Above it, was Mr. Moosehead.

  Could the clue be inside Mr. Moosehead? It would be such a pain to try to get that thing off the wall to look. And an even bigger pain to put it back up…

  “Oh my God,” Dru murmured.

  “What is it?” Viktor asked.

  “Someone’s already been here,” Dru said.

  “What do you mean?” Viktor asked.

  “The moose,” Dru said. “He was on the floor. Chester was so mad that he had to put him back up. Someone already took it down to look for the key. We’re too late.”

  A wave of disappointment washed over her, snuffing out the fire of enthusiasm she’d felt on the way down.

  “The person who deciphered the journal,” Viktor said.

  Dru nodded.

  Someone had stolen her journal and deciphered it.

  But if they had already found the treasure, then why give her the deciphered pages?

  They must have hit a dead end.

  Maybe they weren’t too late after all.

  They must have thought she would have more insight, since the journal had come from her family.

  “The key wasn’t in the moose,” she breathed, stepping back out into the hallway. “Whoever gave me the pages is expecting me to figure it out. Which means they’re going to be keeping an eye on me.”

  Viktor moved closer, as if instinctively trying to protect her.

  Dru glanced around at all the people nearby.

  The Van Buren sisters were still snoozing lightly in the sitting room.

  In the dining room, Oscar, Melody and Mayor Tuck were chatting as they munched on cereal.

  Tyler, Hailey and all three Wilders were in the lobby, relaxing.

  But one of them wasn’t doing what he or she seemed to be doing.

  One of them was watching Dru.

  A shiver went down her spine at the thought.

  But she wasn’t about to let it stop her.

  10

  By two in the morning, things had calmed down a bit downstairs and Dru was feeling more like herself.

  The guests had all trailed off to their rooms, except for Viktor, who was keeping Dru and Edgar Allan Crow company at the front desk.

  “I guess I should drop off the clean towels at everyone’s doors,” Dru said. “Do you mind keeping an eye on Edgar?”

  “Of course not,” Viktor said. “But I can come with you if you want.”

  The offer was tempting. Knowing someone in the hotel was watching her was spooky enough, not to mention that there was still no sign of Johnny.

  What if he was the one who had deciphered the journal?

  But no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t picture the big man hunched over any kind of book for that long. It had to be someone else.

  And Viktor wouldn’t always be around to act as her body guard. From dawn to dusk each day, she would be on her own.

  “Nah, I’m good,” Dru said, sounding more certain than she felt. “It’ll only take a minute, and everyone’s asleep.”

  He nodded, but his blue eyes were concerned.

  “Really, I’ll be right back,” she promised.

  She grabbed the bags of towels and jogged upstairs.

  Edgar made a bleating sound as she left.

  “I’m coming back bud,” Dru sang out to him over her shoulder, gratified that she had a connection with the creature.

  She headed all the way down to the servants’ wing and then made her way back, hanging bags of clean towels around door knobs as she went.

  It was incredibly quiet, even the sound of her footsteps was swallowed up by the thick carpet.

  As she drew closer to the mayor’s room, she heard the sounds of a television coming from somewhere nearby.

  She hung a bag on the mayor’s door, but before she could move along, the door opened.

  Melody stood in the threshold in a pair of flannel pajamas large enough that they were clearly the mayor’s and not her own.

  “I’m so sorry to have disturbed you,” Dru said softly.

  “You didn’t disturb me,” Melody said. “Who could sleep with all that racket next door.”

  She wasn’t wrong The TV really was louder than it needed to be. It seemed to be emanating from Tyler Park’s room.

  “I’ll just ask him to keep it down,” Dru said.

  “Thanks,” Melody said with a tired smile, grabbing the towels and closing the door.

  Dru hated being a rule enforcer, but it was the middle of the night. Tyler should understand that sound would carry in the old building.

  She knocked lightly on the door and waited.

  There was no answer.

  She knocked louder, trying to be heard over the TV, without waking up the whole hallway by banging.

  Still nothing.

  Something about the voices on the TV show sounded familiar, but she couldn’t place it.

  Why wasn’t he responding?

  With everything that had been going on, it didn’t take her mind long to start moving in a dark direction. He could be hurt in there, or worse.

  After another round of knocking with no results, Dru got out her skeleton key.

  “I’m coming in, Mr. Park,” she called out as she opened the door.

  The lights were on, but the room was empty.

  She quickly scanned the room, preparing herself for another body.

  But she found something else entirely. Against the back wall, beside a gigantic bookshelf, was a huge opening, lined with stones.

  Another passage into the catacombs.

  Dru stepped back, shocked.

  “…so thanks for joining us for another great episode of Ghost Getters,” a familiar voice on the TV said.

  She glanced over, taking a minute to realize what she was seeing.

  Tyler had been playing an episode of the old show.

  Feeling more than a little creeped out, she headed over to turn the TV down. But when she arrived at the dresser, something else caught her eye.

  Tyler’s messenger bag was open on the floor.

  And a copy of The Haunting of Hemlock House was poking out.

  Dru staggered backward as the pieces came together.

