Ghouls Just Haunt to Have Fun (31 page)

“Status, please?” said Gil as we were leaving the dining hall. “Over.”

“We’re on our way to the fifth floor,” I said. “We’ll be coming through your area in a few seconds.”

We came out of the hallway and passed by the front desk. I was surprised to see Knollenberg seated there at this late hour. “Hello, sir,” I said as he looked up at us.

“How is the ghostbusting coming along?”

“Two down, two to go,” I said with a big smile, then noticed how worn-out and exhausted he looked. “What are you doing here so late?”

“I’m down a manager, so I’m helping by rotating in a shift,” he said. “Your Detective MacDonald was unable to confirm the home address that Anton gave us—apparently it’s an empty lot. And Anton’s passport and visa are fakes.”

“So he’s our guy,” I said, feeling it in my bones.

“It appears,” Knollenberg said moodily. “I really should have done more of a background check on him. But I’d been so busy with the construction and hotel affairs and he came so highly recommended that I didn’t vet him properly. Mr. Beckworth is quite displeased.”

“Sorry,” I said, then felt Heath nudge my elbow and make a point of lifting his watch up. “Okay, I’m coming,” I said, then left Knollenberg with, “We’ll be up on the fifth floor taking care of Gus.”

“Do you need me to power down the lights in the hallway up there?” he asked.

“No,” I said. “We’re going to want to keep the lights on for now.”

“Splendid,” he said. “Good luck to you.”

We didn’t pause to speak to Gilley, but continued on our way to the elevators. We piled in, and Heath and I took point position at the front of the elevator with our hands on our grenades. The doors opened and I took a cautious step forward. Immediately I heard running footsteps down the hall and I froze.

“What is it?” Heath said behind me.

I held up a finger and said, “Shhh,” while I listened intently. The footsteps had gone out of hearing range, so I motioned to the others to follow, but quietly.

We walked slowly down the corridor, Heath and I each holding tightly to a grenade while Gopher filmed over our shoulders. As we rounded the corner I gasped. I had seen a shadow, quick as a flash, dart through a doorway. Behind me I heard Gopher squeak in surprise.

“Did you see that?” he said in a hissy whisper.

“I did.” I relaxed a bit now that I knew the source of the shadow. “That’s Gus.”

“Hopefully you can convince him to leave this time,” said Heath. “He didn’t want to listen to me.”

 

As it turned out, Gus was one stubborn old coot. We worked on him for two solid hours before I came up with a rather ingenious idea. Sending Gopher down for a deck of cards, I told Heath out in the hallway that the best way to get Gus to cross over was by tricking him. “He needs to lose a bet,” I said. “If we can beat him at a game of poker, then we can get him to cooperate!”

“What if he wins?” Heath argued.

I frowned. “You’re right. I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll admit that my plan is slightly flawed.”

“So what do we do?” he asked.

“We don’t lose.”

Heath smiled. “You’re a blast to work with, you know?”

“I have my moments,” I replied with a smirk.

When Gopher returned Heath and I made ourselves comfortable at the table in room 518 and made a
big
show of having a great time playing a game of poker. At first Gus was intent on peeking over our shoulders and offering us advice, but we staunchly ignored him, and every time we did, the one of us he was advising lost the hand. This frustrated our ghostie to no end, so when I offered to deal him in he took the bait easily and barely blanched when we told him that the bet was that the loser of the next hand had to do as the winner instructed, down to the letter. That left Heath and me with a little better than a thirty percent chance each that we’d be able to get Gus across.

Heath ended up winning the hand, and not even ten minutes later the score was three down, one to go.

“That was awesome!” said Gopher as he followed us down the hallway. I figured he was referring to the point during his filming when Gus lost his hand and the table had begun to rock back and forth without anyone touching it. Gus was a bit of a sore loser.

I glanced at my watch as we got to the elevator. “That leaves us with four hours to tackle Carol,” I said, yawning.

Heath looked at me in surprise. “Is it four a.m. already?”

“It is.”

“Okay,” he said, as the doors to the elevator opened and we got in. “But I say we work on her for no more than an hour, then take a break. I could really use a cup of coffee.”

