Free Deadly Chaos by Annette Brownlee Page A

breath. Her room key worked. She opened the door, stepped inside and shuddered. The laundry room wasn’t any less creepy than the alley. She locked the door behind her and crossed the room. She tried her key in the room between the laundry room and the registration area. “Pay dirt.” The door opened. “Piss poor security if you ask me,” she muttered. Now she just hoped she'd be able to log onto their internet and get online.
    A dying palm stood in the corner by the window. “Too cold,” she said aloud. People always put their trees right in front of the window thinking they needed the sunlight. But in a climate like Colorado nine months out of the year it was too cold for them. They needed to be away from drafts. While she waited for the computer to boot she made a mental plan of her approach. A password was required to log on but it took her all of five seconds to guess - it was the name of the motel. Once on she headed to Google and entered "getting rid of a ghost". There were more than nineteen million results. “This is going to take a while.” She narrowed her search and while the light from the computer monitor cast an eerie glow in the lobby. Chaos was grateful that she was alone. She didn’t want to have to explain why she was searching for information about ghosts.
    An hour later Chaos wished she had coffee. Fishing a dollar out of her wallet, she settled for a diet coke from the laundry room vending machine. Sipping her coke she clicked on the next search result. “Blessings to get rid of ghosts. Looks like a place to start.”
    “Good morning.”
    Chaos turned to see the same clerk who registered her yesterday standing in the door. She was holding a steaming coffee and a bag of bagels. Onion by the smell of them. Chaos’s stomach growled. “Morning.”
    Without hesitating the woman walked over and peered at the computer monitor. “Seeing ghosts, huh?”
    “Just doing research.”
    “Uh, huh. That’s why you’re sitting here making a fashion statement in my office and looking up ghosts on my computer. Get in through the laundry?”
    Looking at her orange and green flannel pajamas and the untied work boots on her feet. Chaos nodded. She looked like a colorblind lumberjack.
    “I need to change that lock,” she said setting the coffee and bagels down on the registration counter. “How long you been in here?”
    “What time is it?”
    “Six thirty.” She peeled off her coat and hung it on a hook by the door. She wore white tennis shoes that looked like they’d been purchased in the late eighties. Her faded jeans barely reached her ankles. Garfield socks filled the space between the tops of her shoes and the bottom of her jeans. A white long sleeved t-shirt tucked into her high waist jeans completed the outfit.
    Chaos had no room to judge considering what she was wearing at the moment. “Then I’ve been in here for more than three hours.”
    “You must be hungry,” the lady said. She moved over behind the registration desk and opened the bag of bagels. “I have a coffee pot in the back. I’ll make you some if you want. Help yourself to a bagel.”
    Hunger propelled Chaos out of her chair and over to the counter. She grabbed the bagel on top and closed the bag. “Onion. I was right.” Chaos bit into the still warm bagel and stifled a moan. “Thank you. These are really good.”
    “Coffee’s brewing. My sister owns the bagel shop down the street. She makes ‘em fresh every morning. My other sister, she may be able to help you with your ghost problem.”
    “Who says I have a problem?”
    “Ha! You’re kidding, right?” She put a hand on her ample hip. “You’re in my motel lobby in the middle of the night in your pajamas researching how to get rid of ghosts. I’m Janet, by the way.”
    Chaos took her outstretched hand, “Chaos.”
    “What kind of a name is that?”
    Chaos grinned. She liked the lady’s straightforward nature. “The kind you earn. Tell me about your sister.