The Hotel Bennett Mysteries

It was 1954, and the most grand and beloved spot in Charleston South Carolina was The Hotel Bennett….but tragedy struck the Hotel, along with the family that owned it. The Hotel Bennett was bankrupt. The Bennett family had owned this hotel for generations and Daniel Bennett couldn’t stand the fact that he wouldn’t be able to pass this hotel down to his daughter, Liz. Daniel and Maria didn’t know what to think. This hotel was their lively hood. Their daughter had practically grown up in this hotel. If they lose this hotel they could also lose their own house.

Daniel owned the hotel and his wife Maria worked at the front desk. Elizebeth was homeschooled by Mrs. Walker alongside Mrs. Walker’s son, Luke. Elizabeth and Luke had grown up together. They had been best friends for years now. Liz was sixteen and Luke was seventeen. They loved exploring the hotel, though they had seen every room, somehow it never got old. Liz and Luke were being homeschooled in Mrs. Walker’s quaint little house but meanwhile Mr. and Mrs. Bennett were down the street at the bank trying to sort things out. “How can we be bankrupt? This is the most popular destination in Charleston since the 1930s.” Mr Bennett didn’t understand how this could be true. “It’s simple. You have no money in the bank,” the woman at the desk explained. “Well this certainly needs to be investigated,” Mrs Bennett said as she rose from her chair.

Daniel and Maria walked down the street to see if Liz was done with her studies. “What are we going to tell Liz?” Maria asked her husband, knowing that Liz would be devastated. She loved the hotel as much as anyone. “We won’t tell her anything until we know more.” And Daniel meant exactly that. Living in Charleston wasn’t cheap. The Bennett family couldn’t afford to lose Hotel Bennett. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett walked up the stairs to Mrs. Walker’s house. Maria knocked and waited only a moment before the door was opened. “Hey Luke. Is Liz done with her studies?” “Yes Mrs. Bennett. She’s finishing up now. My mom was trying to help her with algebra math. You can come in.” Luke closed the door behind them and showed them to the living room where his mother homeschooled Luke and Elizabeth. “Oh you’re just in time. Liz just finished her last math problem,” Mrs Walker said smiling. “It’s defiantly a problem,” Liz said under her breath. Luke chuckled having heard what Liz whispered to herself.

Liz and her parents walked a ways down the street to where their beautiful white brick house stood. But Liz could feel something was in the air. Her parents were acting strange. As soon as they got into the house, Liz couldn’t help herself. “So…What’s going on?” “What do you mean flower?” Liz’s father always called her flower. He says that she is prettier than a rose on a spring day. “You both are hiding something and it can’t be good news,” Liz explained as she stood in the kitchen with her arms crossed. “I told you she’s too smart,.” Daniel said glancing at his wife who was started to prepare dinner. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett walked their daughter into the living room. Liz took a seat on the couch between her parents, having no idea what news she was about to hear and her mind wandered. Daniel and Maria didn't know what to tell their daughter, and so they told her everything. “What? What do you mean the hotel is bankrupt?” “Darling, the hotel’s bank account is empty,” her mother explained. “But how? Reservations have been more than ever. Summer is our busy time of year.” And with that, the room quickly became silent.

The sun rose early the next morning and soon Elizabeth was up and at it. Today was Saturday and Liz was eager to start the day. She quickly ran down the stairs and got breakfast. Daniel and Maria would be busy again down at the bank and so Liz had made plans to meet Luke outside the hotel at 9 am. “You’re two minutes late,” Luke said laughing. But Liz was not in the mood for laughing. This was a serious matter. They both walked into the hotel as if they had never seen the inside. “It gets grander every time, don’t you think? I mean look how happy all the guests are. We can’t lose the hotel.” Liz didn’t yet know how, but they had to save the hotel. “Are you suggesting that we somehow save the hotel?” Luke asked. “Exactly!” said Liz.

Liz and Luke headed for the elevator but bumped into their uncle in the lobby. “Uncle Matthew, good to see you. I thought you had already left for your trip?” Liz asked. “Oh no dear. I am leaving Monday. How have you been?” “I’ve been good. And I hope you are too. Who knows, maybe you’ll find a girl and fall in love in the UK,” Liz said wishing him well. “Oh I doubt it but that would be a miracle,” he said smiling. They wished each other well on their way and Liz and Luke hopped into the elevator. “What floor shall we explore? The dining floor is my favorite,” Luke explained. “We are not here to explore. We are here to save the hotel.” “How will we do that?” asked Luke. “By finding out where all the money went. I know better than to believe this hotel was losing money. We are busier than we’ve ever been.”

