry and Tulsa walked past. Jerry paused, nose in the air like an animal sensing danger. Then she looked up.

Busted.

“What are you two doing?” I asked.

“Go back to bed, Indi.”

“I can’t sleep. Are you going out somewhere?”

“Next time, just put the tranq in her damn drink,” Tulsa told her.

Jerry muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “Lesson learned.”

“Hey, that’s not very nice.”

I couldn’t see Tulsa’s eyes in the dark, but I just knew she was rolling them.

“Oh, honey, we don’t get paid to be nice.”

“We can’t sleep either,” Jerry said. “And it’s a beautiful night. There’s not much light pollution around here, so we thought we’d drive a few miles out of town and take a look at the stars. It’s very relaxing. Want to come?”

With them? While Brax might have trusted these two women, I wasn’t totally sure I did. Jerry in particular had a darkness about her. She said the right things and did the right things, but her smiles never reached her eyes. Plus she drove too fast.

“Riding in a car won’t help me.”

“Chase put a bottle of wine in the refrigerator—why don’t you get yourself a glass?”

Alcohol wasn’t the solution either, but I nodded. “Enjoy your drive.”

Downstairs, I tried to read one of the novels I found on a shelf in the living room, but after staring at the same page for five full minutes, I admitted defeat and headed for the kitchen. One glass of wine might take the edge off. Just one.

Two glasses later, I crawled back into Brax’s arms, and this time, I managed a fitful doze. What would the morning bring?

* * *

The answer? Not much.

I visited the hostel with Ari and Tulsa again, but this time we traded Brax for Jerry while Brax stayed behind to check in with the staff at Nyx. He usually called each location at the end of the evening, just to make sure everything was running smoothly. He’d offered to come with us instead, and although I would have liked his support, we had enough people for the task, and I couldn’t monopolise every minute of his time.

Silvio denied that the French-slash-Belgian was one of his guests and claimed he’d never seen the man before that day. Which made me even more certain that he wasn’t being truthful because where else would Meera have met him? Was Silvio lying about the suspect’s description or about his entire existence? He answered Ari’s questions grudgingly, but when Jerry leaned over the desk in the corner and began thumbing through paperwork, he lost his cool entirely and yelled at us to get out.

“Why did you do that?” I asked when we stepped into the sunshine. Yes, I was a little peeved. “Now he won’t help us at all.”

“Because I wanted to see how he’d respond.”

“He wasn’t helping anyway,” Ari said.

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