Текст книги "A Silver Wolf Christmas"
Автор книги: Spear Terry
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Текущая страница: 4 (всего у книги 19 страниц)
Chapter 4
CJ had just reached his house in the Wolf Pines subdivision, a cozy development where the homes were spaced out on pine-tree-covered, five-acre lots to give everyone privacy and a woodland feeling. A park had also been created to give the wolves a place to really run. That’s what he loved about the wolf developments. The prices of the properties were kept low for lupus garous, but way overpriced for humans to keep them from living there.
It wasn’t that the wolves in the pack didn’t like humans. They just wanted to give their own people the freedom to run in their wolf coats without worrying about their neighbors seeing them or having to erect huge fences to keep their wolfish nature secret. That felt too much like being confined to a zoo, so except for a couple of neighbors two streets over who had fences for their dogs, everyone kept a naturalistic, open setting.
He was entering his one-and-a-half-story, French provincial home when he got a call. “Yeah, Brett?” In the kitchen, CJ pulled out some leftover spaghetti and heated it up in the microwave.
“I have to cover another news story tomorrow afternoon, so I don’t have time to share the information about the hotel with Laurel and her sisters. Since you’re going to be staying with them for a few days, do you want to fill them in on the details?”
“Yeah, sure. I’m actually going back to the hotel tomorrow to help a little more before they open. Ellie and Meghan are leaving early in the morning on some errand that’s taking them out of state. I’m helping to paint because their painters got spooked.”
“Oh. Okay. Well, what if I run by your place and drop this stuff off tonight?”
“That would be great.”
“Have you eaten?”
CJ looked at his warmed-up spaghetti. “Not yet.”
“I’ll drop by Pizza to Go and grab us a meat-lover’s deluxe.”
“Sounds good to me. See you in a few.” CJ put the spaghetti back in the refrigerator. He and Brett were only a couple of minutes apart in age and had always been the closest of the brothers, pairing up against their older brothers when they gave them grief.
While he waited for Brett to arrive with the pizza, CJ packed a bag of clothes for his stay at the hotel. Brett used the spare key that CJ had given him and called out, “Pizza delivery!”
CJ came out of the bedroom and joined his brother in the dining room. Brett had already placed the pizza box on the table and yanked off a couple of paper towels to use as plates. At the end of the table rested a purple-and-yellow polka-dot photo box. It looked suspiciously like one that Lelandi had given her brother-in-law Jake.
“Why does that box look familiar?” CJ asked.
Brett opened the lid, lifted out six large manila envelopes, and placed them at the end of the table. “Lelandi gave it to Jake for his photos last Christmas. But he either takes digital shots or makes them into large canvas pictures for art galleries, so he doesn’t need it. I thought I’d run over there to get copies of photos he had taken of the hotel over the years.” Brett paused, then smiled. “Okay, so yeah, he did have some that weren’t digital. Anyway, he quickly offered the box to carry the photos in. I’m sure it was a way to get rid of it without offending our pack leader.”
CJ smiled.
“I organized the photos by date.”
“I’m sure the ladies will be thrilled to get all the information. After they finish looking at all this stuff, they can give you their thoughts about the hotel for your article. As for the polka-dot box? Not sure they’ll want it either.”
Brett chuckled. “Surely the women will like it better than Jake does. I should have asked. Are the paper towels all right for plates?”
“No sense in using dishes for just the two of us.” CJ grabbed a couple of beers for them.
“Where are you staying in the hotel? I heard it’s already booked, and I know the women didn’t renovate the maids’ quarters yet.”
“Attic room.”
“Did you go up there? Turn on a light and leave it on?”
Wondering what Brett was getting at, CJ took a seat opposite him and grabbed a slice of pizza. “No, I’ve never been up there. Visited the basement though.”
Brett’s eyes rounded. “See anything?”
“Just the paintbrushes and rollers I had to clean.”
“Well, I went over to take some pictures of the hotel all lit up in Christmas lights. I had taken some earlier before the light faded. But the light on in the attic made the hotel look a little spooky. I’ll take more shots tomorrow night before the guests all arrive. I’ll just ask the women to turn on the lights in all the rooms at the front of the hotel.”
CJ finished a slice of pizza and reached for another. “They’re also decorating the backyard tomorrow, so maybe you can get a few shots out there.”
“I will. And some inside the hotel, showing some of the old features and how the lobby looks now.”
“Have you looked at all that stuff?” CJ motioned with his bottle of beer to the envelopes.
“Yeah. Interesting place. What do you think of staying there?”
“Works for me. I just hope we don’t have any real trouble with the ghost busters.”
“You’re a deputy sheriff. Throw them in jail if they do anything illegal.”
