They looked back at CJ, still standing on the porch. He’d moved closer to Laurel, and she felt safer with him around. Not that these men would really pull anything, but they seemed to think their TV-show fame gave them rights that no one else would have.
When the men drove off in a blue van, CJ and Laurel entered the hotel, and his gaze shifted to the wall and the letter C.
“I’m glad you told them up front that they couldn’t film here. That will give me better leverage in kicking them out if they do anything you don’t like.” CJ didn’t care for those guys already. “Are you fixing breakfast here or at your place?” He didn’t smell anything cooking in the kitchen, and he doubted that she would be making a meal here since they didn’t plan to have a restaurant. Maybe in the future. The kitchen could be used for special refreshments for their guests though, just like they were using it tomorrow to serve Silva and Sam’s food and drinks at the opening.
“At the house. I only have a few things in the kitchen here for the big opening tomorrow.” She released a relieved breath. “I don’t know why I didn’t think about it before, but it suddenly occurred to me that the ghost busters hadn’t asked permission to do any ghost busting here. And I have every right to limit what they do in the hotel.” She led him outside, and they walked along the stone path that meandered around the fountain and gazebo on its way to the house.
“Looks like they could be trouble. Brett might have informed you already, but he couldn’t bring the information about the hotel over until much later today, so when he learned I was coming here this morning, he sent it over with me.”
She eyed the purple-and-yellow polka-dot box. “That’s great. Colorful box.”
He shook his head. “Not that I have anything against polka dots or colorful boxes, but I could have used something a little manlier when I was facing down the ghost-buster crew. I don’t think they took me very seriously.”
She laughed. “Was it Brett’s idea?”
“No, Lelandi’s. You know Darien’s brother, Jake, the photographer. Lelandi, Darien’s mate, gave him the photo box. I’m sure he couldn’t wait to pass it along to Brett when he was gathering all this information for you.”
“And now I have it.”
“Don’t tell Lelandi, but Jake doesn’t want it back.”
“What about Brett?”
Smiling, CJ shook his head.
She chuckled. “Do you like French toast?”
“Sounds great.”
While she fixed them breakfast, CJ spread out the pictures and copies of other documents on the table for her to look at when they were done eating.
It wasn’t long before she’d served the French toast, and he was smothering his in maple syrup. He noted she was reading one of the documents when he asked, “Would you like to go skiing some time with me?” He figured he’d start this courtship right away since the ladies were ready to open the hotel. No more excuses for not having time to let down their hair a bit.
“Ohmigod. One of the people who owned the hotel was named Wernicke. And his sister ran it for a time, but they both vanished,” Laurel suddenly said.
Surprised, CJ frowned at her. “Did you know them?”
She looked up at him. “No, but the ghost busters said they had the same name. What are the odds?”
CJ closed his gaping mouth. “Hell.” He got on his cell and called Darien. “Hey, Brett gave me some information about the old hotel. Do you know anything about the Wernicke family that owned it?”
“Not really.” Darien’s voice darkened. “Wait, isn’t that the name of the ghost busters?”
“Yeah, same name. Too much of a coincidence, don’t you think?”
“It sure as hell is. Are they wolves? They’re staying at Bertha’s bed and breakfast, but she didn’t say anything about them being wolves. She would have informed me right away.”
CJ watched Laurel pull over another document to read. “I didn’t smell any wolf scent on them. Were the Wernicke sister and brother wolves?”
“I don’t know. My father was in charge of the pack back then. I thought he was concerned about keeping Silver Town as wolf-run as possible, just as I’ve been since I took over. Maybe he’d sold it to the Wernicke family just so that someone was operating it.”
Laurel set her fork down on her plate, only half of her French toast eaten, and began to look at the pictures in earnest. Her face blanched a bit, and CJ noticed that she was looking at the picture of the quilt bearing the letter C.
She began to look quickly through the rest of the documents, and he wondered what she was searching for.
“Is there any way to find out?” CJ asked Darien. “If the ghost busters are human, and the previous owners weren’t, they’re not related.”
“We’ll ask some of the old-timers to see if anyone knew for sure.”
“Agreed. And these men might be trouble. They were over here this morning, wanting to see the place before the other guests arrive tomorrow. Laurel said no, but they weren’t buying it. Not only that, but she told them they didn’t have permission to use their ghost-busting equipment to videotape or photograph the hotel.”
“Good. Then you’ve got grounds to charge them if they give you or the sisters trouble. Keep an eye on things then. Let me know if they get out of hand.”
“Will do.” CJ ended the call with Darien and shook his head at Laurel’s questioning glance. “Darien doesn’t know if they’re related to the ones who ran the hotel, or even if the earlier owners were wolves.”
“They have to be related. Maybe they think they can lay claim to the place.”
Laurel seemed so disheartened, CJ reached over and grasped her hand and gave it a squeeze. “They’d have to have proof they were related. We’d have to ensure that the former owners didn’t die of unnatural causes. And that they had willed the properties to these men.” Hell, he’d thought the problem was that the men might discover werewolves existed. Now this? Then again, the men didn’t smell like wolves, so if they saw someone shifting, the pack would still have trouble.
