Chapter Four. #2
“If someone stirred something up…” I mused.
“…a spirit who’d been ignored, it would explain everything,” Michelle finished my sentence.
“We need to contact Angela and see who’s stayed at the Inn,” Suga said.
“Let's look through the guest book, see if we recognise any names,” Trunk added.
“Let’s head down and tell everyone what we suspect,” I agreed.
Haunt
“I’d asked Angela, and she’d said no, she’d not had a team in for a while,” I stated, frowning.
“Maybe they didn’t declare themselves? Can you call her in the morning and ask?” Callie inquired.
“Yeah. For now, I think we’re best off finishing tonight; we’ve got a couple of hours. Keep the rooms you already had instead of changing them up,” I said.
Nods came back at me.
“If you don’t mind, I’m going to look through the guest book.” Reaver glanced at me for permission.
“Isn’t that confidential information?” Jack asked.
“No. It’s one where guests can write comments, not an actual booking service. If they liked their room, they can put it in the book,” I explained. “Please mark anything that may cause concern.”
Reaver nodded and headed down to reception while the rest of us split up again.
My gut told me nothing would happen, and I was correct.
The ghosts of the Mermaid Inn had gone quiet, and with good reason.
They felt uneasy; something was encroaching on their turf and disturbing the status quo.
Naturally, they were upset, but I also wondered if they were afraid.
When we hit the sack, we were all worried, and I guessed this was just the beginning.
“Did Angela get back to you?” I asked Reaver as the team sat down to eat.
“She hasn’t allowed an official investigation in for four months,” he replied, his plate filled with bacon.
“Damn. “I thought that led to this,” I griped.
A smile crossed Reaver’s face. “I found a lead.” He shoved the guest book over to me and pointed at a page. I ran my gaze down the comments before pausing.
“Son of a bitch!” I yelled, and Reaver nodded.
“What is it?” Dive asked.
“Take a look!” I shoved the book over, and moments later the air was filled with Dive’s cursing.
“What are we missing?” Sunny asked.
“Fuckin’ Chauncey Archibald. You got your nemesis, this wanker’s mine,” I growled out.
“Okay,” Callie drawled, looking none the wiser.
“He might be familiar to you as the Phantom Doctor,” Ghoul sneered, and his nose wrinkled.
Callie and Jack matched his expression. “You know that twat?” Callie demanded.
“Yeah. He was once one of us. But he began agitating and bullying. Staging events for the camera, and we caught him several times faking footage. We kicked him out seven years ago, and he’s been resentful ever since,” I explained for those who didn’t know.
“Chancey runs his own channel full of fake shit. The wank-stain follows us around and brags to his viewers about what we’ve missed. We warn those we’re investigating not to let him in, but he’s bulldozed or charmed his way in,” Lich elaborated.
“And this Chauncey was here?” Sunny asked.
“Yeah. Right here, this is his message,” I pointed to the page in the book.
The message was innocuous, a mere comment about how enjoyable his visit had been. Reaver phoned Angela to find out how long Chauncey stayed. His face was grim when he ended the call.
“Dickhead was here for one week and stayed in the Kingsmill room. Angela said he was polite and didn’t cause much trouble. A couple of staff had mentioned seeing him roaming around, and one thought she’d seen him leaving an empty room,” Reaver said.
“Fuck!” I cursed. We had answers. But the main one, what had that fool riled up, remained unanswered for now.
“We need to hit the books. This is someone who’s been forgotten and no doubt Chauncey riled it up like an idiot,” Lich replied.
“It gets worse,” Reaver added, and I groaned.
“What?”
“Chauncey had someone with him who stayed in Mrs Betts’ room. Gloria,” Reaver stated coldly.
My head dropped as I audibly ground my teeth.
“Wanna elaborate?” Sunny asked.
Shaking my head, I stood and left.
Reaver
Sunny, Callie, Michelle, and Jack looked confused. “What just happened?” Sunny asked.
“Like Chauncey, Gloria grew up with us. But she had a major crush on Haunt. When we began investigating, we learned she had clairvoyant powers. She was stronger in retrocognition,” I explained.
Sunny frowned.
“The ability to see past events,” Callie explained.
“Okay,” Sunny murmured.
“Gloria became obsessed with Haunt. None of us noticed it because we were children. But when we hit our early twenties, it got disturbing. Gloria began talking about events that would happen if we didn’t do this or ignored that,” I said.
“Let me guess, much of it revolved around her being with Haunt?” Jack guessed.
I nodded grimly. “Yeah. Slowly, we began to realise what she was up to, especially when several women Haunt dated just dropped him. It blew up about seven years ago. Haunt bumped into a woman he’d really liked but had ghosted him.
Even before he had the chance to speak, she blasted him in public for being a cheat and a rat bastard.
Haunt demanded to know what she was on about, and she told him Gloria had cornered her. ”
“It got bad fast. Haunt was furious and told her he’d never been with Gloria, and she said that wasn’t what Gloria had said.
We put two and two together, contacted several other exes, and they all had the same story.
Gloria had chased them away. It explained so much.
Haunt confronted her, and she claimed they were lying, but we knew differently.
It later emerged that Chauncey had fuelled this obsession.
“Between the two of them, they’d cooked up a scheme to keep Haunt busy with Gloria while Chauncey sought fame and fortune.
Us exposing them wasn’t expected, and Haunt didn’t hold back.
He filmed the confrontation and then released it.
Any hopes Chauncey had of being taken as genuine were washed away, and Gloria became known as the stalker-bitch-from-hell,” Lich said.
“Damn, gotta have sympathy for the guy,” Jack said.
“No one mentioned being on TV, it hadn’t been in our line of sight.
But when our first episode aired, Chauncey came back around saying we needed him.
He claimed none of us is natural presenters, and he’s right.
We’re not interested in that; we want to investigate,” I said.
“But despite how uncomfortable we are, having him back and making everything a massive drama, wasn’t worth it.
Plus, Gloria would come sneaking back around. ”
“You think they’ve done something here?” Callie asked.
“No. I know they have. No doubt whatsoever,” I replied.
“We just gotta find out what. Maybe we should start by searching their rooms,” Ghoul suggested.
“Would we find anything?” Callie asked.
“Doubtful, but it wouldn’t surprise me to find a pentagram or something under the bed,” Trunk said. He was wearing a matching scowl to mine.
“Split into two teams. We’ll look for anything obvious. I will locate Haunt. Chauncey and Gloria are determined to destroy the good we’ve been receiving,” I said and left to find my Prez. He’d be kicking himself right now.
Haunt was outside, head tilted back, staring at the stars. His hands rested on his hips, unclenching and clenching, and I surmised he desired a cigarette.
“Okay?”
“What do you think?” he ground out.
“You can’t let Chauncey beat you,” I replied.
“He ain’t ever gonna stop, is he? Seven years and they’re both still obsessed. I don’t get it.”
“Prez, Chauncey wants to be you. Can’t say I understand why, but each to their own.”
A smile crossed Haunt’s lips. “You’re an asshole.”
“Yeah, but a good one. Don’t let them drag you down. We need to check the injunction dates. If they’ve run out, we need to renew them,” I stated.
“Shame we can’t get one to stop them following us,” Haunt complained.
“They’re looking for a reaction. If we don’t give them one, then we win.”
“But it feels like they are,” Haunt murmured. While I agreed with him, I wouldn’t say so. Haunt didn’t deserve this shit; none of us did.