Dancing with a ghost

Chapter 3

Arrived at his bedroom James sat. He noticed the small scarlet bottle on his desk. It was blood. The blood from his victim.

As usual miss Evers had taken a sample while cleaning the slaughter of her boss.

He uncorked the small bottle and brought it to his nose. "Little old but it smells good."

"Darling this is a present for you. In order to celebrate my come back." The fair Lady smiled. "Hope you will have some fun with him."

"Thank you dearest" James was staring at the poor man lying on the floor. His neck was still bleeding.

"He was a bus driver but I did not kill him. The young boys in the bus had a tastier blood."

Then James took his pen and put it in the little bottle. He opened his notebook and started to write. Andrew Wilson. 46 years. Bus driver. Slaughtered.

A new name appeared below a substantial list. He was proud of that. It was his whole work.

After a few hours, James came in front of the door of the room 64. He was ready to knock, but he did not have the time because Lacy opened it.

She felt surprise to see him.

"I was..." They both said at the same time.

James became silent in order to let her finish her sentence.

"I went out of room to find you." She said with smile. 

"Did I miss you miss Harper ?" 

"No..." She felt embarassed. "I mean... I wanted to know if you felt hurt when I refused to dine with you."

"Why should I feel hurt ?" 

"I don't know." 

"Well you are only a simple acquaintance for me." 

Those words hurt her. 

"A simple acquaintance with who you tried to flirt." She answered back. 

A spark of irritation shined in his eyes. 

"When did I try to flirt with you ?" He said with a cold tone that annoyed Lacy. 

"You said I was a simple acquaintance. Then tell me, do you touch the face of every person you meet ?" 

"I touched you because I wanted to reassure you, nothing more. I was not trying to flirt with you, in fact I have already a wife and I'm not looking for another." 

Lacy opened her mouth but no words could be pronounced. She felt stupid, James victorious. Obviously he was married. 

"Now I'm leaving. If you have to reproach me any other thing I will be in my office."

James turned his back to her, making her feel even more guilty. 

A maid had knocked on Lacy's door a tray in her left hand. Lacy was so hungry that she had finished her plate in a few minutes.  

After her lunch, Lacy had borrowed a phone from the hotel and had contacted her mother. Listening to her voice had soothed her anxiety. She had explained to her what had happened in those last days. "You should go back home" Her mother had told her. She knew how much her mother missed her, but Lacy's holidays were not finished. She wanted to forget what happened on that bus. She would stay a few days in the hotel, waiting for the police to come, and then she would leave.

She had also explored the hotel and had found a vast library in which she had spent her whole afternoon. She was now sleeping on a table, drooling on a book she had started to read. Some customers noticed her, but did not try to awake her. Some of them laughed, the others thought she was not respectful at all. An old bitter woman, who wanted to read in peace, left the library angrily and warned the owner of the hotel about her.

That Lacy is a troublemaker, James thought. 

When he came in the library, he could already hear the untolerable snoring of the young woman. If we could qualify her as a woman. Never in his entire life, James had heard a woman make such a sound. 

James brutally shaked her shoulders. The young woman started on her own chair. 

"What happen !" She almost yelled, horrified, bringing her hand on her chest. 

When her eyes met the owner's, many questions came in her mind. 

"Some customers complained about you." 

She frowned. 

"Really ?"

At first, she suspected him to make up a lie in order to argue with her again. 

"Yes. If you want to sleep you have your own bed, do not disrupt readers."

She got up. 

"Oh my God I'm so sorry." 

She clumsily left the library. When she joined her bed, she did not even see that someone else was in the room, observing her. 

"You're gonna die soon poor little thing."