Veiled Threat (12 page)

twenty

Giulia parked in the
alley behind Common Grounds. The coffee shop covered the entire first floor of the skinny brick office building; Driscoll Investigations took up the front half of the second floor. Giulia had never seen the people across the hall. A brass nameplate next to the solid door read
Walters and Griffin, Ltd
. One slow morning she and Sidney had created a two-column list of possible occupations for the mysterious firm.

The 8:20 bus passed without stopping. Giulia mock-saluted it and opened the coffee shop door.

“Hey, you,” Mingmei the barista said from behind the glass counter and pastry display. “I haven’t seen you in days.”

“Saving my pennies to buy that car.” Giulia unbuttoned her coat. “However, it’s nearly Christmas so I will splurge on a candy-cane cappuccino, please.”

“An excellent choice.” She measured coffee.

The only other customers were engrossed in each other in the farthest corner, the faux-Tiffany lamp above them shedding the bare minimum of light on their kiss-sip-kiss-sip exercise.

Giulia leaned on the counter, Christmas-party aftermath pushed to the background, Katie’s rescue uppermost in her mind again. “I have an ulterior motive for coming in today. I need hair advice.”

Mingmei continued the multiple-step brewing process. “You want red and green stripes for Christmas? Please say yes.”

“With this mop? Please. I’d look like a candy-factory explosion.” Giulia glanced again at the couple in the corner.

“Come around to this side.” Mingmei lifted the hinged wooden flap on the wall. “You used to work here. Eleanor won’t care.”

Giulia scooted through. “Did she marry off her nephews yet? I feel sorry for whoever gets the one who said I had a nun aura.”

“Nah. He’s gone back to nature—heads a wilderness retreat at the far end of Raccoon Lake. Winter and summer.” She shivered hard enough for her short, straight black hair to ruffle.

“That’s what I want to talk to you about. Hey—don’t be stingy with the whipped cream, please.”

“I am a queen among baristas—I memorize all my regular customers’ preferences.” She mounded whipped cream on top of the cappuccino and sprinkled it with bits of mint-chocolate candy.

Giulia closed her eyes and savored the first swallow. “Dear Lord, that’s good. I suppose you deserve a tip for this.”

“You suppose right.” She executed a precise bow after Giulia paid her. “Tell me what’s up before the eight-thirty crowd hits.”

“I’m going undercover again.”

“Not in another convent!”

“Not in this lifetime.” Giulia shuddered and sipped coffee to take away the phantom chill from the thought. “No, at the Wildflower.”

“No way. Really? My family went there for years when we were kids. It was a family-type place back then, called Pine Candles. Swimming, archery, canoeing, tennis, campfires, the works. We loved it.” Mingmei unwrapped a piece of gingerbread and nibbled it. “What’s going on, or can’t you tell me?”

“You know I can’t. Here’s the problem. I need to change the way I look, but not anything drastic. I’m working housekeeping, so it has to be simple.” She took a deep breath. “What do you know about chemical hair straightening?”

“Ugh, it smells like that stuff they use for permanents and it doesn’t last forever.”

“That’s great. That’s exactly what I was hoping for.” She ran her fingers through her curls. “I love my hair. I don’t want to change it forever.”

Mingmei gave Giulia a calculating look. “Your timing on this is too accurate. I planned to waylay you when you got off the bus today. I need moral support.”

Giulia switched into “Sister Regina the counselor” mode automatically. “What’s up?”

“I’m getting my navel pierced.”

She relaxed, switching back into “Giulia the regular person.” “You’ve got three piercings in each ear. What’s so different about your navel?”

“My sister says hers hurt like twenty bee stings. I don’t do pain. But my sweetie gave me the most gorgeous lapis lazuli belly button ring for my birthday—look.” She took a small jewelry box from her pocket. On a piece of jeweler’s cotton lay a gold-veined blue sphere on a curved stainless-steel bar with a smaller sphere at the other end.

Giulia touched the lapis. “It’s beautiful.”

“I know. I’m dying to wear it, but I’m a big sissy. However, you just gave me the most awesome idea: My best friend for, like, ever works at Glitz, and she does amazing things with hair. If you come hold my hand while their piercing lady punctures my stomach, I’ll get Jeanie to work her magic on your hair.”

A little of the worry lifted from Giulia’s shoulders. “Would she? But I have to be at the Wildflower this afternoon.”

