She wiped Cid’s chest with a clean linen napkin, and there was no wound to see. He was breathing normally. Mia stepped back from the table before she fainted. Murphy was there to catch her. He brought her unconscious form and set her down next to Ted. “She’s just tired,” he said to comfort Ted and himself.
Cid opened his eyes. He looked up at Mike and down at Audrey. “Did it work?”
“Yes. How do you feel?” Mike asked.
“Itchy. Like something is itching me all over inside.”
Ted moved his hand along Mia’s back. The black tattoos were gone. Mia shivered before her eyes opened. “Sorry, a little confusion in transference. How is he?”
“Up and talking.”
“Good. I could use a drink.”
“Bartender, a whiskey for my wife, please,” Ted said.
Mike looked over. “Right away. Barmaid, bring us a round.”
Audrey let go of Cid’s legs. “I guess that’s me,” she said, trying to keep her mood light.
“I’ve got this,” Burt said, limping back from the bar. He set down a bottle and a handful of shot glasses.
“Burt, I was thinking about this place,” Mia said. “There are iron-covered trapdoors all over the ground floor. It’s as if the former owners were afraid of something rising out of the depths of the mine.”
“Miners used to die all the time. It wasn’t unusual,” Ted said, sipping out of the shot glass.
Mia knocked hers back. “What if the owners did something bad, and the result was a lot of people dying. What if there was a shaft collapse, and no one bothered to recover the bodies?”
“That’s two what ifs, pumpkin,” Ted pointed out.
“No, Ted, she has a point,” Audrey said. “If I had a guilty conscience, I would go to great lengths to make sure my secret was hidden, and if I were superstitious too, I would fear repercussions. Like…”
“Ghosts,” Burt filled in.
“Vengeful ghosts,” Mia emphasized. “But what if there are no ghosts?”
“Cyryl Nowicki doesn’t have to know that. He has no clue about Murphy’s existence,” Burt reminded the team.
“I see what you’re getting at,” Mia said. “We could turn his little game of scaring the little lady into scaring Cyryl into abandoning his plan and leaving Price Hills Resort.”
“We’re going to have to put it into play soon, because the storm is waning, and soon, he’s going to discover that we survived the fall. We can’t fight bullets,” Mike said. “We can’t run with half our team broken.”
“When we are ready and able, I’ll do my bit, being the scared, hysterical little lady.”
Cid opened his eyes. Mia moved quickly over to him. She looked him over and smiled. You are a very lucky man. Don’t you ever withhold information from me again. When you’re healed, I’m going to kill you. I just thought I would let you know,” Mia said.
“Yes, Mia, I love you too,” he said. He sniffed the air. “It smells like a bar in here.”
The group lifted their glasses.
“To Cid Garett the Obvious,” Mike said.
“To Cid,” they chorused.
Murphy snickered from the corner. He was feeling pretty proud of himself. His mother always wanted him to be a doctor, but a surgeon… Well, she probably was bursting her buttons in Heaven.
Chapter Eleven
The wind had died down, but it was still raining heavily. Cyryl had just pulled on his jacket to head over and check out the sole, living occupant of the hotel when the doorknob twisted violently, followed by a beating of fists on the door. He unlocked the door, and a muddy Mia fell into his arms.
“You have to help me,” she pleaded, whipping her muddy hair back off her face. “I can’t find them. I’ve been looking all night and day. They’ve disappeared,” Mia said, sending a blast of whiskey-scented breath into Cyril’s face.
Ray pulled Mia off of the man they were supposed to have had in their custody. She was drenched. At one point, the drunk woman must had slipped and fell to the muddy ground.
Carl put a blanket around the shoulders of the frightened woman.
“There’s something horrible going on in there,” she said. “Misty shapes coming out of the floor. Doors slamming, glass breaking, and the smell, oh god, it smells like a sewer in there. Help me. Help me find my friends,” she pleaded, plastering her body against the surprised guard.
“Calm down, sweetheart,” Carl said, running his hand along her backside.
Cyryl cleared his voice. “Maybe we should look into this.”
“You, you, you’re not in jail?” Mia asked, feigning surprise.
“The storm came up before we could leave here,” Ray explained. “Old Cyryl was just upset with the people his stepmother sold the hotel to. He means you no harm, miss…”
“Mia, my name’s Mia. Do you think my friends left me here?”
“If they did, I can’t imagine how they would have left the top of the hill. The road is ruined. The gondola is the only way down, and in this weather, it’s too dangerous to operate,” Ray explained.
“I was changing my clothes in my room. I started to hear all these doors slamming. Ted told me to stay in my room. No one called me to tell me that they were leaving. I finally found my nerve and went to investigate. That’s when the lights went out,” she explained. “I found a supply of lights in the bar, and I’ve been holing up in there during the storm.”
“Come on, why don’t you show us where you last saw your team?” Carl said. “Here, try to wipe off some of that mud first.”
Mia walked over to the sink in the kitchenette and moved her shaking hands to her face and splashed water everywhere, sobbing.
“Sit down, honey. Let me,” Carl said, taking a dishtowel. He washed her face and neck while getting an eyeful of her feminine charms. He knew Cyryl was watching him, so he controlled himself.
Mia ignored the man’s fumbling. She did her best to not react to Carl’s little violations. Instead, she studied the holstered
