“Gonna need you to explain this one, bud,” I tell him.
He droops a little, then picks up the tablet. “We’ve had some humongous spikes in energy use. Especially in the last few weeks, but I can find them randomly going back years. That’s not the big problem. The big problem is, something messed with the metering system so those spikes wouldn’t be apparent. And I did a little more digging, and talking to Celeste over in accounting? Seems that our electric bill is a lot higher than what we should be paying.”
“So what does this mean?” Allyn asks.
“No idea,” Chris says. “If the building were on electric heat it would make sense to see a spike like that in wintertime. But we’re not. And anyway, there’s no pattern or anything. It’s like we got a room full of blenders and space heaters that someone keeps plugging in for a bit and then unplugging. But like, a lot.” He nods and widens his eyes, desperate to make the point. “A lot.”
“And what about the elevators?”
He shrugs. “Nothing wrong that I can find. I looked myself.”
Allyn raises his hand at me. “See? Maybe a possible future.”
“Or maybe it hasn’t been tampered with yet.” I turn to Chris. “I want the access hatches to all the elevators locked up, and the elevators themselves inspected every half hour. You see anything that looks shaky, pull it right out of service.”
Chris looks at Allyn for approval, which annoys me.
After a moment Allyn nods. “Thank you. That’ll be all.”
Chris hovers for a second before realizing he’s been dismissed, and then he heads toward the hallway. I hold back the laugh building in my chest. Kolten has been on about this secret room and now we know there’s something sucking power like crazy in that wing?
“I do not believe in coincidences,” I say, before realizing, damn it, I said the quiet part out loud.
“January, it’s your turn now. What have you got?”
“Westin is dead,” I tell him.
His face shatters at this. Body sags into the chair.
“You knew him,” I say.
Allyn nods slowly.
“How?”
“He is a person of interest in an ongoing investigation.” He looks up at me, his eyes rimmed with tears. “Where is he? I need you to show him to me.”
“Well, about that…”
* * *
—
Allyn is in a much better position to get the guy in room 526 to leave, but still, I wait down the bend in the hall, out of sight, just to be safe. It takes a little cajoling—it’s getting late—but Allyn assures him it’s important.
Once it’s clear, I come over. Westin is still there, still dead, still fresh.
“Where is he?” Allyn asks.
I sweep my hand at the far bed. “Right there. Which is the fun part, right? I mean, I can see him. But Ruby ran a scan and came back with nothing.”
Allyn walks to the bed, puts his hand on it. Feels the mattress.
“January, there’s nothing here.”
“Allyn, you know I’m Unstuck. You know I can see things…”
“You say the body has been here, what, all day? So what does that mean? He’s going to die and we have to stop it?”
“No, I think he’s really dead.”
Allyn turns and sits on the bed, right on Westin’s midsection. He puts his head in his hands. I am making him do that a lot lately.
“January,” he says, “what am I supposed to do with this?”
“Are you saying you don’t believe me?”
“There’s no body here. And the way you’ve been acting…I told you. I told you that you should leave.” He shakes his head, gets up, and paces the room. “This is my fault. I’m the one who put you here.”
“Allyn, wait, just a second.”
“No, just…” He sighs. “We found someone with a Jeep, and the roads aren’t great, but they think they can get you safely down the road to the Moonlight Motel.”
“The Moonlight? Are you kidding? That’s the kind of place where you wake up with your kidney missing in a tub full of ice.”
“January, the porter found you in a closet tearing apart a wall,” he says. “Then you stabbed him. I was trying to get past it. I really was. But now with this…if you were in my shoes you would make the exact same decision.”
“First off, I did not stab him, I slashed him. They are completely different knife-fighting techniques and I’m disappointed in you for not knowing that. Second, they put a Band-Aid on it and it’s fine. Not like he died.”
Allyn shakes his head and looks around the room, almost like he’s willing the body to appear—something, anything, to back up what I’m saying—and finds nothing. “Go to your room. Pack your things. I’m sorry. Let me get this sorted, and let’s get you sorted, okay?”
“Send me to my room, huh? You’re not my real dad.”
I wait, like he might respond, but he doesn’t. He just sits there, his head in his hands, surrounded by a corpse that I’m beginning to think might just be a figment of my time-damaged brain.
* * *
—
I head for my room and swipe my watch, and the latch gives a little red flash. Great. Did Allyn revoke my security privileges already? Now I can’t even get into the room? I give the door handle a little jiggle out of frustration and then I’m about to call down to the lobby when the door cracks open, the security bar in place. The room beyond that is dark so all I can see is an eye, peering out.
“Yes?” A male voice.
“What the fuck are you doing in my room?” I ask.
“Ah, oh, sorry, I…” The man stutters as he undoes the latch, and when it’s clear I push the door open, sending him tumbling to the floor.
He’s a sad sight in the sliver of light coming from behind me in the hallway. In a bathrobe—hotel issue, and he had to call down for it because I didn’t have any in here. He’s not dressed underneath and is grabbing at it to cover himself, to preserve his dignity. His hair is slightly wet, like he just got out of the shower, and his little, sinewy arms make me think of chickens.
“I’m so sorry,” he says, sliding back on the carpet. “Did they not tell you? They told me you approved.”
“Who told you?”
“I don’t…the manager, I think? I don’t remember. Please, I’m sorry…” He points to the corner, at a duffel bag that, presumably, contains my clothing and personal effects, because the room looks like a hotel room again. Not that I had it decked out or anything. But still, it suddenly feels cold and alien, my space having been invaded and wiped out.