Benedict Waffle (The Diner of the Dead Series Book 12) Page 2

  “Valet service is included with your stay.”

  “Well, then,” she shrugged. “Why not?”

  Gently, the man opened the door for her, while one of the bell boys ran forward and opened the door for Alison.

  “Thank you,” the women said in unison, stepping down.

  The valet then took Sonja’s place in the driver seat and shut the door. He looked at her through the open window expectantly.

  “Go on,” Ally whispered. “Tip him.”

  “Oh,” Sonja squeaked, feeling completely out of her element. Pulling out a dollar from her purse, she handed it to him.

  “Thank you, Madame.” His nose twisted slightly in disgust as he drove the vehicle off around the building.

  “A dollar? That’s it?” Ally judged.

  Sighing, Sonja put an arm around her friend. “Hey, I’m new to all this fancy stuff, okay? Cut me some slack.”

  “I’m just teasing you.”

  “Let’s get inside,” Sonja requested, taking a look at the sky above them that had turned suddenly gray in the last few minutes, “It looks like it might rain.”

  “Great idea. I can’t wait to see our suite.”

  Heading up the steps, Sonja cranked her neck back to take in the enormity of the hotel before them. She felt a slight chill when she spotted a strange looking, pale-faced man on the fourth floor who was watching them intently.

  A shiver ran down Sonja’s spine, and she darted inside.

  CHAPTER 3

  * * *

  The lobby was every bit as extravagant and beautiful as the outside of the hotel. A grand staircase, completely fashioned out of mahogany, twisted up to the floors above, large bay windows looking out over the expanse on each landing. An old elevator with a bronze sliding gate sat next to stairs.

  The floors were crafted out of dark marble and all the walls were adorned with historic news clippings and pictures of the hotel through the years. One image hanging next to the elevator, which looked like it was taken during the late sixties or early seventies, had two young boys with dark hair—almost identical—standing in front of the hotel and smiling. The plaque said, Amos and Harold Brakston.

  Sonja guessed they were twin brothers, probably one of the previous hotel owner’s sons.

  “The Brakston family has owned the hotel for the past hundred years or so,” Ally informed her friend.

  “You mean these two boys?”

  She smiled. “I did my research before we came. Amos died just a year or two ago and guests believe they’ve already seen him wandering the halls.”

  Sonja visibly shivered. “Spooky. What about the other brother.”

  “Supposedly he just vanished into thin air after his brother’s death. Double spooky, right?”

  “Can I help you ladies?” the gentleman behind the front desk called to them. A large semi-circle made up the front desk with a hallway on one side leading to the bar and another hallway between the desk and staircase leading to the restaurant.

  “Hi,” Ally nodded, stepping forward and leaning on the counter. “I believe I have a reservation under the name Alison Sorenson.”

  “Ah, yes,” the man’s face lit up as he heard the name. “You are the contest winner.”

  “That’s right,” Alison exclaimed excitedly, a twinkle in her eye. She was eating up this whole experience, hand-and-foot. It made Sonja happy to see.

  “If you don’t mind waiting right here, the owner would like to welcome you personally.”

  “Oh,” Ally raised both eyebrows at Sonja. “The owner wants to see us.”

  “I heard,” she nodded back at her friend.

  “I’ll be right back,” the man offered, stepping through a doorway behind himself.

  A glass window behind the desk looked into the main office of the hotel, but the blinds had been shuttered for privacy.

  A few seconds later, the man emerged again, followed by a well-dressed woman in a gray two-piece suit with a matching skirt. “Ladies, this is Mrs. Connelly Brakston, the hotel’s owner.”

  “Hello,” the two friends said in unison.

  “Hello, ladies,” she nodded. “May I just say on behalf of everyone, we thrilled to have you here.”

  “Well, we’re thrilled to be here, Mrs. Brakston,” Alison said, bouncing back on her feet.

  “No need for formality,” the woman corrected, waving a finger at them. “You can call me Conney.”

