The Seat of Honor
Casino furnishings inspire an investigation.
Caleb Greenwood went to the gaming house in the Accord Hotel with 1000 dollars to spend. He won 100 dollars almost immediately, and then he won more. By the time the night was over, he had 50,000 dollars.
The next night Caleb took a seat at the head of the table, as he had been directed. The casino’s policy was to pay homage to the previous night’s big winner by seating them in this chair, the “seat of honor,” they called it. He began to play, and this time his fortune was reversed. He lost 100 dollars very quickly. By the time the night was over, he was destitute. He had no money to his name.
The only thing Caleb Greenwood had was a train ticket home that he had previously purchased. He was seen leaving the Accord Hotel on the day after he had lost everything, apparently heading to the train station. Instead of getting on the train, he cast himself in front of it, and that was the end of the unhappy tale.
Eleanor Hensley appears to have been the second person to have some misfortune at the Accord Hotel. Again, the trouble was related to the gambling table. Eleanor Hensley was the big winner. She then lost all the money that she and her husband had. It is assumed that she was too afraid to tell her husband the news, as she didn’t even make it back to their room. She threw herself out of a fifth floor window, killing herself and a hapless pedestrian, and that was the end of another unhappy tale.
Alfred Jones was another unfortunate soul who checked into the Accord Hotel. He did rather well at the games of chance on the night of his arrival, and then lost a sum of money on the next night. Nevertheless he was cheerful, and he set about to enjoy his evening fairly early. By all accounts he was in a jolly mood. He went to the bar at the Accord and had a couple of drinks. He then, according to the bartender, decided to bypass the hotel’s restaurant in favor of another establishment right down the street. He never made it. His body was found three days later and how he perished, according to the coroner, is not known.
An animal attacked and dismembered Clem Wholder. At least that’s what the coroner reported. He was last seen leaving the Accord at night after playing numerous games of chance. The circumstances were a bit different this time: Clem was a winner at the casino, but he only won (and lost) small amounts of cash over a period of about three days. How and what kind of animal might have overpowered Clem has never been made clear, but a local boy (who was known to be “mentally challenged”) claimed to have seen a mountain lion in town on that very night. His testimony has been accepted by some and dismissed by others.
The Cumberland family’s visit to the Accord makes for a tragic tale. The family of four was traveling through the area on their way to Tenby when they decided to stop in Clarkston for a few days. Mr. Anthony Cumberland gambled and spent a large amount of currency. He won big, and he lost big. There was no real danger of Mr. Cumberland losing “everything,” because he was quite rich. In fact he was a multi-millionaire.
Nevertheless, tragedy did indeed strike. Somehow the family perished in their room, having been “overcome by fumes.” Exactly what is meant by this is unknown, as their room was not connected to any source that might produce fumes.
The Normand family succumbed to fire on the fourth floor of the hotel. Like the other cases, the family is unremarkable, save for the father’s luck at the hotel casino. It is not clear how the fire was started or how it remained confined to one room.
A screaming man attacked John Morton with a bass guitar when the latter was going back to his room after having lost a small fortune while gambling. Morton collapsed and went into a coma. He was in the hospital for two weeks before he took his last breath. The attacker, a new member of the hotel’s band, laughed maniacally and dashed outside into the street where his life was ended when he was struck by a vehicle.
Another man arrived in town, a certain Mr. Piper. He was passing through, he said, on his way to Hill County. He never made it, for he won a great deal of money one evening, and lost much more the next day. When he lost everything he had a heart attack and passed away before help could arrive.
Austin John Walters was the manager of the Accord Hotel during these occurrences, and he was dismayed by the almost constant police presence—and the growing potential for bad press. He was determined to discover what was happening in his place of business, and so he began to carefully monitor the goings-on in the hotel. If at all possible, he would get to the bottom of the situation. If not, he had other avenues available to him.
Mr. Walters started with the obvious: No one was harmed simply by staying at the hotel. People (including himself) came and went every day, unharmed. It seemed that the danger came from the gambling. Yes, it had something to do with the gambling. Guests would win sizable amounts of cash. The next day they would lose sizable amounts of cash. Then, on the same day (or night, or the next day), they would lose their lives in some way. The ways in which they perished seemed to be unique to each person (or family).
