Pet Friendly (15 page)

“Dee—one of the ghost hunters, an old friend of my Gran's. She comes here every year hoping to contact her dead husband.”

“So? What's the problem?”

“Archie,” Emma said. “Dee's husband was named
Archie.
”

Todd's mouth fell open. “So, if Viv thinks the ghost is Dee's husband . . .”

“She'll call Archie's name. And if Archie is trapped inside the walls . . .”

“He'll start barking to let us know where he is.”

Emma looked at the door. “We've got to stop the séance.”

“How? Everybody's already in there.”

“I don't know,” she said. “But we've got to try.”

CHAPTER 23

T
he Spirit Room was packed when Todd and Emma walked in. Todd was surprised. This wasn't like the séances he'd seen on TV, with people sitting around a table while someone banged on it from underneath. The participants were on chairs arranged in two concentric circles, while sitting cross-legged in the middle was Viv Van Vandevander. A candle was burning on the floor in front of her. Its flame flickered as the door behind them closed.

“I'm going to go talk to Lars,” Emma whispered. “Why don't you take a seat?”

“Shouldn't I stay here?” Todd said. “What if he says no?”

She shrugged helplessly and shook her head.

“Beats me,” she said. “But believe me, it'll be harder with the two of us.”

Todd glanced around the room and noticed with regret that the only empty seat was the one next to Gwen. Excusing himself as he hurried past, he crossed the room in front of the others and sat down.

“Sorry it took me so long,” he whispered. “I was hoping we could call this thing off.”

“Why?” Gwen said. “Are you afraid of ghosts now?”

“No, because I think the only ghost around here is Archie and I'd rather not have a mob go after Emma if these people find out.”

“What?”

As heads turned toward them, Todd put a finger to his lips.

“Dr. Richards said there were passages inside the walls,” he whispered. “I think Archie might have gotten in there somehow.”

“That stupid dog has ruined everything,” Gwen muttered. “You should have just taken him to the pound.”

Todd looked back to see if Emma was having any luck persuading Lars. As she whispered something in his ear, the professor shook his head vehemently. What were they going to do if he refused to call it off?

The question quickly became moot as Lars reached over and turned down the lights. The candle's flickering flame cast eerie shadows on the walls and turned the faces in the circle into ghoulish masks. On the floor in front of them, Viv closed her eyes and began to sway. There were whispers around the circle, and Todd was surprised when Gwen slipped her hand into his and squeezed it. He supposed he couldn't blame her. Even for someone who didn't believe in ghosts, it felt pretty eerie.

There was a thump overhead and someone in the audience squealed. Muted cries of, “Hush!” filled the room and then died down again. Todd looked for the noise's source but saw only shadows dancing overhead. It hadn't sounded like Archie, he thought. But if it wasn't Archie, what was it?

Viv appeared to have gone into some sort of trance. As she continued to sway, she filled the room with a low hum. At length, the humming stopped.

“Someone is here,” she said.

The quality of Viv's voice had changed. To Todd, it sounded as if two people were speaking instead of one. He wasn't the only one in the room who'd noticed, either. People around him exchanged startled looks.

Lars called to her from his place by the door.

“Vivienne,” he said, “why have they come?”

Viv moaned.

“To witness,” she said. “To make amends. To ask for . . . forgiveness.”

Todd heard a scuffle directly overhead and then an ear-piercing howl that sounded like Archie. Three people stood to leave and the others coaxed them back down. He searched the room, looking for Emma. Where was she? he wondered. Had she recognized it, too?

Lars continued his interrogation.

“Forgiveness?” he said. “For what?”

There was another howl and Viv jerked like a marionette. When she spoke again, her voice had deepened.

“I shouldn't have left you. I'm sorry.”

Gwen gasped and grabbed his arm. Todd looked over and saw the woman on the other side of her struggling to stand.

“Archie?” she said in a tremulous voice. “Archie, is that you?”

Todd panicked. This must be Dee, he thought. The one Emma had warned him about. The one who'd come to every convention hoping in vain to contact her late husband, Archie. He had to stop her. If she called him again, Archie might hear her and start barking. If that happened, even the true believers in the room would realize they'd been had.

He leaned toward her.

“Excuse me, ma'am,” he said. “Can I help you?”

Dee struggled to her feet. She was trembling; there were tears running down her cheeks.

