Restless Spirits Boxset: A Collection of Riveting Haunted House Mysteries

by Skylar Finn

  “What do you mean hidden cameras?”

  “I didn’t give you permission to film me!”

  “Are we going to be on Madame Lucia’s Parlour for the Dead and Departed? Cool. This is just like a reality show!”

  “Except with real danger,” Daniel reminded everyone, raising his voice to be heard over the ruckus. “Which is what we’re here to discuss.”

  “What I’m hearing is you’ve been spying on us without our consent, and a murderer is on the loose,” Matisse said. “What’s the plan to rectify these situations, Detective?”

  “First, we need to locate Oliver,” Daniel said. “Lucia and Nick are going to help me do so.”

  “And Jazmin,” I added. “I want her with me.”

  Daniel leaned toward me and said under his breath, “We didn’t discuss that.”

  “She’s my best friend,” I replied. “Where I go, she goes. I trust her with my life. In fact, I trust her more than you or Nick. Capisce?”

  Daniel frowned but straightened up. “Fine. The four of us are going to find Oliver. We’ll get the electricity back on. Until then, I want everyone to stay together in this lounge. There’s strength in numbers. If you see Oliver, work together to subdue him until we get back.”

  Riley raised her hand. “What about me?”

  Every part of me screamed not to leave Riley behind, especially without me or Jazmin to watch over her. On the other hand, taking her with us felt like a terrible idea too. Oliver was picking off his family members one by one, and Riley had already had a close call with death. She wasn’t truly safe anywhere.

  “Actually, Riley, we should have that talk in private,” I said, beckoning her over to the far corner of the lounge. She hopped out of the booth and joined me, her sweater jostling with all the equipment she was carrying. “What are you thinking?” I asked. She was so little for her age. It pained me to put this decision in her hands rather than offer her a surefire means of protection. “I don’t want to bring you with us in case your dad goes off the deep end when he sees you.”

  Riley extracted a digital camera from her sweatshirt and fiddled with the playback option. “Do you really think it’s him? That he killed Mom and Tyler?”

  “I don’t know, but right now it’s looking like that’s what happened.”

  “A ghost took me outside,” she said. “Not Dad.”

  “You don’t know that for sure.”

  “I’m pretty sure.”

  “Look, Riley.” I almost took the camera away from her since she was paying more attention to the touchscreen instead of me, but it was source of comfort for her, so I let her experiment. “I’m trying to make sure the people who are still alive at King and Queens stay that way. That includes you. Odette—your aunt—insists the murderer has something to do with the ghosts. If we can catch your dad, we can deal with everything that comes after, okay?”

  Riley turned the camera around so that I could see the screen. It was a picture she’d taken of me on the night we first met. My face was drawn and pale. There were bags under my eyes. Madame Lucia’s trademark mohawk braid had come undone in wild, crimped wisps. It wasn’t a good look.

  “That was two weeks ago,” she said. “I didn’t know or trust you, but you gave me your favorite T-shirt and told me everything was going to be okay. Two weeks. Fourteen days. It’s not a whole lot of time in the long run. Maybe ten years from now, we won’t know each other anymore. Maybe I’ll watch Madame Lucia’s Parlour for the Dead and Departed on a big primetime network, and I’ll wonder if you remember who I am.”

  I cupped her cheeks and forced her to look at me. “Hey, that’s never going to happen, okay?”

  “The TV show? Sure it will. You just have to believe in yourself.”

  I couldn’t help but grin at her belief in my alter ego. “Not the TV show, silly. Forgetting you. I won’t ever do that.”

  “The past two weeks have completely changed my life,” Riley said. “I know I’m young and I’ll go through a ton of other things that will change me, but no matter what, your presence in my life has been a good one. I want you to know that. Whatever happens—if my dad’s a murderer or if the ghosts set the whole place on fire for revenge—I want you to remember that I appreciate you and love you. I’ll always be grateful you made it to King and Queens.”

  My eyes burned, and my nose tickled, but I pressed my lips together and held back the tears Riley’s speech threatened to coax from my emotions. “Kid, this sure sounds like a goodbye speech.”