  “Nice to meet you, Conney,” Sonja offered, holding out a hand.

  “This is a real pleasure,” Conney admitted, taking the offering and shaking. “It’s not every day we have the two women behind the famous Waffle Diner and Eatery come stay with us.”

  At this comment, Sonja’s jaw dropped. “You know about our diner?”

  “Why, yes. It’s being touted all over this area as the finest diner in the Rocky Mountains.”

  Sonja instantly felt herself turning red from embarrassment and joy all at the same time.

  “I’ve yet to make it down and try your food myself, but I definitely plan on doing so sometime in the near future.”

  “We’d love to have you,” Ally added.

  “And if your food really is as good as everyone says it is, I’d love to have you two come up again as a guest chef for an evening. It would bring in quite the crowd and also be great publicity for you two.”

  “We’d love that,” Sonja almost shrieked. Clearing her throat, she nodded an apology for her outburst. If there was one thing that made her happier than anything else, it was knowing people enjoyed her food enough to tell their friends about it.

  “Great, I’m glad to hear it.” Stepping around the desk, Conney came to stand next to the two women.

  “Brakston,” Sonja mused. “Ally was filling me in on a little history a minute ago. I assume you’re related to the boys in that picture over there?”

  She nodded. “I’m not blood-related, but I did marry into the family. Amos—god rest his soul—was my husband.”

  “Which makes Harold your brother-in-law,” Ally interjected.

  Conney nodded painfully.

  “Did you inherit the hotel from your husband?”

  “That’s right. It honestly should have gone to Harold for sole ownership, to help carry on the family legacy and all, but he’s been missing for quite some time now.” She smiled, a hint of unease in her face as she talked. “In his absence, the hotel and all its assets came to me instead.”

  “That’s quite an inheritance,” Sonja noted.

  “On another note,” she changed the subject, and putting on a more natural smile again, “I have a special offer for both of you.”

  “What is it?” Alison asked eagerly.

  “Do you know about our nightly Haunted Lantern Tours?”

  “Yes,” Ally interjected. “That’s when you take guests around the hotel and tell them the history about all the haunted spots.”

  “Exactly,” she pointed eagerly. “Usually our tours are booked six months or more in advance, but it just so happens that we have two openings on tonight’s tour. I was wondering if you two lovely ladies would be interested in joining our group for this evening.”

  Sonja instantly felt her mouth go dry from fear. If there was one place where she stood the most chance of encountering a ghost and having it potentially ruin their vacation, it was on that tour. She wasn’t sure she wanted to go.

  On the other hand, maybe it would make the experience better for her best friend. After all, part of the fun of the tour was actually hoping they could see or feel something supernatural happening. It wasn’t Alison’s fault that ghostly encounters had become old hat for Sonja.

  Maybe, if she just had a better attitude, it could turn out to be fun.

  “We’d love it,” Alison answered for the both of them before Sonja had a chance to finish processing her feelings.

  “Lovely,” Conney clasped her hands contentedly. “Then I’ll tell our guide, Rebecca, to expect you.”

  As she
said the name Rebecca, Conney’s nose scrunched up temporarily as if she’d just smelled something bad. Sonja couldn’t help but wonder, between the twin brothers and all the staff, what kind of drama went on behind the scenes.

  “The tour begins at ten p.m. sharp. So, make sure you show up to the tour office,” she pointed to a room off to the side, “at least fifteen minutes early.”

  “We’ll be there,” Ally agreed.

  Sonja was surprised to be looking forward to this.

  CHAPTER 4

  * * *

  Connelly Brakston went as far as to show the women to their suite on the fifth floor of the building. To get there, they took the elevator all the way up to the fourth-floor. Then, the women walked up a private staircase to a singular door at the top.

  “All of our fifth-floor suites are in one of our four turrets, and each has its own private staircase. This means no one will be walking by your door during the night or bothering you.” Reaching the top, Mrs. Brakston opened the door using a brass key and guided the women in. “Unless of course, one of our resident ghosts decides to pay you a visit. Then I can’t make any guarantees,” she smiled.