“Oh, my darling, don't be sorry,” she said. “It was my fault. I should have told you—”

Something heavy fell against the ceiling and Todd ducked as bits of plaster pelted the floor. He looked up and saw a crack race across the ceiling, widening as it went. He looked at Gwen.

“Get out of here! The whole thing is coming down!”

Gwen ran for the door as Dee clutched her chest and Todd rushed forward to catch her. There was a tremendous crash and people screamed, shoving their chairs aside as they ran headlong for the exit.

From her place beside the door, Emma watched in horror as chunks of plaster and lath tumbled down, followed by an enormous beam that hit the floor with a sound like cannon fire. Then, one by one, fifty-pound bags of rice and flour began falling through the hole, bursting open as they hit the ground and sending thick, powdery clouds into the air.

As people ran past her, choking and gasping for air, she saw Clifton drop from the hole in the ceiling. His green jacket looked like a snow-dusted fir and there was blood running down his face from a gash on his forehead. Under his left arm, Archie squirmed and growled, struggling to break free.

CHAPTER 24

E
mma had set up a triage area in the banquet hall. As the steady stream of guests from the séance came through the door, she quickly directed them to the appropriate area for treatment. The inn had plenty of first aid supplies, including a defibrillator, plus blankets and cots for those who were too weak to stand or in danger of going into shock, and thanks to the SSSPA they also had two RNs, a naturopath, and a holistic healer on hand. Adam had earned high marks for remaining calm and dialing 911 when he heard the commotion, and the operator had assured him that the EMTs would be there soon.

She wasn't particularly worried. In the mad scramble to evacuate the Spirit Room, people who weren't injured had fled to the safety of their hotel rooms. Emma had already seen Gwen retrieve Archie and whisk him away in his carrier; she figured Todd was probably back in his room getting ready to leave.

As much as Emma hated to see him go, she'd be glad to have Archie off the premises. The less the ghosts hunters saw of the little dog, the better the chances were that they wouldn't connect him to the encounters they'd been witnessing since the night before. With everything else that had gone wrong, the thought of losing her best customers was terrifying.

Though perhaps, Emma thought, not as terrifying as watching Clifton Fairholm fall through the ceiling. She glanced across the room at her assistant manager, sulking in the corner, who was waiting for the police to arrive while Dick Richards loomed over him like a white-haired vulture. The gash on Clifton's forehead had been bloody and he was badly bruised, but there was no sign that he'd suffered any serious injury.

Emma still had no idea what, exactly, he'd been doing up there, but the sight of all those supplies falling through the ceiling had made it pretty clear that he was at least partially responsible for the inn's precarious financial position. The thought that the man she'd trusted to guide her after Gran died had been doing his best to ruin her made Emma feel sick. There were anxious murmurs at the door and Lars Van Vandevander staggered into the room holding Viv in his arms.

“I need help here, stat!”

As a nurse rushed over, Viv reached up and brushed plaster dust from her hair.

“I told you I'm all right,” she said. “Now, put me down, please.”

Emma helped Lars get Viv onto a cot. There were cuts on her arms and a swelling on her collarbone that looked ominous. With all the plaster dust in her hair, she might have suffered a concussion, as well. Emma grabbed one of the thermal blankets and wrapped it around Viv's shoulders.

“Let him spoil you a little,” she said. “It's a husband's prerogative.”

As the nurse began checking his wife's wounds, Lars pulled Emma aside.

“I checked on Dee.”

“How is she?”

“As well as can be expected,” Lars said. “We've covered her with a blanket and I've got a couple of ladies sitting with her, but I'd rather not move her until the paramedics arrive.”

“Good idea. Thank you.”

Tears of relief sprang to Emma's eyes. The thought that they might lose Dee had weighed heavily on her mind.

Lars cleared his throat.

“However, I'm afraid the news isn't all good,” he whispered. “There appears to be someone trapped underneath the rubble. If so, I'm afraid the ceiling fell right on top of them.”

Emma gasped. “Are you sure?”

He nodded.

“Dee says she felt someone push her out of the way as the ceiling came down.” Lars frowned. “You don't happen to know who was sitting beside her, do you?”

She did. Emma felt her throat constrict.

“It was Todd and his fiancée,” she said. “But I know Gwen's all right. I saw her leave a few minutes ago.”

“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.