Krewe of Hunters The Unseen (23 page)

“Is this the way it usually works?” Logan asked Earl Candy in a low voice.

“Well, there isn’t always a
usual
in documentaries, but no,” Candy said. “Hell, I make a good income and I’m paid by the hour. Guess this’ll let me get the wife an iPad.” Chasson did have an eye for the dramatic. He started to tell Bernie what to film, but Bernie took over. “I know what you want, Chasson. And I’ll make it work, but listen to me now. They call me the director for a reason.”

“We’ll get out of the way, too,” Logan said.

Kelsey frowned, and he almost smiled. She wasn’t leaving what was currently her room with these people in it.

“We’ll wait here, in the hallway,” he said.

Kelsey nodded slightly and joined him.

What Chasson had planned wasn’t derogatory, or disrespectful. He spoke softly, with a reverent hush to his voice as he said, “We’ve come to Room 207. When some guests phone to book it, they call it the murder room. This was where Rose Langley entertained men from the Alamo, and where she met her death. And where, nearly two centuries later, another young woman encountered a terrible fate, although the truth of that fate is still not known. With me is Sandy Holly, current owner of the Longhorn Saloon and Inn. Sandy, can you tell us more of the story?” IN PROCESS EDITION - JAN. 10, 2012

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Sandy looked very pretty—shy and sweet—as she stepped closer. Chasson laid an arm across her shoulders. “Ms. Holly, you bought the Longhorn right after the incident with Sierra Monte, didn’t you?”

“I was in the process of buying the saloon, yes, and it was so tragic! We don’t know what happened, other than that a tremendous amount of blood was found in the room. But after the police were finished, a clean-up biohazard crew came in and, as you can see, the room is beautiful now.”

“But, Sandy, twice in the same room… Do you think the spirits of Rose Langley and Sierra Monte are still here?”

“No. I think that if there
are
spirits, they’re the souls of those who have gone on, and both women know I revere the history in this place, and that they’re as welcome as any other guest of the Longhorn Saloon,” Sandy said earnestly.

“Thank you, Sandy,” Chasson intoned, “and I’m Jeff Chasson for the history of the Alamo and Texas, old and new.”

“All right—was that brilliant, or what?” Jeff asked, coming forward when they were done.

Logan realized that Sandy was smiling from ear to ear.

She came forward, as well, hurrying out to the hallway to throw her arms around Kelsey. “That was great, just great! I think it will bring tons of people to the inn!”

“I hope so, Sandy,” Kelsey told her. She looked at Logan, and he grinned in return. He could tell that they were both wondering what Sandy had been so worried about.

“Drinks on the house!” Sandy announced. “If you’re available, of course.”

Earl Candy nodded. “Works for me.”

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“Me, too. I could use a drink,” Bernie said. “Earl, give Cameron a call first. Have him get a gofer to pick up the film and ask him to take a look. I want it back with his effects in it as soon as possible, just to make sure we’ve got something really decent.”

“Thanks for letting us hang around, Sandy,” Logan said.

“Let’s get Corey Simmons back up here, and we’ll carry the film equipment down so Kelsey can have her room back.”

“Kelsey, wow. You’d be a great interview!” Chasson said, homing in on her.

“No, no, I wouldn’t be. I’d ruin your documentary.”

“But you’re staying in this room. Have you been scared?

Do you sleep with the lights on?”

“It’s a room, just a room. An ordinary room.” Kelsey spoke evenly and smiled as she looked at him.

“Well…anyway. Thanks,” Chasson said, turning to Sandy. “I’ll take that drink, Ms. Holly. In fact, I’ll have two. I’m done for the day!”

They started down the stairs. “I’ll get Corey. He does know how to tote and haul,” Logan told Kelsey. He left her in the hallway, watching the crew take apart the camera and sound system again.

He came back with Corey and they helped carry down the equipment. By then, the young gofer who’d been summoned had arrived; he collected the film, and Kelsey’s room was cleared out at last.

Logan waited with her as she went through her room.

She didn’t seem to mind spirits or ghosts at all, but openly resented having Jeff Chasson in her temporary domain.