  “Awesome,” Alison gasped, stepping into the massive suite.

  “You have the sitting room here, with a gas fireplace,” Conney indicated the small entry room with plush chairs. “In this next part of the suite is your beds,” she noted, walking through the sitting area and into another larger room where the two twin beds were. “There is, of course, another gas fireplace in here as well.”

  “It has multiple rooms?” Ally gasped. “It’s more like an apartment than a hotel.”

  “Finally,” Conney announced, leading the two women into the massive bathroom, “you have the jacuzzi tub right here, and through that glass door is the personal sauna.”

  At the sight of the bathroom, Ally looked like she just might faint from excitement.

  “And there you have it,” the hotel owner nodded with a smile. “I’ll leave you two to get settled.” With that, she walked out and shut the door behind her.

  “Can you believe this? “Alison gasped, throwing herself onto one of the beds. “It’s like heaven.”

  “It’s very impressive, I have to agree,” Sonja smirked, taking a closer look at the jacuzzi tub and imagining how good it would feel to soak in it. Maybe this trip would turn out to be a good one after all.

  “How much longer until we have to be at the tour office?”

  Sonja pulled out her cell phone and checked the time. “Well, it’s currently only five thirty, so quite a while.”

  “Enough time for me to try out the jacuzzi, then,” she exclaimed like a little girl.

  “And maybe we should try and grab some dinner at that Cliffside Restaurant, beforehand as well.”

  “Sounds perfect,” Ally agreed, hopping up from the bed, grabbing her bag and heading into the bathroom to turn on the sauna.

  “Maybe I’ll see if they have that channel with all the old movies on it while you do that,” Sonja offered, heading toward the sitting room. She knew she’d get her chance to enjoy the bathroom in good time. After all, they were here for five days.

  “Sounds good,” Ally shouted, pushing the button to warm up the jacuzzi jets. Poking her head out of the bathroom door, she beamed at her best friend. “Aren’t you so glad we came?”

  Sonja let out a quiet chuckle. “Yes I am,” she admitted.

  * * *

  Sitting in one of the plush red chairs, Sonja flipped mindlessly through the channels. She couldn’t remember the exact name of the cable network she liked so much, so instead she planned to just surf through until she found something with a black and white movie.

  She kept the volume low so as to not disturb her friend while she relaxed.

  Before she found what she was looking for, a strange noise from outside the door drew her attention.

  Muting the channel, she perked up her hearing to see if she could make it out. That’s when she knew it was two voices arguing somewhere nearby.

  Considering for a moment that it may be the ghosts of an old couple somewhere having a never-ending argument, she stood up and headed toward the door. Stopping with her ear against the door, it seemed that the voices were right there in the stairwell.

  Unable to stop her curiosity, Sonja cracked open the door and peered down the steps. What she saw then was most certainly not a ghost. A young woman with chestnut colored hair pulled back into a ponytail, and wearing a hotel uniform, stood directly at the bottom of the steps.

  Someone else was there as well, but just outside of her line of sight.

  “I’m telling you, I’m not interested in you at all,” she insisted.

  It seemed that the girl had been cornered in the narrow stairwell by an unwanted admirer. “Of course you are,” A low voice, almost inaudible, argued. “You will always be mine.”

  “No, I don’t love you. Leave me alone,” she snapped, pushing her way out of the stairwell and stomped audibly down the hallway.

  “Wonder what that was about,” Sonja whispered to herself, closing the door.

  She was prepared to take her place back in front of the television and continue her search for a classic movie channel when a shout from the bathroom drew her attention.

  “Sonja, come quick,” Alison called.

  Scrambling from the chair, she dashed for the bathroom. Coming to the door, she knocked hard. “Ally?”

  “Sonja, you have to see this.” Her friend opened the door to the bathroom, allowing the steam to escape.

  Waving the mist away from her face, Sonja stepped in. Ally stood there wearing one of the hotel’s robes, and pointing at the mirror. “Check this out.”

