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Previous chapters of the Vista Falls story:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
How should the story continue? Voting is open on the current chapter!
Last time, after their strange experience with Mr. Barrymore, the hotel manager, Vera and Jenny Littlepoole ran into Missy Merrick and politely asked her to join the group in the bistro despite the fact that they were eager to tell the others what they had learned about Riley being fired. Everyone chatted with Missy who explained that she did advertising work for the hotel chain. Meanwhile, Mr. Dinello noticed that Missy had red paint on her hands. Embarrassed, Missy explained that she had dropped a bottle of nail polish before she could paint her fingernails and must not have managed to get all of it off of her hands. She quickly excused herself, making the excuse that she had a late-night business call to make. After Missy left, Jenny and Vera explained that Riley had been fired from the hotel. Before they could do anything else about it, they heard a strange racket coming from the lobby. What did they do? Here’s what you decided.
Chapter 15
Painting Frame-Up
Suddenly, they heard shouting coming from the lobby!
“Oh no!” A man shouted. “This is horrible! Who would do such a thing?”
Vera stood up, about to go out into the lobby.
“Hold on,” Chief Colbert said firmly. “It might be dangerous.”
“Oh, let’s all go!” Vera argued. “Come on, before we miss whatever is happening. Come on, Chief Colbert!”
“Okay.” Chief Colbert nodded quickly. “Let’s all go.”
They hurried out of their chairs and raced into the lobby.
Chief Colbert gasped—holding his broken arm as he ran. “Look at that!”
They all paused beside a small group that had gathered around the display of antiques from the museum.
There, in front of the growing crowd, Mr. Barrymore was racing around frantically, clutching at his fluffy white hair and moaning. Behind him, the display of antiques had been upset.
The paintings had been turned upside down, the candelabrums were set on their sides, the little sofa was turned on its back. But, that wasn’t all!
On the wall behind the exhibit, in bright red paint, someone had written in huge, drippy letters, “Home is where the heart is. Now I have no heart!”
“This is a tragedy!” Mr. Barrymore screamed. “A nightmare! Someone call the police.”
“We are the police,” Chief Colbert said, stepping up the front of the crowd. “I’m Chief Colbert. This is Officer Jenny Littlepoole.”
The teens and Mr. Dinello quickly followed the officers.
“Can you tell me what’s happened here?” Chief Colbert asked.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Mr. Barrymore snapped. “Someone has vandalized this priceless display. It’s ruined!”
“Actually,” Mr. Dinello spoke up, “nothing appears to be damaged. Aside from the writing on the wall, no harm has been done. It seems to me that whoever did this, did it in such a way as to not hurt any of the items.”
“Who asked you?” Mr. Barrymore frowned. “Who are you?”
“It’s okay,” Mr. Dinello smiled. “I’m an art teacher.”
“So what?” Mr. Barrymore moaned.
“Mr. Dinello’s right.” Lucy studied the antiques. “Nothing appears to be damaged. They’re just turned around or set on their side. Whoever did this was careful not to break anything.”
“Well, they weren’t so careful not to paint on my wall!” Mr. Barrymore screamed.
“I wonder what it means,” Chief Colbert frowned. He read it aloud, “Home is where the heart is. Now, I have no heart.”
“I don’t know what it means and I don’t care. But, I want whoever did it to be arrested.” Mr. Barrymore growled.
“Do you have anyone in mind?” Officer Littlepoole asked.
“No.” Mr. Barrymore shook his head.
“Has the hotel made any enemies lately? Have you fired anyone?” Jenny asked, knowing that Riley had been fired.
“I know what you’re getting at.” Mr. Barrymore spat. “It wasn’t Riley. He’s not that smart. This is the work of that…” He paused.
“Who?” Chief Colbert asked.
“Tell them, sir!” A woman shouted from the crowd. “Tell them!” She was dressed in a maid’s uniform. “Tell them what we’ve all seen.”
“Nonsense, Mina!” Mr. Barrymore shook his head. “That’s enough out of you.”
“I’ll tell them myself, then.” Mina spoke up. “I know who did this. It was that Woman in Gray! That ghost! We’ve all seen her haunting the halls. She walks around here at night and moans about how we took away her home.”
“The Woman in Gray! We saw her, too!” Kate gasped.
“Hush!” Mr. Barrymore frowned.