Elizabeth and Luke walked around the eighth floor. Oh how Liz wished they could look around the seventh floor but that floor was restricted. There was construction going on in a few rooms that had recently caught fire. Liz didn’t know where to start on helping save the hotel. So she and Luke headed back to the elevator. They both just stared at all the buttons. “Liz, have you ever noticed the scratches below the level one button?” “No but they’re probably just from everyone hitting the buttons.” “But look close, the scratches are around a square piece of metal. Can I borrow your hair clip?” Liz handed Luke the hair clip sand he began to pry away. Soon the metal square popped off and hit the floor….and behind it was another button. Liz stood amazed. “There’s no such thing as a floor level zero,” Luke said to himself. And before he could think, Liz reached forward and hit the button….and down went the elevator. “Oh we are going down. Because after one comes zero and after zero a negative one. This is level zero because it’s below level one,” Luke said in excitement. “Well I am glad you’re good at math,” Liz said rolling her eyes.

The elevator quickly stopped and the doors opened. It was a small room that was barely lit and it led down an even darker tunnel. Liz quickly stopped in her tracks. “You hear that?” The noise was coming from above them. “Well obviously we are underground Liz, and that’s the cars above that you are hearing.” Soon after everything started to feel as if it were shaking and a screeching noise was coming from the tunnel. Liz and Luke both inched forward slowly until they came out of the dark tunnel and were on the other side. Now they both stood amazed and a littler frightened. It was the Underground Railroad! And the train was that screeching sound. “I….I never knew this was beneath their hotel. And why was the button to this floor hidden?” Liz couldn’t understand. “I don’t know but there’s a reason why. And we better not let anyone know that we know,” Luke explained. “This would be a good place for a thief to escape,” Liz said as she realized it was true. “You think someone stole the hotel’s money?” Luke asked in shock. “Well I know we wouldn’t be bankrupt if not.”

On the way out of the hotel Luke ran right into a man and nearly knocked him down. “Oh I am so sorry sir!”said Luke. “Oh you are quite alright boy,” the man replied as he then headed inside hotel. Liz stood in silence. “Liz, you ok?” “Yeah i’m fine…but I know that man somehow….” But Liz didn’t know how…that is until the light bulb above her head went off. “Wait! It’s Mr Connell. Ben Connell!” Liz yelled as she was thrilled. “And…that is..” “Oh Luke, that man was fired a month ago for letting his family and friends stay in the hotel for no charge. And why would he be back?” “I don’t know,” replied Luke. “To get even of course…revenge….I’ve got to get home and tell mom and dad everything,” and so Liz did. Daniel and Maria didn’t seem surprised and for good reason. After a little more digging, Mr. and Mrs. Bennett found out that three weeks ago all the money the hotel had in the bank was withdrawn. And somehow they didn’t leave any clues on who had stolen the money. But all the money was in fact gone. The family had a plan in set: after church tomorrow morning, the family would go explore the underground railroad.

After church Liz and Luke walked straight to the hotel, while Liz’s mother and father planned to meet them there after they talked with the local sheriff. It wasn’t too long before Daniel and Maria got to the hotel. They joined their daughter and her best friend and together they searched the Underground Railroad. But they found no sign of a thief or money. And at that moment another light bulb went off in Liz’s mind. “The fires!” she said loudly. “What about the fires?” her mother asked. “Think about it….Ben was fired a month ago, the fires happened a month ago, and money was withdrawn from the bank three weeks ago,” Liz explained. “You’re saying it’s all connected somehow,” asked Luke. “I don’t know how, but it adds up….I think…although I am not good at math.”

It was obvious level seven needed to be searched. Perhaps the fire wasn’t just a distraction, but also to hide something. Daniel, Maria, Liz and Luke all headed up the elevator to level seven. It was obviously still in construction but the smell of smoke was gone. The four of them decided to split up and search the rooms and that could take awhile. Liz and Luke searched the rooms across from each other and down the hall they went. Next thing Liz knew, she was walking to search a hotel room that’s door was already cracked open. She motioned for Luke to come. They creeped into the room but no one was there. Liz decided to have a look around, and she couldn’t believe what she found. Under the bed was a large flat safe.

