Page 35 of Shattering Dawn
“Maybe. It looks like you and theLost Night Filespodcast team have become more than a nuisance to whoever is behind the experiments.”
“That may explain why they tried to grab me but it doesn’t tell us why the fake company would schedule the demolition of the Lucent Springs Hotel.”
“I can think of one very good reason why someone might want those ruins razed to the ground.”
“What?”
“It would be the only way to be sure that all the evidence was erased.”
“But there is no evidence out there in the ruins,” she said. “I should know. I’ve spent hours looking around and photographing that damned hotel.”
“You found that key,” Gideon reminded her.
“But that’s all.”
“There’s a chance there’s more evidence. I’m talking about the paranormal kind.”
“If there is, I haven’t been able to sense it.”
“You told me your talent works best at night. Ever been out there after dark?”
She stopped breathing. Her throat got tight. The back of her neck was suddenly ice-cold.
“No,” she admitted. “But I really don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Damn. Now she sounded weak.
“If you want evidence of the sort you can perceive with your talent you’ll need to look for it in the ruins at night.”
She cleared her throat. “This is the desert, remember? There’s a lot of nightlife. Scorpions, snakes, spiders.”
“We’ve got flashlights and boots.”
She did not like the casual way he brushed aside her very legitimate concerns. “You’re kind of a hard-ass, aren’t you?”
“When I’m working I tend to be very focused.”
“I noticed.” She couldn’t blame him. When she was working with a camera she was focused, too. She swallowed hard. “Are we going out there tonight?”
“No, tonight I’m going to take a look around the manager’s office at the motel, remember? I want to try to ID the individual who lost the key to room ten in the ruins.”
She relaxed a little. She had a twenty-four-hour reprieve. “Right.”
Gideon frowned, as if he had finally realized just how unenthusiastic she was about an after-dark tour of the scene of her lost night.
“You won’t be alone out there,” he said. “I’ll be with you.”
She turned that over a few times in her head. The thought of a night visit to the old hotel was daunting, but he was right. Maybe she had missed some important evidence because of her phobia.
“I know,” she said, resigned.
“I wouldn’t ask you to do this if I didn’t think it’s a way to get some answers.”
She gave him a steely smile. “Enough about me. Let’s talk about you. You haven’t explained how your own talent works.”
“Trust me, you really don’t want to know.”
“Yes, Gideon, I really do want to know.”