by Ani Gonzalez
But money was not his prime motivator. Elizabeth's scheme, would also wipe recipe-stealing what's-his-name off the map. They could bring in Patricia as a pastry consultant and feature her recipes. Her work would be protected, and she'd make some money too.
Elizabeth grimaced. "Kind of." She snagged another nacho. "But don't tell your brother. He disapproves of my ulterior motives. And, I have to admit," she looked around the pizzeria, focusing on the Tippi Hedren mural on the wall, "a Lizzie Lovecraft mural would look nice right there."
Zach laughed. "I like your modesty."
She shrugged and waved the nacho at him. "Modesty doesn't pay the bills or bring customers to this town. And you can't complain, after all, you were the one who started it."
"Me?" He stared at her, incredulous. "What are you talking about?"
"Your Banshee Creek Explorer's Club idea." She bit into the nacho. "It was inspired. Thanks to House Haunters, Lizzie Lovecraft is now the face of Banshee Creek. If we put her on a national chain of restaurants it would give us publicity everywhere."
Zach laughed. "Banshee Creek takes over the world?"
Elizabeth finished her nacho and smiled. "Something like that. Anyway, it's worth thinking about, isn't it?"
She looked at him intently, as if her comment had a specific meaning.
He started to answer, but Patricia arrived with a box of pastries.
"Where do these go?" she asked, looking around for a landing spot.
Zach smiled at her and grabbed the box. "I'll put it over there--"
Elizabeth stopped him. "You'll put it right here next to me. Are those cupcakes? I really need a cupcake. Actually," she looked at them thoughtfully, "you two also need cupcakes."
They stared, confused, as Elizabeth finished off her nacho.
Zach wanted to grab Patricia by the arm and lead her away somewhere private, but he didn't have time. People were arriving and the meeting was about to start.
"What's going on?" Patricia whispered. "Elizabeth never stress eats."
"I don't know." Suddenly, he had a bad feeling about this.
What was Dr. Lebensburg doing here? And his parents?
"Uh, oh." Patricia's brows went up.
"What?"
"Caine is here," she hissed into his ear. "And he's wearing a suit."
Zach followed her gaze. Sure enough, Caine and the PRoVe contingent were here, and they were all dressed up. That was an unprecedented occurrence in this town. You could fill a scrapbook with chupacabra sightings before coming across a paranormie in business wear.
What was going on?
The small group sat down, facing Caine and Elizabeth, who placed a cupcake next to her pile of papers, then cleared her throat.
"So," she started, coughing nervously. "We are gathered here today..."
Someone giggled. Caine glanced at Elizabeth's white dress, then at his own dark suit.
"Gee, Ms. Hunt," he said. "This is so sudden. I thought you were engaged."
Everyone laughed. Elizabeth rolled her eyes and grabbed her cupcake.
"I hereby declare this meeting officially open." She took a bite. "Our first order of business..."
She paused to check her papers and, next to Zach, Patricia held her breath.
"Is a report on the Valentine's Ball. I'll be doing that one."
Patricia exhaled, looking disappointed.
Elizabeth cleared her throat. "Notwithstanding a couple of minor glitches..."
Another giggle from the crowd.
Elizabeth frowned at the culprit and continued. "The event was a huge success. We got really good feedback from the attendees..."
"The ones that survived."
The whispered comment sounded unnaturally loud, making Patricia, and a bunch of other people, break out into laughter. Elizabeth frowned again.
"Everyone survived," she clarified.
Her comment was greeted with peals of laughter.
Caine shook his head. "That's setting the bar pretty low, isn't it, Hunt?"
"Oh, stuff it," Elizabeth replied. "We had excellent to outstanding social media response, and pretty good television coverage. We're putting together a full report with data and recommendations, but the preliminary assessment is that the event was very well received."
Applause broke out and Elizabeth waited for it to die out.
Her lips tightened. "With one exception."
Zach sighed. He knew what was coming. They all knew.
She let the breath out. "Fire & Rescue has some...concerns."
