Pet Friendly (14 page)

CHAPTER 22

G
wen 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 approach 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.

“No,” Dee said at last, “I can't say I've ever seen a ghost at one of these things, but I have friends who claim they did.”

“Well, you can always hope, I guess.”

“Yes,” Dee said. “I'm afraid that hope is all I have now.”

She lifted Gwen's hand and examined the ring again.

“Your Todd must be very generous.”

“He is,” Gwen said. “He knows how to keep me happy.”

“My husband was generous, too. Not that he could have afforded a ring like that, but he gave me more love and laughter in twenty-one years than most people get in a lifetime.”

Dee had a faraway look in her eyes.

“I'm not sure I ever thanked him enough for that. I suppose that's why I come here,” she said. “I keep wishing there was some way I could tell him.”

Gwen slowly withdrew her hand.

“When did you . . . lose him?”

“Hmm? Oh, Archie's been gone for almost fifteen years now.”

“Your husband's name was Archie?”

“Short for Archibald, yes, but he hated that.” She laughed. “I'm not even sure he liked the name Archie, come to think of it, but it suited him.”

Gwen almost said something about Uncle Bertie's dog, but decided not to. What were the chances? she thought. She'd have to be sure to tell Todd when he arrived. She gave Dee a thin smile and glanced at the door again. What on earth was keeping him?

 

Emma charged into the lobby and barked at Adam.

“Has he shown up yet?”

“No. Sorry.” He shrugged apologetically. “He just said he'd be back for the séance.”

“Well, it's about to start and I can't find him anywhere.”

She ran a hand partway through her hair and yanked, hoping the pain would help her focus. Big things were happening; her assistant manager was AWOL; and all she could think about was Todd's stupid fiancée. If Adam hadn't been standing six feet away from her, she'd have screamed in frustration.

“All right,” she said, “we'll just have to move on without him. You stay here and take care of the guests. Don't worry if you can't answer the phones; they can go to voice mail for now. If anyone starts freaking out, I don't want you to be stuck on the phone.”

The desk clerk looked crestfallen.

“I guess that means I can't go to the séance, huh?”

“Adam, you know I love you, but I cannot deal with your disappointment right now. Unless by some miracle Clifton shows up this very second, the answer is no, absolutely not.”

She heard footsteps and saw Todd coming toward her down the hallway.

“I need to talk to you,” he said. “It's urgent.”

Emma held up her hand.

“Nope. Sorry. No time to chat,” she said as she headed toward her office. “She's waiting for you in the Spirit Room.”

“Who, Gwen? No.” He shook his head. “I need to talk to
you. Right now.
”

Emma worked her jaw, glancing from Todd to an openmouthed Adam. Why was he doing this to her? Wasn't it bad enough that he'd told his fiancée that the two of them had been sweet on each other as kids? For a little while there, she'd thought Todd was still her friend, that maybe she'd misjudged him, but after Gwen's crack about puppy love, Emma realized that the two of them had been laughing behind her back all along.

Even so, he was a guest and she could hardly tell her staff to treat the guests well if she wasn't prepared to do the same. She forced herself to smile.

“All right. What can I help you with?”

Todd hesitated. “I'd rather talk in your office, if you don't mind.”

“Of course,” she said. “Adam, I'll be out in a minute. If Clifton shows up, please buzz me right away.”

Todd followed her into her office and Emma closed the door behind him.

“What do you want?” she snapped. “Or did you just drop by to give me more advice about how to run my business?”

“It's Archie,” Todd said. “I think he may be your ghost.”

She almost laughed. Archie a ghost? Was this a joke?

“The first night I was here, remember? Lars and Viv told me they heard a ghost howling.”

Emma frowned, recalling Viv's despondency when the spirits had refused to show themselves.

“No, that was the day after. There weren't any encounters the first day.”

Todd shook his head. “The next morning, then. Lars said it was around midnight when they heard it. Then you told me that Archie showed up at the cottage around two, right?”

She thought about that for a moment.

“Yeah, I suppose, but I didn't hear him howl.”

“I didn't say you did. Remember that thorn he had in his paw? Jake and I found one of those bushes near the toolshed. If that was where Archie stepped on it, anyone on the east side of the building would have heard him howl.”

Emma thought about that. The Van Vandevanders' room was on that side. If Archie had howled when he stepped on the spiny cocklebur, they would have been in the best position to hear him. But that was silly, she told herself. They'd have realized it was a dog, surely.

“Archie stole the sandwich, too,” Todd said. “I saw him with it in his mouth, but I thought the kitchen staff had given it to him. When somebody told me later that they thought a ghost had taken it, I didn't bother to tell them. It just seemed like a harmless mistake.”

With the evidence piling up, Emma could feel her anxiety growing. What if Archie
was
the reason for the encounters?

“But the scratching and the other sounds, like someone walking overhead. . . .”

“I think I can explain those, too,” Todd said. “Or at least some of them. Dr. Richards told us he thinks there are hidden passages behind the walls. What if Archie got in there somehow? I know it sounds crazy, but . . .”

“No,” she said. “It's not crazy. He's right; there are empty spaces in the walls.”

Todd's jaw dropped. “You knew about them?”

“Of course. That's why the inn is so hard to maintain. There are places we can't even get to inside. Not without breaking through the roof or the walls, anyway.”

And if Archie was in there, Emma thought, how would they ever get him out?

“The ghost in the laundry room,” she said, thinking aloud. “Lupita had just emptied out the linens from the cottage. Archie's blanket was in there.”

“That's what I thought, too,” Todd said. “Maybe he was trying to get the blanket back when Lupita grabbed the hamper. He's small and he doesn't weigh all that much. If she piled some sheets on top and picked everything up, Archie might have stayed quiet, thinking it was a game.”

Archie had been playing a game with his blanket that afternoon, Emma thought. What if Todd was right and Archie thought Lupita was playing a game with him? When she dumped the laundry out on the floor, she must have seen the blanket move and thought it was alive.

“Maybe we've got it wrong. Maybe Archie's still inside the cottage.”

Todd shook his head.

“I just checked; he's not there,” he said. “I'm sorry.”

Emma looked around, trying to think of what she should do. Everyone was already gathered in the Spirit Room. Maybe the best thing to do was just hope for the best and go searching for Archie once the séance was over. If Todd was right, Lars and Viv had already heard Archie's cries and failed to recognize them. In the bewitching atmosphere of the séance, even a skeptical person might believe he was hearing ghosts, and there seemed little chance that Archie would bark as long as no one called his name.

“Oh, no.” Emma grabbed Todd's arm. “Your dog's name is
Archie.
”

“Um, yeah,” he said, smiling uncertainly. “I thought you knew that.”

“Noooo,” she moaned. “Why didn't I think of this before?”

“Think of what? What are you talking about?”