  “It’s not,” she assured me. “It’s a ‘you can do it’ speech. I figured you’d want me to stay in the lounge. I’m not stupid.”

  “I know you’re not,” I said. “I do want you to stay here. It’s the safest option. Your dad isn’t going to be easy to find, and there are dangerous variables at work here. Do you trust the other employees to keep you safe? Jazmin’s coming with me.”

  She cast a look over the others. Matisse and Karli were deep in conversation with Nick and Daniel. Liam listened in at a distance but remained quiet. Imani and Ari aimed their flashlights at the wall and made shadow puppets, giggling without shame. Riley grinned as Imani made her shadow dog attack Ari’s lopsided butterfly.

  “It’s actually kind of nice,” she said. “They used to think I was a weird little kid, but they’ve been warming up to me ever since you got here.”

  “I asked if they can keep you safe though.”

  “I think they’ll try their best.”

  “That’s all we can hope for,” I said. “It’s decided then? You’re staying here?”

  Riley shoved the digital camera out of sight and looped her arms around my waist for another hug. “Yup. As long as you promise to come back in one piece.”

  The camera jutted into my hip as she squeezed tighter, but I didn’t care. “I’ll try my best, kid.”

  We drew apart, and Riley wormed something else out from beneath her sweater: my Blondie T-shirt.

  “Did you just take that off without removing your sweater?” I asked, impressed.

  She wrapped the shirt around my head like E.T.’s blanket and held the ends tight to squish my cheeks in. “Hush, weirdo. You should wear it. It’s for good luck. You told me Jazmin gave it to you, so now it has her energy, mine, and yours. Can’t go turning your nose up at power like that.”

  “I sure can’t.” Though I wasn’t sure if the laws of psychic energy or whatever we were dealing with at King and Queens worked the way Riley thought they did, I pulled the Blondie shirt on over my sweatshirt. “Did you shrink this thing in the wash or something?”

  Riley snickered. “You’ve probably been eating too much cheesecake.”

  “Hey!”

  She dodged my playful smack and pranced back to Jazmin. I rejoined Daniel and Nick, both of whom regarded my sudden wardrobe change.

  “Dare I ask?” said Daniel.

  “Best not to.”

  “I think it’s cute,” Nick added. “Great band.”

  Jazmin finished up her temporary goodbyes with Riley and appeared at my side. “What’s the plan?” she asked, resting her head on my shoulder. “Where do we start first?”

  “Let’s split up,” Daniel suggested. “We’ll cover more ground that way. Lucia and I will take the left side—”

  “No way,” I interrupted. “I already told you. Jazmin comes with me. I won’t partner up with anyone else. No offense.”

  Nick lifted his hands. “None takes. Besides” —he tapped the toe of his shoe with the point of his cane— “this leg can slow me down sometimes. I’d rather have the detective back me up anyway.”

  “Fine,” Daniel said curtly. “Lucia and Jazmin, you take the left side of the hotel. Nick and I will take the right.”

  “What are we supposed to do if we find Oliver?” Jazmin asked. “You’re the only one with a radio.”

  “Which I’m leaving with the employees in case of an emergency,” Daniel said. “Does everyone’s cell work?”

  We all c
hecked. Nick groaned.

  “I forgot to charge mine,” he lamented. “I’m on two percent battery. Of all the days.”

  “It’s fine. Mine is charged,” Daniel said. “Lucia?”

  “The signal’s weak, but it works,” I reported. “I have two bars. Jazmin?”

  “Mine’s in the suite upstairs,” she said. “Should I get it?”

  “We only need one line of communication between the four of us,” said Daniel. “As long as each pair has a phone, we’ll be okay. If service goes down, meet us back here as soon as possible. We shouldn’t roam the hallways without a link. But before we split up, our first order of business is to locate the breaker room. My guess is that’s how Oliver cut the power.”

  Riley appeared at Daniel’s waist, peeping out from behind him to make him jump. “It’s in the basement. Near the laundry services. You have to take the employee elevator down.”

  My immediate thought went to the underground room beneath the old wing. Was there another way in? “I didn’t know there was a basement here.”

