A Secret Room

Charleza’s p.o.v.

I rush down the stairs, followed by the others as another round of pounding on the door starts, and I pull the door open with force.

A woman at a little over 5' tumbles forward as the door disappears before her, and I step aside to let her fall to the floor.

“Why the hell did you do that?” She says as she gets to her feet. She steps back to look at me, but before she can open her mouth again, I hold up my hand.

“That’s what you get for pounding on my door at six in the morning. Start explaining what you were thinking before I call law enforcement.” I growl as I block the door.

Ealish moves to the kitchen, and then I hear her turning on the faucet. The woman looks over her shoulder toward our curious neighbor, and I growl a little louder to get her attention back.

“I am the new tenant, and I am moving in today.” She says, her hands on her hips.

Lochlin groans as he looks at the tablet in front of him. He tilts it toward me, and I see an ad for the lily residence on a site that doesn’t belong to us.

“Did you rent it from her?” I ask as I look toward our neighbor, and she answers affirmatively before showing us the contract she signed.

Aldyn is already calling law enforcement, while I take the contract and read both pages before looking at the woman in front of me.

“I am sorry to tell you this, but she has no authority to rent this house. I am the owner, and I pulled it from our own rental site over a week ago. Law enforcement is on their way. I hope they can help you get your deposit back.” I say.

One officer talks to the woman on our front porch, one talks to our neighbor, and two more officers sit in our living room.

Aldyn is looking for the deed to the house, while I explain to the officers how our rental site works for properties we rent out.

“As you can see, this residence is marked as occupied. Every property with a tenant or a renter is marked occupied. This is our internal system, and no one can access it unless I have given the proper authorization.

I want a full investigation into the matter. I want to know if she has tried renting out other properties that don’t belong to her.” I look at both officers.

Aldyn shows up with the deed, and after writing down a few things in their notebooks, both get up to leave.

“We will take down the site for now, and investigate what she can and can’t publish. We will also make her repay whoever she scammed.” The older officer says.

Lochlin is sitting at the kitchen table with his laptop. Ealish is placing plates on the table, and my belly rumbles at the scent of breakfast. Aldyn is on the phone with our rental team to find out if anyone understands what might have happened.

“Why would someone try to rent out one of your properties?” Ealish asks.

“Because she succeeded the first time,” Lochlin answers and shows me a review on her rental page.

She has short-term rentals listed, and most are within a few miles of here. Lochlin manages to get a few listings before the site gets shut down, and enters the first address.

“It belongs to two brothers who live in a pack on the other side of the Dark Wind pack.” He searches for their personal information and finds one of their social media pages.

He sends a message explaining why he is reaching out and asking them to contact law enforcement in Littlefair if they didn’t give her permission to rent out their property.

“Okay. Their best guess is that she saw the last tenant move out and has been keeping an eye on the place. A short-term lease is harder to detect, and if you have a normal income, this is just extra.” Aldyn’s explanation makes sense.

“I want all properties checked twice a week. Rented out or not.” I look at Aldyn and know he will take care of it.

We sit in the living room when Lochlin gets a message. “She didn’t have permission, but this one is a bit different. She is a realtor and was supposed to sell the house for them.”

Lochlin is already typing on his laptop, and moments later he finds the listing, but his face tells me that something doesn’t add up.

“She listed it with a ridiculous asking price. I doubt anyone was even interested in looking at it.” He says as I lean in to look at the screen.

We let law enforcement deal with our neighbor, while we went to the office building at the edge of town.

The nine-story building was outdated in many ways, but only cosmetically. Windows needed replacing on every floor; even the glass dividers had seen better days. The carpet on every surface was worn down, but what do you expect in a fifty-year-old building?

“How long will it take to have the foundation tested?” I ask, standing in the corner office. I like the view from here, and it takes me a minute to realize I am looking at a territory.

“Testing starts tomorrow. They want to know how much of the foundation needs to be tested.” Lochlin asks as he steps next to me.

“Standard testing, and twelve spots for extra testing. I marked the spots on that map.” I say, gesturing to a folding table near the door.

Once the test results are in, we start by removing every window, glass panel, carpet, and everything else that needs to be replaced.

The office building in Cliffpost wasn’t as impressive, and after walking around, I knew where we would have our headquarters.

I stand in the corner office again and envision what I want it to look like. A door on the other side of the room piques my interest, and I slowly walk over, avoiding the marked spots on the floor.

My mind pulls up the blueprint of this floor, but I can’t find this door, and I wonder what someone tried to hide.

“Aldyn, did you know there was a door here?” I ask as I reach for the doorknob.

“There shouldn’t be one. At least not according to the blueprint.” He tells me what I already know, but now I know he didn’t see it either.

My eyes glide around the door, and I see remnants of paper on the doorpost. The paper is cut along the outside of the doorpost, and I notice the pile of paper near the window.

Whoever removed it was careful enough not to damage anything else. I turn the doorknob and look inside to find a closet, a filing cabinet, and two other doors.

“Wow. This looks amazing.” Ealish steps around me and opens the door between the closet and the filing cabinet. A small bathroom appears, and I see more renovations in our future.

I walk out of the small room, through the office, out of the corner office, and into the office next to it.

I see one of the workers cutting paper in the same spot as on the other side of the wall, and after he removes it, I open the door and scare the shit out of Ealish.

“How did you know?” I ask the worker as I walk over to him. “I have been in both offices before, but nothing gave it away.”

“I already stripped the floor below this one and knew there was a small room. It wasn’t until I walked in that I noticed there were no doors. I checked the other floors first, and on none of the floors were the doors in the same place.

Cutting around the doorpost seemed the best option, because I didn’t want to damage anything we didn’t need to remove.” He answers.