The Hotel’s Secret

Excerpt

By the time Chris reached the second story, his lungs were on fire. Not so much from racing up the stairs, but from all the dust everywhere.

He turned to a family room — probably called a parlor room or something fancy like that back in the day. All of the kids had gathered there. Half of them looked like they’d seen a ghost. The others looked confused.

The twins ran over to Vanessa, clinging to her.

Chris struggled to catch his breath. “What … is … it?”

Anya pointed to the wall. “A bloody warning!”

Underneath a painting of Recluse Island when the hotel was a sprawling mansion, in dripping red paint, a message read:

Leave and live. Stay and die.

Anger festered in Chris’s gut. The words turned fuzzy before coming back into focus. How dare someone threaten his family?

“We’re leaving, right?” Anya asked. “I don’t want to die.”

“Me neither,” Hope said.

At least the stepsisters were in agreement about something.

Vanessa straightened her back. “Nobody’s going anywhere. It’s just graffiti.”

Maverick looked between the message and his mom. “If that’s all it was, there’d be more paint all over the place. It’s only here.”

“He’s right,” Dustin said. “It’s a warning.”

Chris pulled out his phone and snapped some pictures. Studied the paint up close.

“It’s only a joke,” Vanessa said. “And even it’s not, why would it be aimed at us? It could be meant for someone who lived here before, or someone else who was planning on living here.”

While everyone else went back and forth, Chris sniffed the paint. Ran his fingers over it. Sized it up.

It had been written recently.

Vanessa turned to him. “Will you back me up? It’s old and harmless.”

He took another picture. “It may be harmless, but it isn’t old.”

“Pardon me?” Her eyebrows furrowed.

“Smell it. It was done not long ago.”

The twins clung to their mom all the tighter.

She looked at him like he’d committed a great offense. “We need to reassure the kids everything is fine.”

He glanced back at the paint. “I need to find out who did this and why. Then once I know what’s going on, I can deal with it.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Of course I am.”

“It’s only graffiti.”

“Someone came in here recently, getting in despite the locked door, and left this message.”

Vanessa took his hand and tugged him toward the stairs. “Kids, excuse us. We’ll be right back.”

“We aren’t moving in, are we?” Hope asked.

“Wait here.” Vanessa dragged him back down to the master bedroom. “We can’t let the kids worry. This is our new home. If they think something’s wrong—”

“I refuse to pretend everything is okay when I don’t know that it is.”

“So, what are we going to do, then?”

“I’m going to find out who wrote that. Then I’m going to deal with them.”

She gave him a double-take. “You think this is serious?”

“Yes. Someone has threatened my family. Even if they think it was a joke, it wasn’t. If nothing else, I’ll make an example out of that person for the rest of the hotel staff.”

“Okay. But will you at least stand with me and tell the kids everything is going to be fine.”

“How can I tell them that when we could be in danger?”

“Because that will put their minds at ease! We can look into it, but at least they won’t be worried.”

“Maybe they should be, if someone actually wants us dead. Best to have them on alert rather than walking around with a false sense of security.”

“And why would somebody want to kill us?” Her nostrils flared.

“I don’t know. We just got here. I’m going to have to look into it. Maybe someone likes not having the owners here.”

“Enough to threaten our lives?”

“Depending on what they’re doing, yeah.”

“What would they be doing?” she countered.

“How would I know? But I intend to find out.”

“Can you at least reassure the kids that everything is okay? Please. If you’d feel better playing detective, then fine. Do that. But it won’t do the kids any good to be scared. Surely, you can see that.”

“It won’t do them any good to live with false security.”

“We don’t know it’s false.”

Chris bit his tongue, not wanting to keep going in circles.

Vanessa’s mouth twisted. “So, this is our first impasse.”

“Doesn’t have to be.”

“You’ll reassure the kids that everything is all right?”

“Once I know it really is.”

“They’re scared. What they need is a little reassurance.”

“Then I’ll reassure them I’m going to get to the bottom of this.”

Vanessa paced. “Why won’t you tell them everything will be okay?”

“Because I can’t see the future. But I will figure out what’s going on, and who’s behind the threat.” Then if it came down to it, he would deal with that person the same way he dealt with the last person who threatened his family — he was no longer a worry.

“That’s the best you’ll give them?”

“It’s all I can guarantee.”