I waved at Wren, who was entering data at her desk. “Hey, if some guy named Rodger comes in looking for me, don’t tell him I work here, okay? He’s one of those frosty blonds and he’s wearing a black trench coat.”
She grimaced. “Man trouble?”
“Pushy, annoying, and doesn’t want to take no for an answer,” I said, passing behind her desk and through the door to the office inside.
Tad glanced up. “You’re back! What did you find?”
“Let me get out of my jacket. But I’ll tell you this right now—that’s one haunted pub, and it’s not going to be easy taking care of both the hauntings and the shadow man I found in there.” I gathered my notes and coffee and sat down at the table as Caitlin, Hank, and Tad joined me. As I ran down the day’s events, I couldn’t help but feel there was still something I hadn’t tapped into—the secret room kept pulling my attention back to it.
“So, we need to find out more about the history of the restaurant and everyone who owned it and lived there. I really want to know why that secret room is there.” I leaned back in my chair, frowning. “We can always get names from the city records—”
“Not necessarily,” Tad said. “Remember, the fire wiped out a lot of the records before 1939.”
“Fire?” I cocked my head. “What fire?”
“Didn’t you know? I thought you would, given your great-grandfather was one of Moonshadow Bay’s founders. Someone set fire to City Hall, before the City Central complex was built. Before the firemen could contain it, all of the property ownership deeds were destroyed. They had to rebuild it from scratch, and there were some holes in the records. Over the years, those holes led to numerous lawsuits.”
“When did that happen?”
“Oh, sometime in the 1930s or 1940s—” Tad started to say.
“1943,” Hank interrupted.
“Right—1943. There were no photocopiers at the time—well, there were, the machine was invented in 1938, but it didn’t reach the workplace until about twenty years later. Anyway, they had to rely on duplicate records from all the homeowners. Several shysters tried to claim property that wasn’t theirs and it led to a massive backlog in the courts.” Hank shrugged. “After that, a second copy of every deed, tax record, whatever, was created and kept in a separate fireproof vault away from the building.”
I had never even heard of the fire, but then again, I hadn’t paid all that much attention in local history classes. I was more interested in my English classes and in geology. “So, we may never find out exactly who owned the Spit & Whistle before then?”
“I think you might want to visit Charles Crichton again,” Tad said. “If he doesn’t know something, there’s a chance he’ll know someone who does.”
Charles Crichton was a prominent member of the Moonshadow Bay Historical Society. He had helped me out on my first case with Conjure Ink.
“That’s a good idea. I guess I might as well put him on speed dial, huh?” I said, musing. “So, the records for after 1943 should be intact at city hall, then?”
“They should be, but if we want the nitty-gritty—not just names—we’ll need to find people who were either around then, which would discount most humans given the time frame, or who have relatives who had a connection.” Caitlin held up her tablet. “Should we go in with our equipment yet?”
I shook my head. “Not until we know more. We don’t want to stir up the spirits until we’ve figured out how to take care of them.”
“If there really is a shadow man there, it’s going to be difficult to evict him. Shadow men are the worst,” Tad said. “But we’ve only found references to them in the cases we’ve studied, not actually encountered them in the ones where we’ve gone in trying to help.”
You want to be cautious on this case, Esmara suddenly whispered to me. You run the risk of taking something home with you that you aren’t prepared to deal with.
“Crap,” I muttered.
Tad stared at me. “What is it?”
I was about to tell him, but I suddenly found the words vanishing on my tongue. “Um, just thinking that we need to be cautious,” I said. Why won’t you let me tell him?
Because we don’t want him to know about us right now. Just make certain that you talk to us and to your aunt before you try to deal with any of the shadow people—they’re far more deadly than you can imagine and most people don’t give them enough respect.
“Do you know something more about the case?” Hank asked.
I shook my head. “No, I just… We should be cautious. I can tell you that the energy I felt around that secret room scared the hell out of me, and I don’t scare easily.”
“That is an odd one. Why would a bordello—brothel, if you prefer—have a secret room in the basement?” Caitlin turned to Hank. “Do you know if the original blueprints burned up in that fire?”
“If there were any, probably not. The fire was controlled before it took out all of the city records. I can find out,” he said, heading over to his desk. Hank was a big man, burly, bald, and biker-like. He was also brilliant and though rough in demeanor, he had a good heart.
As he made a phone call, I finished off my coffee. “By the way, guys, while we’re waiting on Hank, I’d like to ask a favor. If some guy named Rodger gets past Wren, would you kick him out? He’s about my height, frosted blond in that little-girl blond sort of way, fair featured, and he was wearing a black trench coat.”
“Why? What did he do?” Tad asked.
“He was bothering me over at the coffee shop and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I finally had to enlist the cashier’s help to get out of there without him following me.” I shrugged. “I’m not sure what his problem was, but I don’t want to find out. His name is Rodger. He told me that when he was trying to pick me up.”
“Not a problem,” Caitlin said. “If he bothers you again, call me and I’ll put a stop to it. I can’t stand men who won’t respect personal boundaries.”
“Women either,” Tad said. “Though I’m not an expert in that field,” he added wryly.
“You’re cute,” I said. “And no, that’s not me being sleazy. You’re just…cute.”
“I wish more women felt that way, but alas, I don’t think I’m going to have that problem.” He folded his arms across his chest. “I haven’t been out on a date in months.”
I glanced over at Caitlin. She pointedly stared at the table. Once again, I waffled between doing what I could to match the two of them up, or leaving well enough alone. I knew she found him attractive, but she was engaged—an arranged marriage, according to bobcat shifter tradition—and she was going to have to choose between her own happiness and her family’s honor. And Tad would never make a move with her being taken.
Hank returned to the table. “Okay, I found out a few things. First, there are blueprints of the Spit & Whistle Pub, and they survived the fire intact. Second, they’ve been transferred to one of the online archives in the city. So we can download the floorplan by paying a fee to the city. I assumed you might want to do that, so I’ve filled out the form and all I have to do is enter company payment information.”