Chasson did have a smarmy charm; Sandy had fallen for IN PROCESS EDITION - JAN. 10, 2012

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it in no time f lat. Despite himself, Logan could suddenly envision the hours he and Kelsey had spent together, and it was an almost painful and too-physical memory. He urged himself to abandon the thought. “Let’s run by the Alamo,” he said thickly, “and then get to the station.” She nodded. “Sorry. I just feel…”

“Invaded?” he asked.

She laughed. “Yes.”

“You have your key.”

“Oh, yes. But then, Sandy has a key, too.”

“True,” he acknowledged. “That’s why you should just come and stay with me.” The words were out of his mouth before he knew what he was saying, but as he spoke, he realized he meant them.

Kelsey shook her head. “Sean needs to stay with this documentary. By the same token, I need to stay in Room 207.” He nodded. “We should get moving,” he told her. The days were too short for everything they had to do. The killer might already have another woman. But at the moment, he needed to move for another reason. He had concentrated too fully on Kelsey.

“The Alamo—and our bench?” she asked.

“Yeah.” He hurried down the stairs. Jeff Chasson, Bernie and Earl Candy were already at the bar, drinking. They were joined by Corey Simmons and several other guests.

Chasson was talking to Corey, which didn’t seem to bode well, but there was nothing they could do about it.

They left the Longhorn and headed out.

Kelsey hadn’t liked Jeff Chasson in her room, and she couldn’t shake that feeling. Even though he’d kept his IN PROCESS EDITION - JAN. 10, 2012

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words and tone careful, there’d been something nearly sa-lacious as he talked about the murders. And she was worried about Sandy, falling for such a slimy manipulator, but Sandy seemed to be smitten.

They walked to the Alamo from the inn.

“Now the rat bastard is talking to Corey Simmons, who wants to be in the documentary. If Chasson finds out that he was in that room, there’ll be hell to pay,” she said to Logan.

“Don’t worry, Corey won’t say anything.”

“You’re

sure?”

He grinned. “I’m pretty sure. Corey Simmons is happy as a clam to be in that film. He’s been hired to portray a rugged frontiersman willing to brave the lines of Santa Anna’s army to bring help to his comrades. He’s not going to risk that—or his rodeo career—by admitting he was scared silly in a ‘haunted’ room and had to be saved by a woman.”

“A U.S. Marshal,” she corrected him.

He didn’t reply but grinned again.

“Never mind.” she groaned. He was right about Corey’s frontier mentality.

They reached the Alamo and claimed “their” bench, the place Zachary Chase would expect to find them. He didn’t come right away, of course, and they studied the f low of people around the historic shrine, speaking softly about the case as they waited.

“The actors at the studio seemed wonderful,” Kelsey said. “Of course, we’ve only met a fraction of the people involved. When Sean was out on location, there were hundreds of extras at a time.”

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“Yes, but some of those people live out there.”

“There still have to be other people working here, in San Antonio, if they’re doing more scenes at the studio. I mean, they just about have to include the famous scene in which Travis tells the men they can fight or leave. He draws a line in the sand, and James Bowie has himself carried over the line, even though he can’t stand. And there have to be scenes between Santa Anna and the women and children he spared, and Joe, Travis’s slave.”

He nodded and leaned his head back, catching the last rays of the dying sun.

“And we’re taking the word of a
ghost
that we’re looking for a man in costume,” he said.”

“You doubt Zachary?” Kelsey asked, a little horrified.

“Not in the least. But could you begin to explain that to anyone else?”

“No,” she said. “So, we met some nice actors today. Except for Jeff Chasson, and he’s an idiot.”

“I can’t disagree. But being an idiot doesn’t make a man a murderer, nor does the fact that he’s charming—or can pretend to be—make him innocent.”

“Of course not. But…did you see his eyes light up when he talked about Sierra Monte? It gave me chills,” Kelsey said.

“He’s creepy, but that still doesn’t make him a murderer,” Logan responded. Then he straightened. “Here comes Zachary.”

