by Sue Pethick
“Don’t tell me you’ve seen a ghost, too,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “No, but I think I may have heard one.”
“Oh, for pity’s sake.”
Was everyone but her losing their mind?
Adam caught her eye and nodded.
“I heard it, too,” he said softly.
Oh, great. This is all I need.
“Come on, you guys,” she said. “Don’t start freaking out on me.”
The two of them exchanged a look and nodded their agreement, but it was clear they weren’t convinced. Emma was about to explain the concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy when she heard a harsh scratching sound. It seemed to be coming from no place in particular and everywhere at once. Dr. Richards hurried over, a look of eager anticipation on his face.
“I believe we may have encountered another anomaly.”
Before Emma could stop him, Adam piped up.
“It started right after Lupe saw the ghost!”
People were beginning to crowd around them. Some looked apprehensive, but many seemed excited at the prospect of a supernatural encounter.
“Don’t panic,” Emma said. “It’s probably just a raccoon in the crawl space.”
There was a loud thump overhead, followed by a low rumble that was almost a growl. Everyone stared at the ceiling. Lupita crossed herself and Adam paled. Emma gave the two of them a determined smile, hoping they would take the hint. So what if they’d heard a strange noise? The inn was supposed to be haunted, right?
She heard footsteps approaching and saw Lars Van Vandevander bustle into the room with Viv and the steering committee trailing behind like ducklings. Smiling broadly, he began canvassing the room, gathering details from the SSSPA members who’d witnessed the encounter and congratulating them on their good fortune.
Viv detached herself from the group and wandered through the lobby, the bells on her shoes jingling softly as she touched the walls and furniture. Every few steps, she stopped and closed her eyes as if listening for something, then opened them and continued on. When she’d covered the entire room, she walked back to her husband and whispered something in his ear.
What was that all about? Emma wondered.
Dr. Richards joined them and the Van Vandevanders spoke quietly to him for a few seconds more before consulting the other committee members, who nodded in agreement. The professor straightened up and clapped his hands.
“May I have your attention, please?” he said, addressing the room. “What you have just witnessed is further evidence of the paranormal outpouring which commenced here last night. Fortunately, we have among us a highly sensitive medium in my wife, Vivienne. Based upon her vibrational readings, we believe it is crucial that we open a dialogue with these manifestations as quickly as possible. A confluence like this is quite literally a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. I’m sure that none of us wants to see it wasted.”
Emma shook her head. What was he thinking? They couldn’t hold the séance now. The Energy Room had already been set up for Lars’s lecture; it would take time to restage it for the séance. She hurried over and pulled him aside.
“I thought we agreed to wait until after your lecture, Professor.”
“Impossible,” he said. “There’s no time to lose.”
“But the Energy Room isn’t set up for a séance.”
“We won’t be using the Energy Room,” he said. “We’ll be using the Spirit Room as we originally planned.”
Lars’s face had taken on a stubborn cast, and the rest of the committee members looked as implacable as he did. Emma glanced back at the front desk, hoping her assistant manager might back her up in the face of their opposition, but Clifton was no longer there.
“All right,” she said, feeling defeated. “I’ll send someone down to help you set up the room.”
“Wonderful!” Lars said. “You won’t be sorry, believe me. This will be a night to remember.”
CHAPTER 21
Todd and Gwendolyn had finished their dinner in relative silence. Gwen tried to make a brief pitch for a friend of her father’s who wanted to help Todd “take his apps to the next level,” but when it became clear that he had no interest in pursuing it, she confined herself to polishing off the eighty-dollar bottle of Shiraz. Todd, meanwhile, sat glumly pushing food around his plate as the tables around them emptied. Since the incident in the laundry room, every scratch, bump, or other odd sound at the inn had been attributed to ghostly presences, and the general consensus was that it was better to be with the experts at the séance than to take one’s chances alone in a hotel room.
Todd’s mood had sunk from merely sad to despairing. Gwen was too drunk to drive, and when he’d inquired at the front desk, they told him there were no other rooms available. For the time being, at least, he was stuck with her. He paid the check and set his napkin on the table.
“Why don’t we skip the séance?” he said. “I’d rather turn in early.”
“But I want to go,” Gwen whined. “Why do you have to be so mean?”
“I’m not being mean. I’m just tired.”
“What is with you? We get engaged and the next thing I know you’ve turned into this massive buzzkill. Why did you even give me a ring if you were going to be like this?”
“I didn’t give you that ring,” he muttered. “If our suitcases hadn’t been switched, you’d never have known about it.”
Gwen drew her left hand to her chest and clutched it like a miser with a gold coin.
“That’s not true! You left it in there for me to find.”
Todd knew he should leave it at that, but having finally said something true and honest to her, he found he couldn’t stop.
“And another thing,” he said. “I’m not interested in driving myself into an early grave like my father did, so please stop badgering me to start another company. I’ve made it; I’m doing well; I need a rest.”
Gwen’s eyes narrowed.
“This is her fault, isn’t it? You think if you hook up with her again, you’ll be able to recapture your ‘lost youth’ or whatever.”