A low boo greeted her words.
Elizabeth shrugged. "That's par for the course. We do have to address those concerns, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. So, next in the agenda is a paranormal activity report from PRoVE."
"Are you kidding me?" Patricia blurted out.
The rest of the congregation seemed equally confused. Everyone wanted to know about the Rosemoor competition. Why was Elizabeth delaying the announcement for a PRoVE presentation? And when did the Historic Preservation Committee start taking the paranormal activity reports seriously? Had hell frozen over?
Caine stood up. In the dark jacket and white shirt he looked a bit like a biker mortician.
"Well." He stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth. "This week has been a doozy, hasn't it? We didn't get any vampire deer sightings, but we got everything else. The Hagen House has been acting up, we've had several manifestations at the creek and the Rosemoor blew up. I can see why Fire & Rescue is concerned."
Zach glanced at Patricia who shrugged. The paranormal stuff was business as usual, but Caine admitting that Fire & Rescue had a point?
That was definitely strange.
Caine went on describing, in his standard, methodical way, all the sightings of the past week.
"Wait," Patricia blurted. "My brownie did what?"
"Stole three scones," Caine said. "And was caught on camera twice. It was just a blur, but, you know, a pretty conclusive blur."
And she hadn't known about it? She frowned at her friend Laurie, but the culprit just shrugged.
"You were busy," she said. "We didn't want to bother you."
"And the pizzeria poltergeist manifested four times." Caine sounded vaguely amused.
"What?" Zach exclaimed, glaring at one of his waiters. "I wasn't told about that."
The waiter glanced around guiltily. "He keeps dropping olives into Sarah's shirts. I don't think he likes her."
"Oh I don't think so," Caine interjected. "He likes her all right. That's just his idea of flirting."
Great, that's just what he needed, an amorous poltergeist.
Elizabeth finished her cupcake and stared at the empty wrapper, a sad expression on her face. "Get to the point, Caine. My sugar high will dissipate soon."
Caine nodded. "You guys probably heard about the U.S. Geological Survey findings. PRoVE will issue an official report on that, but, suffice it to say, we are very concerned about those findings and the ongoing increase in paranormal activity. We haven't reached any conclusions yet, but we will continue to monitor the situation."
He paused and looked at Elizabeth, who nodded, urging him to continue.
"We're particularly worried about the Rosemoor manifestations, which are growing stronger and more frequent."
"Excellent." Elizabeth stood up. "That brings us to the Rosemoor competition."
Patricia and Zach stood at attention, and he was relieved to note that she looked interested, but not overly nervous.
Elizabeth was a different story. She bit her lip and looked down at her papers.
"Let's get this over quickly," she said. "The committee had two competing bids: Zach and Patricia. The winning bid is..."
She looked at them with nervous eyes.
"Neither of you."
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
"WHAAAAT?" THE shrill screech made all heads turn.
Patricia joined the crowd, craning her neck to get a good look at the questioner. It
was Sarah, and she did not look happy. That seemed to be the general feeling. The town had developed strong feelings about the Rosemoor competition and the third bid was not greeted with enthusiasm.
But Patricia felt...nothing. She'd pretty much accepted the fact that she wouldn't get the Rosemoor. She was curious about the result, but she wasn't particularly upset.
But what about Zach? Unlike her, he'd pretty much expected to get the house.
This could be bad. Zach could lose his pizzeria and the Rosemoor. The thought made her angry. So much work for nothing.
Why had the committee made them jump through so many hoops, if they weren't going to give them the Rosemoor? Why had they changed their minds?
And how much damage had they done?
She sneaked a peek at the man standing behind her, dreading what she would find. The last thing she wanted was Zach's unhappiness. The one upside to Trevor's sabotage was that she got to see Zach win the Rosemoor. There was something to be said about that.
But not anymore.
Zach's face was turned away and she couldn't see his expression.
"It was a very hard decision," Elizabeth started, looking down at her notes. "We gave it a lot of thought."
