by Sue Pethick
“Was Todd with her?”
Emma shook her head and pressed a trembling hand to her mouth. Todd couldn’t be under there, she thought. He just couldn’t.
Lars leaned over and gently placed a hand on his wife’s uninjured shoulder. The nurse had already bound the other arm to her side and was dabbing disinfectant on her forehead.
“Wait here a moment, will you, dear? I’ll be right back.”
Viv looked at him crossly. “What else can I do? I’m trussed up here like a turkey.”
“That’s my girl,” he said, kissing the top of her head.
He glanced at Emma.
“You go ahead,” he told her quietly. “I’ll get some of the other men and join you in a minute.”
Emma hurried out the door, trying to tamp down a growing sense of panic. Lars must have been exaggerating, she told herself. No one else had said anything about there being someone trapped in there. Besides, most of the people she’d been treating had only minor injuries. Even Dee, who’d been directly underneath the ceiling when it fell, was still alive. But as she stepped across the threshold, her heart sank.
The devastation was far worse than she’d realized. Now that the clouds of dust and flour had settled, the full extent of the damage was clearly visible. It looked like a bomb had gone off. There was broken plaster, shattered wood, and flour everywhere, some of it tinged with blood. Emma saw Dee lying amongst the wreckage, a thermal blanket draped over her, holding the hand of one of the women who sat with her. For just a moment, Emma felt relieved.
Then she saw Todd. His body was so deeply covered in debris that at first she’d mistaken him for one of the broken sacks of flour. He was on his stomach, arms outstretched, with one leg pinned beneath the heavy wooden beam. Emma began picking her way through the fragments of wood and plaster, her heart in her throat. She saw blood seeping from multiple wounds on Todd’s head and hands and felt a surge of hope. That wouldn’t happen if he were dead, she thought. Would it?
Lars and three other men appeared at the door.
“Did you find anyone?”
Emma nodded.
“It’s Todd,” she said, her voice so thick it almost choked her. “We need to get him out of here.”
“Is he alive?” he said, as the four of them waded into the mess.
“I don’t know. Let me check.”
Emma got down on her hands and knees and reached for Todd’s arm, gently encircling his wrist with her trembling fingers. Please, she thought. Please.
She felt a pulse—weak, but unmistakable.
“Yes,” she said, as tears sprang to her eyes. “He’s still alive.”
There was a sudden rush of air in the room and Emma heard rapid, heavy footfalls coming down the hall.
“The EMTs are here,” Lars said.
Todd’s fingers moved and his eyelids fluttered.
“Oh, thank God,” Emma said. “Thank God.”
Gwen stood at the open door, watching Lars and the other men lift the heavy beam from Todd’s leg. The EMTs had already started an IV and given him painkillers, but he’d refused to let Emma leave his side. The two of them were holding hands like a pair of newlyweds.
The other guests were darting pitying looks in Gwen’s direction, and no one had congratulated her on her fiancé’s survival. It must have been obvious to everyone that the ring Todd had given her meant nothing. When the worst had happened, it was Emma he wanted.
As Todd was lifted onto a stretcher, Gwen felt a wave of anger engulf her. She’d told her parents about their engagement, even sent a picture of the ring to her best friends. How dare he do this to her? She almost wished that Todd had died rather than humiliate her like this. At least then, people would have pitied her for the right reason. She could have put on a brave face, wearing the engagement ring as a reminder of her loss, and people would have admired her for being strong. The fact that she’d already lost Todd to Emma would have remained her little secret.
They had him strapped to the gurney now. As the EMTs started wheeling him out, Todd finally let go of Emma’s hand. Gwen felt nothing but hatred as they wheeled him past. She’d left her parents’ house and driven all that way just to be dumped. What was she supposed to do now, pack up Todd’s clothes and tidy the room for him? And what about Archie? Todd had already refused to give him away. Did he really think Gwen was going to just pack up the little mutt and take him home?
Todd had humiliated and abandoned her, and what had he suffered? Nothing but a few scrapes and scratches. Gwen balled her hands into fists, wishing that there was some way to strike back at him, to hurt him as badly as he’d hurt her.
She paused, thinking about the little dog who was back in the room, lying quietly in his carrier. Maybe, Gwen thought, there was a way to hurt Todd after all.
CHAPTER 25
Emma gave her name at the nurse’s station and signed in. The LPN at the desk had just started her shift, but the charge nurse recognized her and asked how things were going.
“I’ve got my staff looking after the hotel and most of the guests have checked out.” She glanced at the double doors separating the waiting area from the patients’ rooms. “I just thought I’d come by and see how he was doing.”
“Of course.”
The woman gave her a knowing smile and Emma looked away. This was the third time she’d come by the hospital since Todd had been admitted the night before. By now, everyone on his floor probably thought they were lovers. She might have tried to straighten them out, but Emma knew it wouldn’t do any good. People believe what they want to believe, she told herself. Might as well enjoy it while it lasts.
“How’s the arm?” the nurse said, pointing to the cast that covered Emma’s left forearm from wrist to elbow.