“Is that what we’ve heard outside our room?” One of the guests in the crowd wondered aloud. “The hotel is haunted?”
“No. No.” Mr. Barrymore waved his hands in the air. “The hotel is not haunted. This is the work of a disgruntled former employee. Now that I think about it, it had to have been that Riley!” He turned to Chief Colbert. “I suggest you go find him.”
“Oh, we will.” Chief Colbert smiled.
“In fact,” Mr. Barrymore said quickly. “I thought I saw him running out of here just before I spotted this vandalism. He had paint on his hands!”
“I see.” Chief Colbert nodded, not believing the man.
Mr. Dinello looked at Ward and Kate. He knew they were all thinking the same thing; recalling the red paint on Miss Merrick’s hands.
“Now, now.” Mr. Barrymore said hurriedly, “Everyone, let’s go back to your rooms so that the police can do their work. I assure you that the hotel is not haunted and that you’re all perfectly safe here.”
The guests started to head back to their rooms—some of the grumbling about finding another place to stay.
“Mina!” Mr. Barrymore shouted to the maid, “Help me clean up this mess.”
“Hold on,” Officer Littlepoole shook her head. “Not yet. You’ll need to leave this just as it is. It’s a crime scene. We’ll need to check it for evidence.”
“I can’t just leave this eyesore in the middle of my lobby.” Mr. Barrymore groaned.
“Just for a little while.” Chief Colbert said gently.
“I can’t stand it!” Mr. Barrymore began tugging at his hair again.
“Why don’t we go back to your office and get you calmed down,” Chief Colbert said politely, “then you can tell me what you saw before and after you discovered the vandalism. Officer Littlepoole will stay out here and investigate.”
“It’s a nightmare.” Mr. Barrymore repeated, shaking his head. “A nightmare.”
Chief Colbert and Mr. Barrymore went back to the management office, leaving Jenny Littlepoole with Mr. Dinello and the teens.
“You’ll have to excuse me,” Jenny smiled, “I’ve got to look around here.”
“Can we help?” Vera asked.
“I’d love it if you could, but this time it’s official police business and this is a crime scene, so I’m afraid only I can do the investigating.” Jenny Littlepoole explained.
“But…” Vera began to argue, but then stopped herself, realizing that what Jenny said was true. “Okay.” She nodded.
“We’ll wait over here,” Ward said, waving his friends over toward a row of soft, plush chairs against the far wall of the lobby.
“Thanks,” Officer Littlepoole nodded.
Once they had settled into the chairs, Ward looked back and forth at his friends. “The paint on Missy Merrick’s hands was the same color as the paint on the wall.”
“Why would Missy want to paint on the wall?” Lucy shook her head. “It was obviously done by someone who’s trying to scare people out of the hotel by making it look like it’s haunted by the ghost of Theodosia Westwick.”
“But, who?” Vera squinted.
“What about Riley?” TJ asked.
“He did say some stuff that made it seem like he’s seen the ghost around here.” Kate nodded.
“So did Missy,” Mr. Dinello frowned.
“But, Riley could be angry since he got fired.” TJ continued.
“That’s true,” Mr. Dinello nodded. “But, he did mention ‘weird things’ before he knew he was getting fired.”
“It makes more sense than Missy having done it.” Delia sighed.
“Not really,” Ward thought for a moment, “After all, she did say she does advertising for the hotel. There may be something we don’t know.”
“She seems like such a nice person.” Delia shrugged.
“Sometimes the meanest people do.” TJ nodded.
“Well, I hate just sitting here.” Vera fidgeted.
“Chief Colbert and Officer Littlepoole will be finished soon and they’ll tell us what they found out.” Ward smiled.
“Or we could do some investigating on our own.” Vera grinned.
“Like what?” Rick’s eyes widened with interest.
“Like sneak to the desk and find out what room Missy is in.” Vera giggled. “We could pay her a little visit and see if she has any paint buckets hanging around.”
“I like it.” Rick nodded.
“I don’t.” Mr. Dinello shook his head.
“Maybe then we should go look for Riley.” Delia suggested. “I’ll bet we could find his name and address online. I saw a sign advertising for free internet access in the business center upstairs.”
“No.” Mr. Dinello shook his head.
“What do you suggest then? Should we just sit here?” Vera asked.
What should Mr. Dinello say?
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