The Red Hotel (Sissy Sawyer Mysteries) by Graham Masterton Page B

Sissy.’
    ‘OK. What are you calling me for? You sound kind of upset.’
    ‘It’s a really long story but we came to see Billy’s aunt because she can tell fortunes, and tell you what your dreams mean, stuff like that.’
    ‘Oh, yeah?’
    ‘She’s fantastically good at it. She uses these special cards like nothing you ever saw in your life. They all have these really strange pictures on them, like witches and peculiar children and people getting baked into pies.’
    ‘Really? Jeez.’ Everett was trying to read Olivia’s media release at the same time as talking to T-Yon.
    ‘She told me my fortune.’
    ‘And, like, what? She told you that some horrible fate is going to befall you? You know I don’t believe in any of that hooey.’
    ‘Everett, she said that you were worried. In fact she said you were
very
worried. She said that it’s something to do with The Red Hotel, and it’s red.’
    Everett abruptly leaned back in his chair. ‘Say that again? It’s something do with The Red Hotel, and it’s red?’
    ‘That’s right. The color red. She didn’t exactly know what, but it all seems to be connected to a woman who used to run The Red Hotel way back whenever.’
    Everett paused for a moment, and then he said, ‘That would be . . . what was her name? Vanessa something. I know – Vanessa Slider. I remember the name because it’s like slider turtles. So far as I know she was the only woman who ever ran this hotel.’
    ‘When was that?’
    ‘Oh, who knows – way back in the late nineteen eighties, I think. Luther told me all about it. She and her husband used to manage it together but then her husband died and she took over. She ran it for a while – maybe three or four years – but then she was found guilty of assaulting a call girl who had come to the hotel to service one of the guests. Tried to strangle her, that’s what Luther said.’
    ‘It’s
her
,’ said T-Yon. ‘Whatever you’re worried about now, it’s all to do with her. What did you say her name was?’
    ‘Vanessa Slider. But I haven’t told you that I
am
worried.’
    ‘You are, though, aren’t you? Sissy said that these cards know everything, and they never lie.’
    ‘T-Yon, it’s all baloney. They’re
cards
, that’s all.’
    ‘It’s not just the cards, Ev. I didn’t want to tell you, but I’ve been having nightmares, too. Nightmares about us – you and me. That’s why I came here to see Sissy in the first place.’
    ‘Nightmares? What kind of nightmares?’
    ‘They’re just terrible. I mean like really,
really
horrific. I’ll tell you all about them when I see you. I can’t describe them over the phone. But they started when you opened The Red Hotel, and Sissy is sure that there’s some link between my nightmares and this woman who used to run it – this woman and her young son.’
    Everett said nothing. He didn’t know if he ought to tell T-Yon about the bloodstains or not. Even though Detective Garrity had said that they were probably human, he was still holding out hope that they had come from some animal; or that they were paint, or dye, or even red-eye gravy, goddamnit.
    T-Yon said, ‘Sissy thinks that this woman is looking for revenge. She doesn’t know all of the details yet. We’re going to do another reading this evening. But she says that we could be in real danger – both of us, you and me.’
    ‘How can she be looking for revenge? If she was running The Red Hotel in the nineteen eighties she must be getting on for eighty by now – that’s if she’s still alive.’
    ‘Sissy believes that people can still come looking for revenge, even after they’ve passed over.’
    ‘Oh, spare me! Come on, T-Yon, when people are dead, they’re dead. We never hear from Momma, do we, and
she
had plenty to be vengeful about, the way Poppa left her to bring us up all on her ownsome.’
    ‘That’s different. And anyhow, Momma never bore a grudge against anyone. She wasn’t that kind of a person. She was