The Haunted Hotel (2 page)

“Maybe we can help,” Dink said. “Remember how we found Wallis Wallace when you thought she was kidnapped?”

“I’ll never forget,” Mr. Linkletter said. He looked at the three kids. His thin mustache twitched. His sad eyes squinted.

Finally he said, “Follow me, please.” He turned and marched away.

Mr. Linkletter led the kids to his office. The room was small, with just a desk and three chairs. On one wall hung a painting of the hotel. A framed picture of an elderly couple stood on the desk.

“Please sit down,” Mr. Linkletter said.

The kids sat. Mr. Linkletter opened a desk drawer and took out a paper bag.

“Mint?” he asked.

Each of the kids took a mint from the bag and popped it into their mouths.

Mr. Linkletter looked inside the bag, then popped a mint into his mouth, too.

He sank back into his chair. “This is terrible,” he said.

“Mine tastes okay,” Josh said. “I think it’s lemon.”

Ruth Rose nudged Josh. “I think he means the ghost,” she said.

Josh blushed. “Oh, sorry.”

“As I was saying,” Mr. Linkletter went on, “it all started two days ago, on Friday. It was almost midnight. I was closing my office when a guest ran into the lobby. She was yelling about a ghost on the third floor!”

“Did she say what the ghost looked like?” Dink asked.

Mr. Linkletter smoothed his hair. “She said it was all white—except for the black holes where its eyes should have been!”

The three kids looked at each other. Josh’s mouth was hanging open.

Mr. Linkletter rubbed his temples as if he had a headache. “Anyway,” he went on, “that guest checked out. Last
night, more guests saw the ghost. Again, it appeared at midnight. Today all those guests checked out.”

Mr. Linkletter shook his head. “This ghost is ruining our business!”

“Did any of the guests say where the ghost went after they saw it?” Ruth Rose asked.

“Apparently it just floats away and disappears,” he answered.

“Did you see the ghost, too?” Dink asked.

“No. I went upstairs, but all I saw was a dozen terrified guests!”

Mr. Linkletter picked up the picture of the elderly couple on his desk. “This is my aunt and uncle, Florence and Ebenezer Spivets. They’ve owned the Shangri-la ever since they were first married, forty-seven years ago.”

He looked at the kids. “They’re very worried. I don’t know what will happen
to the hotel if this ghost business continues…”

For a minute, nobody said anything. Finally Mr. Linkletter stood up.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” he said, “I have to tell my aunt and uncle that the Shangri-la Hotel won’t be having a foliage week this year.”

The kids thanked Mr. Linkletter and headed back out into the lobby.

“Guys, we’ve gotta do something!” Dink whispered.

“But what
can
we do?” Ruth Rose asked.

Just then Livvy hurried over to them. “What’d he say?” she asked.

“He told us about the ghost,” Ruth Rose said. She described it for Livvy.

“So there really is a ghost in the hotel!” Livvy said. She looked nervously over her shoulder. “What’s Mr. Linkletter gonna do?”

“I don’t know,” Dink answered. He looked at Josh and Ruth Rose. “But we’re gonna try to help, right?”

“Good luck!” Livvy said. “I’ll be down in my cubbyhole eating lunch.”

She opened a small door next to the elevator and disappeared.

“How’re we s’posed to help?” Josh asked Dink. “We don’t know anything about ghosts!”

“Well, I know one thing,” Dink said. “No ghost is shutting down the Shangri-la if I have anything to do with it!”

“Dink is right,” Ruth Rose said. “Mr. Linkletter is our friend. We have to think of something!”

Suddenly the elevator door opened. A figure in white stood staring out at them.

“It’s the ghost!” Josh screamed.

The three kids stood frozen as the elevator door slid shut again.

For a minute, no one moved. Then Ruth Rose reached over and punched the UP button for the elevator.

“What’re you doing!” Josh squeaked.

“Following the ghost,” she said.

“Are you crazy?” Josh said. “What if ghosts don’t like kids?”

“Gee, Josh,” Dink said. “I thought you didn’t believe in ghosts.”

“Unless I see one with my own eyes,” Josh said, “and I just did! Let’s get out of here!” The elevator door opened.

“Too late, Josh,” Dink said. He and Ruth Rose pulled Josh into the elevator with them.

Dink pushed the button marked 2. “We’ll check each floor,” he said.

When the door opened on the second floor, the hallway was empty.

“Two more floors,” Ruth Rose said, pushing the number 3 button.

But they didn’t see the ghost on the third or fourth floor, either.

“There are no more floors,” Dink said, looking at the panel of buttons.

“Good, let’s go home!” Josh said.

“What’s this one for?” Ruth Rose asked, pointing to a black button without a number.

“Maybe you push it for emergencies,” Dink said.

She shook her head. “Nope. This red one says EMERGENCY.”