“Not too bad.” She flexed her fingers. “Doc said it was just a hairline fracture. I never would have known without the X-ray.”
“Well, you know the drill.”
She handed Emma a gown and waited for her to use the hand sanitizer before pushing the button that opened the double doors.
Todd’s room was the fifth door on the right—a double with an empty second bed. As Emma walked down the hall, she tried not to stare into the other rooms, each one a tableau of sickness and misfortune. Hospital visitors tended to hug the walls, she’d noticed, looking awkward and uncertain, while the patients all looked pretty much the same. It was as if putting on one of those gowns stripped people of their uniqueness, the only difference between them being whether or not their eyes were open.
A nurse in green scrubs walked by and smiled at her. Emma stopped.
“Has he had any other visitors?”
“I don’t think so.”
The woman made a quick detour and checked the clipboard that hung from a hook outside his room.
“Nope,” she said. “Looks like you’re the only one.”
Emma fumed. She could understand why Todd’s mother wasn’t there—even if she’d gotten the voice mail Emma had left on her phone, she was too far away to get there quickly—and Claire might not even know that anything had happened to her brother. But where was Gwen? She was his fiancée, after all, or at least she had been. Gwen was the one who should have been sitting next to Todd’s hospital bed, not her.
I knew there was a reason I didn’t like her.
As Emma stepped into the room, she caught a whiff of antiseptic. The lights had been dimmed and the TV was unplugged. In addition to a broken leg, facial lacerations, and a dislocated shoulder, Todd had suffered a mild concussion. There was no sign of permanent damage, but until his brain was fully healed, the doctor said he should have as little outside stimulation as possible.
The covers were tucked neatly across his chest and their gentle rise and fall was reassuring. Emma pulled up a chair and sat down. She didn’t bother waking him. It was enough just to sit there quietly, knowing that Todd was all right. And after all the revelations of the last several hours, she needed time to just sit and think. There was
still an awful lot of stuff she had to process.
Why?
It was the question she’d been asking herself since yesterday, and Emma still didn’t have an answer. Why would the man who’d practically run the Spirit Inn for almost twenty years suddenly decide to destroy it? All this time, Emma had been blaming herself for the inn’s problems while Clifton was doing everything he could to undermine her. If he’d physically stabbed her in the back, it couldn’t have hurt any worse than it did. When she thought about how naive she’d been not to suspect him, it made her feel foolish.
Maybe I deserved this.
It wasn’t just the supplies, either. When she started looking through everything that had fallen out of the ceiling, Emma had found a second set of books that showed he’d been embezzling from the inn for years. Even if she could get the bank to reconsider their repayment demand, she had nothing left to pay them with. The best she could hope for would be to sell the resort and move on.
“Hey, you.”
Emma started. She hadn’t noticed that Todd was awake. He’d probably been lying there, wondering why she kept showing up.
“How’re you feeling?” she said.
“Like Chicken Little.” He grimaced.
“I called your mother to tell her what happened, but I had to leave a message. If you give me Claire’s number, I can call her, too.”
He nodded. “Any more stuff turn up?”
Emma shrugged. He meant were there any more surprises in the rubble. She felt guilty for having told him as much as she had the last time she was there, but once they got started on the subject, the whole thing had just come tumbling out. She told him it served him right for being such a good listener.
“I found the blueprints for the hotel.”
“And?”
“I’m not surprised Jake couldn’t find a way into the attic,” she said. “The entire structure is a façade.”
“What do you mean ‘a façade’?”
“Originally, there were three separate buildings on the property. When the outside shell was constructed, it left a series of passageways between them.”
“Which would explain the hollow walls.”
Emma nodded. “It’s not unheard of. Even now, people sometimes reuse foundations. Whoever redid the inn just went a little overboard.”
“It also explains the ghost encounters. Archie must have found a way in there. When he started howling and scratching to get out . . .”
“People at the inn heard it coming from inside the walls and assumed they were hearing ghosts.”
“But if Archie could get in there, other animals could have, too. Maybe that’s what gave your grandmother the idea that the place was haunted.”
“Maybe.” She made a face.
Todd lay back and rubbed a hand across his forehead.
“But why was Archie up in the attic? It couldn’t have been easy for him to climb up there.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Emma said. “I think it was the rats.”
He squinted at her. “Rats?”
“Clifton had been complaining about rats in the hotel for months, but no one else ever saw them. Turns out, they were attracted by all the supplies he’d stuffed into the attic; I found a few of them in the rubble. I’d been wondering why Clifton was always disappearing in the middle of the day. He must have been up there, clearing the dead rats out of the traps.”
“And you think that that’s what attracted Archie?”
Emma nodded.
“But surely someone else would have noticed if it smelled that bad.”
“It wouldn’t have had to be all that bad for Archie to notice; dogs’ noses are a lot more sensitive than ours are. When Clifton realized that Archie had gotten into the passageway, he knew he had a problem. What if you went searching for your dog and discovered his secret?”
Todd’s pillow had bunched up on one side. He reached up, trying to adjust it, and winced.
“Here,” she said, “let me get that.”
