joined us that I’m sure it’s been a little much. Then, too, they’ve been under a lot of stress in getting the hotel ready for the grand opening.”
“Agreed. When do you think the backyard will be decorated so that I can take pictures?”
“Tomorrow morning. I’m going to repaint a wall, and then I’ll help Laurel hang the lights or whatever she plans to do there. I’ll tell her that you want to get some pictures of the place with all the lights on.”
“Good deal.” Brett finished the last slice of pizza. “Anything going on over there? Anything…paranormal?”
“Yeah, but I’m sure there’s an explanation for it.” CJ explained about the C on the wall.
“You’re kidding.” Brett sounded like he knew something about it.
“What?”
Brett began emptying the folders on the table. “Here’s a note that Darien’s dad kept from a pack member who was concerned because a letter C appeared after the hotel’s lobby was repainted thirty years ago.”
“Thirty years ago. Huh. Well, apparently it disappeared after that. So here’s hoping when I paint over it again, it’ll disappear.”
“That’s what you’ve been painting?”
“Yep. And it’s not going away.”
“Did you try that stain-killer paint?”
“Yep.”
“No blood dripping from it, right?”
CJ chuckled and shook his head.
Brett helped clean up and pulled out his keys. “Okay, I’m out of here. I’ll see you later tomorrow.”
CJ said good night to him, then started reading through all the documents and examining the pictures of the old hotel, which were mostly of the lobby and front of the hotel, some with the owners standing on the covered veranda. He recognized one of the Silvers’ friends from the old days, Jonathon Bowling, who built the hotel in 1871, plus his wife and two daughters. All of them had long ago died, though the lupus garous until fairly recently had extended longevity. That had changed drastically though, according to a lupus garou geneticist, Dr. Aidan Denali. He had come into town and taken blood samples from all the wolves, looking for the reason that their longevity had morphed into a time span more similar to humans.
As to Jonathon Bowling, after he and his family died, the hotel was sold off to three more owners. The last owner before the MacTires was Warren Wernicke, who bought the hotel in 1953. He was a bachelor who never married. At least as far as anyone could tell. He might have lost a mate earlier and never found another, which often occurred among lupus garous.
Owning a hotel as a single entrepreneur was a little unusual. Wernicke’s sister lived in the house with him and managed the hotel for a brief while, according to Darien’s dad’s notes. Then as far as reports could tell, twelve years after he bought the place, Warren Wernicke left one night and never come back. His sister, Charity Wernicke, vanished shortly after that.
A police report filed by Sheridan Silver, CJ’s father, as acting sheriff, said Warren seemed to have run off with a maid. His sister then left because the hotel was in financial ruins.
CJ had to let the sisters see all this, but he really didn’t want to. As unafraid as they seemed, he worried that this might disturb them more, particularly since his father had never located the Wernickes to verify that his suspicions were correct. Still, the sisters had every right to see the information about the hotel. Besides, they could obtain the information themselves anyway.
Looking at everything Brett had gathered about the hotel, CJ realized his brother was the perfect match for his job. He was really good at research, and he’d included old deeds, an auction listing of furniture and other incidentals, and pictures of some of the lovely carved pieces of furniture that were sold off when the hotel closed down after Charity Wernicke disappeared.
After that, no one had the funds or the know-how to run the hotel. Or the desire. He remembered how kids would dare each other to spend a night in the old place, swearing ghosts floated about the hotel, moaning and crying and wreaking all sorts of havoc on anyone dumb enough to stay there.
He noticed a photograph of a hand-pieced quilt with a stenciled letter C right in the center. The letter was the approximate size of the one on the wall. CJ stared at the picture, wondering why Charity had disappeared. And her brother too.
Chapter 5
The next morning, Ellie and Meghan took off before CJ arrived, both warning Laurel not to get too involved with him. And yet, she