Heath and I took up our point positions as the doors to the third floor opened. “Keep your eyes and ears open, boys,” I whispered as we stepped cautiously off the elevator.

We hovered next to the double doors for a few long seconds, listening intently for anything that might indicate we were in danger. When nothing happened, I waved everyone forward.

With great care we proceeded down the hallway. This was the floor where so much crazy stuff had gone down that it made me more than a little nervous. We rounded the corner and walked to room 321. Standing in front of the crime-scene tape, Heath and I pocketed our grenades and concentrated both of our sixth senses on calling out to Carol.

After a few minutes I said, “I’ve got her . . . and boy, is she pissy! Something’s got her rattled—can you feel that?”

Heath didn’t answer me, so I opened my eyes and glanced at him. He wore a deep frown, and my fingers immediately closed on my grenade, ready to pop the top if he so much as flinched. “Heath?” I said, keeping my tone even.

“Status, please?” Gilley said into my ear. “Over.”

“Not now!” I snapped softly.

Gilley’s voice lowered to a whisper. “M.J.,” he said, “I’ve got electrostatic energy spiking all around you. Over.”

“I’m aware,” I whispered back, growing annoyed. “Now please shut up for a few, will you?”

“Okay, okay,” he said, and finished with a tiny, “Over.”

Heath turned toward me then and whispered, “Someone’s in there.”

My eyes widened.

“Who?” asked Gopher.

Heath shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. “Feels male.”

I grabbed him by the shirtsleeve and pulled him away from the door as I ordered quietly, “Let’s back out of here slowly. Keep your grenades close, guys.”

We took one step, two steps, three steps back down the hallway when all of a sudden Carol Mustgrove came out of room 319 and practically jumped me.

“Holy crap!” I squealed as I felt the full weight of her energy cling to mine.

“What’s going on?” said Heath as I struggled to push off the intense feelings of being tackled by her.

“It’s Carol!” I whispered. “She’s all over me!”

Heath stepped in front of me and put the grenade up close to my head. He eased the cap open just a fraction and Carol let go, but I could still feel her spitting and reeling and fighting to get to me.

I placed a hand on Heath’s grenade, pushing the cap back down over the opening. “Thanks,” I said, “but I think she’s trying to tell me something.” With my heart hammering hard in my chest I said, “I’m going to give her exactly ten seconds—if anything weird happens, pull that cap back off, okay?”

Heath nodded, and I closed my eyes.
Carol?
I asked her in my mind.
What’s the matter?

I saw it! I saw it all!
she said.
He came in with that awful dagger! The poor man didn’t have a chance!

I opened my eyes, and both Heath and Gopher were staring at me intently. I felt Carol tug me
really
hard toward the door of room 319, and I wavered between getting the freak out of there or trusting my instinct to investigate.

“M.J.?” I heard Gilley whisper. “Electrostatic is spiking off the charts! I want you guys to get the hell out of there! Over.”

Heath asked, “What are we doing here, M.J.?”

I pressed my lips together, trying to find a few extra ounces of courage. “I need to go in there,” I said, pointing to room 319. “And I’d appreciate it if you two had my back.”

Heath’s eyes widened, and Gopher gasped. Meanwhile Gilley hissed in our ears, “Heath! Don’t let her do it! Drag her out of that hallway if you have to! I insist that you guys get out of there,
now
! Over.”

I reached up and clicked off the volume on my headpiece. “Are you coming?” I asked, reaching for the door.

Heath gulped but said, “I’ve got your back.”

I used my master key card to swipe the lock. The small light on the handle turned from red to green, and, taking a deep, slow breath, I pushed the door open.

Chapter 14

The room was dark, and a mixture of aromas lifted to my nostrils. There was the smell of antiseptic from the bathroom, a mustier scent from the carpet locked in an airless room, and something else that was foul and metallic. Through the viewfinder I surveyed the room. It was larger than mine on the fourth floor had been, with two double beds and a small kitchenette to the far right. A seating area was set up near the window, and a chest of drawers and bureau lined the remaining wall.

Without switching on the lights I stepped inside, feeling Heath’s body heat close to my back. “Okay, Carol,” I said very softly. “Show me why we needed to come in here.”