“Wait. On second thought, though I don’t know the situation entirely, if they disappeared and no one paid the taxes, Darien’s father, as pack leader, would have paid them to keep the property with the pack.”
“Okay.” Laurel took their plates into the kitchen, though she looked visibly upset and hadn’t finished eating her breakfast.
CJ wanted to ask about the similarity of the C on the hand-quilted comforter and the one on the wall, but he figured Laurel was probably more worried about the ghost busters now.
“Are you going to tell your sisters about the men and the former owners?” CJ asked.
“No. Not while they’re trying to take care of other business. When they get home tomorrow night, I will. I can show them the pictures and the documents, and we can discuss it.”
CJ and Laurel returned to the hotel, and he headed for the basement. She unlocked the door for him but didn’t go down this time. He hurried to retrieve one of the rollers and the paint tray and climbed back up the stairs.
Laurel was carrying a box of Christmas lights out to the sunroom. “I’m going to start hanging lights around the gazebo. I’ll see you out back when you’re done here.”
“Sure. Oh, one thing. Brett said he wanted to take pictures of the backyard once it’s decorated for Christmas. And he wanted to get a picture of the hotel with all the lights on in the front windows tonight.”
“Okay, super. Thanks so much to you and your brother for helping out. And…for all the promo. We’d like to invite you over to dinner some night.”
“We’d love it. I was thinking… Since this is your last night before you open, would you like to go for another wolf run? We could go to the tavern, have drinks to celebrate, and eat supper there.”
“A run would be nice.”
“But no on the tavern?” He could see her reluctance.
She shook her head.
He wondered if she felt it would be too intimate
. Too much like a date.
“Supper tonight at my place?” He wasn’t giving up on the idea of eating with her. She was alone. He was alone. They had to eat. It couldn’t be more perfect with her sisters away for the night.
“How about if I fix supper at mine?” Laurel finally said.
“Okay, works for me. What can I bring?” He was thrilled she’d go for it. He hoped he didn’t sound overly eager.
“Wine? Dessert?”
He smiled a little.
“Chocolate,” she clarified.
“Sure. Sounds like a winner. I’ll join you outside in just a bit.” But it was still hours before supper and he had to come up with another plan to spend more quality time with her.
He went to work on painting the wall, again, and once he was satisfied that he’d covered the entire area, he washed the paint out of the roller in the basement. He didn’t sense anything spooky or see anything that made him feel the basement was haunted. Just that wall he’d been painting. He walked upstairs and into the room where the X had appeared on the ceiling, but there was no sign of it.
The painters would have had a ladder set up in one of the rooms. It would have been easy for someone to enter through the unlocked door and paint an X on the ceiling after everyone had gone.
CJ walked outside into the brisk morning breeze. The air was chilly, but the sun was shining today, and with the snow all over the backyard, it truly looked like Christmas.
Lauren looked just as festive in her sparkly white sweater, with her red hair curling about her shoulders and her jeans showing off her curves as she stretched up to hang white lights on the top edge of the gazebo.
“Here, let me help you. Unless you want me to do something else.”
“Sure, you can do this and I can hang the garland on the lower railings.” She climbed down off the ladder, and he changed places with her while she hung the garland. “Is the letter still on the wall?”
“Yeah, it is.”
She let out her breath in the frosty air.
“Hey, do you want to decorate that tree out here too?”
She considered the silver spruce. “Sure. I hadn’t thought of that. What do you think? Just lights or red bows and lights?”
“Why don’t we decorate it with lights, and if it looks like it needs something more, we can add red bows.”
“Okay.” She smiled up at him as though she really appreciated the suggestion. He was glad he’d made it.
He glanced up at the attic window. It was dark, but it reminded him of what Brett had said about the light being on in the room when he went to take pictures. “So did you…leave the attic room light on last night?”
Laurel stopped hanging the garland and looked up at him. “No, why?”
“Brett said it was on last night when he went to take a picture of the hotel all lit up in Christmas lights.”
“Maybe one of my sisters left it on by mistake.”
“And turned it off this morning?” CJ finished hanging the lights on the gazebo and went to work on the silver spruce.
“Right.” Laurel didn’t sound sure of herself. She finished the garland, then pulled her phone out of her pocket and called someone. “Hey, Ellie, did you leave a light on in the attic last night? Okay, if you didn’t, ask Meghan, will you? If she did, maybe she turned it off this morning before you both left. All right. Thanks. Everything’s fine here. I told the ghost hunters that they weren’t allowed to photograph anything inside the hotel. They were not happy.” She smiled.
“Yeah, they looked a little shocked.” She glanced in CJ’s direction. “The letter C? Even after the paint dried all night, the letter was still there this morning. CJ painted over it again just a few minutes ago. Yes, I told CJ the room was haunted. Thanks.” Laurel ended the call and pocketed her phone.
She moved over to help him with the lights. “No one turned on the attic-room light that they remember. Both know for sure they didn’t turn it off this morning before they left.”
“Burned-out bulb, probably,” CJ said.
“Right.”