And indeed, their friendly spirit was coming toward them, excusing himself as he moved past others who had no idea he was even there. Sometimes people would pause IN PROCESS EDITION - JAN. 10, 2012

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and look around, as if they felt a strange stirring or the whisper of a chill. Maybe they were really feeling the past and the sacred sorrow of the ground on which they walked.

Zachary made his way to the bench and bowed awkwardly, greeting Kelsey, then took the seat between her and Logan.

“I have kept my eyes open, and I have been vigilant, through the day and through the night,” he assured them.

“I’m sorry to say I have nothing to tell you.”

“Nothing is good,” Logan said. “We’re afraid that another young woman is going to be kidnapped and killed.

We don’t know why this man is taking them, but I was thinking it might have to do with Rose Langley and the Galveston diamond.”

Zachary Chase frowned. “The Galveston diamond? It disappeared in Galveston, or so I thought. I always heard it had existed, but that in the scuff le—when Matt Meyers took Rose Langley—it was lost in the sand.”

“I believe Rose brought it here,” Kelsey said.

“That’s interesting, that she might have held on to it.” Zachary spoke very quietly.

“You knew Rose, didn’t you?” Logan asked him.

Zachary nodded, and there was something wistful in his eyes. “I wish…I wish I had been braver. That I had been a better man.”

“In what way?” Kelsey asked gently. “You must have been a very brave man, to have done all that you did.” He shook his head, gazing down at his hands. Then he raised his eyes, a rueful expression on his face. “You have to remember, we didn’t expect Santa Anna when he came.

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We thought it would take him much longer to march here.

And when it all began—well, we still thought the provisional government would send reinforcements. I wasn’t brave just being at the Alamo. And when we were manning the mission… I went to the Longhorn often. I was in love with Rose,” he admitted.

“You were in love with her?” Logan repeated, and Kelsey realized that this was something he hadn’t known or guessed.

“She was beautiful, and no matter what was done to her, she was so sweet and refined. I wanted to take her away with me. Run in the night. Go somewhere, anywhere.”

“But Santa Anna’s army was coming,” Kelsey said.

“I could’ve made my move. I could have slipped away with her and we could have ridden east, ridden as hard as the wind, and escaped. But Rose was afraid for me. He’d nearly killed her man, Taylor, back in Galveston, and she’d seen him shoot another in cold blood over a poker game. I said we should go, anyway—just get the hell out of Texas.

But Rose would tell me no, she wouldn’t risk my life, and God help me, there was cowardice in me, because I didn’t insist.”

“How curious,” Kelsey murmured. “Because, as I said, I believe she did have the diamond. And that, at the cost of her life, she refused to give it to Matt Meyer.”

“What makes you so certain?” Zachary asked.

Kelsey decided not to tell him she’d
seen
the woman he’d loved, seen her murdered—over and over again, in her dreams and visions.

Logan didn’t say anything; he waited for her to speak.

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Kelsey took a deep breath. “I believe she had it, Zachary, because people have searched for it for years and years—

to no avail. Of course, time passes, seas and sand change, hurricanes almost wiped out Galveston, and still…I think she had it. I suspect she was waiting for her own courage not to fail her, and then she would have ridden away with you.”

Zachary smiled and looked at her. “Do you really think so?” he asked.

“I

do.”

“If I could only reach her…touch her,” he said, his ghostly voice wistful. Then he seemed to give himself a shake.

“But…even if Rose had the diamond, what does that have to do with someone kidnapping women from the Alamo?”

“We haven’t figured that out yet,” Logan said.

“Are you sure? Are you sure it’s the same man, and that it could be connected to Rose and the diamond?”

“No, we’re not, but we need someplace to start.” Logan got to his feet. The darkness was descending upon them.

“Thank you, Zachary,” he said. “Kelsey?” She rose, too, and so did Zachary. He began to walk by, then quickly turned.

“Thank you,” he told Kelsey. “I will do my best not to disappoint you.”

She watched as he moved toward the chapel and disappeared into the dusk and shadows of nightfall.

“He may be in love again,” Logan said dryly.

“Jealous?” she teased.

“I’m pretty sure I’m a bit ahead of the poor guy, being IN PROCESS EDITION - JAN. 10, 2012