Chapter 3

It took the team five minutes to locate the hotel manager. The reception was huge, and the queues at the reception desk lengthy. The whole place seemed to be made out of marble, silver and gold. That's how it looked anyway. Finally, Fred arrived in front of the receptionist's desk, to face a middle aged woman who stared at him with hostile eyes, waiting for him to speak. Velma and Daphne had gone to the bathroom, and Rufus was loitering around behind Fred. Scooby had already gone outside to the gardens, patrolling the area in search of the Awthorn Monkey.

"So...yeah. I'm with Mystery Inc. Here to see Mr. Blaskov." Fred said awkwardly.

"Go through that door, turn left, turn right, through the fourth door to your left." the receptionist replied, sounding completely flat and unenthusiastic. "And please tell your friend to dispose of his weapon, or we won't allow you to remain on hotel grounds."

"What?" Fred turned around, and sure enough, Rufus was busy cheerfully loading an extremely large 44. revolver which he had taken out of his pocket. He was seemingly unaware of the guests in the reception throwing terrified glances in his direction and scurrying away as quickly as possible. Fred hurried over. "What are you doing?" he spat. "You can't have that!"

"Why not dude? You told me to protect the girls...things might go dangerous, man." Rufus replied, as he continued to load the lethal revolver.

"Our job is to capture and unmask bad guys in costumes! Not shoot holes through them! Look, get rid of that, or we'll all be chucked out."

Rufus rolled his eyes, and handed the gun to Fred. Fred turned back to the receptionist. "Will you look after that, just until we're done?" The receptionist reluctantly took the gun.

/

A few minutes later, the four of them were sat in Mr. Blaskov's office. He had given them all refreshments, which consisted simply of lukewarm water from a faulty water tank behind his desk. Fred noticed the Russian giving Rufus extremely disapproving looks. Most likely he was used to rich, well groomed and dressed people. Rufus fitted none of these criteria. The Russian sat down in his chair and spoke.

"Ve' guests are begin to notice, and I run out ov' excuse." he said. "I come to vis' country only two months ago. I haff barley had time to learn language, but already things have gone wrong!" He hid his face in his hands and sighed.

Velma nodded understandingly. "The Awthorn Monkey. What exactly had been going on?"

"Virst' time he vas' seen vas' in...uh...suite. Yes. Rich business man vas' staying here ofernight' in suite. Vell' it vas' about two in morning, he says he heard scratching noises in his bathroom. He vent' to check. Nothing. So, he return to bed. Vat' is when noise begins. Terrible screeches and screams, he says. So he check again. Nothing. He turn round to go back to his bed. Creature is sitting vere'. Vat' is all I could get out ov' him. He vas' in shock. He left vat' very same night. No bill paid."

"Jeepers!" Daphne squealed. "But, with all due respect, Mr. Blaskov...that isn't very much for us to go on. What happened on the other two occasions?"

Rufus suddenly piped up. "Scrap that question, dude. Mr. B, has this joker damaged anyone?"

The Russian glared at Rufus and turned towards the other gang members. "Anywan' here repeat vat' in proper English?" he snorted.

"He asked if anyone's been hurt." Velma replied in gritted teeth.

"Actually no. Scared, yes. Put in fear ov' harm, yes. But not ever harmed. In a vay' that seem strange to me. Surely to really scare, you must hurt somebody? It does seem to me vat' someone in my hotel is dressing up to scare my guests, but he has not ve' stomach to commit serious crime. A coward in other vords'. Vich' is why I call you."

Fred decided that it was probably time to get Rufus away from the already stressed manager, before any serious damage could be done. "All right, sir. Our Great Dane is in the gardens now, looking for any clues. We will now search the floors. Is that all right?

"Yes."

"Good. All right? Guys, we'll meet in the lobby in half an hour to compare clues." With that the four of them stood up and left the room. Mr. Blaskov watched them go, gazing especially at Rufus. "Почему Америке полно таких идиотов?" he said to himself. He then shrugged and went on with his paperwork.

Note: Hope you enjoyed the new chapter. The next chapters will be longer, and more developed. I might also be a bit scary now and again. But yeah, thanks to everyone who's been reading it.