Torrent Read online

  “One of them pulled the shade down on the second-floor room at the front.” Temi nodded toward the brick wall on the side of the building.

  “Good,” Simon said. “We know which room they’re staying in now.”

  “And that they might be doing something they don’t want anyone to see,” I mused. “It won’t be fully dark for a couple of hours. No need to pull down the shades for the night.” Though I supposed they could be dealing with glare on the TV. Still... the sun shouldn’t be shining in that window. Maple trees bright with yellow leaves shaded the building.

  “Cuppers closes in a half hour,” Simon said.

  I sipped my mocha, determined to enjoy its smooth richness, even if we were on a stake out. “I doubt they’ll kick us off their front patio.”

  “No, but it might look suspicious when we’re the only ones lurking here.”

  “We’re not lurking, we’re drinking.” I squinted at him. “Why? Are you going to propose some new course of delinquency?”

  “I had the thought that if someone pushed over one of the bikes, an alarm might go off and they’d run down to check, maybe without thinking to lock their room door. Or doors. You think they’re staying together?”

  “So far, all we know is that they like motorcycles and the color black. I’m not sure there’s enough there to make guesses about rooming preferences. Also, I think you’ve done enough damage to their bikes. You’re going to get throttled if one of them catches up with you.” The sun had dropped below the western mountains. It might not be dark for a while, but I was ready to check my email, curl up with a book, and forget this day had happened. “We could accept our losses and go back to the campground. There are some estate sales I want to check on tomorrow. That ought to prove more profitable than roaming around the mountains with metal detectors.”

  Simon scowled at me. “We’ve found some good stuff with my tools and my research.”

  “They walked out the front door.” Temi slipped a pair of sunglasses out of her purse and donned them.

  I kept myself from whirling in my seat to stare. Simon’s hands clenched the edge of the table, but he showed similar restraint. Though we still hadn’t filled Temi in on what was going on, she calmly sipped her chai tea, going along with our spy mission.

  “They’re not heading to the bikes,” she said. “They’re walking this way.”

  “Erk?” It made sense since downtown with all its restaurants and pubs was a few blocks to the north, and there wasn’t anything besides houses to the south, but if they strolled right past us...

  I shifted in my chair so my back would be to the sidewalk. Simon pulled out his smartphone and bent his head over the display. Temi continued to sip her tea, the sunglasses hiding her eyes.

  “You might want to sneak a peek when they pass,” she murmured. “They’re... unusual.”

  “How so? Aside from their matching caps?”

  “Handsome, but there’s something...” Temi’s face shifted toward a woman sitting on the porch with a laptop and her dog.

  I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. The Harley pair came into view, still wearing their black leather pants and jackets as well as the caps. I made a show of studying my phone, too, though tried my best to sneak that peek Temi had suggested. They strode by without speaking, and I didn’t glimpse more than the sides of their faces. Elegant was the word that came to my mind, both for their features and their movement. I had a hard time putting a finger on anything distinct, but Temi was right. They were an unusual pair.

  Fortunately, they walked past without any glances to the side. None of us moved until they’d crossed the intersection toward Courthouse Square. Then Simon pushed back his chair, stirring the fallen leaves dusting the patio.

  “Time to visit that vacated room.”

  “Temi,” I said, “I don’t suppose you’d like to inquire about lodgings while Simon here asks to use the restroom?” I’d help him get in to snoop around, but I wasn’t going to break down any doors for him. He’d have to figure that out on his own.

  “It depends.” Temi rose from the table. “Have I been hired yet?”

  “Yes,” Simon said.

  I lifted a hand. “We’re going to discuss it. It’d be more like some kind of profit-sharing gig though. We don’t make enough to have salaried employees.” I thought about adding that she probably wouldn’t earn enough to cover the insurance payment on that car every month, but Simon was already jogging up the street.

  “Perhaps a trial period then?” Temi asked.

  “We’ll see.”

