Then shed suddenly ended up here. She was still wondering why, because Archie Lawrence, her supervisor, had been so vague.
Youre going to love the situation, Archie had assured her. You go to this meeting, and then youll have a two-week hiatus to decide what you feel about an offer youre going to receive. So, nothing is definite yet.
Im being given a vacation so I can get an offer and think about it? That hardly seemed typical of the government. Whats the offer? shed demanded.
Thats what your meeting is about, hed said.
And no amount of indignant questioning or wheedling would convince him to share the details. If he even knew them Look, your meeting is with an FBI agent and you may be transferring services, Archie had told her. Thats all Im at liberty to say.
Why? shed asked him. I dont want to change agencies!
Hey, its come down from the brass, kiddo, and it sounds unusualtwo federal agencies getting together on a friendly basis. Hallelujah! Archie rolled his eyes. No ones going to force you to change. Youre being presented with an opportunity. You can say no. I mean it. If you dont like this offer, you have the option to pack up and come home, with no harm done to your status here. So quit asking me questions. Go away. Dont darken my doorfor the time being, anyway. You have things to do, arrangements to make. Hed sent her one of his lopsided grins. She liked Archie and considered him a great boss. He was always easygoing until he went into situation mode and then he could spew out orders faster and with more precision than the toughest drill sergeant.
Sometimes, of course, she wondered what Archie really thought of her. She was good at her job, although some of her methods were a bit unexpected. Luckily, a lot of criminals were still sexist. They didnt realize that a woman could and would hold them to task, shoot with uncanny aim and manage handcuffs with ease. But shed felt Archies eyes on her a few times when she hadnt really been able to explain the intuition that had led to her discovery of a cache of drugs, a hiding placeor a dead body. She even wondered if he was hoping shed take another position.
Today, soon, shed attend a meeting with a man from the FBI: He had an offer for her that presumably had to do with the unique abilities shed shown during her two years with the government, and due to the status of this particular branch of service, various government offices were cooperating. On the one hand, she felt like telling someone that if shed wanted to work for the FBI, she would have applied to the FBI. But she was curious, and she wasnt prone to be difficult; it was just the mystery of the situation.
Law enforcement agencies were not known for their cooperationrather sad, really, since they were all working toward the same goal. That was one of the reasons shed loved working in Key West; they had plenty to deal with, but they were smaller, and thus got along fairly well. Drugs were constantly out on the waterways. The Coast Guard was overworked, ditto the state police and the county police. The cops in Key West loved the Marshals. It had all been pretty good. State police, Monroe County police, the Coast Guard and the U.S. Marshals Office, all getting along, most of them meeting for a beer here and there on Duval Street or some off-the-tourist track location. In her case, it had probably helped that shed gone to the University of Miami and done an internship with the U.S. Marshals Office. Shed zeroed in on her chosen profession early. And shed expected to stay in south Florida.
To contemplate a life here, in Texas, was juststrange.
Nothing wrong with Texas, of course.
But she had it all figured out. It was the water. In San Antonio, there was no coast. There was the river, though.
She glanced at her watch. Two hours until her meeting.
When she looked out the window again, she nearly jumped. In those few seconds, a massive crow had landed on the outer sill. The damned thing seemed to be staring at her. She waved a hand at it.
The bird didnt fly away. It continued to stare.
Then it pecked the window.
She almost stepped back, then didnt. She scowled at the bird. Im a United States Marshal, and I will not be intimated by a bird! she said aloud.
Whats that?
Kelsey swung around. Sandy Holly had come breezing into the kitchen.
You have really big, aggressive birds around here, Kelsey said.
We do?
Yeah, look!
When she turned to the window again, the crow was gone. It bothered Kelsey to realize that the bird disturbed her. Ah, well, she had discovered earlier that one of the men shed be meeting was Agent Crow. Maybe that knowledge had made the birds appearance seem like something morelike some kind of omen, for good or
Sandy smiled, raising her eyebrows. Anyone would think you were trying not to like Texas, she said.
No, no, I love Texas. Texas is great, Kelsey told her.
Maybe youre just a little nervous. This is the big day, right?
This is it, Kelsey agreed. Sandy Holly was proving to be a true friend. Kelsey had gotten to know her almost twenty years ago, when theyd been a pair of awkward eight-year-olds at the West Texas dude ranch Kelseys parents had been sure shed want to attend. But shed been terrified of horses, while Sandy was terrified of being alone. Sandy had ridden before, even at five, becausebecause she was a Texan from San Antonio. Texans rode horses and wore big hats. So, at eight, Kelsey had toughened up enough to tell Sandy she didnt need to be homesick, and Sandy had promised Kelsey shed learn to love horses. She did, Kelsey mused. Thanks to Sandy, shed become an excellent rider. And, thanks to Sandy, shed known where she wanted to stay when she came to San Antonio. The Longhorn Inn and Saloon.
