The Red Hotel (Sissy Sawyer Mysteries) Read Free

a little deaf in my left ear. And whatever it is that’s upsetting you, it won’t be cured by whispering.’
    ‘Sorry,’ said T-Yon, and took her hand away from her face. ‘I’ve been having these dreams about my older brother, Everett. Not dreams, really, nightmares. But worse than any nightmares I’ve ever had before. I know I’ve only just met you but after what Billy told me about you—’
    ‘Go on,’ Sissy coaxed her. ‘It’s like I said. You can tell me if you want to but you don’t have to tell me if you don’t.’
    ‘Well – Everett has just restored this old hotel in Baton Rouge. That’s what he does, him and his business partner, he finds these run-down hotels and he restores them and gives them all of their glamour back. They’ve done two so far, the Shenandoah Suites and the Denham Palace, and The Red Hotel is their third.’
    ‘Sounds like he’s pretty successful, your brother.’
    ‘He is. He has been. But about three weeks ago, not long after he’d opened The Red Hotel, I started having these nightmares about him.’
    ‘OK . . .’
    T-Yon said, ‘They’re really embarrassing, but they’re horrible, too. And they’re always the same, night after night. I haven’t told anybody about them, not even Billy. But I’ve been beginning to think that if they don’t stop soon, I should maybe go talk to my doctor.’
    ‘Instead, you’ve decided to come to me,’ said Sissy. ‘So let’s see if I can help you.’
    T-Yon paused again, but then she took a deep breath and said, ‘I’m lying in bed in this hotel room. For some reason I know that it’s The Red Hotel, but it’s not like The Red Hotel the way it is now. I mean, Everett and his partner have remodeled it completely, so that it’s all red-velvet drapes and gilt-framed mirrors. You know, like old-style Baton Rouge. But in my nightmare the room is all brown and green, with a nineteen sixties TV and a nineteen sixties telephone with a dial on it. And it
smells
, too. I’ve never been able to smell anything in a dream before, but this hotel room has a very strong smell like lavender furniture wax and bug spray. I can still smell it even after I’ve woken up.’
    Sissy raised her eyebrows. ‘That’s highly unusual. Most of us can
hear
things in dreams, you know – like people talking, or singing, or the ocean crashing on the shore. And most of us can
feel
things, too. But to
smell
your dream, that’s very rare, although my late husband once woke me up in the middle of the night because he swore that he could smell smoke, when there was no smoke. But anyhow, carry on. What happens in this nightmare?’
    T-Yon said, ‘I’m lying on the bed, like I said, and the thing is that I’m not wearing anything at all except for a black garter belt and black nylon stockings. I’ve never worn a garter belt and stockings in my life,
ever
, which makes this so weird. The door opens and my brother Everett walks in. He’s wearing a Mardi Gras mask – dead white, with very black slanty eyes – but I know at once that it’s him. He’s not wearing anything, either, except for long black socks, and I’ve never known him to wear long black socks – like,
never
, ever.’
    ‘OK,’ said Sissy. Outside, it had suddenly stopped raining, and the room gradually began to fill with light.
    ‘Everett doesn’t hesitate. He comes across to the bed and he climbs on top of me. I know what he’s going to do but I don’t try to stop him. In fact I feel like I want him – not because I love him but because I feel that he’s going to make it worth my while. It’s like I’m a prostitute, rather than his sister. It’s really hard to explain. He starts to have sex with me and even though he’s my older brother I don’t resist him at all. On the other hand I’m not too enthusiastic either. I just lie there and watch TV and let him do it.’
    ‘What’s on the TV?’ asked Sissy. ‘Is it any program you recognize?’
    ‘Is that