Authors: Chris Cavender
Tags: #Fiction, #Mystery & Detective, #Women Sleuths, #General
Killer Crust (12 page)
Gina chuckled for a second, and then asked, “Is there anything I can do for you?”
“I hope so. I’m speaking with a maid on my floor named Helen, and she’s understandably reluctant to talk with us about any of your guests without your approval.”
“As well she should be,” Gina said. “Put her on the phone.”
I handed the cell phone to Helen, and after a brief and rather one-sided conversation, she handed the phone back to me.
“Hello?” I asked, but Gina had already hung up. I turned to Helen and asked, “What did she say?”
The maid smiled at me. “I have been instructed to tell you whatever you’d like to know. Should we step into my office for this conversation?”
“You have an office on this floor?” I asked as I looked up and down the hallway for any signs of it.
“Forgive me. It’s just our private little joke. The linen closet serves as my office on this floor. There’s more room than you might realize, and we won’t be bothered by any of the hotel’s guests.” She turned to the other maids and said, “Elaine, you need to stay. Jessica, you have rooms to clean. Sheila, that goes for you, too. Go.”
The dismissed maids were off like a shot, and the four of us walked into the closet together. It was indeed larger than it appeared, and I wondered about the logic of taking up so much real estate for supplies, but knowing Gina, she hadn’t wanted anyone to have to wait for anything. It was just one more indication that she was running a class operation here.
There weren’t any chairs, but we did have room to move around once we were inside.
Helen said, “I clean most of the rooms in question, but Elaine has the Luigi’s employees. After you speak with her, we can go over the rest of the guests in question.”
“Hi, Elaine,” I said, trying my best to keep my voice open and friendly. I knew that Kevin Hurley and the cops who worked for him had a tendency to be abrupt when they were interviewing people for information, and I also realized that it probably cost them valuable knowledge in the course of their investigations. The police could be intimidating by their very nature, and if there was one thing my sister and I were not, it was scary. At least
we
thought so.
we
thought so.
“Hello,” she said in a voice so soft that I had to step forward to hear her.
“There’s no reason to be afraid of us. What we’re discussing will never go any further than this room. We’re just looking for information that might help us.”
“I understand,” she said. “I’m just not sure what I can do to help you.”
Helen turned to me and explained, “Elaine isn’t intimidated by you, ladies. She has the softest voice of anyone I’ve ever known, but she’s hardworking, dependable, and as honest as the day is long. If you ask her a question, you can believe that she’ll answer it as best she can.”
Elaine beamed a little at the praise, and I was glad that Maddy had suggested bringing Gina in to vouch for us.
I asked her, “Have you seen anything unusual about the rooms of Luigi and his two employees since they’ve been here?”
“Well, Mr. Luigi was very messy. It made it very difficult to clean for him, since I was never sure what I could move and what I couldn’t.” She paused a moment, and then added, “He kept lists constantly, and his trash can was full of them every morning when I cleaned his room. He liked that particular room for some reason, so I’ve taken care of his room on his earlier visits, too.”
“Did you happen to see what any of the lists were about?” Maddy asked. It was a very good question.
“No, it was just trash to me, you know? It doesn’t pay to be too nosy in this job, and after a while, it’s easy to ignore most of it and just take care of my work.”
“Was there anything else different about the man?” I asked.
“He always slept on top of the comforter,” she said. “I could tell his sheets weren’t ever touched. It was odd, to say the least.”
“Is there anything else you can think of?”
“No, that’s about it.”
“How about the other two employees?” Maddy asked.
“Well, Mr. Vincent’s room is always so clean that it’s hard to know that he’s even staying with us overnight. There’s barely anything to clean by the time I get there; His trash cans are always empty, and the bed’s neatly made. I have to admit that it’s one of my favorite rooms because of that,” she added with a smile.
“Do you think there’s any possibility that he is visiting someone else overnight as a guest, since the room is so pristine?” I asked as delicately as I could.
“I don’t think so, but I can’t be sure. Mr. Vincent seems like he’s all business. He spends a fair amount of time in his room though. There’s no doubt in my mind.”
That was interesting, but not helpful in solving his brother’s murder. “How about Jack Acre?”
Elaine’s face clouded up the instant that I mentioned the man’s name. “I don’t care for him,” she said firmly.
Helen looked more surprised than we were by her comment. “Elaine, why would you say that? There must be a reason for you to feel so strongly about him.”
The head maid turned to us and said, “This is the first time I’ve ever known Elaine to complain about any of our guests.”
“May I ask why you don’t like him?” I prodded her gently.
“He has dirty shoes,” was all that she would admit to, and try as we might we couldn’t coax her into saying anything else.
“Thank you, Elaine. You may go,” Helen said. She leaned forward and whispered something else in her ear, and the younger maid seemed to let go of some of the tension she’d been holding in, and even managed to smile on her way out.
After she was gone, I couldn’t help myself. “Excuse my nosiness, but I can’t help wondering what you just said to her.”
“You are a boss yourself, is that true?” the maid asked me.
“I am,” I admitted, “though I normally don’t like to think of myself that way.”
“Then you know. It is up to us to keep our employees focused and not worrying all of the time. I simply told Elaine that she’d done a good job, and that I’d pass the information on to Renee.”
“Not Gina?” Maddy asked.
Helen looked shocked by the very idea of it. “It is not my place to do that. There is an order we follow here, and it works quite well for us.”
I nodded my understanding. “Thank you for helping us out,” I said.
“What Ms. Sizemore wants she gets, if it is in my power.”