  “Guests aren’t supposed to know about it,” Riley said. “Dad was super weird about that rule. He said guests shouldn’t be reminded of everyday things like laundry and power bills while they’re on vacation.”

  “Sounds like a crock of shi—poop,” Daniel rectified for Riley’s benefit. “Do you think he’s hiding something down there?”

  I stared at my feet. I knew exactly what Oliver was hiding and where to find it, but it sure as hell wasn’t in the same basement Riley was talking about it.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I’ve only been down there once. When Dad caught me, he grounded me for two weeks. Anyway, the breaker room’s hard to miss. Last door at the end of the hall. Want me to draw you a map?”

  Daniel raised an eyebrow, trying to discern whether the question was sincere or sarcastic. “No, thanks. I think I got it. You can go now.”

  With a quick yank, she tightened one of the shoulder straps of his gun holster, forcing the leather up into his armpit. He grimaced. “Toodles!” she called, running off before Daniel could scold her.

  Daniel glared at me and Jazmin as we attempted to stifle our laugher. “Are you done?”

  “No,” I said, chuckling. “You just got owned by a twelve-year-old.”

  “I’m used to it,” he said, adjusting the holster to its original width. He pulled a baton from his utility belt and handed it to me. “Take that.”

  I weighed the weapon in my hand. “What’s this for?”

  “In case you run into Oliver, and he won’t calm down,” Daniel said. “You’ll need a way to defend yourself.”

  I swung the baton like a baseball bat. It whooshed through the air and caught the nearby banister with a sharp thud, chipping the paint. Daniel caught my forearm.

  “Be careful,” he chided.

  “I will.”

  “All right,” he said. “Let’s get to that breaker room. This will be a whole lot easier with the power on. After that, we’ll split up to find Oliver. If no one locates him within the hour, we’ll regroup and try again. Everyone clear on the instructions? Good. Move out.”

  With Daniel’s gruff personality at the head of the charge, I felt more like a rookie police officer on her first assignment than an amateur psychic in a haunted hotel, but I was having a hard time juggling both the baton and the flashlight. First, I dropped the baton. Then, I dropped the flashlight. The heavy-duty aluminum body clanged against the wall, flashing its beam of light wildly around like a disco ball. Daniel stepped on it as it rolled past him, picked it up, and handed it back to me.

  “Some discretion would be nice,” he scolded. “We don’t need to alert Oliver to our exact position.”

  Jazmin held her hand out for the baton. “Give me that. I’ll take care of Oliver if we have to.”

  I passed her the baton, glad to be rid of it. She stacked it on top of her flashlight, holding both without issue. This was one of the reasons I’d wanted Jazmin as my partner. She always and undoubtedly had my back, but she also managed stressful situations a lot better than I did.

  The employee elevator was tiny and hidden at the back of the resort. Because of the power outage, it was also not working. Daniel swore, punching the call button with enough force to break a window.

  “That’s not going to help,” I said. “We should’ve known it wouldn’t be on. Let’s find the stairs.”

  “Over here,” Nick said from a shadowy corner. He shined his flashlight down a dark corridor. “Looks like these head down. Shall we?”

  “Let me go first,” Daniel said. “Jazmin, you have the baton? Bring up the rear. Everyone, keep your eyes peeled. Come on.”

  The stairwell was so narrow that we had to go single file. Daniel, Nick, me, then Jazmin. The darkness grew more pronounced the further we descended. I could practically feel my pupils dilating as they tried to make up for the lack of natural light. The flashlights only reached so far. Nick’s flickered and died. He knocked the butt of it against the palm of his hand, trying to jostle a little more juice out of the batteries, but it was no use.

  “One down, three to go,” I muttered.

  “Don’t say that,” Jazmin said. She kept so close to me that I could feel her breath on the back of my neck. For once, I was glad for the sensation. It meant something human and alive walked behind me, rather than whatever creature blew cold air across my soul in the old wing. “It sounds like you’re talking about people.”

  “No, that’s two down and several to go,” I said. “But probability is on our side. Am I right?”

  “Miss Star, now is not the time for jokes,” Nick said. His every other step was accompanied by the click of his cane. Could he swing it like the police baton if Oliver came calling for us? “Or at least those kinds. I am quite fond of knock-knock jokes though. Anyone care to lighten the mood?”

