“I bet that guy got fired,” said Derek. He nudged Sam in the ribs. “Get it? Fired...because of the fire?”
Sam shook his head slowly. His brother could be so lame sometimes. He turned back to Mo. “But they fixed it?”
Mo nodded again. “Yep. They saved it. The original sculptor, Mr. Valentine, kept the head and eventually returned the repaired statue for the reopening six years later.”
“Wow,” whistled Derek, looking around. “It’s a good thing they saved this place. It’s pretty cool.”
“Yes it is, boys,” said Mo with a wide smile. “When it opened one hundred and twenty years ago, it was one of the finest hotels in the country. Electric elevators, palm trees from South America, Turkish Baths… And it isn’t too shabby today. I’m a lucky man to be working at such a famous place.”
“Turkey Baths?” asked Derek, turning his head.
Sam elbowed his brother in the ribs and looked back at Mo. “So what do you think happened to that lady’s poodle and the jewelry you told us about?”
“Yeah,” said Derek, “do you really think it was the gators?”
“Ha!” cackled Mo, grinning. “I think I may have played a bit too much on you youngsters’ imaginations. Mrs. Peterson is always telling me that I need to keep my mouth shut.” Mo considered his own words for a moment, but then bent down toward them with a big grin. “But you know, if it was the gators that stole everything, they might have taken it down into the passageways that run beneath the hotel.”
“What passageways?” Nathan asked, walking up to them. Sam noticed he still didn’t have his video game. He seemed more interested in what was going on without it.
Mo laughed. “Got your attention too, did I? Well, you know that fancy staircase over in the ballroom?”
“Yeah,” said Derek.
“Legend says that around the back of it was an entrance to a passageway. It was covered up after the renovations and the fire. The passageway leads down below the cellar. Supposedly there are tunnels that go halfway around the city underground.”
“There are?” asked Sam. This sounded a bit like a tall tale.
“That’s what they say,” said Mo, straightening up. “But who knows for sure. There’s always rumors of all kinds of things in old buildings like this. I don’t get paid to snoop around in the sewers.”
“What do you mean they’re bloody gone?” a voice yelled across the room.
Everyone looked up to see Anita and Robert walking out of the elevator. Robert’s face was red, and he was gesturing with his arms. Anita was trying to quiet him down, moving him away from everyone’s stares.
“Uh-oh,” said Mo. “Looks like there might be some trouble. Excuse me, kids.”
“I wonder what’s going on,” said Caitlin.
“Looks like Mr. Wonderful isn’t feeling so wonderful at the moment,” said Derek. Mom and Dad walked toward the kids with Anita and Robert. Mom had a concerned look on her face.
“What’s the matter, Mom?” asked Sam.
She cast a hesitant glance at Dad. Before she could answer, Robert jumped in. His face looked like it was about to explode. “I’ll tell you what’s wrong,” he shouted, his voice echoing off the stained glass ceiling. “The wedding rings have been stolen!”
NINE
The room buzzed with confusion over Robert’s announcement that the rings were missing.
“What?” exclaimed Derek.
Sam tried to take it all in.
“How could that happen?” asked Caitlin.
Anita looked like she was about to burst into tears. “We had the rings upstairs in our suite. I had them in a separate jewelry box on the table next to the vanity. I’m just sure of it.”
“Nothing else was touched, mind you,” said Robert. “Not my watch, my wallet, nothing. And there were these strange brown streaks. They looked like mud on the carpet, leading from the hall. How can you explain that?” He narrowed his eyes and glared over at the front desk. “This is not the type of service that I expect from a hotel of this prestige.”
Anita leaned against Robert’s shoulder. “I need to sit down. I’m not feeling well.” She headed toward the restaurant.
“I’ll come with you, Anita,” said Mom. She tapped Dad’s arm. “Honey, go see if you can calm Robert down.” Dad nodded and walked with Robert into the restaurant a step or two behind Mom and Anita. Mo and the hotel manager shuffled by, concerned looks on their faces. Mo was talking into his radio. This wasn’t good.
