Chapter Seven

It didn't take long for Winnie to return to the Hotel.

"Now what?" She thought to herself as she pondered about what to do from here on out. She decided to see how far she could get into solving the rest of the case while she waited for Dennis to return from school. She had claimed earlier that she knew a way to find out how the culprit was, but that was just a bluff to make her and Dennis feel better about the situation. Regardless, she was determined to find a way. As she was thinking, her stomach started to growl. She hadn't eaten anything all day, after all.

She then took out the screamcheese n' egg sandwich she had stored. "Better to think on a full stomach." She said to herself as she tried to take a bite out of it. Emphasis on tried, instead of biting into the delicious sustenance of screamcheese melted on egg, she was greeted with her teeth. Evidently, someone had taken her sandwich before she could take a bite out of it. The culprit was noticeable immediately. It was a familiar but certainly unwanted face. It was Wally, one of Winnie's many brothers.

"Wally!?" She said in a mix of confusion and frustration. Under no circumstances should he be here, he should be back at home with the rest of her family. So how, why, is he here? But before she could address that she had to deal with the theft currently taking place.

"Can I have it? Can I have it?" Wally yapped in rapid succession.

"Give me back my sandwich!" She barked at him angrily.

That response provoked a bit of genuine fear in Wally, which caused him to relent, returning her sandwich to her. "Awe, you're not nice…" He said dejectedly.

"I'm not nice!? You took my sandwich!" She responded back.

"Sharing is caring!" He quibbled.

Winnie was miffed, but now that she had her sandwich back in her possession she could take some time to question Wally, she put the sandwich away for the time being.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"Snuck out when dad dropped you off." He responded. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to solve a case." She said.

"Huh. Sounds boring." He simply replied back.

Her face soured. "Don't make me tell dad and mom about this." She threatened.

"Don't tell them!" He pleaded, hitting her with the puppy dog eyes. "I'll be double grounded then!" Wally had already been grounded for an earlier incident that took place in their home, which is what made him being here so surprising in the first place.

Her expression softened, but she still held firm. "Then stop bugging me and go somewhere else!" She demanded.

"Like where?" He asked.

"I don't know, go to Dennis's room." She suggested, just looking for an opportunity to get him out of her fur.

"Fine." He said as he began heading to Dennis's room. And with that, Winnie finally got to the opportunity to sit down and eat. And somewhat surprisingly, did this help her formulate a plan of action. It was bit of rehash of the intercom trick from before, but it would do. She went over to the front desk as she had an announcement to make:

"Attention all guests! If you happen to know any information about who vandalized the Hotel, please say so! You'll receive a free Nintenboy if you do." The idea being that their may have been previously unknown witnesses to the vandalization of the Hotel. If she could just draw those witnesses out, she'd finally have a lead. Now, where was Winnie going to find a Nintenboy to offer someone? She wasn't, it's just what she said to entice a response. She would sit there and wait. And wait, and wait some more. In fact hours passed to the point that Winnie ended up taking a nap as she waited. Then, suddenly, somebody approached the front desk, awaking her from slumber.

"Winnie?" Dennis said in a slightly confused tone. He had just returned back from school. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, hey Dennis." Winnie yawned, as she gradually gained awareness, "I've been here waiting for someone to come with information about the accomplice, but nobody has. My plan isn't working." She said, with a frown on her face.

"It's been a week since it happened, maybe they don't remember?" Dennis suggested.

"Or maybe the accomplice doesn't exist and we're just wasting time." She responded, glumly.

"How do you suggest Weilan made all that mess, then?" He questioned.

"I dunno, he probably found some way…" She mused.

"Then," Dennis said as he placed his palms on the front desk, "We need to found out how he did it!" He asserted.

Winnie thought about the notion for a moment. "I guess you're right." She said, a small smile forming on her face. "Yeah, let's do it."

"Sweet, where should we start?" Dennis asked.

"Weilan was in your room at some point, right? Maybe there's something there that we missed." Winnie suggested. "Let's look there."

"Good point." Dennis commented.

"Thanks, Dennis. For cheering me up." She said warmly.

"Don't worry about it." He said as they both began walking towards his room.

