Page 49 of Sweetwater and the Witch

The tattoo started high on the left shoulder and ran all the way down the arm. The artwork was elaborate, a fairy-tale castle made of glass or clear crystal. Elaborately decorated letters and numbers appeared in the windows.

Ethan rezzed the camera on his phone and took several photos. Ravenna, with Harriet clutched in one arm, watched him, saying nothing.

When he was finished he got to his feet. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Fine by me,” Ravenna said. “But where are we going?”

“We need to disappear for a while but we can’t go back into the tunnels, at least not yet.” He led the way toward the far end of the alley. “I’ve got to stay on the surface so I can make some phone calls.”

“Got a suggestion?”

“We’ll find a place to spend the rest of the night. There is no more anonymous location than a Shadow Zone motel that rents rooms by the hour. No forms to fill out, no identification required. Cash works just fine. No questions asked.”

“Please tell me that observation is not based on personal experience.”

“That observation is not based on personal experience,” he said in dutiful tones.

She shot him a suspicious look but evidently decided not to confront him on the matter.

“Are you sure about the anonymity of one of those by-the-hour operations?” she asked, clearly uneasy. “Ms.Ottoway will be very annoyed if word gets out that one of her matchmakers was seen checking into a hot-sheet motel in the Shadow Zone.”

“Trust me, the front desk staff won’t recognize you and wouldn’t care who you were even if they did happen to catch your name. But if it makes you more comfortable, we’ll pick a place with outside stairs. You can wait in the parking lot while I check in. That way you won’t have to walk through the lobby.”

“Are you sure that will work?”

“Trust me, most of the motels in this part of town feature outside entrances.”

“You really do know a lot about the hospitality establishments around here.”

So much for trying to lighten the mood, he thought.

“I’m joking,” he said. “I’m an engineer. I observe stuff.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

The Rendezvous Inn (Ask About Our Honeymoon Special) was situated directly across the street from the Starlite Wedding Chapel (Home of the Marriage of Convenience of Your Dreams). The flashing stars on the sign in front of the chapel pulsed relentlessly in the fog, illuminating the interior of room 210 in throbbing rays of ghostly light.

Ravenna went to stand at the window. Harriet hopped up onto the sill and joined her in a survey of the fog-shrouded street.

“Atmospheric,” Ravenna said.

“What?” Ethan said.

She turned around. He was sitting at the small table. He did not look up from his phone. Focused.

“Never mind,” she said. “It’s not important.”

And it wasn’t, she thought. What mattered was that they found a way to clean up the mess in which they found themselves. Ethan was working the problem. She should stop distracting him.

He put the phone on speaker. A man with a deep growl of a voice answered Ethan’s call.

“You’ve got Jake Sweetwater. Ethan? What the hell are you doing calling at this time of night? Your grandmother and I went to bed hours ago. Are you in trouble?”

“Sorry to wake you up, Jake,” Ethan said. “No, I’m not in trouble. Not exactly.”

“You’re in trouble.”

It was a statement, not a question. Jake Sweetwater didn’t sound particularly concerned. Intrigued, perhaps.

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