Dink shrugged. “There’s only one way to find out,” he said. He pushed the black button. The elevator creaked, then slowly started moving up.

“I’m having a nightmare,” Josh mumbled. “I’m not really chasing a ghost around a hotel. Any minute, I’m gonna wake up in bed!”

“Don’t worry Josh,” Ruth Rose said with a grin. “I’ll protect you.”

The elevator stopped with a gentle thud.

When the doors opened, the ghost was waiting for them.

“It followed us!” Josh screamed, jumping behind Ruth Rose.

“No, you followed me!” the ghost said. “What do you want?”

Behind the white figure, a door opened. A stooped, gray-haired man stepped into the hall.

The ghost pointed a thin finger at the kids. “They followed me up here, Ebenezer.”

The man chuckled and shuffled toward the open elevator. “Well, perhaps we should keep them!”

“NO!” Josh yelled from behind Ruth Rose. “Please let us go! If you kill me, I’ll be grounded for sure!”

Dink stared at the figure in white. Where had he seen that face before? Suddenly he remembered. She was the woman in the picture on Mr. Linkletter’s desk!

Dink stepped out of the elevator. “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Spivets,” he said. “I’m Dink Duncan and these are my friends Josh and Ruth Rose.”

“How d’you do,” the man said, peering
at Dink. His eyes were the color of blueberries. “You must be the three children our nephew told us about.”

Josh peeked at Mrs. Spivets from behind Ruth Rose. “You mean she’s not the ghost?” he asked.

“Of course I’m not the ghost!” Mrs. Spivets said. “Ebenezer, shall we invite these three in for cookies?”

“Of course, my love.” The old man smiled at the kids. “Come along, kid-dos!”

The kids followed Mr. and Mrs. Spivets through a small hallway and into an old-fashioned parlor.

Sunlight poured into the room. Through tall windows, the kids could see treetops across Main Street.

Dink looked around the room. The walls were covered with paintings, and he’d never seen so many books!

Mrs. Spivets came in carrying a
tray. “Please sit,” she told the kids. She handed each of them a glass of milk. Her husband bustled in with a cookie jar shaped like a rooster. He pulled off the rooster’s head.

“Cookie?” he said.

Each of the kids took one cookie.

“Now then,” Mr. Spivets said as he sat next to his wife, “what are you kids up to?”

“We read about the ghost in the newspaper,” Ruth Rose said.

“And we came to see it,” Dink said.

“But we didn’t!” Josh added.

“Then Mr. Linkletter told us how the ghost is ruining the hotel’s business,” Ruth Rose continued. “So we’ve decided to investigate!”

Mrs. Spivets stared at the kids. “Investigate?” she said. “Like detectives?”

“Right,” Dink said. “Did you see the
ghost?” he asked Mrs. Spivets.

She looked at her husband. “No, but we’ve heard it, haven’t we, dear?”

He nodded. “Two nights in a row! Dreadful noises coming from the walls. And a voice calling out my name!
‘Ebenezer,’ it
said,
‘go away, go away!’”

Josh gulped. “It knew your name?”

“The voice spoke to me, too,” Mrs. Spivets said. “It said,
‘Flo, leave this place!’”

She began to cry into a lace hanky.

Mr. Spivets patted his wife’s hand. “We’ve just made a difficult decision,” he told the kids. “We’re going to sell the hotel. Some real estate company in New York wants to buy it.”

“Sell the Shangri-la!” Dink blurted.

“But you can’t!” Ruth Rose said.

“We were going to leave the Shangri-la to our nephew,” Mrs. Spivets said. “But now…”

“Now it looks as if the hotel will go to Eatch, Rail, and Roock,” Mr. Spivets said.

“Who are they?” Ruth Rose asked.

“They’re the three partners in the real estate company” Mr. Spivets said. “They’ve been after us to sell for months.”

He crossed to a small desk and pulled out a letter. “They want to tear down the Shangri-la and build a high-rise in its place!” he said.

Mr. Spivets placed the letter on the tea tray. “Mrs. Spivets and I don’t want to sell, but we don’t know what else to do. Somehow we feel as if we’ve failed our guests.”

He looked down at his wife. “I telephoned the real estate people this morning. They will be here tomorrow with papers for us to sign.”

Mrs. Spivets looked up. Her eyes
were red. “Isn’t there anything else we can do?” she asked.

Ebenezer Spivets took his wife’s hand in his. “I would do anything for you, dear, but I’m too old to fight ghosts.”

“Well,
we’re
not!” Dink said, springing to his feet. “We’ll find the ghost and get rid of it, too!” He looked at Josh and Ruth Rose. “Right, guys?”

“Right!” Ruth Rose said.

Mr. Spivets beamed. “You’re hired!” he said.

Josh groaned. “Can I have another cookie?” he asked.