“Why did you do it?” Ellison sounded like he was on the edge of a panic attack. “I can’t believe you hate me so much.”
I stared at my desk, irritated and confused. “What the hell are you accusing me of now?”
“Oh, I’m not saying you actually lit the fire—the damned fire marshal is blaming me, of all people. But I know you had to have an underlying hand in it. You made me fall asleep!” Now, his belligerence began to return. “I hope you’re satisfied! Ana’s left me. I know you had a hand in this!”
Snapping out of my puzzlement, I cleared my throat. “Get a grip and tell me what happened or I’m going to hang up on you.”
Ellison paused, then said, “The office…it caught on fire. The fire spread to several businesses next to it. Everything’s gone. The magazine’s literally in ashes. The fire marshal says it’s my fault—that I threw a cigar into the trash can in my office and it caught fire. But I know it was out! At least…I think it was.” He trailed off, sounding like a whipped puppy.
I froze. The building we had bought for our magazine was gone? Up in flames?
“What the hell were you doing smoking in your office? You know that was a blanket rule—no smoking anywhere in the building. Hell, it’s the law. No smoking in public places. And you want to blame me? If you were dumb enough to throw a lit cigar in the wastepaper basket, then it’s not my fault.” I paused for a moment, then said, “So everything’s gone?”
“Yeah,” he said. “The computers are toast. All our work is gone. Everything had a digital backup, but after you left, I decided to save some money and just keep it in the office instead of on a cloud-based backup. I canceled CloudBox last month. So everything…it’s all gone, January. All those years of work.”
I couldn’t believe how stupid he had been. Ellison always had been a blowhard and full of himself and he never wanted to listen to anybody else, but I never thought he’d be this much of an idiot. Now, the chickens had come home to roost. The magazine I had worked so hard to build literally went up in smoke, and even though he had cheated me out of my half of it, the pain of loss stabbed me deep.
“You fucking idiot. You let it all slip through your fingers.” I wanted to blow up, but there was no energy left for it. I wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn’t come. “Well, welcome to my world, asshole. You cheated me out of my half of the magazine that I helped to build. Now you know what it’s like to lose something you love.”
“But what do I do? I’m going to get sued for damages. Both the Urban Oxtail restaurant and Claudette’s Designs are demanding I pay for all the damages so their insurance companies don’t raise their rates. I’ll have to sell the house. I’ll be left with nothing by the time they get done with me. And if I don’t make good, they’ll sue me.” He sounded desperate.
I glanced up to see the others watching me. I shrugged, picking up a pen to write “Ellison” in big block letters on a notepad, then held it up.
“So you decided to call me in hopes that I’d bail you out somehow? I’m not the one who smokes cigars—it’s a disgusting habit—and you did it to yourself. As for the house, well, sell it. Pay them back. And as for Ana, why the hell would I care about your girlfriend? If she leaves you, she obviously has better sense than to stick around when you get yourself in trouble.”
He paused for a moment. “Can I come stay with you for a few days to get my head together?”
Now I was really struggling to keep my temper. I counted to ten, then decided I’d had enough of talking on the phone. “How about you deal with the mess you made by yourself? Grow up, Ellison. If you think I’d ever extend my hand to help you out after what you did to me, you’re nuts. Good-bye, and good luck.”
And with that, I hung up. As I turned to look at Caitlin, she applauded.
“I’m proud of you. I don’t even know what happened, but I’m proud of you. So, what did happen?”
I sighed, glancing at the clock. It was only ten and I’d already had more than my fill of drama for the day. “Well, it’s like this…” I said, and then proceeded to explain.
By three-thirty, Rowan hadn’t called back, so I headed out for Garrison Library, where Charles had his office. Charles Crichton’s office was on the second floor, near the back by the travel section. Charles himself was a distinguished-looking man, around six-four, in his seventies or thereabouts, with short silver hair. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a suede jacket with leather patches on the elbows—very old-school academia.
When I peeked into his office, he waved me in. “January, so glad to see you! Come in.”
I set up my digital recorder and settled into one of the chairs opposite him. As I leaned back, he gave me a broad smile, showing pearly white teeth.
“Hi, thanks for seeing me today.”
“Anytime, for anything. I’ve always got time for you,” he said.
There was an odd nuance to his words that made me slightly uncomfortable, which was odd, given I liked him and we seemed to get along fine.
“Um, thanks.” I shifted in my seat. He was staring at me, pointedly, and I cleared my throat, wondering what was going on. “So, about the Spit & Whistle Pub?”
“Yes, the Spit & Whistle. It’s been around for over one hundred years, so there are bound to be a lot of trapped memories there.” Charles shifted through the files on his desk, bringing out a thick one. “It’s changed owners a lot of times. Of course, on the surface, that’s not unusual for a restaurant—most of them go out of business in the first few years.” He paused, then said, “You look lovely today.”
Again, the segue made me feel slightly on edge. It was harmless on the surface, but there was something beneath the words that made me wince.
“Thanks,” I said, switching the subject back to the topic at hand. “So can you tell me when the secret room was built? Do you even know about it?”
“Secret room? Yes, actually. That was built when the Covenant of Chaos bought the building.”
“You mean, Clarence van Nostram bought the building, right?”
“Technically, but it was the Covenant behind the purchase. They performed ceremonies in the basement, and they built that room for their rituals. I’m not certain what kind of rituals they performed there, but before long, they decided that it was more trouble than it was worth to have the restaurant. They wanted the building because it’s on a ley line—actually a series of them that converge right at that point. I believe there are four of them that cross directly through the position the building is set on. I think the Covenant wanted to tear it down, but the restaurant had already been declared a historical building and they couldn’t do much to it. They built the secret room without permission but when the historical society found out, they threatened to sue Clarence unless he closed it up.”
So that was why it had been bricked up. “Do you know if anyone ever died in that room?”
He shook his head. “Not to my knowledge. Why don’t you come over here and look at the pictures from that time period?”
I frowned. “I can see them fine if you just hand them to me.”