  “Knock, knock,” Daniel said.

  “Who’s there?” I answered.

  “Shut up, so the killer doesn’t find us before we find him.”

  We took the rest of the stairs in silence. At the bottom, we found ourselves in a passageway similar to the one beneath the library in the old wing. Old brick walls, no decoration. The place was meant for maintenance only. I imagined our location in relation to Oliver’s secret room. If I hadn’t gotten turned around, the part of the hidden basement that had caved in should have been right around where we were, but there were no flaws in the construction on this side of things. Or maybe I was wrong.

  “Here we go,” Daniel whispered, shining his flashlight at the last door at the end of the hall, the opposite direction from the old wing. “Let’s get the lights back on.”

  When he strolled to the door and pulled the handle, it remained stubbornly shut.

  “It’s locked?” Nick said. “Seriously?”

  “We should’ve asked Riley for the keys,” Jazmin added. “Why didn’t we?”

  “It wouldn’t have helped.” I aimed my flashlight at a busted piece of plastic to the right of the entrance. “It’s a keyless entry, and Oliver smashed the keypad.”

  “Damn it!” Daniel kicked at the door, but it wasn’t made of the same cheap wood of the hotel room doors upstairs. The sturdy frame didn’t give. Daniel kept at it, each pound of his boot louder than the last. “Crazy—effing—Oliver—Watson—”

  Jazmin pulled him away. “That won’t help either. Come on. We have to look for Oliver in the dark. Once we find him, we’ll force him to tell us how to get into the breaker room. There’s gotta be a backup key.”

  The plan shifted. We returned to the ground floor, each of us breathing a bit easier as we emerged from the dark stairwell. Nick’s legs trembled. The steep stairs had taken a toll on his strength.

  “Do you want to go back to the Eagle’s View?” I asked him in an undertone as we followed Jazmin and Daniel out of the employees’ sector. “You could take a break. Regain your strength.”

  “No, no.” His cane slipped and slid across
the tile floor. “I’ll be all right in a few minutes. I can’t let Detective Hawkins down.”

  “You’re no use to Detective Hawkins if you can’t stand.”

  “I know my limits, Miss Star.”

  A hint of indignance colored his tone. I immediately shut up. Nick put on a burst of speed, intentionally increasing more space between me and him as if to prove that he could. As he fell in line with Daniel, Jazmin fell back.

  “Is he okay?” she muttered. “He looks sick.”

  “He said he’s fine,” I said. “I won’t tell him what he can or can’t handle.”

  Jazmin flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Men. They’re always so proud. They’d rather die than admit weakness.”

  I watched Nick’s shoulders bob at uneven heights as he struggled to keep up with Daniel’s pace. “He does seem like he’s got something to prove, doesn’t he?”

  “Yeah, that his horse is bigger than Oliver’s.”

  “More like his ski lift.”

  Jazmin sniggered.

  “You girls coming or what?” Daniel called. “Catch up.”

  We hurried along, and the four of us soon arrived at the entrance to King and Queens’s seasonal restaurant. Though Oliver once told me it was only open during peak tourist season, the restaurant looked as though it hadn’t been operational in several years. I long suspected that this entire sector of the hotel existed solely to disguise the entrance to the old wing.

  “We should split up here,” I suggested. “Jazmin and I will check the old wing. You guys go on.”

  Daniel shined his flashlight into my eyes. “The old wing’s dangerous. No one should be in there, not even Oliver.”

  “Which is why we should double check,” I countered, batting away his light. “Like Nick said, Oliver knows this place better than anyone. If he’s hiding, he probably picked a place we wouldn’t think to look for him.”

  “Then Nick and I should go,” Daniel said. “I’m a trained cop. You and Jazmin are less likely to be able to handle Oliver if he goes off.”

  Jazmin knocked Daniel’s feet out from under him. In a matter of seconds, they were both on the floor, Jazmin’s legs wrapped around Daniel’s torso as she trapped his arm across her chest. If she pressed further, his elbow would pop out. Daniel—eyes wide, nose flaring—frantically tapped her shoulder. She let go and rolled to her feet.