  I hustled after Simon and up the steps onto a colonial-style porch with white columns at each corner. There was a balcony in a similar style above us. I wasn’t sure how old the building was, though I seemed to remember some trivia about most of Prescott burning in a fire in the early 1900s, but it had that quaint historic feel to it. When we entered the hotel, there were a few people sipping drinks at the small bar to the left, laughing and smiling as they chatted with the bartender and each other. There wasn’t anyone standing behind the reception desk on the other side of the foyer. To the right of the desk, a set of stairs led up to the second level.

  I waved Temi toward the bar. All I wanted was for her to block the bartender’s view as we headed for the stairs, but for verisimilitude I added, “Want to order us a couple of drinks?”

  She waved back. Her six feet in height proved adequate for blocking views, so Simon and I slipped over to the carpeted stairs and climbed to the second floor. Despite having knowledge of the resident ghost, I’d never been inside the building. It only had about thirty rooms, though, so it wasn’t hard to find the one that matched up to that corner window.

  The hotel had old-fashioned locks instead of key-card deals, so I tried the knob, not expecting it to open. To my surprise, it did. I would have opened it carefully, peeking in to make sure nobody waited inside—and that the room wasn’t full of bodies or tools for turning people into bodies—but Simon lacked my patience. He brushed past me and pushed through the doorway.

  The room held a quilted double bed with nightstands, a dresser with a television, an armchair, and a door leading to a bathroom, not much more. If there was a metal detector or anything larger than the pair of messenger bags on the bed, it wasn’t apparent. That didn’t keep Simon from stalking about and flopping to his belly on the floor in search of his Dirt Viper. I headed for the window, so I could watch for the return of our motorcycle men. I should have given Temi my phone number so she could text me if they walked in the front door or if any other trouble headed our way. Obviously I needed more practice at acts of espionage.

  “Nothing.” Simon climbed to his feet. “What could they have done with it?” He opened the drawer in one of the bedside tables.

  I snorted. “Unless that metal detector had a secret folding option you never showed me, it’s not going to be in a drawer.”

  “I know that, but maybe there’s other evidence. Like a picture of them standing beside my Dirt Viper like a fisherman holding up his prize catch.”

  “You’re attributing entirely too much value to that metal detector.”

  “Nothing in here except a bible. I’ll check the bathroom. Maybe they were showering with it.”

  “Kinky,” I remarked and, for no reason other than curiosity, opened the drawer on the bedside table closest to me. A soft golden glow emanated from within. “Uh.”

  “What is it?” Simon almost knocked me over in his haste to peer inside.

  “Not a bible,” I said, my voice on the squeaky side. The glow was coming from a golden disk about three times the diameter of a silver dollar. I wasn’t a numismatics expert, but I’d seen a lot of old coins since we’d started our business, and I hadn’t seen anything like this. I’d studied four ancient languages in school, in addition to modern Greek, and the runes weren’t anything familiar. The picture in the center looked like a brain. Given the decapitated man we’d left in the mine, that disturbed me more than it
might in other circumstances. The glowing aspect of the coin was slightly disturbing too. Still, I couldn’t take my eyes from it, and my interest in these Harley riders tripled. Was this some ancient artifact they’d unearthed? Something with historical or cultural significance?

  “I’ll say.” Simon poked a finger into the drawer, as if to pick up the coin, but he pulled it out again without touching it. “How did they make it glow? There’s no such thing as radioactive coins, is there?”

  “Some sort of... tritium or phosphorescent application? Like they use for watches? I’ve never heard of coins treated with that though.”

  Simon pulled his phone out to take a picture. This time I didn’t object. This would be perfect for the blog, especially if it turned out to be something old instead of some modern gewgaw created for... well, I had no idea, but the idea of researching it intrigued me.

  I was about to check the window again when my own phone chirped. Text message. I didn’t recognize the number but the, “GET OUT!!!” was easy enough to understand.

  “Come on,” I whispered and shoved the drawer shut. “We have to—”

  The door swung inward.

  CHAPTER 5

  The two men stood in the doorway, their jaws slack, seemingly as surprised to see us as we were to see them. Actually, I wasn’t so much surprised as chagrinned.