I hoped that I inspired that kind of loyalty in my staff, but I’d never want to put it to the test. “If we could go over the three other teams staying here, it would be most helpful.”
Maddy glanced at her watch and added, “Feel free to add anything that you think might help, but keep in mind that the contest is due to start again soon.”
“The competition must be really exciting,” she said. “I slipped away and watched a little of it from the back of the room. You two are very gifted making pizzas.”
“We do the best that we can,” I admitted. “Have you ever been to our pizza place?”
“I’m sorry to say that I haven’t,” Helen replied.
“You should come by sometime when you get a chance and we’ll give you a pizza on the house.”
Did she stiffen slightly at my last comment? “Because I’m just a maid and probably can’t afford one on my own?” Helen asked lightly, but there was a definite hint of steel in her voice as she said it.
“No. Because you’re being so helpful to us right now,” I countered.
“That’s because I was ordered to be,” she answered.
“Well, as far as I’m concerned, you’ve gone beyond the call of duty with us. It’s entirely up to you, but the offer stands.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I may take you up on it someday.”
“There’s just one thing, though.”
“What’s that?” she asked suspiciously, clearly wondering what was coming next.
“You have to eat back in the kitchen with me. That’s where all the maids who come into the Slice have to eat.” I knew that it was dicey saying it, but I had to try to tease her out of an assumed affront if she was going to do us any good from here on out. Besides, I didn’t want her to think that I was some kind of elitist. It just wasn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, who I was, and it was important for me that she knew it.
It was touch-and-go for a few seconds, and then Helen brought out her brightest smile. “Actually, that sounds pretty good to me. Honestly, the company’s probably better back there, anyway.”
“You can take that to the bank,” I answered with a grin. I had dodged a bullet that I hadn’t even seen coming. I knew that some folks wore their hearts on their sleeves, but others wore their pride there.
After taking a few moments to consider my original question about my fellow competitors, Helen said, “I’ll be as brief as I can. The couple from Asheville is mostly neat, and clearly not used to staying in fine hotels. They had a book open on the nightstand yesterday that I found interesting.”
“What was it about?” Maddy asked.
“It was a murder mystery called
Poisonous Peril
. That’s an odd coincidence given what happened, wouldn’t you say?” She paused, and then added, “They must be fighting, too.”
Poisonous Peril
. That’s an odd coincidence given what happened, wouldn’t you say?” She paused, and then added, “They must be fighting, too.”
“How could you know that?” I asked. “Did you overhear them arguing about something?” This could be the exact kind of information that I’d been looking for.
“No, but I didn’t need to. The trash can by the bed was full of tissues. She’d been crying, that’s for sure.”
“She has allergies,” I said, remembering Sandy’s sneezes on stage.
“I still think they’ve been fighting,” Helen said, sticking to her guns.
“What about the twins?” I asked.
“Those boys from Raleigh are heavy drinkers, and they smoke by the window even though it’s not allowed. It’s foolish of them to try to mask it with air freshener, because I can smell it in a second when I walk in, but they are guests of the management, so there is nothing I can do but have the entire room steam-cleaned once they are gone.”
“Why are they sharing the same room?” I asked, curious about that development, even though Maddy and I were doing the same thing.
“It was their request, that’s all I know.”
“And what about the two contestants from Charlotte?” Maddy asked.
Helen shrugged as she said, “They have separate rooms, but only one bed has been used while they’ve been here.”
I tried to imagine Kenny and Anna together that way, but I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it. “Are you sure about that?”
“I’m pretty sure,” she said simply. “Just like I know that you two are sharing one room yourselves.”
“I thought it might be prudent if we stayed together since there was a murder here,” I said. “But how did you know?”
Helen said, “I could make something up and tell you that it is maid’s intuition, but this morning the kitchen staff told me that you’d ordered enough food for two people, but had it all delivered to the same place.”
“We could have spent the night apart and breakfasted together,” Maddy said, clearly amused by Helen’s explanation.
“You could have, but then why would you need extra towels as well? The front desk noted that you requested them earlier this morning.”
“I didn’t. Did you?” I asked as I turned to Maddy.
My sister nodded as she explained, “I didn’t even think about that. Yes, while you were in the shower I called downstairs.” She turned to Helen and said, “We’d appreciate it if you’d keep that fact under wraps for now. We’re trying to present as narrow a target as we can while we’re here.”
“Completely understandable, given what’s happened recently. I’ll have a word with Steven, so no one needs to know.”
I wasn’t sure if Steven was the chef or the room service attendant, but it didn’t matter. I knew that Helen would indeed make sure that our secret was safe.
“Is there anything else I can help you with?” she asked.
“No, nothing I can think of.” I took a paper napkin from one of the shelves and jotted my cell phone number down. “If anything comes up, will you call me?”
She tucked it away in her apron. “I will.” Almost as an afterthought, she smiled slightly as she added, “I’ll be in for that pizza soon, too.”
I laughed easily. “I’ll be disappointed if you don’t.” I dug into my pocket for my wallet, but I saw that she was frowning as I did it, so I quickly explained, “Helen, you’ve done us a real service answering all of our questions so frankly—whether you were ordered to or not—and we want to reward you for it.”
“Answers for you are free, so I won’t take money for them,” she said, and then added with a grin, “However if you’re pleased with your maid service at the end of your stay, I’d suggest you might show it at that time by telling the management that you enjoyed your visit here. We are not expecting, nor will we accept, a tip from you, but I appreciate you making the offer. I’m sorry, but that’s an order I will not disobey.”
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