Chapter 36: The Mystery Begins...

We piled out of the Misery Machine after parking the blue-green Chevelle outside of the large, 200-year-old bed & breakfast house known as Snuggle Bottom. After taking in some breaths of cool evening air, we went inside.

The house was lavishly decorated with warm red textured wallpaper and hardwood floors. “Can I help you?” asked a bored-looking platinum blonde in her mid-twenties behind the front desk.

I strode forward. “Hello...” I eyed her name tag, “ ... Molly! We’d like to speak to Mr. Winthrop, please. It’s about the ghost.”

The girl hissed, glancing over at an older couple sitting on a couch in the corner. “Quiet! Don’t let any of the other customers hear you.”

I looked at her. “But it was in the paper.”

She rolled her eyes. “Nobody reads the newspaper anymore.”

“Fair enough.”

Soon we were ushered into Mr. Winthrop’s plush office. The older man was handsome, what some would call a silver fox, and he looked worried but hopeful. “A mystery-solving gang? What luck!” he said, rubbing his hands together. “Please, will you help me solve this ghost problem, before I lose my business?”

“Like, that’s what we’re here for, man!” Monday spoke up.

“Hyep!” Doobie Roo added.

Mr. Winthrop goggled. “Did that dog just talk?!”

“You have a ghost, and a talking dog is freaking you out?” I asked him, and then turned to the group. “Okay, gang, split up and search the place! Demie and I will take the upper floor.”

Kate strode through the swinging kitchen door, followed by Monday and Doobie Roo. Dinner was over, so the long room was empty. Suddenly, there was a thunk from over in the corner.

“Boinks!” Monday cried out, jumping into Doobie’s arms. Of course, since Doobie Roo was a dog, he couldn’t hold Monday up and both of them fell to the cold tiled floor.

“‘hanks, Monday!” Doobie growled as he got to his feet.

Kate rolled her eyes and headed over to that corner, where she found a large freezer door. “The noise must’ve come from inside,” she said, and pulled it open, but she couldn’t see far into the mist-shrouded interior. “Hello?”

“Hellooo? Hellooo?” echoed back.

“Hmm ... come on, Monday,” she called back to him and stepped inside. Monday and Doobie looked at each other for a moment, and then Monday followed her.

CLONK! The fridge door suddenly closed behind him. Monday rushed to the door and pounded on it. “Doobie Roo! Let us out!”

“Dinkies! Are we locked in?” Kate asked from the depths of the freezer.

They searched for an interior handle, but there was none. This place was definitely not up to code, Monday realized! “Yep,” he said despondently, pounding the door again. “Doobie Roo! Where the fuck are you?”

“I’ll take this room, you take that one,” I suggested to Demie in the upstairs hall before I opened and stepped through the closest door. Immediately the ambient temperature dropped. “Brr...”

There was a woman sitting in the darkened bedroom. “Oh! I’m sorry...” I began, but the door pulled out of my hand and slammed shut behind me. I turned to yank at it, but then realized that the woman had risen and moved closer. When I turned back, she was right in my face.

She was beautiful, perhaps 18 or 19 years old, with brilliant green eyes and dark auburn ringlets running down to her shoulders, and she seemed to be wearing an old-timey burgundy velvet dress. The cold radiated from her, and I recoiled.

“You are warm,” she whispered hungrily, reaching for me. I grabbed at the door handle, but it was locked.

“So cooold...” Monday moaned, rubbing his hands together. They had tried his cell phone, but there was no reception, whether due to the walls of the freezer, or because the B&B was in a cellular dead zone. It also seemed that no one outside could hear them pounding on the door.

Kate had searched the rest of the freezer, but the door was the only way out. “Monday, we’re going to have to huddle together for warmth.” Her legs were so cold ... the sweater was fine, but why had she chosen to wear a skirt with it? she wondered. And then she shook her head ... this was what she always wore, of course. “Come on.” She directed him to sit on a box of steaks, and then sat in his lap, facing away from him. “Wrap your arms around me.”