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THE ALDENS REGROUP
Henry and Violet saw Jessie and Benny come down the grand staircase into the lobby. The grandfather clock rang six o’clock just as Alex, Anita, and Juliette were putting the finishing touches on the decorations. Guests would be arriving in one hour! The children met at the foot of the stairs.
“Let’s go to the kitchen to talk,” said Jessie. “Benny got hungry while we were upstairs, and I think we could all use a snack.”
The four of them went into the kitchen. The chef looked very busy, so the children patiently waited for him to finish what he was doing. As the Aldens watched, the man opened a door on the wall and loaded two trays of food into a metal box. Then he closed the door and pressed a button.
Benny watched in wonder. “Is that a food elevator?” he asked. He imagined what it would be like to have an elevator deliver Mrs. McGregor’s pancakes to his room every morning.
Henry smiled. “It kind of is,” he said. “It’s called a dumbwaiter. They used to be common in mansions like this. The chef must be sending food to another floor in the building.”
“That’s right,” said Jessie. “They will be showing off some of the rooms on the second floor later. They probably need food up there, and with a dumbwaiter, no one needs to carry the trays up stairs.”
A moment later the chef came over to the children with another tray. There were fancy ham-and-cheese sandwiches, olives with garlic inside, and a half dozen other things on the tray.
“You’re the Aldens, aren’t you?” the chef asked. “Juliette told me you would want snacks. This is a taste test of the treats I’ve made for the guests this evening. Please let me know how everything is!”
Benny had already eaten two olives. “So far so good!” he said. They all laughed.
After the chef went back to preparing the food for the party, Benny swallowed the bite in his mouth and said, “Have we got news to tell you!”
“Same!” Violet said. “You go first.”
“When Jessie and I were upstairs, we heard some noises,” said Benny. “We went up to the third floor and thought we heard a ghost! I thought it was the Lost Composer for sure!”
“But it turned out to be some older kids pretending to be ghosts so they could get likes on their video channel,” Jessie said. “Then the strangest thing happened. We saw what looked like the reflection of a cat inside a mirror. But there was no cat in the hallway!”
“Did it look like a ghost?” Violet asked.
“I’m not sure,” Jessie said. “I can’t explain it though. What about you two?”
“We went down to the basement,” Henry said.
“We saw some muddy boot prints leading to the boiler room,” said Violet. “We shut the door and came back upstairs. It was dark and creepy down there!”
“The boiler room door was left open, and I saw a wrench out. At first, I thought there was a problem someone was trying to fix, but the more I think about it, the more I think someone might actually be trying to break it.”
“Breaking the boiler could cause all sorts of problems for Juliette’s party,” Jessie said. “You know, I was thinking about all of this after we met Luke and Kylie pretending to be ghosts. Think about the message Juliette got: ‘bring my keys to Room 222 or I will not rest.’ I think it’s a person pretending to be the Lost Composer and trying to scare Juliette into giving up those keys.”
“Or at least scare her guests who believe the ghost stories,” Henry said. “No guests means no business, and it will probably mean the historical committee won’t put the building on the historical registry.”
“What’s a historical committee, anyway?” Benny asked.
“The historical committee is in charge of a list of historic places,” Jessie explained. “That means if they decide the building should be a historical landmark it will be put on a list that is recognized by the government.”
“It would be pretty sad for Juliette if the committee decided not to register the building because of the broken boiler,” Henry said.
“Then do you think whoever is behind the message could be trying to break the boiler?” Violet asked. “As a way to convince Juliette to hand over the keys?”
“We saw the radiators upstairs,” Benny said. “They made some pretty weird noises. And some steam puffed out too! If I didn’t know what it was, I might think it was a ghost.”
As they left the kitchen and returned to the lobby, Violet noticed a man walk in through the front doors. It did not look like he was dressed for a fancy party. He wore jeans and a sweatshirt under a worn-out jacket.
“His boots,” Violet whispered.
The man was wearing heavy-duty boots, and the bottoms were caked with mud.
“The muddy footprints downstairs?” Benny asked.
Juliette saw the man come in and walked out to meet him. Even though she was friendly as they spoke, the man didn’t smile. They talked for a minute. Then the man walked past Juliette and left. Juliette looked at the floor where the man had been standing. His boots had left mud on the tile.
Juliette came over to the Aldens.
“I’m sorry to ask after you did such a good job cleaning, but could I ask you for one more favor?” she said. “Would you sweep up the lobby one more time? I’d do it myself, but we’re getting so close to the party.”
“No problem,” Henry said. “Who was that man?”
“His name is Sebastian,” said Juliette. “He was the hotel’s maintenance person before it closed. I feel bad…he was laid off so suddenly. I couldn’t afford to rehire him, but I invited him to the opening because I know he loves the hotel.”
“Does he always wear muddy boots?” Benny asked.
Juliette chuckled. “I’ve never seen him without them. I think having muddy boots is something people get used to when they work on old buildings.”
“We’ll clean up the lobby right away,” Henry said. “By the way, I meant to tell you—Violet and I went into the basement. We didn’t find any secret locks, but we did notice the boiler room was open, and there was a lot of hot air coming out.”