Zach turned to look at the Historical Preservation Committee representative and Patricia got a good look at his face.
He looked...relieved.
"But what are you going to do with the bloody place, then?" Sarah interrupted. "You all thought it had to be put to good use. Wasn't that the whole point of this ridiculous exercise?"
The crowd focused its attention on Elizabeth, who didn't look nervous anymore. She looked determined, rather like an army general reenacting the charge of the light brigade.
"Yes, exactly." Elizabeth took a deep breath and steeled herself. "And that is still the goal. That is why we are considering a third proposal."
Patricia froze. A dark horse bid? They hadn't just lost the Rosemoor, they would have to watch someone else develop it. And there would be a competing restaurant coming to town. Had the Historical Preservation Committee lost its collective mind? And why was Elizabeth going along with this? When this was all over she was going to have a little talk with her friend.
"We know we are bending the rules--"
"Bending?" Sarah scoffed. "Blowing to bits would be more accurate."
"But, taking into account the needs of our entire community," Elizabeth looked straight at Zach and Patricia, "and not just the business sector, we think it's the right thing to do."
What did that mean "not just the business sector"? And why was Caine nodding along? PRoVE seldom agreed with the Historical Preservation Committee so why were they being so agreeable all of a sudden? She looked at Zach, who seemed concerned but still calm. How bizarre. She didn't feel calm. She felt like grabbing her cupcake box and dumping the contents on the committee members' heads. Where was Zach's little poltergeist? She could use a paranormal catastrophe right about now.
"The right thing to do?" Sarah echoed. "Says who?"
Elizabeth ignored Sarah's question and continued her speech. "The historical record indicates that the Rosemoor was originally built as a house for healing and recuperation, aimed at wealthy patients suffering from nervous ailments. PRoVE thinks that, well, it may not approve of things like parties."
"Or dinners?" Zach asked, frowning.
"Loud dinners," Caine clarified. "Quiet dinner parties are fine."
"'It may not approve?" Sarah quoted. "You mean the house?"
Caine nodded. "The house or whatever is in it."
The room fell silent, digesting this new information. This was Banshee Creek. Most of the buildings in town had paranormal entities in them, some more annoying than others. Her brownie loved the bakery and the goodies it produced, but it could be a pain in the butt. She tried to picture running her business with a house spirit that abhorred cupcakes or cookies.
The picture wasn't pretty.
Elizabeth cast a sidelong glance at Caine. "I know we all disagree on whether the more peculiar aspects of tour own are real paranormal phenomena or made up stories. But one thing is clear, we've never had a hostile entity in Banshee Creek."
"And we don't want to have one," Caine interjected.
Elizabeth nodded. "Exactly. So the winning bid for the Rosemoor is...the Banshee Creek Urgent Care Clinic."
The crowd was silent. Patricia exhaled with relief. It wasn't a bakery or a teashop. Heck, it wasn't even the ice cream parlor that she'd been dreading.
Zach nodded. "That's actually not a bad idea. When Diego got burnt, we had to wait for an hour to get him help. He still brings it up periodically."
She had to grudgingly agree. The clinic provided, well, urgent care. If you needed to see a specialist or a therapist or even get a prescription filled, you had to go to freaking Reston. It really was absurd.
Elizabeth smiled and looked through the crowd. "Dr. Lebensburg, can you please outline your plan for the building?"
Dr. Lebensburg stood up. She was dressed in a wool sweater with large felt snowflakes and horned rimmed glasses. The crowd hushed so she could talk.
No one messed with Dr. Lebensburg.
"Well." She adjusted her glasses, the only sign of nervousness she displayed. "I would usually take the time to thank a whole bunch of people who helped us put up this bid in very short notice, but it's late and I understand we all want to go home." She cleared her throat. "Our plan is simple. The Urgent Care Clinic has been over capacity for the past five years. We have more visitors who do riskier things," she aimed a disapproving glance at Caine, "and that has taxed our employees and our facility to the breaking point."
