window as a nod to the town’s roots–modern life touching the past—and the fire hasn’t touched it since.”
Probably because it was made of concrete. “It was the watchers,” Rosa said with awe. “They must be shown respect.”
With difficulty, Janson swallowed all his snide comments. Though he was having a lot of fun getting a rise out of Mollie, Rosa was really into the tour, and he knew when to shut up. She clasped his hand, her excitement palpable. Her glistening eyes promised a later show of gratitude. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to cash in on that anymore. The sound of partiers broke the cool night air, as he began to brainstorm ways to turn in after this was all through. He had a headache—his eyes drew to Mollie’s—or something.
She wrapped her arms around her stomach and turned to his bodyguards. Dwayne kept cracking jokes to Vin, which only revealed how terrified he was, but Vin’s attention was all on Mollie, like he was plotting his own romantic conquests. Janson’s stomach tightened in irritation. “Is this the end of the tour then?”
Mollie’s fingers curled into fists and she tossed that magnificent hair, almost knocking him in the face with the ends of it as she marched up the empty sidewalk, away from them. He guessed that meant they were supposed to follow her. The architecture on the east side of the street was built up against the bluff. And on the opposite side where they walked, deep alleys were placed here and there between blocks of buildings, and depending on how high up the tour group traveled on Spring Street, the shadowy alleys held four to six steep flights of cement or rickety wooden stairs leading to Center Street at the bottom of the hill. Shop and pub entrances were tucked away in the middle of these stairways, with canopies over their doors.
“Oh, these shops are so adorable!” Rosa exclaimed over each one they passed, first the Le Chapeau, the Looking Glass, even a few pubs that were made to fit in with the rest of the quaint Victorian architecture. Ahead of them, the Yellow Dragon and the New Orleans Hotel overflowed with night life.
Mollie stopped at an abandoned red brick building, just short of the excitement, to peer into the one display window that wasn’t boarded up. Green and yellow chipped paint covered a store front that was three stories high from the Spring Street side. Two rickety wooden balconies jutted out above them, giving the building the feel of a saloon.
Despite his initial misgivings, Janson was enthralled with this town’s history. He broke away from Rosa to join Mollie, trying not to be too obvious about it. He caught sight of the oversized brown, fuzzy bears in the display window that were nestled next to a life-sized tin soldier. Its beady eyes seemed to glare at them as they glittered under the lights. Yeah, that was creepy.
Mollie stepped off the sidewalk. The glow of lamplight made a halo of fire around her head, illuminating her silhouette on the empty street. The wind caught the ends of her dress, sweeping the lacy skirt around her muscular legs like an Irish lass who was one with the earth, a lass who the superstitious villagers might mistake as a witch with that fiery temper of hers. She swept her hand in the direction of the abandoned building. “As you can see, the Blocksom Building’s most recent adventure was hosting a toy store. Before that? An antique store, a dress shop, a museum. Unfortunately, nobody can stay longer than a year here. I guess it’s no surprise.”
She pointed to the alleyway to the side of the building. A shadow stood out against a crumbling brick wall. Janson’s heart quickened just as Dwayne made a startled noise behind him. That’s when he realized the shadow was painted on the wall of the stairway facing the New Orleans Hotel. He let out a breath. Nice. Mollie had gotten him, gotten them all. Dwayne held his heart while Vin laughed. It was too much for Rosa, and she hid her face against Janson’s chest, muttering in Italian.
Above the shadow, there was black-and-white painted lettering that read, “Blocksom and Co. Undertakers and Embalmers.” The abandoned building had been a mortuary.
“Back in the mid-1880s,” Mollie said, “people took this stairway to a side entrance one flight down to reach the embalming room at the rear of the building, but... closing up shop and selling the place