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She opened the car door and positioned herself behind it, prepared to leap into the driver’s seat and lock herself inside the vehicle. Logic told her she ought to drive straight back to the hotel, pack her bag, and leave town. Ambrose Drake might look like he was down-and-out, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous. She hated the idea of leaving her Taser behind but it wasn’t worth the risk of trying to get it back. She could buy another one.
Still, she was a woman who was looking for answers, and these days there was no knowing where they would come from. She had to stay open to all possibilities.
“What is this about?” she asked. “Why did you sneak up on me?”
His jaw tightened. “I didn’t sneak up on you. If I had wanted to do that I would have waited until... never mind.” He stopped. “You sawsomething inside the asylum, didn’t you? That’s why you came running out in a panic. I need to know what you sensed in there. Please.”
It was the grim desperation in his words that stopped her. She paused, one foot inside the car. “What do you mean?”
“You and those other two women who do theLost Night Filespodcast claim you investigate cold cases and mysterious disappearances that have a paranormal angle.”
“So?”
Ambrose glanced briefly back into the shadows of the hospital. “I think someone was murdered in there about two weeks ago. I need help proving it.”
She froze, remembering the snakes on the staircase. “What makes you believe there was a murder inside the asylum?”
“I was supposed to meet someone here. He never showed. At first I assumed he had changed his mind. But I found something near the stairs that I think indicates he was murdered.”
She tightened her grip on the car door. “What is it?”
“Meet me tonight for a real conversation and I’ll show you.”
“If you think you can dangle that kind of bait and get away with it—”
“Not bait,” Ambrose said. “Bribery. Here’s my problem: I don’t know who I can trust, so until I’m sure you’re going to get involved in a serious investigation, I can’t take the risk of giving you any more information than necessary.”
Once again the memory of the vision of snakes uncoiling down the stairs sent a chill across her nerves. She grabbed a small straw of common sense that was floating past and reminded herself that the podcast attracted its share of card-carrying members of the Tin Foil Helmet crowd.
“You’ve got to admit your story is pretty bizarre,” she said.
“You picked up some bad vibes in there, didn’t you? On my way here I told myself you were probably a fraud like all the others, but now I think you just might be the real deal.”
“Were youtestingme?” Outrage crackled through her, flushing out a lot of her fear and unease. “Is that what this is all about?”
“Can you blame me? Most people who claim to be able to investigate psychic phenomena are either frauds or flat-out delusional.”
“Yes, I blame you,” she shot back. “What you did is worse than an insult. It’s an invasion of my privacy. Or something. I don’t appreciate being set up. My friends and I run into this sort of nonsense a lot, and we don’t like it.”
“Are you talking about what happened in Saltwood?”
She stared at him. “You know about Saltwood?”
“Sure. I’m a dedicated subscriber to your podcast,” he said. “A psycho lured you and your friends to Saltwood to investigate a missing persons case that appeared to have paranormal elements. Turned out the psycho was the killer and he wanted to play a game with you.”
“He thought he could prove we were frauds.”
“But you found the body. You tried to convince the police that they had a homicide on their hands. They blew off your evidence, so you kept digging. The psycho was furious. He grabbed you. He was about to slit your throat when he had some sort of seizure and collapsed.”
“Right.” Pallas cleared her throat. “A seizure.”
“We’re in this together until we get answers.”
The easy way he recited theLost Night Filessignature introduction and sign-off threw her for a beat. She recovered quickly. “Well, as far as I’m concerned, the stunt you just pulled is reason enough forThe Lost Night Filesto reject your so-called investigation. Go find yourself a genuine fraud.”
“A genuine fraud?”
“You know what I mean.”