When they entered into his room, they were greeted by a surprise. And I'm not just talking about Wally. For Dennis that alone was a surprise in and of itself, but the real surprise was the state of the room. It wasn't like Winnie remembered it and it definitely wasn't how Dennis left it. It was a mess.

"Winnie, what the heck happened in here!?" Dennis exclaimed as he looked around in disbelief.

"Not what, but who." She said with a sour expression as she looked over to Wally playing with one of Dennis's toys.

"WALLY!" They both yelled in unison, causing Wally to cower in fear

"Come, we need to talk." She said, grabbing Wally by the ear as she dragged him outside of the room. Dennis just stood around in his room, unsure what to do.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Wally cried out. "What did I do this time!?"

"Why is Dennis's room a mess!?" Winnie interrogated.

"I was just playing!" Wally said, trying to defend himself.

"Playing?" Winnie said, skeptically. "It looks like you tried to destroy his room!"

"No, I didn't!" Wally said, getting defensive.

"Then what were you doing?" Winnie said.

"I was just bored and I-" Wally said.

"So you just started tearing up the room?" Winnie interjected, exasperated.

"I don't know, I just got really hyper all of the sudden!" Wally said.

"Hyper?" Winnie said, suddenly getting an idea. "Stay right here, I'm going to talk to Dennis." She said, before going back to Dennis's room.

"Sorry about all this, Dennis." She said with a heavy sigh. "I was the one who told Wally to enter your room. I didn't think this would happen."

"It's fine as long as he helps clean up." He simply said nonchalantly. "What is he doing here, anyway?"

"Mom and dad grounded him so he decided to sneak out." She said.

"What did he get grounded for?" Dennis asked.

"It's…a long story. Anyways, he says he got all hyper all of a sudden. I think he may of had some sweets, do you have any sugar in your room?" She asked.

"Sugar?" He thought about it for a moment. "Nope, I don't really like sweets."

"Hmm, that's strange…" She said, not sure what to make of that information. "Well, for now, let's just clean up this mess." She said, as she pushed open the door. "Come in, Wally."

Wally walked in with his tail between his legs, rather embarrassed by his actions. The three then set to work cleaning up the mess made. It didn't take long, many hands make light work after all. While cleaning, however, they found something unexpected. It was a small bag that appeared to contain sweets. Evidentially, this was the bag Wally must've eaten from. It was all but empty now.

"I don't remember having this." Dennis said, as he took out the final piece of candy from the bag.

"Most likely it was Weilan's." She speculated.

"Can I have it?" Wally said, looking at Dennis and the candy.

"No! Absolutely not!" Winnie scolded, taking the candy from Dennis and throwing it outside the window. Let it be known the absolute shock and stupefaction on both of their faces as they watched Winnie's elder brother jumped out of the window to catch the treat.

"I'll get him!" Dennis said, quickly transforming into a bat and rushing to retrieve Wally before he cratered to the ground. He managed to get there just in the nick of time, and the young werewolf was flown back into the room.

"I can't with him sometimes…" She said as she pinched her forehead in disappointment.

Dennis transformed back into a human. "So what should we do now?" He asked.

"I think the bag of candy is important, we just need to think about what it means." She said, as she began to ponder. She had been so distracted by Wally's antics that she failed to string together a coherent train of thought a moment, but now she could. And with that train of thought, she realized something huge. The mess made in Dennis's room was quite similar to the vandalization of the Hotel. To the point that you could say that Dennis's room was "vandalized." Could Wally be Weilan's accomplice?

"No, it be could even worse…" She thought. "It could be…" She dared didn't finish that thought, instead she had to ask Wally a question, a very important one. "Wally."

"Hmm?" He cocked his head to the side. "What?"

"How long have you been sneaking out?" She asked.

"Oh, since last week!" He said proudly, unaware of the implication of that statement.

"I see…" She said, her heart sinking as the realization hit her. Wally was Weilan's accomplice. "No, that's not the truth…" She thought to herself, there was a greater truth that she had come to realize, but had yet to accept it. She had to accept it, it was the right thing to do, but doing so would hurt. "Weilan doesn't have an accomplice, he was never the culprit to begin with." She finally accepted.