Behind us in the hallway I could hear Gopher talking rapidly to Gilley. “I don’t know what’s going on, man!” he was saying. “They’ve gone into room three-nineteen, and no one’s telling me what’s happening.” There was a short pause before Gopher said in a squeak, “How am I supposed to do that? It’s not like I can pick them up and carry them down the hall!”

“Shut the door, please,” I murmured to Heath, and a moment later I heard a satisfactory click behind me. “Come on, Carol,” I sang sweetly, pulling out my video camera and holding it out in front of me so that I could see the details of the room in the night vision. The bed, side table, curtains, etc., all looked normal.

“Is she talking to you?”

“No,” I said, frustrated and ready to leave. “Carol,” I called more firmly. “If you don’t show us what’s so important in here, then we’re going to leave.”

I’d barely stopped speaking when Heath and I heard a set of knocks from the corner of the room by the bureau.

“Over there,” whispered Heath, pointing to where the knocks had come from.

My legs were trembling with nerves, and I hoped that I had the strength to walk the few steps over there, but after taking another deep breath I managed to put one foot in front of the other. Still looking through the viewfinder, I swept the bureau for a clue. Nothing at all struck me as odd or out of the ordinary.

“Okay,” I announced. “We’re leaving.” I was about to turn when three
very
loud knocks sounded on the wall right next to the bureau, and I noticed for the first time that there was a narrow door there. “Wonder where that leads?” I asked, but almost as soon as I’d gotten those words out both Heath and I said together, “To room three-twenty-one!”

“Holy shit!” Heath exclaimed. “That’s how the mirrors were moved into there!”

Without thinking I hurried over to the door and tested the handle. It wasn’t locked. “It’s open,” I whispered.

“M.J.,” Heath cautioned, “don’t go in—” But it was too late; the moment I’d turned the handle the door released and something heavy pushed it ajar.

I jumped back, and I heard Heath pop the top of the grenade, and the slide of the magnetic spike as it came out of the lead tube.

Instinctively I pointed the camera and the night-vision viewfinder at the door. There was a thump and I moved the lens down. On the floor, half in the door, half out, was the body of a man.

I screamed, and Heath flipped on the lights. Outside the door Gopher was pounding. “M.J.! Heath! Open the door!”

“Jesus!” Heath gasped as we leaped away from the body and yanked open the door.

Gopher stood in front of us, his eyes wide in surprise. “What’s happening? Gilley says he saw a body on the monitor from one of your cameras!”

“
Run!
” I yelled, brushing past him without explanation. The three of us took off down the hall as fast as our legs would carry us.

We bypassed the elevators and headed straight for the stairs, our footfalls sounding a bit like machine gun fire. Almost out of breath, we burst through to the ground floor and found Gilley nearly out of his mind with worry. “What the freak happened to you guys?” he screeched. “Jesus Christ, M.J.! What . . .
Who
was that falling out of the door up there?”

I grabbed Gilley by the hand and pulled him and the others back into the stairwell. I was out of breath from the shock and the run, and was about to speak when the door was yanked open and Knollenberg stared at us with surprise. “What’s going on?” he demanded.

“Nothing!” I said, forcing a smile to my lips. “We just had a bit of a scare with Gus on the fifth floor, that’s all. Man, that is one irritated poltergeist, and he’s got some serious tricks up his sleeve. If I were you, I wouldn’t let any of your future guests check into room five-eighteen. Anyway, we’re going to call it a day for now, Mr. Knollenberg. So sorry if we disturbed you.”

He looked at us oddly for a long moment, but finally closed the door and left us alone.

Three faces stared at me as if I’d gone completely insane.

“Have you gone
completely
insane?” said Gilley. (See? I told you they were looking at me that way.)

“Shhhhh!” I said to him, then motioned up the stairs. “Follow me.”

“I’m not going back up there,” Gopher insisted.

“Just one flight up,” I assured him. “I want to be out of earshot.”

We got to the stairwell of the second floor and I explained quietly, “That body belonged to Anton.”

“
No way
!” Gil and Gopher gasped together.