“Oh no,” said Juliette. “That old thing is on its last legs. It’s been acting up lately. Thanks for telling me. I’ll ask Anita to check it out.”
Juliette hurried away. She was in a rush now that it was getting close to the start of the party. Jessie got the broom from the closet, and the four of them studied the boot prints in the lobby before they swept them up.
“What do you think? Do they match the prints you found downstairs?” Jessie asked.
Violet looked closely and nodded. The prints were a match.
“I’d ask what a maintenance man was doing in the boiler room, but maybe he was just trying to fix the old thing,” Henry said.
Jessie swept up the prints, and Benny rubbed the tiles with a cloth until they shined.
“But Juliette said she wasn’t able to rehire him,” Jessie said. “Why would he try to fix something if he wasn’t hired to?”
“She did say he loves the hotel. Maybe he wanted to fix it because he cares about the building,” Violet suggested.
They went to the closet to put the broom away. Henry tapped his chin with a finger, thinking.
“It still doesn’t make sense to me,” he said. “There was a lot of hot air coming out of the boiler room. If Sebastian were trying to fix the boiler, why would he have left it when it was still blowing all that hot air?”
“And we still don’t know about the cat we saw in the mirror!” Benny said.
Violet shivered. “And we’re not any closer to figuring out who wrote that message,” she said.
“I think we are closer, in fact,” said Jessie. “Let’s go over what we know so far.”
“Someone wants to ruin Juliette’s grand opening in order to get these mystery keys,” Henry said.
“But we don’t know who or why!” Benny added.
“They want keys brought to Room 222,” Violet said. �
��Which is also a room that is not in service.”
“It’s also supposed to be the most haunted room,” Jessie said.
Henry nodded. “So, whoever wrote the message knows a lot about the hotel’s history and the ghost stories. Do we know any suspects who fit that description?”
“Eddie Gardner seemed grumpy about the way Juliette is running the hotel,” Violet suggested. “Also, he had that bag that looked like it wiggled, which was strange.”
“And we can’t forget Sebastian,” Jessie said. “His boot prints matched what you two saw downstairs. I don’t know why he might want to ruin the grand opening, but he did lose his job when the hotel first closed. Maybe he is upset Juliette didn’t rehire him.”
“And both of them know things about this building,” Henry said. “Eddie lived in the hotel as a child, and if Sebastian did maintenance on it, he would have spent a lot of time here too.”
“I just can’t stop thinking about that cat we saw in the mirror,” Jessie said. “Everything else has an explanation, but that was just spooky. And it was right above Room 222.”
A group of two men and two women came in through the front door. They were dressed in jackets with the historical committee emblem embroidered on the lapel. One of the men had a bushy white mustache that reminded Violet of something out of a history book. One of the women was wearing an eyeglass in one eye.
“The historical committee!” Violet said in a hushed voice.
Juliette met the group and introduced herself. She shook their hands and started showing them around the lobby. The woman with the single eyeglass was taking notes on a pad. All four members of the committee were very serious, looking at every detail of the old building.
“I’m glad we got those muddy prints cleaned up,” Benny said. “They would have noticed right away!”
Henry glanced at the clock. They still had quite a bit of time before midnight.
“Let’s get out of the way so Juliette can show the committee around,” he said.
“What do you think we should do?” Jessie asked.
Henry smiled, his eyes sparkling with a daring idea.
“I think there’s one area of the hotel we haven’t explored. And it’s pretty important to this mystery,” he said. “Let’s go to Room 222.”
CONTINUE TO PAGE 64
ROOM 222
The children slipped upstairs while Juliette was showing the historical committee around the lobby. Juliette was very serious but friendly while she talked to the committee.
“The committee’s approval means a lot to her,” Henry said as the children walked.
“It seems strange that either Eddie or Sebastian would want to stop the building from becoming a landmark,” Violet said. “I feel like Eddie would want that for his father, and if Sebastian really does love the hotel, he would want that to happen too.”
“I think we’re missing something,” said Jessie. “Hopefully we can find some answers in Room 222.”
“And maybe a ghost cat!” said Benny.
The Aldens reached the second-floor landing. When Jessie and Benny explored the second floor before, they’d met Anita. This time the hallway felt different. It was empty and quiet. All the doors were closed. Violet thought there was something spooky about the way everything looked the same.
Benny led the way. Suddenly, he noticed something move at the end of the hallway. But when he looked he saw that it was just the children’s reflections. On the far wall was another big, oval mirror.
“That mirror looks just like the one I saw upstairs—the one with the ghost cat,” Benny said. “But it’s cleaner, and it doesn’t look quite so creepy.”
They found a door at the end of the hallway, near the mirror. Jessie read the number.
“Yep,” she said. “Just like Luke and Kylie said. This is Room 222, right below Room 322, where we saw the cat in the mirror.”
Benny and Violet looked into the mirror, but all they saw were their reflections.
“I don’t see any ghost cats,” Benny said. He was a little disappointed.
“Do you think you imagined it?” Violet asked. She did not take her eyes away from the mirror.
“No, both of us saw it,” Jessie said. “It was definitely a cat with long black fur.”