  “Room service,” I announced. “We thought you’d left for dinner, so we came to tidy your room.” Oh, yeah, they were totally going to believe that. If we weren’t standing next to the window on the far side of the bed, I’d try charging past them to see if we could escape before their reflexes caught up to us, but vaulting over the furniture to reach the door would give them time to react.

  “Pardon?” one asked. A little slighter and shorter than his comrade, he seemed the younger of the two, and didn’t look like he needed to shave often. He blinked a few times, as if he might believe me. His deep green-blue eyes reminded me of an alpine lake I’d hiked to in the Rockies once. A few tufts of blond hair had escaped his black cap and hinted of a boyish tousled style.

  The other fellow... There was nothing boyish about him, though he didn’t look like he needed to shave often either. Beneath his black leather jacket, he wore a dark gray T-shirt that fitted his torso and had a deep V-neck that promised defined pectoral muscles. He was lean rather than bulky, but his outfit along with his cold stare reminded me of Schwarzenegger in the Terminator movies. He didn’t look like he believed us.

  “Tidy,” he said, taking in the room—and the fact that nothing in it was amiss, nor did the quilt have so much as a wrinkle to it. “There is nothing that requires tidying.” His gaze flicked from us to the bedside table and back again, eyes narrowing. His irises were as striking as the other man’s, a rich violet that wouldn’t be possible to achieve without contact lenses. I hoped that meant his vision was poor and that he’d have a hard time leaping over the bed to catch us.

  “That’s because we clean in the mornings,” I said. “We only have to tidy in the evening for our messy guests. Since that’s obviously not you two, we’ll just turn down the bed and place mints on your pillows.” Without taking my eyes from the pair—or dropping my best customer-service-with-a-smile smile—I pulled down the corner of the quilt and fluffed the pillow. “Simon, did you remember the mints?”

  “Uhm, no. They’re in the cart.”

  “Uh oh, we better go get them.” My heart was beating a couple thousand times a minute as I eased around the end of the bed and headed for the door. Maybe we should have tried throwing ourselves out the window instead. It was only the second story. We couldn’t break more than a few bones in such a fall, right?

  Too late now. I was only a couple of feet away from the riders, with Simon on my heels. I didn’t like the way they were looking at each other, like old friends who could exchange complicated messages with nothing but a glance.

  “I think the cart’s right out there,” I said and tried to dart between them.

  A hand clamped onto my biceps. I tried to jerk away, but I might as well have been attempting to escape from steel shackles. It was Violet Eyes, and he pulled me close, glaring down at me.

  “Why were you searching our room?”

  “Searching? Is that what you think we were doing?” I waved to Simon, hoping he could slip past and escape into the hallway where he could find help or cook up some scheme to free me, but the second man had blocked his approach to the doorway. “I told you,” I said with as much affronted indignation as I could manage, “we work here and were here to tidy your room if it needed it. If you don’t let go of me, I’ll tell the owner, and she’ll call the police.”

  Blue Eyes looked more uncertain than his buddy. “Jakatra, maybe we should let them go. Nothing’s missing. I could sense if it were.”

  “They are thieves,” Violet Eyes—Jakatra said. “Even in this benighted realm, that is a crime.”

  “Crime?” Simon blurted. “You’re the ones who stole my metal detector up on that mountain. What’d you do with it?”

  I winced. If they hadn’t known we were responsible for their mutilated tires, they did now.

  “Sah,” Blue Eyes whispered. I didn’t know what “sah” meant, but his expression grew slightly contrite.

  Jakatra’s glare didn’t soften. “We didn’t steal it; we required its use for a short time. We left it against a tree near where that large conveyance was parked.”

  “Fine,” Simon said, “then we can all forget we saw each other and I’ll go get it.” He met my eyes.

  I gave him a quick nod. These guys might not agree with his suggestion, but it was time to depart either way.

