Page 52 of Shattering Dawn
“No, my parents did.”
“It was not an amicable separation, I gather?”
“I doubt if there is any such thing.”
“Probably not,” Gideon agreed. “Well, that explains the book Shipley is reading.”
“You saw the title?”
“When Life Gives You Lemons: Ten Steps to Moving On.”
Chapter Twenty-eight
Gideon brought theSUV to a stop in the driveway of the abandoned hotel and cut the lights. The desert night, star-studded and lit with a brilliant moon, closed in immediately.
Amelia unclipped her seat belt and leaned forward to get a better view of the ruins.
“I was right when I told Pete Ellerbeck that a night shoot would be the best way to photograph this place,” she said. “Talk about creepy.”
The full moon illuminated the partially destroyed hotel in shades of gray that ranged from skeletal-pale to impenetrable shadow. She dreaded getting out of the car.
“See anything?” Gideon asked.
She raised the camera and studied the scene through the windshield. As expected, a low-lying fog of old energy drifted around the lobby entrance, but there were several splashes of recent prints. They phosphoresced in the night, seething with nameless colors. Some were familiar. Gideon’s tracks were everywhere.
“The windshield is distorting things somewhat,” she said. “But I can see your prints from our first visit. There are others that are new, though.”
“What about your own prints?” Gideon sounded genuinely curious.
She shrugged. “For some reason I can’t see my own prints. Can’t photograph them, either.”
“Makes sense. You probably can’t see your own aura.”
“Very true. I never made that connection. How did you come up with it?”
“Blame Uncle Shelton.”
“Right,” she said. “That would be the Sweetwater family genius who got my friends and me into this mess.”
“Under the circumstances, I think that’s a little unfair. Tell me about the new prints at the entrance.”
“I think someone went into the lobby not too long ago.”
“Sounds like our informant has arrived,” Gideon said. “But he’s not rushing out to meet us. I wonder why.”
She raised the camera and peered through the viewfinder. “I think there’s something very wrong with whoever left those prints.”
Gideon did not take his attention off the lobby entrance. “Define ‘wrong.’ ”
“I can’t be certain but I have a sense that whoever went into the lobby earlier is in pain. Ill, maybe. Weak.”
“Any exit tracks?”
“Good question.” She studied the prints again. “No. But the person could have left through another doorway. There are a lot of rooms in both wings and each one has a door that opens to the outside. And then there are all the empty windows.”
“Stay here, doors locked. I’ll see what’s going on.”
Ice touched the back of Amelia’s neck. The thought of getting out of the SUV was disturbing, but she could not let Gideon venture into the hotel alone. She needed to do this.