Page 48 of Dead Serious Case 4 Professor Prometheus Plume

He laughs and takes my hand. “Yes, I’ll tell you, Dr Everett. Now come on. I want to try this beef roast the receptionist waxed poetic about.”

It takes longer than expected to navigate the maze of corridors to the wide staircase and then following that downwards. By the time we reach the reception area, it is predictably empty. There’s no one in the bar either. Not entirely sure where the dining room is located, we resort to just opening doors at random. We find a library, a study, a lounge, something that looks like a ballroom, but still no dining room.

I’m beginning to think we might starve to death when Danny opens another door and stops sharply. I peek around him to find a dark, wood-panelled billiards room, something I’ve only ever seen in period dramas on TV, but what has Danny’s attention is not the antique wainscoting around the room, nor the huge, green, felt-covered table in the middle of it, but rather the couple sprawled across said table in a passionate embrace and knocking the balls in all directions.

They break apart and look over to us. The woman appears to be in her early thirties and is dressed in dark red, wide-legged trousers and a cream-coloured silk blouse. A single strand of pearls is laced around her neck, which is exposed by her black hair cut in a sharply angled bob, and her crimson lipstick is smeared messily across her mouth.

Her partner seems to be wearing the rest of her lipstick. He looks to be a traditionally attractive man in his forties and wears a navy-blue coloured suit. His dark hair is combed into a neat side parting and he has a thin moustache.

“Excuse us,” Danny says. “We were just looking for the dining room.”

“Back to the lobby,” the man says. “Corridor to the left, double doors at the end.”

“Thank you.” Danny nods.

We close the door behind us and turning to each other, laugh quietly.

“Oops,” I mouth in case they can hear us.

We set off again and this time we actually manage to find the dining room. We let ourselves in to a room easily as large as the ballroom. It may be called the dining room, but it’s the size of a restaurant.

Looking around, we notice several other people at various tables scattered through the space. Not seeing anyone to seat us, we wander through and pick a table ourselves.

“So they do have other guests, then,” Danny says a little too loudly for the softly lit ambience of the room. Unable to help myself, I chuckle. “I’m shouting again, aren’t I?”

“Little bit.” I hold up my thumb and forefinger.

He sighs. “This is not how I imagined tonight going.”

“Why? What did you imagine?”

Danny opens his mouth to speak and is suddenly cut off by a chirpy, familiar voice.

“Good evening, I’m Ellis. I’ll be your server for this evening.”

I looked up at the receptionist from earlier. “Let me guess, still short-staffed?” He grins and hands us a menu each. “Why is that anyway?”

Ellis shrugs. “I don’t know really. I’ve heard people say it’s because weird things keep happening here. But I’ve worked here since I was sixteen and I love it. I would never want to work anywhere else.”

“Um, Ellis, this is probably going to sound crazy but... you wouldn’t happen to know if this place is...” I hesitate, glancing at Danny for a moment. “Haunted?”

Ellis giggles and waves a hand dismissively. “Oh my gosh, you’re so silly!”

I relax.

“Of course it’s haunted,” he declares, and my stomach starts to sink.

12

“Iknew this was too good to be true,” I mutter under my breath.

“What was that?” Ellis replies.

“When you say haunted, you mean what, exactly?” I ask for clarification, really hoping they’re just kind of building it up for the tourists and that the place isn’t actually crawling with spirits.

“Well.” Ellis leans in as if imparting a secret. “There have been cold spots and flickering lights.”

My eyes narrow suspiciously. “Have you been watchingSupernatural?”