  Glancing up at the mirror, she noticed two words scrawled in the foggy glass. Save Her.

  Alison giggled happily. “Isn’t this awesome?”

  “How?” Sonja gasped, taking a breath for the first time since she’d heard her friend’s shouts.

  “This must be part of their whole ghost package experience,” she clapped her hands.

  “G-ghost package?” she asked, looking over the words again.

  “They probably had one of the maids or someone come in and write this here earlier so that it would show up when we steamed up the bathroom.”

  “Probably,” Sonja lied. She sincerely hoped that was the case, but highly doubted. Her thoughts wandered back to the young woman at the bottom of the stairs. Was a ghost trying to warn Sonja about another potential murder in the works? Or were the spirits just toying with her?

  She hoped this was just a hotel prank and not a true ominous warning.

  CHAPTER 5

  * * *

  Sonja tried to push the experience from her mind, wanting to rationalize it away, just as Ally did, as nothing more than a part of the hotel’s ghost package. After all, they provided participating rooms with low-end EMF readers and tape recorders for the aspiring amateur ghost hunter. So, why not add little touches here and there like the message in the mirror?

  It only made sense.

  It was likely that one of the staff was in charge of writing something different in each hotel room’s mirror.

  Shrugging the whole thing off, Sonja got dressed for dinner—since it seemed only proper to dress up for dinner at such a fancy hotel.

  The two women prepared themselves and headed down to the restaurant on the main floor. The dining room was an amazing sight, sitting in an enclosed balcony which hung over the cliffside, granting a magnificent view.

  They ordered a plate of baked oysters in a spicy cream sauce as an appetizer and savored each delicate bite. Alison ordered a glass of white wine, while Sonja ordered a local brew beer. The main course was a seafood pasta dish with shrimp in a sweet and savory sauce that had a hint of citrus to it.

  Finally, they shared a decadent chocolate torte with a raspberry sauce drizzled on top and a scoop of locally crafted vanilla bean ice cream on the side.

  Sonja had to admit, eating a me
al that she didn’t have to cook only made it taste better.

  Once they’d finished their meal, the two headed back upstairs to change out of the dinner wear and into something more comfortable for the upcoming lantern tour.

  At about nine-forty, after watching a few minutes of a documentary about hauntings on TV, they headed back down and walked into the tour office.

  “Hello,” greeted a familiar woman from the desk. “Are you here for tonight’s Haunted Lantern Tour?”

  Sonja took the woman in and realized it was the same girl she’d seen earlier in the stairwell, the one she’d seen arguing. She seemed even more beautiful up close.

  “Yes, Alison and Sonja?” Ally asked.

  Looking over the roster, the woman’s smile lit up. “Oh, yes. Mrs. Brakston’s special guests.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Glad to have you along. My name is Rebecca and I’ll be your tour guide tonight. If you just want to take a seat in the waiting area with the other guests, we’ll be getting started in just a few minutes.”

  “Great,” Ally beamed, walking over and taking one of the chairs. Sonja followed suit, keeping her eye trained on Rebecca the entire time.

  * * *

  At ten o’clock on the dot, the tour guide stood up in front of the room and raised her hands for everyone to quiet down. Almost every chair in the room was filled.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for coming out tonight for our Haunted Lantern Tour. My name is Rebecca and I’ll be your tour guide for this evening’s events. Now, before we get started, let me go over some safety precautions with you. First and foremost, since this is a haunted tour, you are apt to see some spooky or even frightening things. If you have a weak heart or other health condition, we recommend you say so now.”

  She waited for a second for any response, but no one said anything.

  “Very good. Now, even though you will be seeing some scary things on this tour—and definitely hearing some strange stories about the hotel—you are completely safe. However, if at any point you start to feel woozy or unwell, please let me know immediately and I will help you get the attention you need. Don’t wait to tell me until I’m done talking, just jump in and let me know you’re ready to be done with the evening. I don’t want anyone passing out on my watch. Does everyone understand?”