Todd had to think about that. Was seeing Emma again what had caused his change of heart? Coming back to the Spirit Inn had certainly reminded him that a simpler, more balanced life was possible, but that had been a dream of his for years, something that until recently he’d been sure that Gwen wanted, too. But if it wasn’t Emma’s doing, then what was it?
He smiled as the truth dawned on him.
Archie.
Archie, whose carefree life with Uncle Bertie had been the opposite of the oppressive grind Todd had been putting himself through and which Gwen expected him to continue indefinitely; a happy little mutt who wanted nothing more than to make people laugh and smile and cheer him on; the sweet and loving animal that Gwen had ordered Todd to get rid of.
Archie had led him back to the one place where Todd could see who he might have become if he hadn’t lost his father when he did. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but it was still pretty remarkable.
Gwen’s look was contrite. She reached across the table and touched his hand.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I should have realized you weren’t ready to start another company. You know how Daddy is, always a million deals going in his head. And as far as the ring goes, maybe I should have asked you about it first. It’s just that when I saw it, I mean, it was the one we’d seen at the jeweler’s and I—”
He shook his head. “No, no. Of course you’d just assume . . .”
Todd felt like a heel. He’d been making the assumption that Gwen wouldn’t be interested in a simpler life, but had he ever really asked?
“Losing Uncle Bertie was really hard for you,” she said. “And then with Archie running away like he did, I’m sure you were super stressed-out.”
“You’re right.” He nodded. “Thanks for understanding.”
“So, come on,” she said. “Let’s go to the séance. We can sleep in late and still have plenty
of time to get the little pooch to Claire’s house.”
Todd just stared at her. Nothing had changed, he realized. Gwen was still pushing her own agenda with no thought as to what he wanted. He pulled his hand away.
“No. You can go by yourself if you’d like, but I’m not going.”
“Why not?” she snapped, her face reddening.
“Because,” he said, “I’d just feel silly sitting there, pretending that something spooky is going on. There are no such things as ghosts.”
“The maid saw a ghost in the laundry room and something was scratching inside the walls. How else do you explain that?”
Todd had been pondering that himself.
“A tree branch rubbing against the siding or a raccoon in the crawl space could make that kind of noise. You don’t need a ghost to explain it.”
“What about the laundry room? The maid said a ghost appeared right in front of her.”
Gwen was halfway out of her chair, her voice barely softer than a shout. Todd struggled to remain calm.
“She’d just dumped everything out on the floor,” he said. “There could have been a pocket of air inside; maybe a draft blew the blanket and she thought it moved.”
“Or maybe it was the spirit of the man in the walls,” Gwen said. “Just like Dr. Richards told us.”
“Okay,” he said. “What if that were true? Richards claims the ghost is tied to the inn, but Emma said the housekeeper had just brought those things in from her place. If there was a ghost in those things, it had to have come from there. And believe me, there’s no ghost living in Emma’s cottage.”
The answer struck Todd with the force of a hammer blow. Lars and Viv had told him the first encounter was on the same night that Archie had turned up at the cottage. Lars had described it as a low moan or keening, but a sound like that could as easily have come from a lost dog. Todd knew that Archie had been getting out of the cottage, too, and was probably responsible for at least one other encounter—the stolen sandwich he’d been eating in the bushes. If Dr. Richards was right and there were hidden passages in the inn’s walls, wasn’t it possible that Archie had found his way into them without being seen?
“I have to go,” Todd said. “You head down to the Spirit Room and I’ll meet you there in a few minutes.”
He stood and headed for the exit.
“Wait a minute,” Gwen yelled after him. “I thought you said you were too tired to go to the séance.”
A thin layer of ice crunched under his feet as Todd ran down the path toward the cottage. Emma said that Jake had replaced the lock on her door just that morning, and Archie had been inside when Todd had seen him last. That meant the little dog was still there when the housekeeper went in to fetch the laundry. Had Archie somehow gotten out without the housekeeper seeing him? Todd dearly hoped not. If he had—and if the ghost hunters discovered it was a dog they’d been chasing, not a ghost—Emma could be in a lot of trouble.
As he drew closer, Todd found himself praying that Archie would be inside. Even though it meant that it would be harder to come up with a simple, rational reason for the encounters the ghost hunters had been experiencing that weekend, it would still be preferable to confirming that the little dog was to blame.
The Van Vandevanders, at least, knew that Todd and Emma were old friends. How much of a leap would it be for them to conclude that the two of them had decided to turn Archie loose on the property, hoping that a trained circus animal would be capable of getting into all sorts of out-of-the-way places and making his presence known? And if they did that, the fallout for Emma might be disastrous. Like anyone else, the ghost hunters would be quick to anger if they thought they were being made fun of.
The front door was locked. Todd peered through the windows; Archie wasn’t on the pillow Emma had given him or anywhere he could see.
He tapped on the pane.
“Archie? Archie, you in there?”
Todd cupped his hands around his eyes, trying to cut the glare from the porch light. He saw no movement inside the cottage, no fleeting shadow that would indicate the presence of a small dog. In a last-ditch effort, he banged on the front door and yelled Archie’s name, then peered through the window again.
