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“The obvious answer is that the people behind this think they need us for their crazy experiments,” Talia said.
“Maybe it took this long for someone to come up with a drug that had the potential to kick our senses to the next level,” Ambrose said.
“Or maybe the list got filed away and forgotten years ago and someone recently found it,” Pallas added.
“Someone who is in the business of running off-the-books drug trials and doesn’t mind taking the risk of kidnapping a few innocent people to use as test subjects,” Ambrose said.
There was a moment of silence. No one said the rest out loud but Talia knew they were all thinking the same thing: the drug had worked.
“We need to know more about that test and the person or persons who designed and administered it years ago,” Ambrose said. “Pallas and I can work that angle.”
“How?” Amelia asked.
“The old-fashioned way,” Ambrose said. “Start interviewingwitnesses. We’re going to Phoenix to follow up on the Brooke Kendrick lead. That’s where she went to college.”
“Good plan,” Amelia said. “While Ambrose and Pallas check out the Phoenix angle, I’m going to go back to Lucent Springs.”
There was another moment of silence.
Evidently Amelia could read their minds. “Yes, I know I’ve been back to the hotel a dozen times since that night. And no, I’ve never found anything useful in the way of clues. But I’m missing something. I’m sure of it. This time I’m going to conduct interviews. I’ll use the podcast as a cover. I’ll tell people I’m doing advance research for a possible episode on the history of the hotel. Someone in that town knows something.”
No one argued with her. This was not the first time they had speculated that one or more of the residents in the small desert community in southern California were keeping secrets. But Amelia’s morbid fascination with Lucent Springs was becoming worrisome. Talia was starting to fear that her friend’s obsession with the ruins of the Lucent Springs Hotel might be an unfortunate side effect of her recently enhanced senses. She knew Pallas had the same concern.
The reality was that the four of them were not yet comfortable with their new psychic abilities. They were all in the process of trying to understand how to control the new forms of perception. Each of their talents was unique and each had a profoundly disturbing aspect. Talia knew that their new sensitivity to paranormal energy, combined with the unnerving amnesia, had made each of them question their own sanity at first. They had soon learned to keep quiet about their concerns because they were not the only ones who had begun to wonder about the state of their mental health. Friends, lovers, coworkers, and families had questioned it, too.
Some of their memories were starting to return in slivers andshards in their dreams, but they were still a long way from developing a clear picture of their lost nights.
“Talia, did the fan who contacted you anonymously about a list of names ever come through with solid information?” Pallas asked.
Talia tightened her grip on her wineglass. “Not yet. Whoever sent the text seemed serious but also extremely paranoid. I’m starting to think my informant is just another overly imaginative or maybe downright deluded fan of the podcast.”
“Or a full-on fraud,” Ambrose suggested.
“Maybe,” Talia admitted. “But it felt legit.”
“It was atextmessage,” Amelia reminded her. “No feelings or emotions involved.”
There was no point arguing. Amelia was right. Talia swallowed some more wine.
“If there’s one thingThe Lost Night Fileshas proven beyond a shadow of a doubt it’s that when it comes to the paranormal, there are a lot of card-carrying members of the tinfoil helmet club out there in podcast land,” Pallas said.
Talia thought about the body in the trash bin. “Sometimes I wonder if I’m one of them.”
“No,” Amelia said, suddenly fierce. “You are not deluded. None of us are. We know that because we have compared notes. We have validated each other’s experiences. We were all involuntary test subjects in someone’s bizarre paranormal research experiment. We’re going to find out who did this to us.”
“And then what?” Talia asked. “Call in the police? Do we try to have the person arrested? Good luck proving that someone kidnapped us and gave us a drug that enhanced our paranormal senses. Do you realize how wild that sounds? It’s right up there with stories about being abducted by extraterrestrials. No one will believe us.And don’t get me started on how a judge or jury would react to our claims. We’d be lucky if they didn’t lock us up in a psychiatric hospital.”
“We’ll worry about the endgame after we identify the kidnappers,” Ambrose said.
“He’s right,” Pallas said. “Meanwhile, we’re in this together...”
“Until we get answers,” Amelia said.
“Until we get answers,” Talia added.
“Until we get answers,” Ambrose concluded.
It was not just the signature signoff of theLost Night Filespodcast—it was a solemn vow.