Mingmei put the jewelry box back into her pocket. “Piece of cake. My appointment’s for eleven forty-five. Glitz is ten minutes on foot if we cut through a bunch of parking lots.”

“That’s prime time. How will she fit me in?”

Mingmei finished the gingerbread. “That’s the thing. She just switched shops and she’s rebuilding her client list. She has the time. Here. Wait a minute.” She woke up her cell phone and dialed. “Jeanie? Get out of bed, you slug. You got anyone for quarter to twelve today? … Spare me. You know you should’ve got up half an hour ago … Excellent. You do now.” She gave Giulia a thumbs-up. “I’m bringing my friend the ex-nun, and she needs her hair straightened … You can ask her that. How much should she bring? Whoa. Okay, thanks. I’ll tell her. See you in a few hours.” She put away the phone. “Good news and bad news. Good news is she can do it. Bad news is it’s ninety bucks. She’s cutting twenty off the price because she wants tons of convent dirt.”

Giulia grinned. “I can satisfy her. Honest, I thought it’d cost more than that. There’s an ATM for my bank in the convenience store next to the post office.” She pointed to the coffee cup. “This is Heaven in a twelve-ounce cup.”

“Too sweet for me. I’ll take jasmine tea any day.”

“If only I were better at forcibly converting people to … anything.”

“If you were, we wouldn’t be friends.”

“Then I’m happy. Here.” Giulia reached into her purse and handed Mingmei a square, flat box. “Merry Christmas.”

“Ooh, presents. Buddhism’s only failing is it doesn’t have anything like Christmas.” She ripped away the ribbon and paper. “They’re perfect! They match the navel ring.”

She held the chandelier earrings up to the overhead light. The rows of dark blue crystals glittered against her hair. “I am so wearing these to the All Night Santa Disco.”

twenty-one

“Sidney, could you hand
me another piece of tape, please?”

Giulia placed a sheet of the multipage report on the Wildflower employees at the top corner of the collage she’d already created, and taped it down. The connected papers covered half the floor between the window and her desk. Barbara had been more than generous with confidential information. Part of Giulia was appalled at this flagrant breach of confidentiality, even as another part was thrilled at the wealth of knowledge on Katie’s behalf.

“How many more?” Giulia said.

“Two.” Sidney held one page over Giulia’s shoulder, more tape in her other hand.

“Good. This one can go here … and the last … here. Can you help me lift it?”

Together they raised the crazy quilt of information. Several edges flapped, but they walked it over to the bulletin board and pinned it up without incident.

Sidney looked it over. “This is what you call a clue collage?”

“Someday I’ll patent the idea.” Giulia took six different colored highlighters from the Penguin Santa pen holder on her desk. “Now I’ll color-code important points in each employee’s information.”

“Isn’t this against some kind of privacy law?”

“Nope. Captain Reilly had a warrant and the resort owner wants to help.” Giulia tapped the pink marker against her bottom lip. The clock was ticking. Katie needed her.

Frank came out of his office. “Nice collage. Where are you going to hide it when clients walk in?”

“The bottom drawer of the file cabinet. Everything else goes in there.” She drew pink lines over the housekeeping names.

“Sexist.”

Giulia made a face at him. “It was the first color in my hand. Most of the employees are women anyway, so your point is moot.”

Sidney squinted at the printouts. “They have male employees at a women-only resort? Oh, wait, they’d have to at least interview them because of equal opportunity and all that.”

“Heavy lifting and general maintenance for one. You know, the handyman position. Also cross-country ski instructor.” She used green for maintenance and yellow for the chef. “I saw one more male name … nope, two. One of the sous chefs and the head of recreation.” Blue for athletics and purple for games.

The phone rang. Frank took Sidney’s place over Giulia’s shoulder.

“The masseuse—she’s married to the ski instructor—gets purple.” Giulia highlighted as she spoke. “Back office gets orange. Billing, desk clerks, telephones. Wait staff … yellow like the kitchen. Head chef. Sous chef number two. Table bussers, dishwashers, bartender. Oh, my, one of their chefs specializes in desserts.”

“Don’t get distracted by the presence of high-class sugar.” Frank lowered his voice. “Look ahead to the all-natural desserts at Sidney’s wedding.”

“There’s nothing wrong with expanding your taste horizons,” she whispered back.

“I’ve seen her ‘save the planet’ menu. I’ll be spending my time at the groom’s food stations.”