Derek grimaced. “Well, there goes the wedding.”
“Poor Anita,” said Caitlin. “She’s so upset.”
“It looks like Robert’s the one that’s upset about it to me,” said Derek.
“He just wants the wedding to be perfect,” said Nathan, in a cross voice. He stepped up into Sam’s face. “You probably took them, just like you stole my game!” He shoved Sam toward the statue.
“Hey!” Sam stumbled backward and fell.
“Don’t push him,” said Caitlin. “He didn’t take your stupid video game.” She reached out to help Sam up. “And he certainly didn’t steal any wedding rings.”
Nathan scowled and started walking toward the restaurant and his dad. “We’ll see,” he called over his shoulder.
Sam stood up without Caitlin’s help and frowned. He turned to Derek who was just watching with a goofy grin. “Thanks a lot for helping.”
“I was standing by,” said Derek, “but your girl had it covered.”
“He’s kind of a jerk,” said Caitlin, shaking her head at Nathan’s back.
Sam tended to agree. Some people liked to take things out on others when they got mad. He couldn’t understand what had made Nathan so upset. He looked back at Caitlin. “What do you think happened to the rings?”
“You mean, you didn’t take them?” asked Derek.
Sam gave his brother a disgusted look.
Caitlin smacked Derek’s arm. “Stop it! Be serious. The wedding is tomorrow and they need the rings. It’s important.”
“So who took them?” said Sam. He tried to think about who could have done it. He looked across the room where Mo was still talking on his radio. “Mo probably has access to the rooms. It could have been him.”
Caitlin shook her head. “No way. He’s too nice. Why would he want to steal wedding rings anyway?”
“Maybe he needs the money,” suggested Sam. “I haven’t seen them, but I bet Mr. Wonderful’s rings are pretty wonderful.”
Derek folded his arms across his chest. “Well, I still think that Sam is a reasonable suspect, but if it’s not him, you’re forgetting something pretty obvious.”
“What?” asked Sam.
“Didn’t you hear Mr. Wonderful? There were dark streaks of mud on the carpet from the hallway. It was an alligator!”
“Derek...” said Caitlin.
Derek kept a straight face. “What? You heard Mo. They live in the sewers and the passageways. The cold weather drives them up into the hotel... have you looked outside? It’s winter.”
Sam cocked his head to the side. “Yeah, but...”
“First they ate the poodle,” Derek continued, his eyes growing wide. “Next was Nathan’s video game. Now the wedding rings.”
He paused dramatically and looked back and forth between them. “Which one of us will be next?”
“Knock it off, will you?” said Sam, looking away from his brother. All his life, Derek had been trying to scare him. It was tiring.
Derek pointed toward the staircase into the ballroom. “You know, there’s only one way to find out. We have to track down the reptile lair. Maybe there are alligators living all over the city. Maybe they’re stealing things left and right and nobody knows about it. Maybe—”
“Derek!” shouted Caitlin. “We get it.”
Sam shook his head. “No way, Derek. I’ve had enough alligators.”
Derek grinned. “Come on. You know my plans always work out to be something fantastic.” He tilted his head and ma
de another cocky expression. “It’s a special gift, Sam.”
“You’re special, alright,” Sam muttered, as his brother walked off toward the staircase. “But not the way you’re thinking.”
“Just forget about him,” Caitlin said.
Sam thought back to the rings. “What do you think about the muddy streaks in the carpet? It couldn’t really be from an alligator, could it?”
“Alligators don’t just slither up to a table, chomp down on a jewelry box, and leave a trail of muddy footprints, Sam.”
“Actually, alligators don’t slither. That’s more like snakes. Alligators walk.” He remembered that from a Nature Channel show he’d seen.
Caitlin waved her hand. “You know what I mean.” She paused, then said, “Maybe it was Nathan.”
Sam shook his head. “What about his video game? Did he steal his own stuff, too?”
Caitlin smirked. “No, that has an easy explanation.”
“It does?”
“Sure, we all know you stole that one, Sam!” She giggled and ran.