“Would you like to go skiing with me sometime?” CJ unraveled more of the light string.
“I’ve never skied before.”
“Easily remedied. I’m one of the best ski instructors there is. I can give private lessons.”
She laughed. “I bet you can.”
“I can. Free of charge. I’ll pay for your lunch at the ski lodge and—”
“I have a hotel to run.”
“On your days off.”
“Okay, I’ll take you up on it.”
“Hot damn!”
She smiled.
“Oh, and by the way, Darien will look further into the ghost busters’ backgrounds. He’ll try to find out if they’re related to the previous owners.”
“Good. I just can’t believe they wouldn’t be related.”
When Laurel and CJ were done stringing the lights, they stepped back and looked at the tree.
“I like it just like it is. No red bows,” CJ said.
“I agree. The tree looks lovely.”
All spruced up in Christmas finery, the hotel and grounds were beautiful. Not modern gaudy, but reminiscent of an older time—even nostalgic. Evergreen garlands and red bows trimmed the white fence, and evergreen wreaths decorated with red bows hung at each of the nine windows of both floors. The gazebo and spruce out back sparkled with white lights.
“You and your sisters have done a beautiful job. It’s really going to be great having the additional lodging for visitors to the area. Bertha’s place gets packed and some of the bigger homes have started to rent bedrooms, but this will be nice for a few more guests.”
“I agree.” She turned to CJ. “Not to change the subject, but why do you think the Wernickes left and never came back?”
CJ was afraid she’d been worrying ever since she heard about the disappearing brother and sister. Though she seemed to enjoy decorating the backyard with him, and he was glad he could help her while her sisters were gone.
“I don’t know. But I’m all for uncovering what went on,” he said. “I’m sure that the situation was investigated as thoroughly as it could be at the time. But it certainly doesn’t hurt for us to see if we can come up with anything new.” He wished his father was still alive so they could ask him what he’d learned but hadn’t specified in his report.
“What are your sisters doing?” CJ didn’t want to pry, but it seemed odd that they’d left when there was still so much decorating to be done and then the grand opening was tomorrow.
“We located…” Laurel paused. “Um, we purchased a couple of antiques, and when they didn’t arrive on time, we were afraid something had gone wrong. We just want to make sure we get them all right.”
CJ was instantly suspicious because of the abrupt change in what Laurel was going to say, the way he smelled her concern, and how she seemed afraid to tell him the truth—but also because he couldn’t imagine a couple pieces of furniture being so important that Laurel was left to deal with the hotel’s opening on her own.
“Is there a special place where the furniture is going to be displayed?”
She snorted. “Maybe in front of the letter on the wall. Then we can rehang our painting in the house.”
That didn’t answer his question. Why had her sisters needed to leave? “We have a long time before supper. Why don’t we run up to the slopes and get some afternoon skiing in?” he asked.
She looked a little unsure about that.
“You’re done with the place. Nothing else to do unless you want to watch a movie at home or something. But we could go skiing, have supper, then go for a night run if you’d like.”
“Okay, but I’ll warn you now, I went ice skating once, and I’m not the most graceful skater. So don’t expect much of me for my first time on the slopes.”
“That’s why having your own personal trainer is the only way to go.”
She smiled a little, then headed for the stairs. “
I’ll get my ski pants and jacket. I picked them up on sale when we first got here, just in case. What about you?”
“I have mine in the truck. I always have a bag packed for emergencies in case I have to run to the ski resort.”
“Oh, okay, super. Be right down.” She disappeared upstairs.
CJ immediately retrieved his bag of clothes and changed in the guest bathroom.
When she returned, she was wearing formfitting black ski pants that showed her curves, a pale blue sweater, and a matching jacket. She looked scrumptious. He hoped she loved skiing as much as he was going to enjoy teaching her.
He grabbed his jacket and she slipped on a ski hat and gloves, then they locked up her house and climbed into the truck. As he was backing out of the parking area, something at the hotel caught his eye. His gaze shifted upward.
The light in the attic room was on…again.
Chapter 6
Laurel knew that keeping secrets from CJ or anyone else would be difficult if she and her sisters spent much time with any of the pack members. She couldn’t believe she had nearly made the slip about her aunt’s furniture.
She climbed into CJ’s truck. He hesitated to drive out of the parking lot and was looking at the hotel. She turned to see what caught his eye. The light was on in the attic room.
“Told you it was haunted,” she said. He smiled, shook his head, and drove off to the ski resort.
To get her mind off being apprehensive about skiing, Laurel thought about her mother trying to find out what had happened after that long-ago Christmas when she didn’t receive word from her sister. Despite going to Silver Town, Sadie hadn’t learned anything. A couple of local residents claimed Clarinda hadn’t worked for Warren Wernicke. And they’d been adamant about it.
Sadie had even spoken with Sheridan Silver, the sheriff. Laurel and her sisters had hoped to question him further but had been sorry to learn he was dead. Laurel wished she could ask CJ if his father had said anything about their aunt or mother.
He might not know anything about it. In any case, she didn’t want to alert CJ as to why she and her sisters were here.