"I guess your mystery is solved, Ravon," she said, but that, too, was the wrong thing to say.
✧˖°.✧˖˚▹ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ༺༄ؘ 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 8 ༄ؘ༻ₓ˚ .୧ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୭˚▹ₓ˚.✧˖°.✧
"While you were gushing about with that weird girl," Shaniya said to me as she started the car, "I managed to solve the mystery. I have many reasons to believe that the Bloodcurdling Beast is in that lighthouse."
I wanted to say, "Did you really have to call me your husband?" but I just decided to say something else, since it was the wrong question.
"It is."
"Then I'm glad that we're in agreement," Shaniya said. "I had quite a talk with that Wahalian man. He told me that he used to work in the newspaper business but lately has run out of luck. 𝘈𝘩𝘢!"
My chaperone looked at me as if I should say 𝘢𝘩𝘢! back, but just then I remembered that she told me not to say anything, so I didn't.
We drove past the mansion toward the center of town. Riley was right, it 𝘸𝘢𝘴 an empty place. Murthorn Mystery looked like it had been a regular town once, with shops full of items, restaurants full of food, and citizens looking for one another. It looked like it had been full of very vibrant and jubilant colors but now it was just grey. A faded, washed-out grey. The worst type of grey. Many of the buildings had windows that were either broken or boarded up and the sidewalks were very uncared for with great cracks in the concrete and roots from old, maybe even dead trees popping up from the ground here and there. There were empty bottles and cans rolling around, bored in the wind. Whole blocks were completely empty, with no cars except our own and not a single pedestrian on the street. I didn't like it. It looked like one couldn't pursue any dreams of theirs in this town. The Forest of Seaweed almost looked friendlier.
"No job, no wife... a man like that can get very desperate," Shaniya was saying. "So desperate that they steal a valuable item from a very kind lady. When I asked him if there was anything valuable in his house, he sighed and started talking something about his only daughter. I feel like he has hidden it somewhere."
"It's upstairs," I replied, "on a table covered with a sheet."
"What?" Shaniya almost screamed. She stopped at a red light for the reason of not wanting to get fined for running a red light, even though there were no cars on the road. "How did you find it?"
"His daughter showed it to me," I answered. "She's a great typewriter," I added.
"Don't be falling in love, now," Shaniya said, though I wasn't falling in love. "How did you get her to show it to you?"
"I asked her," I said.
"She must be onto us then," Shaniya decided. "We'd better act quickly if we want to steal it back."
"How do you know that it was stolen?" I asked.
"Be logical, Corlorown. Ms. Trey told us that it was stolen right off her mantel."
"The daughter of Mr. Wahalian said that the statue belonged to her family. The beast was the mascot of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘔𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘺. We need to investigate further."
"No, we don't," Shaniya said firmly. "We're not going to call a sensible old woman a liar and believe the word of some little girl. Particularly one with a silly name."
"Speaking of names," I said, "that reminds me. What's the 𝘒 stand for?"
"Knowledge at its best," Shaniya muttered in sarcasticness while rolling her eyes. She pulled the car to a stop in front of a building, probably an apartment, with a saggy roof and a porch crowded with dying plants. A light-up sign, which must've been marvelous to look at some years ago, now read "𝑴𝒆𝒓 𝑰𝒏."
"This is where we'll be staying, Corlorown," Shaniya said, "Bring the suitcases."
As she went up the stairs to the apartment, I got out of the car and stared at the helpless street. Down the block, I could see a lone restaurant called 𝘏𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘳𝘺'𝘴 that surprisingly looked well-lit. There was no one on the street and the only other car I could see now was a dented yellow taxi parked in front of the restaurant. Something in me felt empty, but the more I stood there, the less I felt that it was my stomach, so I decided to take the suitcases and go up the stairs.
It was troubling and burdensome to carry the luggages up the stairs, but when I finally reached the top of the them, I put them down for a minute to catch my breath in the lobby.
The room had a complicated scent, as if many people were in it. However, there were very few things in the lobby. There was a small couch that was paired with an even smaller table and it was hard to say from the angle which one was more bacteria-infected. It was probably a draw. On the table, there was a tiny bowl of almonds that were either salted or dusty and there was a small booth in the corner in which a tall man was talking on the phone. I looked at him wistfully, hoping that he would give me a chance to use the phone but he was either rude or blind because he didn't hang up. I noticed Shaniya talking to a thin man who was rubbing his hands together next to a statue that was supposed to be an armless, naked woman. Or maybe just a naked woman, but her arms got destroyed somehow.
"You probably have it worse than I do," I sympathetically told her.
"Stop losing focus, Corlorown," Shaniya called to me. I trudged our suitcases to the desk while watching the thin man hand two keys to Shaniya, who handed me one.
"Welcome to Emerald Inn," the man said in a voice that was even thinner than he was. "I'm the owner and operator of this establishment, Serge Law. But you can just call me The Law. Call me anytime you have a problem."
"Thank you," I replied, thinking that I'd rather just walk to the desk.
"As requested by Mrs. Gardner, I've arranged for you both the least expensive room, the Far East Suite, located on the second floor. Plus, I regret to inform you two that the elevator is not working, so you'll have to take the stairs. Any questions?"
"My chaperone isn't actually married," I informed The Law as Shaniya shot me a look that would kill me if looks could.
The Law looked at Shaniya awkwardly. "What do you mean?"
"Why does it matter?"
"You called her Mrs. Gardner, and you're only supposed to refer to 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 women as 'Mrs,'" I replied, answering The Law's question instead of Shaniya's.
The Law looked at the spot where my chaperone should've been. "Err... I think your eh... 'chaperone' is leaving you behind," he told me while he turned around to find her going up the stairs.
I quickly followed my chaperone up the troublesome stairs and we both went down a narrow hallway and stopped at a room marked 𝑭𝑨𝑹 𝑬𝑨𝑺𝑻 𝑺𝑼𝑰𝑻𝑬. Shaniya got the key into a fight with the keyhole, but after a few minutes the door opened and we stepped into our new home.