Black Raven Inn: A Paranormal Mystery (Taryn's Camera Book 6) by Rebecca Patrick-Howard

while he unlocked the door. She waited impatiently as he marched through the small rooms, checking the dark corners and peering into nooks and crannies.
    “Like a little kid at bedtime, asking Daddy to look under the bed,” she snorted.
    Although, of course, Taryn’s father had never been that kind of daddy. Aloof and lost in his own head much of the time, he’d had more time for academia than a young daughter who might be afraid of the boogeyman.
    She’d checked her own closets.
    When Aker gave her the “all clear” sign, Taryn flashed him a thumbs up and entered the lobby.
    She’d upgraded to an iPod fairly recently and was enjoying slowly adding her vast music collection to it. Heart was currently blasting from the tiny speakers but to set the mood she turned on Parker Brown. The song was about pine trees and being close to nature–or so she thought, he was a little elusive. For all she knew it could’ve been about his pet parrot. Ruby Jane sang backup and their voices blended in perfect harmony, soaring over the instruments and twisting and turning around one another until you couldn’t tell where one started and the other began.
    Taryn had downloaded his albums the night before and uploaded Ruby’s from the CDs she already owned. She wanted to listen to them sing while she worked. It seemed right.
    In spite of the sunlight, which probably only felt brighter since it had been so dreary lately, the room was still gloomy. Taryn couldn’t imagine the place feeling welcoming to anyone, even back before it was essentially a flop house.
    “There must have been a time when it was okay,” she said aloud. “I need to check out some old pictures of it.”
    Her voice got lost in the stuffiness and tepid darkness, but it was still reassuring to hear it.
    “I might go crazy, but at least I have myself to keep me company,” she giggled.
    The song changed to “Close Up the Honky Tonks,” a Buck Owens cover. The upbeat melody gave Taryn a boost of energy and she found herself working faster with the increased drive.
    As she walked around and took her shots, she tried to imagine Parker Brown staying in such a place, and even weirder, Ruby Jane being there with him. Although, of course, Ruby had her house in Nashville; she had no real reason to spend the night at the Black Raven–unless the rumors about her and Parker had been true.
    “Everyone thinks they had a thing going up until he died,” she’d informed Matt. “At this point it’s just assumed.”
    “Why?” he’d asked, reasonably enough, so it had Taryn pausing.
    “Well, I guess because they had such great chemistry. The pictures of them together, their singing, and all the song lyrics she wrote about him after he died.”
    “How do you know they’re about him?”
    Sometimes his logic frustrated her. Why did he have to be so darn reasonable?
    “Because,” she’d stammered. “They’re about loving someone and them being gone. Like, gone as in death .”
    “Hmmm…”
    She knew what he wanted to say, that since she’d lost someone herself she read death into everything. And, the fact was, he might have been right.
    But I’m also right about this , she thought. Parker had died before she was born but even a fool could see and hear the love between the two.
    No way was that superficial Matt , she thought smugly.
    “I clearly need a life,” she mumbled. “I’m walking around mentally examining the love life between a dead person and my boss.”
    Even worse, she was having a make believe argument with Matt.
    Taryn let herself get back to the task at hand. She couldn’t see the elegant Ruby being comfortable on one of the rickety chairs or what she imagined were hard, unforgiving mattresses. Even as a young woman in her twenties, Ruby had been sophisticated and looked every inch the lady, especially next to her fellow band mates who looked like they’d just robbed a motorcycle gang. It was as much Ruby’s elegance and beauty against their rough