It wasnt as if theyd seen each other frequently. After a few years, they had skipped camps of any kind. But theyd met with other friends in Vegas to celebrate their respective twenty-first birthdays and kept up with each other through Facebook and email. When shed first talked about applying to be a U.S. Marshal, Sandy had encouraged her.
Kelsey was particularly glad to be here because Sandy wasnt in great shape at the momenttaking over the old inn had proven to be a monumental task, and there were problems Sandy had hinted about that Kelsey didnt entirely understand. They hadnt really had a chance to sit down and talk, since Sandy was running a business, which meant her time was limited. It was even more limited because shed lost a manager the week beforethe young man simply hadnt shown up for workand while Sandy had a great housekeeping staff of three, the organizational and hostessing duties had all fallen to her. Of course, as Kelsey well knew, Sandy could be high-strung, and she wondered if working for her friend wasnt a little stressful. On the plus side, Sandy did like to hire college guys who needed a break on a résumé. None of them seemed to last too long, however.
Sandy walked over to some controls on the kitchen wall and squinted as she looked at them. Hmm. Im going to hope this turns on the music and doesnt open the storm windows, she said, twisting the dial.
Country rock filled the air.
I think you got it, Kelsey told her.
How about some coffee?
You can actually sit for a few minutes? Kelsey asked. And tell me whats up?
Sandy poured coffee into cups and set them on the table, shrugging. Theres nothing really wrong. The past few days around here have been tense, thats all. People are so ridiculous!
Sandy poured coffee into cups and set them on the table, shrugging. Theres nothing really wrong. The past few days around here have been tense, thats all. People are so ridiculous!
Okay, explain, will you?
Sandy let out a long sigh. Its just this haunted thing about the inn. I sometimes wonder if I was crazy or what to get involved with it, even though I like a ghost story as much as anyone. Well, you know Ive wanted this place for years. Ive always been fascinated by the historyespecially what happened to Rose Langley.
The poor girl who was killed right before the fall of the Alamo? Kelsey asked.
Sandy nodded. Rose was killed by her loveror pimp, depending on how you want to look at itin Room 207. Its a sad story about a good girl gone wrong. She took off from her parents home because she was madly in love with Taylor Grant, and when they were in Galveston, she ended up being more or less kidnapped by a notorious bad guy named Matt Meyer, who wounded Grant. She might have fought Meyer and gained time for help, but she seems to have been afraid hed finish Grant off if she didnt go with him. So, the revolution was about to begin, and Meyer wanted to fight for Texas. They came here, and apparently, Rose and Matt Meyer got into a terrible fight, and he murdered her. Hed been known to kill, so it wasnt a surprise. We wouldnt just consider him a criminal today, wed consider him to be as sick and perverted as the most heinous killer out there. Ohand, of course, he took off before the battle of the Alamo, or before anything resembling the law could catch up with him. But
But?
I dont know how much of this you remember from my emails, Sandy said. I had just bought the placemoney down, no way outwhen all of a sudden there were problems. I was already in here, deciding what to do about renovating a week or so before the closing, when a girl named Sierra Monte disappeared.
Of course I remember. But remind me what she was doing here, when the inn was in the middle of changing owners, Kelsey said.
Peter Ghent, the last owner, still had the place until closing. Thats how it works. Id gotten a deal because there was no return on the down payment if anything went wrong. Anything. Ghent had some of the rooms rented, but he was like an absentee landlord. Sierra came here, apparently, because she wanted Room 207. Go figure. The rooms were super-cheap, even though it was a historic property, because Ghent wasnt running it well. The bar sucked! It was all falling apart and Id just started to renovate. But Sierra Monte insisted on staying. Anyway, she disappeared. A maid found blood everywhere and then the cops came inbut there was no body. And, of course, she disappeared from Room 207, so the legend continued to grow. I closed down for a bit when I took over to get the renovations finished. And then I didnt rent out the room at all afterward but the mystery of the place encourages people to come in. You know how that goes. Now people are clamoring for 207. Im careful who I give it to, though, because Im afraid of some idiot freaking out in the middle of the night and jumping out the window or something! Its hard to read people over the phone or through the internet, but, like I said, Im careful. Its rented out nowonly because I have a big ol rodeo cowboy staying in it.