“What did it make you think of?” Hank asked.
I paused, closing my eyes to remember how I had felt standing near the room. A sudden wash of claustrophobia swept over me, and then desperation to get away from there.
“I had to get out. I was afraid—it was like…if I got trapped there, something horrible would happen to me. Something was waiting for the door to close on us.” I shuddered, opening my eyes. “I can’t be sure, but it feels like somebody was trapped in there, and then something happened…something…not human happened, if that makes any sense.”
A bell sounded from Hank’s computer and he moved to check on it. “It makes perfect sense, actually. I’m not sure what the secret room was used for, or when it was added, but I can fill in one potential piece of the puzzle. Clarence van Nostram owned the restaurant at one time.”
“Who’s that?” I asked.
“He’s one of the original members of the Covenant of Chaos. He wasn’t that involved with Stellarview—remember, they had their hands in that mess too—but it says here that he owned the restaurant from 1943 through 1946.”
“That’s a short time to run a business,” Caitlin said.
“Well, most businesses go belly up in a few years, but I don’t know,” Hank said, narrowing his eyes. “I’m honestly surprised to see that one of the chaos magicians actually bothered with trying his hand at it. Most of them are old money, and involved in lawyering, banking, and other more…fruitful professions.”
“What was his name again? I’ll ask Charles if he recognizes the name.” I let out a sigh. “I suppose I should call him and make an appointment. Then I’ll finish transcribing the interview.” As I turned back to the computer, I had a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach that there was a whole lot more going on behind the scenes at the Spit & Whistle Pub than we suspected. And I had the feeling we’d be finding out just how much before too long.
Chapter Six
Charles said he could see me the next day at four, so I thanked him and looked back at the transcript that I had typed out. I fixed a couple spelling errors, then sent it into CloudBox, the private cloud computing system we used to share data at the office. By then, it was almost seven, and I yawned, glancing over at Tad. We often stayed late at the office, but I had a dinner date with Killian and needed to take off.
“I’m done for the day,” I said, standing and gathering my tote. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I might be late—I think I’ll drop in at the library to see if I can find any local history books that might mention the Spit & Whistle.”
“You could do that online,” Tad said, staring at his screen.
“True, but sometimes schmoozing with the librarians can bring more results than just searching through a card catalog.” I waved at him as I headed for the door. Hank and Caitlin had left at six, and it looked like Tad was settling in for an evening’s work. I paused. “You should go out more. I mean, if you want to find a girlfriend, you really need to put yourself out there so that people know you’re looking.”
“I’ve tried that,” he said, still staring at the screen. “I bomb every time. Go on, go meet your beau.” He paused, glancing over at me. “January, have I told you how glad I am you came to work for us?”
I frowned, shaking my head. “No, you didn’t, but thank you.”
“I mean it, you’re…pretty special.” There was an odd light in his eyes that I hadn’t seen there before, and it made me slightly uneasy.
“Um, thanks again. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I ducked out, only to find Wren still at her desk. “Hey, Wren, see you tomorrow?”
She nodded. “I’m just waiting for my husband to pick me up,” she said. “He needed the car today and we only have one—trying to reduce the carbon footprint, you know.” She laughed, and I smiled. Her voice was like birdsong. In fact, sometimes I thought Wren was more like the birds she loved to talk to than the human she was.
I didn’t have time to go home and change before my date, so I drove directly to the Moonshadow Steakhouse, which was near the borders of the town. It was rustic with a log cabin style of décor on the outside. But inside, the mood shifted into casual elegance. The hostess was standing by her podium, checking people in. She took my name and looked on the acrylic seating chart.
“Oh yes, your other party has arrived. Please follow me.” She led me back through the door that cordoned off the dining room and over to a booth against the far wall, where Killian was reading something on his phone. He stood as we approached, giving me a kiss.
I slid into the booth and ordered a double-shot mocha, then accepted the menu that the waitress handed me. She turned and left.
“How was your day?” Killian asked, leaning back against the high back of the booth.
“Spooky, to be honest. We’re checking out a local restaurant that’s being haunted—”
“That wouldn’t be this one, would it?” Killian asked, glancing around with a nervous look. He didn’t like ghosts, but then, most shifters—especially wolf shifters—were uneasy around magic and the supernatural. Unlike a number of his brethren, though, Killian didn’t go out of his way to avoid it, and he didn’t mind dating someone with witchblood.
“No, silly. It’s the Spit & Whistle Pub, down on the marina. The place has some pretty nasty entities there, though we’re still trying to sort everything out. I got caught at the office transcribing my interview with the owner. I hope you don’t mind that I didn’t change.”
He snorted. “I don’t care if you arrive naked—well, scratch that. I don’t really want other men seeing your goodies.” He winked, but I knew he was serious. Wolf shifters were on the possessive side, and he had warned me that he did not date around when he was seeing someone, and he expected fidelity out of his partner. That was just fine with me. While I had friends who were poly and happy, it felt difficult enough to deal with one person in a romantic relationship, let alone multiples.
“Don’t worry, I don’t intend to waltz in here in my birthday suit.” I opened the menu and studied it. “I’m hungry. I ate a salad for lunch because I wanted to try something healthy, but it did nothing to fill me up.” I stared at the appetizers. They sounded so good that I decided to make a meal out of them.
“Pardon me for interrupting, but I saw you here and decided to stop and say hello.” The smooth voice startled me out of my reading and I glanced up, surprised to see Val Slater, one of the more prominent local vampires who reminded me all too much in looks of John Travolta out of Pulp Fiction. It didn’t help that Val had a gangsta vibe and that I owed him a favor—a fact I would rather forget.
“Oh…hi,” I said. My appetite vanished. I cleared my throat and introduced Killian. “Val, I’d like you to meet my boyfriend, Killian O’Connell. Killian, this is Val Slater. You remember me telling you about him?”
Killian stared at Val, cocking his head. He was smiling but I knew him well enough to know that was not a friendly smile. In fact, if he opened his mouth, he probably was gritting his teeth.