Sidney hung up the phone. Giulia returned to her collage.

“Equipment rental, blue. There are only two other housekeepers. You were right, Frank. I’m going to fall asleep on my keyboard tomorrow morning.”

“I will tuck a blanket around you and close the blinds.”

“What an understanding boss.”

Sidney giggled at her monitor. “They have a gift shop. I bet they have X-rated movies for the rooms.”

“I’ve seen it, but I didn’t have time to look at the shelves.”

Frank came over to her desk. “If it was a guys-only place you know they would. This website looks like a cross between a gardening-
club show and a girls’ night out.”

Giulia came around to Sidney’s other side. “The rooms are just as beautiful in person. The bathrooms are to die for. I haven’t seen the indoor pool yet. Oh, those menus. If I were gay, I’d go there once a year forever.”

Sidney giggled again. “They have in-room massage. I know what that means.”

“Maybe not,” Giulia said.

Frank and Sidney both stared at her. “Yes, it does,” they said.

She held up her hands in surrender. “I’ll take your word for it. I shall now retreat to my sheltered corner and learn more about the employees.”

She returned all the markers except orange to her penguin holder and took out a skinny black felt-tip pen.

Look at these people from the opposite side. Don’t assume they’re all basically good. Assume they’re all capable of committing kidnapping and murder.
She circled the names of the masseuse and the ski instructor and connected them with a thick orange line. With the felt tip, she wrote, “Baby/Fertility/Games.”
Their family’s nagging them to have a baby. What if they can’t? What if there’s desperation behind their lovey-dovey act? They knew I was in the break room listening to them.

“The ski instructor is in charge of games, too.”

Frank came over to her and read the profile. “Too bad they don’t list religion on these forms anymore.”

“Mm.” Giulia tapped the black felt tip against her lips. “Nothing is that easy. Here’s something. One of the sous chefs has massive college debt.” She circled that with the pen. “The daytime desk clerk and the handyman are married, no kids.” Another circle. “Here’s an interesting one: a waitress sued the resort and lost three years ago because they caught her watering the wine. The judge didn’t buy her plea of not responsible because of her addiction to Cabernet.”

Sidney laughed.

Giulia took a notepad from her desk and wrote that waitress’s information in it. “Captain Reilly will have to check that one.”

“Hey,” Frank said. “What name are you using?”

“Regina Ryan.”

“Regina I get, but Ryan?”

Sidney gasped. “Are you reading that romance, too?”

Giulia smiled. “It’s too good to put down, isn’t it?”

Frank looked from one to the other. “You’re kidding.”

Giulia stuck out the tip of her tongue at him. “Says the man who pores over
Sports Illustrated
like a new revelation from God.”

“I think I have emails calling me.” He retreated into his office.

She returned to the collage.
I can’t memorize their names because I have to be convincing when I meet everyone, but I can memorize the job descriptions. Masseuse and games captain. Sous chef. Desk clerk and handyman. Just don’t fixate on these five. They could all be perfectly innocent and my real target might be the waitress or the psycho geek or someone else whose profile here doesn’t set off any alarm bells.

Godzilla roared from her computer monitor. She checked her watch. Eleven twenty. She unpinned the clue collage and it flopped over her head like she was folding sheets.

“Sidney?”

A giggle sounded from the other side of Giulia’s paper shroud. “You sound like my swim class kids do when their caps get stuck on their heads.”

Sidney’s hands appeared at the edge of the papers and together they lifted and held it parallel to the floor.

“Come toward me,” Giulia said. “Okay, you take the top and I’ll crease the bottom. Now I’ll take the left side and you take the right.” They folded the collage in half and half again, until they’d reduced its original three-by-five-foot dimensions to one-by-three. “That should fit.” She squatted by the file cabinet next to the window and opened the bottom drawer. “I swear the junk in this drawer reproduces asexually.” She rearranged envelopes and half-filled supply boxes to allow the folded collage to rest on top.

“Sidney, I’m taking a long lunch today. I’ll be back by one thirty.”

“No problem. I’m having a veggie sub delivered. I have a whole mess of reports to type up before I leave tomorrow.”

Giulia knocked on Frank’s door frame. “Did you hear all that?”

“Yes. Should I ask why you’re doubling your lunch hour?”

“I’ll explain when I come back.”
Although one look will be explanation enough
.