Liz called down the hall to her parents and like good parents, they came running. “I found a safe under the bed,” Liz explained. Her father pulled out the safe and found it had been banged up, as if someone was trying to get into it. Luckily for everyone, Daniel knew the code. He was the owner of this grand hotel after all. Daniel typed in the code and opened the safe and he couldn’t believe his eyes. It was money….a lot of money. “You hear that.” It’s the elevator!” Liz said frightened. All four of them quickly ran into the next room over and Luke remembered to crack the other room’s door as they had found it. Footsteps were heard coming down the hall and the sound of a door opening was never heard. “They must have went into that room to get the safe,” Luke whispered. Daniel looked through the peep hole and realized the door was still partly opened.

Daniel slowly opened their door and creeped out of the room with Maria behind him. The two of them crept into the room across from theirs. Indeed there was a man in the room but he was busy typing the code into the safe. But it kept saying denied. Danial and Maria turned and snuck into the bathroom. Meanwhile Liz stood peeking into the cracked door alongside Luke. She caught the eye of her father who hid in the bathroom area. He signaled her to go back, but Liz just couldn’t let her parents handle it alone. Liz breathed deep, and nodded to her dad, and with that, she she slammed the door. The man quickly rose and ran for the door but Daniel jumped out from the bathroom and caught him by surprise. Daniel punched the man to the ground and he was out cold. Liz quickly opened the door and she hopped over the man on the floor to hug her parents. But Daniel stood in shock. The man on the floor was none other than Matthew. Liz’s uncle….Daniel’s brother.

It wasn’t long before the police arrived to take Matthew away. He awoke from the punch in handcuffs and had a lot to say. Daniel couldn’t believe it — his own brother! The police escorted Daniel, Maria, Liz and Luke to the police office where they would find out where the rest of the stolen money was. It wasn’t long before the police came out of the room to charge Matthew with many crimes. Matthew was now a man behind bars. Now it was the family’s turn to speak with Uncle Matthew. Daniel had nothing to say to his brother. Maria and Luke had little to say but Liz had a lot to say. “How come that stupid safe was locked?” Matthew asked in anger. “That’s because my dad changed the code before you came back to get the money,” Liz said smiling, but still sad for her uncle

“Don’t you want to know how I almost pulled this off?” asked Uncle Matthew. “Oh no. I know exactly how you did it. I figured it all out on the way the the police station,” Liz said standing tall and straight. “First, you set fire to level seven to distract everyone while you somehow got the codes to the bank account. Once you withdrew all the money, you sent half of it on the train in the Underground Railroad and the next day you put the other half in a safe under a bed in a hotel room on level seven. And you hid the level 0 button in the elevator by placing metal over it, that being the elevator and button that lead to the Underground Railroad. And you timed all this perfectly. A month ago Ben Connell was fired, shortly after, level seven caught fire and then every bit of money was withdrawn from the bank. You made it all look like it was Mr. Connell getting revenge at the hotel for firing him, but all along it was you.”

“And still the story isn’t over. The reason you told everyone you were going on a trip to the UK was because you had shipped the money out of the country. But then you ran into a problem — construction workers would be working on level seven until Sunday and that’s where you had hid the rest of the money, afraid to send it all together on a train. And that is why I ran into you at the hotel and you said you weren’t leaving for your trip until Monday. Then you made another mistake. I am guessing you somehow forgot the code to the safe and so you tried to break into it Sunday afternoon, and when that didn’t work you had to run back to your house to hopefully find where you had written down the safe’s code. That is where we come in. We were searching level seven and found your hotel room with the door cracked and that lead to us finding the safe and my dad changing the code to it, before you ever made it back to the room,” Liz stood there with her arms crossed. “Very good,” said uncle Matthew. “Yes but there is one piece I am missing, why did you do it?” Liz asked. “Your father was the eldest and so the hotel was passed down to him, but I was the one who spent countless hours as a boy helping our father run this place. But still the hotel was passed down to your father. And I never forgave anyone for that. I guess you can say I wanted my revenge.”

And that is the story of The Hotel Bennett and the four brave souls who worked together to solve the mystery.

The End