  Tyler Park was part of her chat group.

  ActionPark. Tyler Park. It was right there. How had she missed that?

  Dru had always assumed the user name was a reference to that death trap water park in New Jersey.

  Tyler was here for the treasure, not for snowboarding.

  And he had been following her.

  He had probably been the one that had used the tunnels to get into her room.

  Dru fished around in her pocket until she come up with the drink receipt she’d found in the corridor behind the secret door in her room - A slice of lemon cake and an iced soy peppermint mocha. It hit her that it sounded an awful lot like Hailey’s order. But that didn’t make sense. Why would Hailey be sneaking into her room?

  Dru noticed an indentation on the paper she hadn’t seen before, and turned it over. As soon as she did, it all made perfect sense. There, on the back, was a phone number she recognized, right below where Hailey had scrawled her name in big, loopy letters. She must have used the receipt to give Tyler her number.

  So Tyler had been the one in the passage.

  Dru had a fleeting memory of running into him when she was headed for the catacombs with Viktor the other day.

  Tyler had been coming from the opposite direction. He hadn’t wanted to make eye contact. She assumed he was just trying to avoid Hailey.

  But there had been a tear on the shoulder of his otherwise pristine coat - right in the same place Dru had caught her own jacket when she discovered the tunnel in the catacombs that led back to her room.

  She turned to the door, determined to run, but froze in her tracks instead.

  The noise of the television must have drowned out the sound of Tyler returning.

  He stood in the doorway that led out to the hall, blocking her path of escape.

  Dru stepped back, half stumbling on his messenger bag, her back to the TV, her voice caught in her throat.

  Tyler stepped inside, closing the door behind him.

  11

  Dru stood paralyzed, her heart pounding.

  Tyler stared her down, his eyes burning with intensity.

  Viktor was downstairs, just out of earshot.

  Her only defense was a good offense. She doubted she could take Tyler in a fight, but she could at least let him know how she felt about him.

  “You’re ActionPark,” she said accusingly, pleased that her voice rang out with righteous anger instead of fear.

  He only kept glaring at her.

  “You snuck into my room while I was asleep,” she went on, furious now that she was actually confronting him. “You stole my grandmother’s journal.”

  To her surprise, his shoulders dropped and he sighed, breaking eye contact.

  “Listen, Dru,” he said without much conviction. “The info about the passage into your room was in the history book, it’s not some big secret.”

  “So you think that makes it okay to come into my room without my permission and steal something from me?” she snapped.

  “We should work together,” he told her. “You have the journal again, and I have The Haunting of Hemlock House. Together, we can find the treasure.”

  “You came here, knowing who I was, and you didn’t bother to tell me who you really were,” Dru said. “You’re a total creep, and there’s no way I would ever work with you.”

  “Look, I’ve been digging into this for over a year,” Tyler said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. “There’s more to it than you know. There’s a quiet listing on this little commercial real estate site. I think they’re selling this place to a developer. He’s going to knock it down to put a ski lodge up here. I just couldn’t stand by and watch it happen, knowing the treasure is hidden somewhere in this building.”

  So this must be why all these people were here. The pieces began to click together in Dru’s head.

  If Tyler was here because he heard the place was being torn down soon, then the mob guys were here for the same reason. If the place got bulldozed, they would never have another chance to find the treasure. Brian must have known it was a risk coming back to his old haunts, but he also knew he was running out of time.

  “What would you even have done with it?” Dru asked him. “You don’t look like you’re hurting for anything.”

  The room was peppered with high end electronics and name brand clothing.

  “Well, it started out because I was interested in the ghosts,” Tyler explained. “But the more I researched, the more I realized the ghost stories were made up.”

  Dru resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Of course the stories were made up. They were about ghosts.

  But I’m in love with a vampire.

  Dru shook her head to clear the crazy thought.

  She wasn’t really in love with Viktor, was she?

  And why was that the most unbelievable part of it?

  “I think the mob started those ghost stories,” Tyler was saying, unaware of Dru’s mental gymnastics. “They wanted to keep people away from the hotel while they searched for the lost jewels.”

  “Seems like it backfired on them,” Dru pointed out.

  “Yeah,” Tyler agreed. “The ghost stories definitely made this place more popular. According to The Haunting of Hemlock House, the place was so popular for a while that the mob had to stop using it. Too many people were here searching the place with a fine-tooth comb for ghosts and lost treasure. It wasn’t a great place to stash drugs or cash anymore.”

  “I guess the Ghost Getters episode was the nail in their coffin,” Dru said.

  “Well, by then the mob was long gone,” Tyler said. “But yeah, it would have been.”

  Dru nodded.

  “Dru, I know I don’t have any right to ask you this, but what really happened this morning? Were those guys really in the mob?”

  This morning.

  Had it really only been this morning that she’d been held at gunpoint?

  It felt like Viktor had feasted on her blood and showed her his true self a hundred years ago.

  “I’m sorry,” Tyler said. “I’m sure you don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Yes, they’re mob guys,” Dru told him. “The victim was in witness protection. The murderer was here to look for treasure, but he recognized the victim and killed him for turning on the mob. It’s pretty cut and dried.”