Henry leaned in close to the mirror. He held his hands up and peered through it like a window.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I can’t see any—”
KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK!
Benny yelped as a loud noise rang out. It sounded like it was close by, but everything in the hallway was still.
Then Violet noticed something in the mirror. “Look!” she said, and as she pointed, a shadow seemed to pass through the glass. Again, there was no sign of movement in the hallway.
“That was no ghost cat!” Benny cried. “It’s the Lost Composer!”
Jessie shushed him and motioned toward the door of Room 222. For the first time, she noticed the door was slightly ajar. A draft of cool air puffed out, and the door creaked open slowly. Benny grabbed Henry’s hand, but no one came out of the door. Not even a ghost.
“I don’t think it’s a ghost, Benny,” said Henry. “The door must not have been latched all the way. The wind blew it open. Should we check it out?”
Jessie opened the door all the way. And Benny could see that it looked like a regular room—maybe even a little more interesting.
“Okay,” he said. “But you go first.”
Room 222 was bigger than the other hotel rooms they’d seen. It had a sitting area with two old chairs, a fireplace, and a bookshelf. One of the windows was cracked open, and the evening wind gently blew the curtains.
Henry checked the bathroom and closet for any clues. Meanwhile, Jessie searched around the bedroom—even looking under the beds. Nothing seemed out of place.
Violet was the first to notice something strange. She was looking at the rocking chair by the fireplace. At first, she thought the breeze from the window was making it move, but as it slowly stopped rocking, she realized something else had been moving it.
“I think someone was just sitting in that chair!” she said.
Benny noticed something else. “Do ghosts need to stay warm?” he asked. He was kneeling by fireplace, where there was still the faint glow of flames and a crackling of burning wood.
“Good observations, you two,” said Jessie. “There must have been someone here. They must have left when they heard us in the hallway.”
“But we were right outside the door!” said Benny. “Where did they go? And why did the door blow open?”
Henry walked over to the door that went to the hallway. He pulled it shut until the latch clicked. Then he pressed gently against the door. The door’s latch slipped, and the door opened right up.
“The latch is loose,” Henry said. “Whoever was here forgot to lock it. All it would take is a little puff of air for the door to open out to the hallway.”
“Do you think they left through the window?” Violet asked.
“I don’t think so,” said Henry. “It’s pretty high up. But remember that wind that blew the hallway door open? It could have been caused by another door opening and closing. My guess is there’s a hidden way out of this room. Let’s see if we can find it.”
The four children split up to explore the room more closely. Before long, Benny found another clue. Three books had fallen off the shelf into a pile. He stooped to pick them up. Then he and Henry tried to figure out where they fit back on the shelf.
“Here’s a space for four books,” Henry said. “Three fell, but the last book is sitting right in the middle of the space.”
On the shelf there was a gap with a single book standing upright.
“If someone knocked the other books down, don’t you think they would have knocked that one down too?” Benny asked. Henry nodded as Jessie and Violet joined them. He reached out and grabbed the lonely book.
“It’s stuck!” he said. He tried pulling at it by the spine.
It slid out slowly, like it was stuck. When he let go, it flew back toward the shelf with a loud KNOCK!
“The knocking noise!” Violet gasped.
“Knock, knock, knock!” Benny said. “Three times!”
Henry grinned. They were onto something! He pulled on the book two more times and let it snap back into place. KNOCK, KNOCK!
On the third knock, the bookcase rumbled. Then it popped open. Behind it was a secret doorway!
“Now we know what the knocking sound is,” Jessie said. “Someone was opening this secret doorway!”
Henry peered inside. There was a narrow hallway beyond the bookcase. It was dark but clean, and it was lit by a few lights hanging from the ceiling.
“A secret hallway,” Benny exclaimed.
“Let’s see where it goes,” Henry said. “Maybe we can catch up with whoever left.”
The four followed the corridor. After a little ways, the children found a large oval mirror set into the wall. Jessie examined it.
“It’s just like the mirror in the main hallway,” she said. “Oh, look at this!”
The other three quickly joined her and looked into the mirror. But instead of it showing their reflections, it was clear as a window. They could see out into the hallway, where they had been standing only a few minutes ago!
“It’s a two-way mirror!” Jessie said. “We can see through it in this direction, but from the hallway it looks like a mirror.”
“I bet if the light hits it just right, you can still see through it from the hallway side,” Henry said, glancing up at the hanging lights.
“So the shadow we saw was the person that was leaving,” said Violet.
“That means the cat we saw on the third floor was probably real,” said Benny. He sounded a little disappointed. “It was just on the other side of a two-way mirror.”
“But I thought cats weren’t allowed in the hotel,” Violet said.
Henry glanced back at Violet with a knowing nod.
“Let’s see where this hallway goes,” he said.
The hallway ended with a set of wood stairs. The children climbed the stairs and opened the door at the top. When they stepped out, they were in a large room with a big desk and bookshelves full of old books. Just like Benny thought, there was another two-way mirror on the wall. He looked out and could see into the hallway where he, Jessie, Luke, and Kylie had seen the cat.
Midnight at the Haunted Hotel Page 4