There were two known suicides. One death was due to causes that were as yet unknown. One man, Clem Wholder, was apparently killed by an animal: Some speculated that it was a big cat. The Cumberland family’s tale was classic misadventure. They died of poisoning by fumes in a room where it was impossible to be exposed to fumes. The Normand family perished in a fire which was contained in one room and not detected for a full day. John Morton was murdered, and the murderer was killed in an accident shortly thereafter. Finally, Jonathan Piper died of a heart attack.
There seemed to be no connection among these individuals, save that they gambled and won. Then they gambled and lost. They lost large amounts, or at least amounts that they considered large in accordance with their stations in life. What was the common denominator? Many people gambled, and most of them didn’t die.
Mr. Walters eventually called one Detective Pierce, who had knowledge of everything that had happened in the hotel. Pierce assured Mr. Walters that everything that could be done was being done, and that others were also investigating the various events that had occurred at or seemed to be connected to the hotel. They had a cordial conversation, but in the end Mr. Walters was not pleased with the progress. It was obvious that the police were not going to look into the fact that the deaths, for the most part, seemed somehow to be connected to the hotel’s casino. He then did what he knew that he must do—he stopped his personal investigation and sent an explanatory email to Dr. Robert Williamson, the Director of Mackenson Institute.
The next day Mr. Walters received a reply and scheduled an appointment for a meeting with Dr. Hannah Lea Wilson, who is the Chief Investigator of Mackenson Institute. She arrived the next day exactly at 1:00 PM along with Ms. Nicole Sutherland. Ms. Sutherland was introduced as a camera operator for the Institute.
Mr. Walters explained the situation to the doctor and noted that he was beginning to be afraid for the safety of the guests who enjoyed gambling. The doctor took extensive notes, and then inquired about the hotel’s CCTV footage. Is anything filmed? If not, may we install cameras?
As it happened, the Accord did film the gambling room and the footage was archived, never deleted. There was no need to install cameras, not yet anyway. At that time the footage was removed and taken to Mackenson Institute where it was examined in great detail by the Mackenson County Paranormal Investigation Group. Nothing outstanding was found on the film, or so it seemed, but it was soon noticed that everyone who perished (not including their family members) was seated at the hotel’s gambling table. In fact, they had all sat at the “seat of honor.” It was decided to perform, if possible, an on-site inspection.
At Dr. Wilson’s request, the casino was closed one day for “inspection for needed repairs.” On that day Dr. Wilson, Nicole Sutherland, and assistant investigator Jonah Oliver entered into the room and inspected it. First, the extremely long tablecloth was removed from the table. The table was examined closely. The top was found to be nondescript, as was the bottom. There was nothing unusual about the tablecloth. It was just a tablecloth.
Nothing else in the room seemed to be out of place, so the trio began to inspect the chairs around the rectangular table. There were 26 chairs: 12 on each side and one on each end. The 24 that were arranged around the sides of the table were simply plain cushioned chairs. The same was true for the chair that was at the end of the table.
The chair at the head of the table was different. This was the “chair of honor,” where the winners were seated. It seemed to be very old—perhaps a modern rendering of an antique. Immediately suspicious, the team determined from that time forward to be careful not to handle, sit in, or make any other judgments about the chair. They left the immediate area and called Dr. Finley Franklin, who is the Curator of Mackenson Institute. About an hour later, Dr. Emma Easton, the Assistant Curator, arrived at the scene. Dr. Easton and her staff began their own examination of the so-called seat of honor.
Dr. Easton pronounced the item to be a chair made with mortise-and-tenon joinery, pegs, and wood glue of unknown composition. It was not a modern reproduction of an antique. It was in fact an antique, an artifact from ancient Egypt, and probably about 2,500 years old. It had very likely been looted from a temple of the cat goddess, Bastet.
The chair was unremarkable except for some carvings. The backrest of the chair featured a breastplate with a cat’s head in the center. Green stones or glass decorated where the cat’s eyes should have been. There were four ankhs carved into the chair, two on each side of the breastplate.
Dr. Easton advised Mr. Walters that the chair should immediately be taken out of the hotel (and definitely out of the casino) so that it might not be further desecrated. The chair was then removed with the permission of Mr. Walters and taken to the vault at Mackenson Institute. Mr. Walters professed ignorance of the chair’s origin and how it came to be in the hotel.
The chair was hung from the ceiling in the vault so that no one might sit in it ever again. In the future, this artifact might be designated as Object 138. It is currently considered to be safe. Since the chair was removed there has been no more trouble at the Accord Hotel.
The End.
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