Satisfied at last that his dog was not inside, Todd turned and headed back up to the inn. It was time to give Emma the bad news.
CHAPTER 22
Gwen walked into the Spirit Room and took a seat in the circle before doing a quick survey of the other people in the room. She hadn’t come there to contact the spirits; she couldn’t care less if the place was haunted or not. She was only interested in one thing: eliminating Emma as a threat to her relationship with Todd.
She’d just discovered the engagement ring in her suitcase when she got Todd’s message. At first, Gwen was amused, recalling Fran’s story about the Spirit Inn and Todd’s childhood sweetheart. With a ring on her finger, the thought that her fiancé might suddenly change his mind seemed ludicrous, but then the odd way in which he’d delivered it began to nag at her.
Todd was a romantic at heart; it seemed out of character for him not to make a formal marriage proposal. Was it possible he hadn’t meant for her to find the ring at all? Suddenly, the thought that seeing his old girlfriend might change Todd’s mind about marrying Gwen didn’t seem so far-fetched.
Todd hadn’t told her much about Emma, but Gwen doubted that Claire had always been with them during their summers at the inn. According to his mother, the two of them had been quite serious at the end. Even without Fran’s information, it had been obvious since she’d arrived that something about Todd had changed since Gwen saw him last. The last few hours, in fact, had been downright unnerving. What had happened to the guy who always put her needs first?
The chairs around her were quickly filling up. A handsome older woman Gwen had seen in the restaurant stepped into the room and looked around for an open seat. Tall and elegant, with platinum hair that fell to her shoulders, she looked a bit like Lauren Bacall. The woman intrigued her, and when she walked over and asked if she could sit beside her, Gwen happily agreed. Why, she wondered, would someone like that be interested in ghosts?
Before she could ask, however, Emma walked into the room. Gwen watched with narrowed eyes as her rival crossed the room to speak with Professor Van Vandevander. The girl was awfully plain, she thought, and that outfit did nothing for her figure. What could Todd possibly see in her? Then again, a man’s head could be turned by the strangest things. Gwen’s mother was far better looking than her stepmother, yet her father had pursued Tippi like a hound after a hare. She’d be damned if she let Todd do the same thing to her.
Gwen slowly moved her left hand so that the diamonds on her engagement ring caught the light. In general, she preferred giving subtle signals to the competition, but she wasn’t above doing something overt if they didn’t take the hint. As Emma and the professor continued their chat, Gwen glanced toward the door, hoping Todd would join her soon.
“Hello again,” a voice said.
She looked back and saw Dr. Richards approaching.
“I’m glad to see you here,” he said. “I was afraid you’d decided not to come.”
“Oh, no,” she said smoothly. “You couldn’t keep me away.”
“Have you met Dee?” He indicated the woman sitting next to her. “She’s been a member of our chapter almost as long as I have.”
“No.” Gwen shook her head. “I’m afraid I haven’t.”
He leaned closer.
“Dee, this is Gwen. She and I met this evening. Her husband, Todd, is one of our skeptics.”
Dee offered her a cool, dry hand. “Pleased to meet you.”
“The same,” Gwen said as they shook. “But Todd’s not my husband. Not yet, anyway.”
She fluttered the fingers of her left hand. “Don’t you love it?”
“Congratulations,” Richards said.
Dee nodded. “It’s very nice.”
Gwen saw Van Vandevander approac
h with Emma trailing behind.
“Have you got a moment, Dick?”
“In a minute,” Richards said. “Dee and I were just congratulating Miss Ashworth on her engagement.”
He pointed at Gwen’s ring.
“Oh.” The professor glanced nervously at Emma. “Congratulations.”
“Emma, have you met Gwen?”
“Briefly,” she said, giving the ring a quick glance. “Congrats.”
Gwen leaned forward confidentially.
“Actually, Emma and Todd knew each other when they were kids.” She winked. “I think it was puppy love.”
Her comment had the desired effect. Emma’s face reddened and she laughed nervously.
“Don’t know where you got that idea.”
“Oh? Well, maybe Todd was just trying to make me jealous,” Gwen said. “Either way, I’m relieved. I wouldn’t want us to be enemies.”
The awkward moment left everyone at a momentary loss.
“So,” Richards said. “You needed to talk to me, Lars?”
“Yes,” the professor said. “In private, if you don’t mind.”
As the other three walked away, Gwen turned back to the woman next to her.
“So, you’ve been to a lot of these conventions, have you?”
Dee smiled. “A few, yes.”
“I hope you don’t mind my asking, but what keeps bringing you back? Have you ever actually seen a ghost at one of these things?”
As the older woman took a moment to think, Gwen noticed something she hadn’t before. Dee wasn’t just fashionably thin; she was gaunt, and her shoulder-length platinum tresses were almost certainly an expensive wig, rather than her real hair. The color in her cheeks was a light touch of rouge, too, and though her pale skin showed none of the ravages caused by sun exposure, it was so thin that Gwen could clearly see the web of blue veins underneath. Gwen squirmed. Sickness, death, and old age had always made her uncomfortable.