“I will. Believe me.”
“So…” Brett finished his beer, sat back on the chair, and raised his brows. “How’s it going with Laurel?”
CJ smiled. “Is it that obvious that she’s the one I’m interested in?”
“Hell, yeah. Since you’ll be over there tomorrow, her sisters will be gone, and no guests will be there yet, you’ll have her all to yourself. Is she warming up to you? She seemed to have fun running with the pack tonight, but she still stuck close to her sisters. It was fun watching them tussle in the snow. They’ve been so subdued that I didn’t think they even knew how to play as wolves or otherwise.”
“Maybe they’re just getting used to the rest of us. We’ve been so thrilled they’ve joined us that I’m sure it’s been a little much. Then, too, they’ve been under a lot of stress in getting the hotel ready for the grand opening.”
“Agreed. When do you think the backyard will be decorated so that I can take pictures?”
“Tomorrow morning. I’m going to repaint a wall, and then I’ll help Laurel hang the lights or whatever she plans to do there. I’ll tell her that you want to get some pictures of the place with all the lights on.”
“Good deal.” Brett finished the last slice of pizza. “Anything going on over there? Anything…paranormal?”
“Yeah, but I’m sure there’s an explanation for it.” CJ explained about the C on the wall.
“You’re kidding.” Brett sounded like he knew something about it.
“What?”
Brett began emptying the folders on the table. “Here’s a note that Darien’s dad kept from a pack member who was concerned because a letter C appeared after the hotel’s lobby was repainted thirty years ago.”
“Thirty years ago. Huh. Well, apparently it disappeared after that. So here’s hoping when I paint over it again, it’ll disappear.”
“That’s what you’ve been painting?”
“Yep. And it’s not going away.”
“Did you try that stain-killer paint?”
“Yep.”
“No blood dripping from it, right?”
CJ chuckled and shook his head.
Brett helped clean up and pulled out his keys. “Okay, I’m out of here. I’ll see you later tomorrow.”
CJ said good night to him, then started reading through all the documents and examining the pictures of the old hotel, which were mostly of the lobby and front of the hotel, some with the owners standing on the covered veranda. He recognized one of the Silvers’ friends from the old days, Jonathon Bowling, who built the hotel in 1871, plus his wife and two daughters. All of them had long ago died, though the lupus garous until fairly recently had extended longevity. That had changed drastically though, according to a lupus garou geneticist, Dr. Aidan Denali. He had come into town and taken blood samples from all the wolves, looking for the reason that their longevity had morphed into a time span more similar to humans.
As to Jonathon Bowling, after he and his family died, the hotel was sold off to three more owners. The last owner before the MacTires was Warren Wernicke, who bought the hotel in 1953. He was a bachelor who never married. At least as far as anyone could tell. He might have lost a mate earlier and never found another, which often occurred among lupus garous.
Owning a hotel as a single entrepreneur was a little unusual. Wernicke’s sister lived in the house with him and managed the hotel for a brief while, according to Darien’s dad’s notes. Then as far as reports could tell, twelve years after he bought the place, Warren Wernicke left one night and never come back. His sister, Charity Wernicke, vanished shortly after that.
A police report filed by Sheridan Silver, CJ’s father, as acting sheriff, said Warren seemed to have run off with a maid. His sister then left because the hotel was in financial ruins.
CJ had to let the sisters see all this, but he really didn’t want to. As unafraid as they seemed, he worried that this might disturb them more, particularly since his father had never located the Wernickes to verify that his suspicions were correct. Still, the sisters had every right to see the information about the hotel. Besides, they could obtain the information themselves anyway.
Looking at everything Brett had gathered about the hotel, CJ realized his brother was the perfect match for his job. He was really good at research, and he’d included old deeds, an auction listing of furniture and other incidentals, and pictures of some of the lovely carved pieces of furniture that were sold off when the hotel closed down after Charity Wernicke disappeared.
After that, no one had the funds or the know-how to run the hotel. Or the desire. He remembered how kids would dare each other to spend a night in the old place, swearing ghosts floated about the hotel, moaning and crying and wreaking all sorts of havoc on anyone dumb enough to stay there.
He noticed a photograph of a hand-pieced quilt with a stenciled letter C right in the center. The letter was the approximate size of the one on the wall. CJ stared at the picture, wondering why Charity had disappeared. And her brother too.
Chapter 5
The next morning, Ellie and Meghan took off before CJ arrived, both warning Laurel not to get too involved with him. And yet, she thought they really didn’t mean it. Not when they gave each other secret smiles. They probably hoped he could convince her to stay.
They had to know her better than that. She was totally focused on getting their hotel up and running. No time to play with a male wolf.
