Black Raven Inn: A Paranormal Mystery (Taryn's Camera Book 6) (18 page)

With
a
full night’s sleep under her belt, the things that stalked her in her apartment seemed to be quietened, if not altogether silent.

Taryn did her best to ignore the strange sounds that plagued her, the flashes of light that blasted across the room. She kept her phone close to her hand, ready to dial Matt in an instant should anything happen.

Whatever was there, however, left her alone. It came close enough to let her know it was there, but never close enough to actually bother her. She put on her invisible blinders and worked diligently on her painting, allowing her music to drown out what it could.

A woman had been there with him
, she thought.
If not with him when he died then soon after.

Had it been Ruby? Had she been the one to find him in the motel room? And, if so, then why hadn’t she told anyone?

Or had she been there with him all along?

Taryn meant to find answers to her questions, even if they were answers she didn’t like.

S
he was on her way to meet with Ruby
, this time at the Loveless Café–a place known for its southern comfort foods. It generally closed early in the day but it was staying open for Ruby’s visit.

“Nobody usually bothers me when I’m out,” Ruby had told her over the phone, “but this will give us a chance to talk. I’ve been going there for a long time.”

Taryn drove down the road with a lot on her mind. She’d called David but he must have already been on the plane; she’d gone straight to voicemail. She’d left a message instead, thanking him for taking care of her the night before and once again praising his lecture.

Then she’d called Matt and told him about what had happened.

“I don’t know that I’m real happy about another man sleeping in your apartment and seeing you in your skivvies,” he’d laughed thinly, “but I’m glad he was there to help. You needed that rest and if it couldn’t be me there, then I’m glad it was a friend.”

“He
is
a friend, Matt,” she’d sworn.

“Yeah, I know. It’s taken me months to get used to that fact, but I know. But still…”

“’Still’ what?”

Matt hesitated before speaking. “If something did change, if you started feeling differently… I wouldn’t blame you. You’ll always be my best friend and I’ll always love and support you, no matter who you’re with. I truly just want you to be happy.”

“I love
you,
Matt,” Taryn said sincerely. “I don’t want to be with anyone else.”

And that was true; she’d always loved Matt. A life without him was unfathomable.

The Loveless Café was a small building on the side of the road. It looked like a little farmhouse from the outside. On the inside, it smelled like biscuits and bacon. A lot of country music singers and other transplants who relocated to Nashville from small, southern towns had flocked there to be reminded of Mama’s cooking and home. Taryn’s mother, who’d been into whole foods and gluten free stuff long before they were popular with the hipsters, had not cooked such meals.

But her grandmother had.

As Taryn entered the modest, unpretentious dining establishment she was instantly transported back to her Nana’s old farmhouse outside of Franklin–a place that always carried the aroma of fresh flowers, lavender, baby powder, and grease. The whiff of country cooking made her homesick for the woman who had mostly raised her.

Ruby Jane was the only diner but she’d have been easy to spot regardless. Something about her just
glowed
; that was the only word Taryn found close to fitting and even it didn’t accurately describe the woman’s aura.

Today, Ruby wore skinny jeans, a black turtleneck that was tight enough to be an extra layer of skin, and a bright pin shawl wrapped around her neck. Her long hair with its striking streaks of silver cascaded down her back, long enough for her to nearly sit on it, and it sparkled with tiny diamonds from the sunlight that streaked in through the window and captured it with its rays. She looked like a fairy–ageless and ethereal.

Suddenly, Taryn felt drab and frumpy in her vintage calico dress, saddle shoes, and little brown cardigan. She’d washed and styled her hair but the humidity had frizzed it, leaving it poking out in every direction. She always looked much better in her head than she did in the mirror.

“What a cute dress,” Ruby exclaimed as Taryn drew close to the table. “You always look so adorable. I wish I were thirty years younger so that I could wear your clothes!”

It was as if the woman could read her mind, Taryn thought as she sat down.

“Thank you,” she replied. “And here I was thinking I always feel so dowdy next to
you
!”