Caine looked sheepish and the doctor continued, "In addition, the health needs of our residents are changing." Dr. Lebensburg glanced at Patricia. "We have more elder residents whose conditions are deteriorating, and we have many caregivers in town who are becoming highly stressed. The Urgent Care Clinic staff cannot meet the needs of these residents and they've had to travel long distances to obtain care. This is very burdensome to our community."
Patricia couldn't help but agree. She knew perfectly well how time-consuming it could be to care for an infirm relative. Her father wasn't very affected by his condition, yet, but he would be, fairly soon.
The doctor went on, "What we propose is to keep the twenty-four-hour Urgent Care Clinic where it is and turn the Rosemoor into a multi-use health facility. There will be a small pharmacy, which will partner with a national chain to supply access to medications, and an adult day care center with activities and recreation."
"And chess," Zach's dad interjected.
Dr. Lebensburg smiled. "Don't worry, Gonzalo. You'll get your chess classes."
Zach leaned toward Patricia. "I'm starting to suspect that my dad has spent the past couple of weeks sabotaging my Rosemoor bid."
Patricia giggled. "I don't think you're wrong about that."
"Chess addiction is a horrible disease." Zach shook his head, smiling. "He'd do anything for a chess center, even stab his own son in the back."
Dr. Lebensburg continued listing the various health programs that would be set up in the Rosemoor. She didn't have any notes, but she didn't falter or pause. She must have been planning this for a long time, Patricia realized. She had to recruit partners and get permits and...Patricia's head swam.
"We will also have safety classes," the doctor said. "Including first aid and CPR certifications, for our visitors."
"Don't forget the spiritual healer," Caine interrupted. "My guys need care too."
Dr. Lebensburg frowned. "The multi-use space will be available for rent, Caine. You can bring whomever you want, but I will not be responsible for your activities. We will draft a disclaimer to that effect."
Caine grinned, satisfied. "Disclaim away, Doc."
Dr. Lebensburg shook her head. "This will still leave us plenty of office space, which we plan to rent out to various health specialists. Our goal is to have a rotating roster of d
octors and therapists to meet the needs of our residents."
Patricia raised her hand, hesitantly. She hated to be a party-pooper, but...
Dr. Lebensburg signaled for her to talk.
"Er," Patricia started, "how are you planning to pay for all this?"
Dr. Lebensburg aimed a sidelong glance at Zach's dad, who nodded. "A private donor is helping us out. Other towns in our area will also chip in, as they have the same need."
Zach nudged Patricia in the ribs. "I bet the private donor is Gabe."
Patricia frowned. "How did he not tell you?"
Zach grimaced. "He's left a dozen voicemails and sent probably hundreds of e-mails. I just haven't checked any of it. I thought he was calling to talk about the restaurant buyout. I didn't realize he was trying to give me a heads up."
"And the Historical Preservation Committee will provide restoration funds," Elizabeth added. "And PRoVE assures us that the, er, house will not mind having Urgent Care occupy the premises."
She glanced at Patricia, almost apologetically.
Patricia smiled, trying to reassure her friend. She certainly didn't want to put up her tea shop and have the donut-making machine spew batter all over the place.
But they were going to have a talk after this. This time the Historical Preservation Committee had gone too far.
"We think Mrs. Danvers will support this new direction." Caine paused. "Well, it's actually an old direction, I suppose. We're going back to the original purpose of the building."
"Any questions?" Elizabeth asked.
A couple of hands went up. Patricia wanted to ask about the adult day care, but Zach grabbed her arm, and she let him lead her away.
"Do you mind that Dr. Lebensburg got the building?" she asked once they left the dining room and had some privacy.
"Not really," he replied. "Caine's comments about the ghost were pretty much a deal breaker. Managing my poltergeist is bad enough, and..."
His voice trailed off.
"What?" she asked.
He shrugged. "Nothing."
The realization struck her like a vampire deer caught in headlights. He was happy he hadn't beat her. He was happy he hadn't been the one to crush her Rosemoor dream.