Emma stood and gently lifted his head as she moved the pillow back into place.
“Is that better?”
“Much.” He smiled. “Thank you.”
“Anyway,” she continued. “Clifton must have gone up there just before the séance to try to catch him. He didn’t realize that the extra weight of the supplies had further weakened the damaged ceiling and when he made a grab for Archie, it collapsed.”
“So what’ll you do now?”
She shrugged. “Sell it, I guess. One of the ski lodges next to me would probably love to have some extra space. Unless you’ve changed your mind about buying it.”
He shook his head.
“Any idea why Fairholm would try to ruin you?”
“None,” she said. “The biggest disagreement we ever had was whether or not the staff should wear ascots.”
“Oh, well, that’s your reason right there,” he said. “Heck, I’d burn the place down before I’d wear one of those things.”
Emma laughed. “No, he was the one who wanted to keep them.”
“Too bad. Could have been grounds for an insanity defense.”
She tried to laugh again, but it came out as a sob. Todd reached out and touched her hand.
“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to make light of it. It’s just the way I am, I guess. Better to laugh than to cry, huh?”
She nodded and wiped away a tear.
“Can you stay a minute,” he said, “or do you have to run?”
“I can stay a little longer, I guess.”
Todd stared thoughtfully at the ceiling.
“I’ve been thinking about a new theme for the inn.”
Emma grimaced. “That concussion must be worse than I thought. I don’t have an inn anymore, remember? Or at least I won’t by the end of the month.”
He smiled. “Aren’t you going to ask me what it is?”
“All right,” she said. “What’s your idea?”
“Pet friendly.”
“That’s the theme?”
“Yes. Instead of a haunted inn with lots of expensive Victorian doodads, why don’t you close the Spirit Inn for repairs and open it again as a destination resort where people and their animals can come and enjoy a vacation together? Call it the Pet-Friendly Inn or something.”
“What made you think of that?”
“On the way out to your place, Archie and I stopped at a place called the Dog Days Inn. It was a dump—not even a real hotel—and it was packed! If people will pay to stay in a smelly place like that just so they can have their pets with them, just imagine how happy they’d be to bring their pets to a really nice place.”
She frowned thoughtfully. “I suppose it could work.”
“Of course it could. And once I pay off your loan—”
Emma put up her hands. “I don’t need your charity.”
“Yes, you do. Look,” he said, “I already know what your situation is, and unless I miss my guess, you know what mine is, too.”
Emma looked away and shrugged.
“I’m serious. And I’m not talking about a gift; I’m talking about an investment. A pet-friendly inn will bring in more customers than your ghosts ever did. Which reminds me . . .”
Todd lifted his head and looked around.
“Where’s Archie?”
CHAPTER 26
When the red Ferrari pulled into the humane society’s parking lot, Jody Davis whistled. There might be plenty of rich folks in Puget Sound, but you didn’t see a lot of Italian sports cars out in Gold Beach. The driver’s door opened and a tall blond woman stepped out, removed a small dog carrier from the passenger’s seat, and headed for the front door. Jody shook her head.
“Looks like somebody’s bringing in a stray,” she said to the other desk clerk.
“Hope they like bad news.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Jody braced herself for an argument. They weren’t accepting any strays at the moment—the shelter was full—a
nd the woman who was picking her way carefully through the puddles outside didn’t look like the type who took no for an answer. She shook her head. Who wore high heels on a day like that?
The front door swung open with a whoosh and the woman staggered inside, dropping the carrier hard enough to make the little dog inside yip in protest. Jody pressed her lips together. She loved almost every kind of animal. People, not so much.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes,” the woman said. “I want to get rid of this dog.”
Jody glanced at the animal in the carrier.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “We’re not taking animals for adoption at the moment.”
“Oh, I don’t want him adopted,” the woman said. “He needs to be destroyed.”
That surprised her. People rarely brought an animal in specifically to be put down.
“Why?” Jody said. “What’s wrong with him?”
“He bit me,” the woman said.
A quick tug of her sleeve revealed a bloody bandage on her left forearm.
“I was just trying to pet him and he turned on me.”
Jody stepped out from behind the counter and squatted down in front of the carrier. The dog inside was some sort of mixed breed. Small, but not small enough to be a toy. He wasn’t wearing a collar, either, though it looked as if he had been recently.
“Hey there, fella.”
The little dog blinked and turned his head away.
“Are his vaccines up-to-date?”
“Why? You don’t think he could have rabies, do you?”
Jody was studying the little mutt. He looked healthy enough and he wasn’t showing any sign of aggression. What would make a little guy like that bite someone?
“Doesn’t look like it. You said you were just petting him and he hauled off and bit you?”
The blond woman pressed her lips together.
“Pretty much,” she said. “The man who sold him to me said he was pretty high-strung, but he was so cute I couldn’t resist. It’s weird, too. I’ve always had good luck with Craigslist.”
Jody made a face. Seemed like every other week they had someone come in who’d gotten a sick or vicious dog through an online ad. Why didn’t they come down to the animal shelter instead? The humane society had plenty of healthy, adoptable dogs. She stood back up.