“Hey!” Sam exclaimed, chasing her out of the Palm Court and down the staircase into the Grand Ballroom.
Nathan must not have stayed with his dad in the restaurant long, because he was standing next to the alligator cage in the middle of the room. The sheet was draped over it again, but a few inches of the cage’s bars showed at the bottom. Nathan was crouched down and staring through the bars, a curious look on his face. As Sam and Caitlin approached, he jerked his hand away from the latch at the front of the cage.
“What are you doing?” asked Sam.
“Nothing...” said Nathan.
“You’d better watch your fingers,” said Caitlin. “You saw what almost happened to Sam.”
“Don’t worry about me,” responded Nathan. “I’m not that stupid.”
Sam frowned but tried to ignore Nathan. He supposed that he’d be feeling pretty upset if his dad was marrying someone new and moving them all across the ocean. It was a pretty big deal.
As he walked by the cage, Sam bent down and took a quick glance. He saw the alligator’s scaly legs and protruding claws under the edge of the sheet. He bounced back up. That was enough for him. He didn’t need any more chances of losing a finger now that he knew the beast was real.
He joined Caitlin over in a corner of the room to the right of the staircase. It looked like a mini museum with display cases and pictures of the hotel from years ago on the wall. “What are you looking at?”
“I’m reading these old newspapers about Lewis Ginter.” She pointed down into a display. “Did you know that at one point, he was the wealthiest man in the South?”
“Wow,” said Sam. He tried to imagine being the richest man anywhere. “That’s richer than Mr. Wonderful.” He could buy a lot of basketball shoes with money like that.
“Oh my gosh.”
“What?”
“Look at this,” said Caitlin. “He died just two years after the hotel was finished.”
“That stinks,” said Sam, looking around the ballroom. “He never even got to enjoy this place.” He thought about what Mo said about the secret passageway. “At least he didn’t see the fire.”
Caitlin nodded. “He probably rolled over in his grave.”
Sam wasn’t sure what that meant, but he’d heard his grandma use that expression before.
“Hey, look.” Caitlin pointed to another old picture. “I’ll bet you’ve seen his grave.”
Sam leaned in to see. It did look familiar. “Is that St. John’s Church?” He’d seen George Wythe’s grave there once. That was probably it.
“Nope,” said Caitlin.
Sam read the caption under the picture.
“Lewis Ginter was laid to rest in Hollywood Cemetery, in a grand mausoleum overlooking the James River.”
He looked up. “Oh yeah. That’s where we saw the Confederate Ghosts.” He shivered thinking about watching the notorious biker gang from behind some tombstones. “I don’t know if we saw his grave though.”
“Maybe you just didn’t realize it,” said Caitlin. “That happens to me a lot. There’s so much history in Richmond. My mom says that’s what makes it fun to learn about,” said Caitlin. “You can appreciate all those things when you see them and again when you realize you saw something important you didn’t even know about.”
Sam nodded, looking back out at the room. He liked history too, but Caitlin took things to another level.
He watched Derek walking back and forth around the staircase. Sam walked over, following him around the left side. Derek was staring at the walls.
“Did you find anything yet, Sherlock?”
“Don’t be so negative, Sam. If we always gave up when you wanted, we’d never have any adventures.” Derek walked back to the front of the stairs. “Let’s see... Mo said the passageway was covered up after the fire. Maybe the entrance is under a loose floor tile. I think I saw that in a movie once...” He raised up his foot and stomped hard on the ground. The noise echoed loudly around the ballroom. Several people on the balcony stopped talking and turned toward them.
“Derek!” hissed Sam.
“Stop,” said Caitlin. “You can’t do that at a hotel like this.”
Derek grimaced and waved to the people in the balcony. “Sorry.”
Sam stepped past Derek and his stomping. “He said it was under the staircase. Maybe it’s in the wall.” He gently touched the wall along the side of the staircase, but didn’t see any opening.
“Here, let me try,” said Derek, pulling his arm back and aiming his fist at the wall.
“No!” shouted Sam. His yell echoed off the marble archways and ceiling all around them.