  Simon grabbed the smaller fellow, trying to stomp on his foot and push him out of the way. Jakatra’s steel grip hadn’t let up, but my first escape attempt hadn’t been more than a reflex—not a particularly honed one at that. This time, I put some thought into getting away. I grabbed the wrist that held me, intending to twist it against the joint so the pain would force him to let me go. To further distract him, I drove my knee toward his groin at the same time.

  But my knee hit nothing except the doorjamb he’d been standing in front of. Faster than I could register, he had twisted away, evading both of my attacks. Before I could attempt a counter, I found my face mashed against that doorjamb. I tried to wriggle free, but a heavy weight against my back had me pinned. My arms were yanked behind me, and I couldn’t find any leverage to stomp on his foot. I couldn’t even see his foot.

  “What should we do with them?” Blue Eyes asked, telling me he’d conquered Simon as easily as I’d been trapped.

  Damn. I’d never been in a real fight in my life, but I’d thought those hours in the dojo would translate to a modicum of competence.

  A clink sounded against the window on the door at the end of the hallway. The weight on my back shifted—the man turning part way to look toward the noise. The attack came from the opposite direction though. Temi raced into view, a fire extinguisher in her hands, its muzzle aimed at us.

  I squinted my eyes shut and buried my chin in my chest. A white spray of chemicals assaulted us. My attacker drew back, lifting an arm to shield his face. This time when I threw a kick, it connected with his shin. Not much of an assault, but I was more interested in lunging into the hallway. Whether because of surprise or because the extinguisher’s propellant made everything slippery I didn’t know, but his grip on me fell away.

  I almost stumbled and fell on my face, but Temi flung the extinguisher at someone and caught me.

  “Simon,” I started, but a familiar form smothered in white spurted out of the room beside me.

  “Go,” he ordered.

  We went. It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t graceful, but we sprinted down the stairs and out the front door. We almost knocked over an elderly couple climbing the steps to the porch with their arms laden with shopping bags. I veered to one side of them as Simon went to the other, and we vaulted the railing, landing on the sidewalk.

/>   A startled, “Watch out!” came from behind us.

  I sprinted for the Jaguar without waiting to see if anyone was giving chase. I jumped into the back a second before Simon landed in the passenger seat, smearing white goo all over the expensive leather. Temi lagged behind, a grimace of pain on her face as she limped down the sidewalk. I’d forgotten about her injury. I lunged over the seat back to open her door for her. She flung herself inside, hardly the graceful form she’d once been, but she got her legs into place and shoved the key into the ignition.

  At the Vendome, several people had come out onto the porch, some with drinks in hand. Great, we were the evening entertainment. I didn’t see our strange leather-clad men though.

  Temi tore out of the parking space and roared off down the street at twice the speed limit. I checked that corner window on the way by, and caught Blue Eyes staring down at me. It was probably only in my imagination that a strange glow brightened the room behind him.

  CHAPTER 6

  By the time the Jaguar pulled into the campground, my skin felt like it’d been burned by acid where the fire extinguisher propellant had struck it. I was glad none of it had landed in my eyes—and that we had a first aid kit in the van.

  Temi parked behind Zelda. Darkness gathered in the trees, and the traffic had dwindled on the highway. Crickets chirped and some small animal scuffed about in the brown leaves carpeting the ground. I eyed the deepening gloom without favor and wished there were more miles between us and the Vendome.

  Temi turned off the car and faced us, her elbow on the backrest. “So, am I hired yet?”

  “Yes,” Simon said.

  His hair and shirt were crusted with fire extinguisher propellant, and he already had visible burns on one cheek where the goo had spattered him. If the riders had taken the brunt of the attack, they’d be even more irked at us than they had been before. Clearing out of Prescott might be a smart move, though I had a hard time entertaining it, not with the memory of that golden disk at the forefront of my mind. I wished there’d been time to examine it. If Simon and I were the ones to break the story of some one-of-a-kind relic on our website, this time someone else couldn’t get credit for bringing awareness of it to the community, not like with the Anasazi find. I don’t know why it mattered so much to me, but I wanted my old professors and classmates to see that I hadn’t become some sleazy grave robber just because we were selling some of what we found, items that most people would consider junk anyway.