Ruby took a sip of her ice tea and waved her off. “Oh, please. It’s not truly me. It’s just the fact that I’m old now and can get away with wearing a lot of things that I couldn’t when I was younger. Once you reach a certain age people are just impressed that you’re not going out in hair curlers.”

Taryn wasn’t sold. Ruby was probably one of the best dressed women in the business. I was true, however, that she’d never resorted to sporting the western shirts with fringe, long skirts, and cowboy hats that a lot of other women coming up through the music scene of the 1960s and 1970s had been pressed to wear. Instead of a beehive or bouffant, she’d worn her hair long and loose and parted in the middle. Rather than long peasant skirts and shirts with fringe she’d worn black minis and halter tops.

Ruby Jane had always been elegant, always been a
lady
, but had always danced to the beat of her own drum. Now that she was in her sixties and wore African-inspired caftans, southwestern jewelry, and silk saris she was simply carrying on with her own rhythm.

“Do you have more pictures for me?” Ruby asked eagerly, once they’d ordered. “The others you gave me, the copies? Something happened to that SD card. I lost it. I’d be grateful if you could make me another copy.”

“No problem,” Taryn replied. “I have images, but nothing that contains anything out of the ordinary.”

Taryn watched the flicker in the other woman’s eyes, a sure sign of disappointment. It was a first for Taryn, the first time anyone had wanted her to seek the paranormal. Of all the times Miss Dixie had picked up on abnormal occurrences–now she
wanted
her to and she couldn’t.

“I did take a picture of the canvases I’m working on,” Taryn said as she handed Ruby the SD card. “I’m actually finished with the courtyard scene. So you can see it.”

Ruby accepted the card and closed her fingers around it.

“We had fun in that courtyard, back in the day,” Ruby smiled, glancing down at her silverware. “Park would get out his guitar first and the other would be right behind him. They always waited to see what he was going to do. I was just learning to play back then. I still have trouble tuning. Sometimes I’d have my tambourine. We’d light a fire, pop open a case of beer, and sit around until dawn sometimes, just playing and laughing.”

“Did you know he had a problem back then?” Taryn asked, then felt guilty for bringing it up.

Ruby did not look offended, however. “I wasn’t naïve. I knew that there were drugs going around. I couldn’t have told you what they were or where they got them but I knew they were being used. We even had a road manager who used to hold onto them for the guys and kind of divvy them out to, you know, make sure they didn’t get caught with him at the airport or take too much.”

“Where was
he
the night Parker died?”

“At home, with his wife. I don’t think he’s ever forgiven himself for that.”

“I imagine things were a lot different back then,” Taryn said, thinking of all the stories she’d heard about singers and the drug culture that was more open before the AIDS scare of the 80’s took over.

Ruby nodded. “In many ways, yes. I never did any of that stuff. I barely drank. I was too serious, you see. I was so focused on my music. When we first went on tour, however, things we bad. I’d been asked to join the band because they felt like they needed a ‘girl singer’, as they called it, for harmony. They even stalked me a little bit. Someone told Park about me and he told the others and they kind of dressed incognito and showed up at a bar in the Village I was singing at one night. They wanted to listen to me without me knowing. Of course, I didn’t even know who they were. I completely clueless.”

Taryn laughed at the idea of the men checking Ruby out, seeing if she had what it took to hang with them.

“But I digress. When we went on that first tour, it was a mess in the beginning. They thought they were so rock and roll, you know? They didn’t
need
to rehearse, they didn’t
need
a song set, they didn’t
need
to get the act together. Winging it was part of the fun. We were actually booed off stage a lot.”

Taryn winced. “Yikes.”

“I whipped them into shape pretty fast. I finally told them that either we start rehearsing and getting our acts together and doing things my way or I was going back to New York and they could bite me.”

“It must have worked!”

“Yes, well.” Ruby sighed and took a bite of her omelet. “In hindsight it must have been the drugs making them responsible for a lot of that. I just thought they were carefree, free-spirited souls. It wasn’t until much later that I realized just how bad of shape Parker really was.”

“He’d cleaned up, though, hadn’t he? There at the end?”