Derek dropped his arm and laughed hysterically. The people on the balcony looked down at them again. Sam covered his face with his hand, his cheeks burning.
Caitlin waved meekly up at the people. “Sorry!”
“Sam, you need to chillax,” said Derek.
“Chillax?” said Caitlin. “What’s that?”
“It’s when you combine ‘chill’ and ‘relax’.” Derek spread his arms wide. “Chillax. It’s a new word. I just invented it.”
“You did not,” said Sam, moving out of view of the people in the balcony. Derek never ceased to amaze him with his weirdness.
“You’re welcome to use it, if you want,” said Derek, grinning.
“You know,” said Caitlin, walking under the staircase, “I do remember my dad saying that there is a tunnel system that runs under the city like Mo said. He told me about it after one of his photo shoots over at the Capitol building. I don’t know if it extends all the way over here to The Jefferson, though.”
“Maybe it is just a legend,” said Derek. “Or Mo got confused. He’s probably getting senile like Mr. Haskins.”
“Be nice,” said Caitlin.
Sam agreed with his brother on this one. “Wouldn’t you think Mo would know for sure if it were real? He does work here.”
“Maybe he just forgot. He’s kind of old,” said Caitlin.
“See, I told you. He’s crazy as crackers,” said Derek.
Caitlin laughed. “I thought you liked him?”
“I do,” said Derek, “but that doesn’t mean that he’s not crazy.”
Derek stood next to the bottom step and stared up to the top of the grand staircase. “I wonder if you could sled down these.”
“I don’t think so,” said Sam.
Derek grinned wide. “Yeah, but it would be awesome if you could, wouldn’t it?”
“I guess...” said Caitlin.
“Kids, come on,” a voice called from the top of the staircase. It was Mom. The rest of the wedding party was gathering to walk through the ceremony rehearsal. “We’re about to start.”
“Come on,” said Sam. “The passageway, if it even exists, will have to wait.”
“I’m going to go ask Mo if he has any sleds,” said Derek.
Caitlin frowned as Derek bounded off. “B
ut wait—” she started, before Sam put his hand up.
“Don’t waste your time,” said Sam. “It’s not worth it. Trust me.”
TEN
After the rehearsal, everyone walked up past the Palm Court and into the main restaurant. A side room had been arranged with three round tables, each with eight chairs. His parents were seated at one table next to Robert and Anita. There was an older couple next to Anita who Sam figured must be her parents. At the second table were several couples about his parents’ age. Sam didn’t recognize any of them.
Everyone was dressed very formally; the men were in suits and ties, the women in fancy dresses. Sam looked down at his attire of khakis and a collared shirt. He guessed that he’d got off easy this time not having to wear a suit.
Nathan was already seated at the third table. Sam noticed small white cards with names printed on them next to each place setting of fine china.
“Looks like we’re all sitting together again,” said Caitlin. She gave a wave to her dad who was standing in the corner of the room taking pictures of the dinner. It seemed like Mr. Wonderful wanted every moment of the weekend documented. Sam’s mom had recommended that Anita hire Mr. Murphy as a wedding photographer. When Anita learned that Caitlin and Sam were friends, she offered to let Caitlin join them at the dinner. It was pretty nice.
Nathan looked up at them and groaned. “Classic.”
Sam reached for the pitcher of sweet tea in the center of the table, but before he could pick it up, a waiter scurried over and poured a glass for him. “Thank you,” Sam said.
The waiter left, then returned to their table, placing a white cloth napkin in each of their laps. Except for Caitlin. Hers was black.
Sam scrunched his eyebrows. That seemed strange. “Are black napkins for girls?”
The waiter chuckled. “No, no,” he said in a thick accent. “Not because she’s a lady.” The waiter pointed to Caitlin. “For the dark.”
“The dark?” Sam was confused. “We’re going to eat in the dark?” What was he talking about?
Caitlin smiled. “I think he means that since my dress is a dark blue color, he gave me a dark-colored napkin. So it blends in.”
Secret of the Staircase (The Virginia Mysteries Book 4) Page 4