Page 20

Gideon was right. She was overreacting.

Amelia went to the connecting door and yanked it open. She heard the sound of his key in the lock of the parking lot door just as she looked into his darkened room.

An ankle-deep fog of murky energy seethed on the floor. The spectral mist created by the layers of paranormal radiance was similar to what she had glimpsed in her own room a moment ago before she switched on the lights. It would disappear as soon as Gideon turned on the lights.

She was not surprised to see his prints glowing hot and silver in the fog. She would know them anywhere.

She pushed the door all the way open, crossed the threshold into room ten—and stopped, frozen with shock.

The large pool of luminous dark energy seethed on the carpet near the entrance to the small bathroom. The radiation wasn’t fresh but she knew the cause; knew that it would take a long time to fade—years maybe. She had occasionally viewed similar stains in houses she had photographed for her real estate clients. She hated those jobs.

“Oh, shit,” she whispered.

Gideon got the outside door open, moved into the room, and hit the wall switch, flooding the space with normal light. The fog of paranormal energy and the unnerving stain on the carpet disappeared.

“Amelia?” Gideon came toward her, his eyes tight with concern. “What’s wrong?”

She took another breath. She was not alone and the man with her did not think she was mentally unstable. He believed she was merely having a little trouble learning to control her other vision. He seemed to think it was perfectly normal for her to be unnerved from time to time. Hey, it could happen to anyone.

Control.

She wrapped her arms around her midsection. “I think something terrible happened in this room.”

He did a quick, thoughtful survey of the space and then looked at her again. “What did you see a moment ago when the lights were off?”

“Hang on, I need to be sure.”

She unfolded her arms and went back into her room. Opening the camera bag, she took out the old Nikon. Immediately her nerves steadied. She could do this.

She went back to the doorway. “Please turn off the lights again.”

Without a word, Gideon moved to the wall switch and flipped it, plunging the room into darkness. The gray fog flooded back, drifting low across the worn carpet. The terrible stain near the bathroom radiated an eerie light.

She examined the scene through the viewfinder. Now, thanks to the camera lens, she could make out the details. There was no longer any doubt.

“What do you see?” Gideon asked quietly.

She lowered the camera. “Someone died here. Not natural causes. Murder.”