“Yes, yes he had. He was doing well. We’d just finished recording that album and were getting ready to go back out on the road. He was clean, probably for the first time since I’d known him. His eyes were clearer, brighter somehow. He was quieter, maybe a little sadder, but he was dealing with things instead of just running away from them…”

Taryn didn’t want to press any further. She was surprised Ruby had shared as much with her as she already had.

Both women, lost in their own thoughts, worked steadily on their plates of food. The dining rooms were quiet but, in the back, Taryn could hear the sounds of pots and pans rattling and dishes being washed. The sound of laughter rang out over the country radio station that played softly in the background. Dolly Parton sang about memories that continued to haunt her while Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris harmonized. Taryn thought about the afternoon in the courtyard, when the voice had been right there in her ear.

Before she could bring it up, however, Ruby stopped eating and exhaled slowly. “I do wonder what would’ve happened if Aker hadn’t been with Gloria that night.”

Taryn’s thoughts were brought to a grinding halt.

“What? Aker?”

“Yes, he was our security guard, kind of our road wrangler when we were out on tour,” Ruby explained. “He’d been a cop but I lured him away. He was a big music fan, liked the Byrds, the Stones, some of the folk artists. Dylan. He liked running with the music scene. He toured with us twice and was getting ready to go back out again, but his wife was sick that night and we’d all taken the week off anyway. Kind of scattered in the wind, more or less. We were going to meet back up in Los Angeles in a couple of days.”

“I knew you’d known Aker for a long time, but I didn’t realize he’d worked with you all,” Taryn said slowly.

“Yes, up until Parker died. They were big buddies. Then he returned to the police force. Stayed with them until he was injured on the job and took mandatory retirement. I still take him out on the road with me.”

Taryn needed some time to let this digest. But first…

“Ruby, was there a woman there with Parker the night he died? A girlfriend maybe?”

Ruby’s face clouded over and she looked down to study her plate. “No,” she replied at last. “Parker wasn’t seeing anyone at the time. There wasn’t anyone there with him. He was alone.”

Taryn wanted to know more, to say more, but held herself back. Either Ruby knew something and didn’t want to share it with her or Ruby wasn’t going to share it at all. Either way, she’d need to tread lightly.

“Ruby… I wasn’t sure how to tell you this, but a few days ago when I was working in the courtyard, I was looking at that little shrine of Parker’s and,” Taryn paused, her face growing hot.

“Yes?” Ruby eagerly leaned forward, her eyes glistening.

“A voice quoted a line from an old Irish prayer. And it was very, very close. Like, right on top of me. I could feel the breath on my skin.” Taryn felt goosebumps on her arms just thinking about it. “I wasn’t scared. In fact, it was kind of nice.”

Ruby leaned back in her seat and exhaled loudly. “People have told me over the years that he’s still there, that he can’t leave. I don’t understand that. Parker would never be trapped anywhere. He never liked staying in one spot. He was always moving around, always on the go. But I’ve wondered why, after all these years, he’s never once come to me. No matter how much I’ve prayed and prayed, and cried for him to come see me and show me he’s okay.”

“Maybe he
can’t
,” Taryn whispered, looking around the room to ensure nobody could hear them. They were still alone.

“Do you think it was him, Taryn? Do you think it was Parker?”

She wanted so badly to tell her yes, to tell her that her partner’s spirit was still on the grounds of that awful place, but she couldn’t be certain. And she wasn’t going to lie. “I don’t know,” Taryn replied honestly. “I wish I did. But if it is him, what do you think he meant by ‘remember’?”

Ruby shook her head. “I wish I knew that. But I don’t. Can you find out for me? Can you help me? I’ve spent the past forty-six years trying to make peace with this. I’m afraid I never will, not until I can be sure he’s at peace.”

“I’ll try,” Taryn promised her. “I’ll do my best.”

Aker
, she thought.
Aker had spent time at that motel, had been friends with Parker.

It wasn’t like he had to share anything with her, but she found it strange that, during their meal, he hadn’t mentioned knowing Parker at all. Very strange.