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The apparition seeitated as she stood at a door She floated through it and then reappeared, waiting for Jane

Jane opened the door It was one of the dressing roohost walked to the rear of the shtly specter had told her it was going to be so dark and that she’d need a flashlight She couldn’t understand what Sage was doing There was a table covered with jars and tubes ofracks filled with costumes She had to push back the costu As she ht on a button and she had to untangle it

She stopped where Sage was, alhost was insistent, she went down on her knees and inspected the floor

At first, she saw nothing Just old wood, so weathered that the planks seetable, there was soers over the floor and under the table What had appeared to be a dark spot shielded by the costu

Made of tarnished bronze, it had probably been long hidden by the position of the rack and the dressing table The latter had no doubt stood in place for decades; the feet had worn save the table a shove,more clearly--and an area that, when carefully traced, proved not to be a stretch of wood planking

Jane looked up at the ghost, who nodded gravely, and then back down at the loop She slid her fingers over the flooring around it and saw that it had to be a knob or a pull and that it opened a trapdoor of soive

As she worked at it, she heard a noise from the bar area of the theater She wasn’t sure why it disturbed her; there were a nu sound had an odd, surreptitious quality As she looked up at the ghost, the apparition of Sage McCor where she was She hadn’t dressed--and she hadn’t brought her gun

She held still for severalThen she was sure she heard a faint noise--as if soed across the floor

Jane crept silently fros, across the stage and down the side aisle until she reached the point where the red velvet curtains were drawn back She stayed there, glad that her eyes had adjusted to the darkness and the pale glow of the ehts She used the curtain as a shield and looked out to the dining roohost who’d co area?

No, she’d heard soone, she stepped out Sheherself that perhaps solass of water Or soet a snack froerator behind the bar She still felt uneasy But a quick run through the bar and the dining rooht No one was there--not then, at any rate

The kitchen was ie oven in the center, two stoves on either side, two large refrigerators, a freezer and torkstations All were clean and shining, waiting for the next day’s business

She left the kitchen and returned to the bar area As she did, she heard so a key into the lock on the outer door

The housekeeping staff was here

She turned and raced up the stairs, slipping into her rooainst her own door, breathing hard

Then she heard another door closing somewhere down the hallway

Whose?

She couldn’t tell She went back to bed, hoping for a few ht Jane closed her eyes and wondered what lay beneath the trapdoor in the dressing room Toet Henri’s permission to see as beneath the floor

It took a while for her to sleep, but at last she did

She woke a few hours later and saw that it was 8:00 ah she was on a schedule; she now had a car She could drive herself down to the station She supposed, with a sense of wry humor, that she didn’t want to look like a slacker She wanted Sheriff Sloan Trent’s respect And she wanted him to like her She liked him She more than liked him She felt a sweet rush of fever when she was near hiers down his cheek, explore the movement of his muscles

It had been years since she’d felt so attracted to a man And noas not the time to feel this way She loved her work And she was here for just a short while

Crazy This was crazy Even time itself seemed crazy Maybe that was it; she’d barely arrived and so much had already happened Not only that, so much had happened between the two of them

She walked into the bathroo the water up to a nice hot level She leaned against the tile, looking down--and stared incredulously

So down the drain

Blood

And it was co froe along the trail

Crime-scene tape still roped off the tepee where Jay Berman had been found Sloan sank down and inspected the site; the criood at what they did, Sloan knew, so he didn’t knohat he could find There certainly weren’t going to be any useful prints, so he was really hoping, ure out where Ber about their present location and as nearby He wasn’t even sure how the victiotten out here

They’d probably ridden He h the report would contain any of the information they needed on trace evidence But if they had ridden here, had they co at the Apache village that could relate to the past; it had been created as an educational site Yes, it had been created by Apaches, but that was only a few years ago Before that, it had been a patch of sand with a few rocks and scrub and cacti