  “Then why was one of them going to kill you?” Tyler asked.

  “I figured out that the killer was Johnny Sullivan,” she said. “But he caught me before I could tell anyone. He held me at gunpoint, but I’m fine now.”

  “But he’s still out there,” Tyler said, with a frightened look.

  “Yeah, and he’s probably still looking for the treasure,” Dru pointed out. “So I don’t think we should be looking for it.”

  Tyler nodded sadly.

  “How did you know I was in your room?” he asked.

  “The tear on your jacket the other day,” she said. “And I think you dropped Hailey’s phone number. But I didn’t put it all together until I saw The Haunting of Hemlock House in your bag. And heard the Ghost Getters on your TV. What were you thinking?”

  Tyler’s face fell.

  “I know it seems dumb, but that chat room is basically my life. It’s gotten me through some pretty dark times. The people in there know me better than my own family.”

  “You must not be very close with your family,” Dru said.

  “It’s true, I’m not,” he agreed miserably. “I’m so sorry for not being honest with you, and for taking your journal. Please don’t tell the people in the group what a jerk I am. And I hope you can forgive me for being such a weirdo, but I understand if you can’t.”

  Dru opened her mouth and closed it again.

  He seemed genuinely sorry. And she wasn’t really in the mood to be adding anymore enemies to her list. A week ago, she didn’t even have a list.

  “Give me the book and I’ll call it even,” Dru said, indicating The Haunting of Hemlock House.

  He had the audacity to look torn.

  “Let me make a copy for you,” he hedged. “The original is priceless.”

  “So was my peace of mind,” Dru told him flatly. “Besides, you got to read my grandmother’s journal, so it’s only fair.”

  Tyler handed over the book, his head down in defeat.

  “Thanks,” Dru said.

  “Don’t mention it,” Tyler said to the floor.

  Dru rushed out of the room before he could change his mind, or wonder why she wanted the book after she had just told him it wasn’t safe to hunt for treasure with Johnny Sullivan on the loose.

  12

  Dru had nearly reached the staircase when she heard the raised voices.

  She paused on the landing to see the mayor and Officer Wagner facing off in the lobby.

  “You know who did this,” the mayor said “You have witnesses. You can’t hold the rest of us without cause.”

  “I’m not holding anyone,” Officer Wagner said. “The door is unlocked, go ahead and leave if you want.”

  Mayor Tuck’s eyes widened.

  “But,” Officer Wagner continued, “you should know that I’ve impounded the shuttle. So have fun walking down the mountain.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Mayor Tuck asked, her voice cold with fury.

  “I’m doing my sworn duty,” Wagner said. “I’m protecting the public.”

  “By trapping us on top of a mountain with a murderer?” Mayor Tuck asked.

  “Well, I didn’t say I was protecting you,” Officer Wagner said. “I don’t know which one of you is the murderer. But I do know that if I don’t let anyone go, I’m definitely not letting the murderer go.”

  “But you know who the murderer is,” the mayor repeated in an exasperated tone. “Do you really think I had anything to do with it?”

  “We have no evidence to back up your theory,” Officer Wagner said. “Just two shaken eye witnesses and a wet newspaper. For all I know this is a Murder on the Orient Express scenario.”

  Someone cleared their throat directly behind Dru’s ears and she was so startled she nearly fell down the steps.

  She turned to see Howie Pembroke standing right behind her.

  He wore satin pajamas under a ridiculous smoking jacket, like a mini Hugh Hefner in training.

  “I see there’s been a disagreement,” he said loudly, in a voice that sounded like a bad imitation of a black and white movie star. “Why don’t we discuss it like civilized people over a nightcap? Join me in the sitting room.”

  Dru glanced at Viktor, whose blue eyes twinkled with mirth.

  “No thank you,” Mayor Tuck said, turning on her heel and marching toward the stairs.

  Dru jogged down to the lobby to get out of her way.

  Behind the desk, Edgar Allan Crow screeched out a raspy greeting.

  “I don’t drink on duty,” Wagner said, looking embarrassed. “Sorry to disturb you, sir.”

  “Nonsense,” Howie said. He glanced up at the staircase and saw the mayor had disappeared. “Women, eh?”

  “I’ve got to get some sleep,” Wagner said, scowling, and headed up the stairs as well.

  Howie glanced over at the desk.

  Dru belatedly realized she shouldn’t have been so obviously watching while he got humiliated by the hotel’s most prominent guests.

  “Is that a pet?” Howie hissed at her, his eyes narrowed.

  Dru felt Viktor’s fury rising up in her own chest.

  “It’s an injured raven,” Dru said, quickly. “Not a pet.”

  “Get it out of here,” Howie snapped.

  She felt Viktor’s anger coil like a whip.

  “I’ve taken it in,” he said lightly.

  “We have a no pets policy,” Howie said.

  “It’s not a pet,” Viktor said. “It already lives here.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “It lived in the abandoned wing of this decrepit hotel,” Viktor said. “Until your half-dead hemlock dropped on it.”

 

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