Laurel had to admit she’d thoroughly enjoyed playing in the snow with her sisters last night and taking a long moonlit run across the snowfields with the rest of the pack. She wasn’t ready for any other pack activities, but she would remember last night fondly.
This morning, she hadn’t wanted to check the wall in the hotel’s lobby, afraid of what she’d find. She carried the painting over there, just in case, and sure enough, the C was still as big as day.
She leaned the painting against one of the perpendicular walls so that CJ could paint over the C again.
When she heard knocking at the door, she felt a little thrill of excitement at seeing him again and immediately scolded herself for feeling any such thing. She hurried for the door, paused, put on her more professional face, then unlocked and opened the door. But it wasn’t CJ. Instantly, she became wary. Three men stood on the hotel’s porch, and she suspected they were the ghost busters.
“We’re not open yet,” she said, trying not to growl like she wanted to. She had to remember that she was in the business of welcoming guests, and they would be her guests tomorrow.
“I’m Stanton Wernicke,” the darkest-haired man said, his blue eyes hard. “These are my brothers, Yolan and Vernon. We’re your guests tomorrow, but you might have heard that we have a TV show—”
“Ghost Busters Extraordinaire, yes,” she said. “But we’re not open today.”
“We thought maybe we could look around before everyone arrives. That way we won’t be in everyone’s hair.”
Already Laurel didn’t like Stanton Wernicke. He was pushy and acting as if his business was more important than hers. And that she should welcome the great TV personalities. That would be the day.
“I’m sorry, no. You’d be in my hair, and I’m busy.”
She heard a vehicle park out front, and though she couldn’t see around the three hulking men, she hoped CJ had arrived. If these men wouldn’t take no for an answer, they’d change their mind when they learned CJ was a deputy sheriff.
“We promise we’ll stay out of your way and—”
“I said no. Beyond that, I didn’t know who you were when you booked your reservations. I have no intention of allowing the hotel to be part of your show. Furthermore, you haven’t asked permission to photograph or videotape the hotel for the purpose of sharing with the public.”
“Slight technicality,” Stanton said. “I thought one of my brothers had received permission.” He gave them a condescending look. They gave him the slightest knowing smiles back.
She knew he was lying, and she really didn’t like these men.
“What seems to be the trouble?” CJ asked, coming up behind the men so quietly that she hadn’t even heard him. But his voice wasn’t the least bit quiet. It was darkly baritone and stated he meant business.
Except that he was carrying a purple-and-yellow polka-dot box that ruined the tough-guy image. She hoped he wasn’t bringing her a gift now that her sisters were gone.
“No trouble.” Stanton glanced down at the colorful box, a slight smile appearing on his thin lips, as if he thought CJ was a joke. “We’re staying here tomorrow, and we wanted to get some readings before everyone else arrives because we have a TV—”
“Show. We know.” CJ’s dark expression told the men they had no business here. Even so, he waited for Laurel to say if she agreed.
She appreciated CJ’s gesture.
“You may not have permission to film or photograph the hotel or properties while you’re here,” she repeated in front of the deputy sheriff, so that he could share that with Darien and the sheriff in case these men ignored her rules. “I don’t want you disturbing other guests with your paranormal equipment. You’re welcome to come tomorrow and check in after the grand opening like everyone else and to use your rooms. For sleeping. If you aren’t happy with the rules, I will gladly cancel your reservations without penalty.” She folded her arms and managed a small smile. “Sorry. We really need to get some things done. Hectic day before the grand opening tomorrow.”
Stanton looked like a bulldog, and he and his brothers weren’t budging from the porch. He finally said, “All right. But you’re making a mistake.”
She raised a brow. Was he threatening her? CJ took a step toward him, though she wasn’t sure what he was going to do if things got physical, since he was still holding the polka-dot box.
Stanton held his position. “I mean, because we could do a lot of good promo for your hotel.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What? Saying the place is haunted? Or not haunted? I don’t think so.”
“Whichever way works best for you.”
She snorted. “And here I thought you were the real deal.” Not.
Stanton smiled a little. “Believe me, we’re the real deal. But we could slant it one way or the other, whichever way you preferred. No one but us would be the wiser.”
“Tomorrow, gentlemen. Rooms are for overnight guests only. Deputy Sheriff Silver, would you like some breakfast before we get to work?”
The men’s expressions changed subtly from pushy to surprised.
She was glad they hadn’t ignored that revelation.
“Yeah, sure. See you tomorrow at the grand opening.” CJ waited for the men to clear out.
“You think he really is?” Vernon asked the others under his breath. He was blonder than his brothers and a little shorter, but just as muscled and serious.
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.
