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Holly laughed and grabbed Angela’s elbow. Somewhat surprisingly, Angela let Holly drag her and even answered Holly’s laugh with a smile, though she seemed conflicted about it. Jared gave Ash a challenging glance and set off, while Kami made a shooing gesture as if they were geese. The whole party stumbled through the door and up to the counter where the receptionist sat.
Kami sidled out the door a few minutes later, unnoticed since every eye was drawn to the mass vamp in progress. The others followed her out soon enough.
Holly was laughing. “Jared told her he used to be an exotic dancer in San Francisco.”
“My body is a gift from God,” Jared said gravely. “Except for my hips, which are clearly a gift from the devil.”
“I’m surprised she didn’t call the police,” Ash muttered. “I would have.”
Angela looked traumatized, but not so traumatized that she failed to notice something was different. Her eyes went straight to the pile in Kami’s arms. “What have you got there?”
“Aprons I took from one of the laundry carts while the guy pushing it was distracted by the sight of four people making epic fools of themselves,” Kami told her.
“And you couldn’t just tell us to make fools of ourselves?” Ash asked.
“I didn’t want you to get stiff and self-conscious,” said Kami. “I wanted you to act natural. And you were all brilliant!”
“I’m concerned about your vamping skills,” Holly told Angela. “You’re gorgeous. You can do better. Actually, almost anyone can do better than ‘Don’t look at me.’ ”
Angela shrugged.
“We were brilliant, natural fools?” Jared asked. He was grinning, but then, of course, he was the only one apart from Kami who had known exactly what was going on. They didn’t have secrets from each other.
Well. She didn’t have any secrets from him.
Kami pushed the thought aside and grinned back at him, feeling his delight curl around her heart. “Especially you, tiny dancer. The Surer Guest ordered a pile of baked goods for today from my mother, so I learned they hired on a lot of staff for the weekend wedding. Staff they would not expect to recognize on sight. And the uniform,” Kami said with modest pride, “is black clothes with this apron over it.”
“You’re a genius,” Holly said as Kami passed around the aprons.
Kami preened.
The Surer Guest was like a maze. This evening the maze was crowded with people either clearing up the wedding dinner or continuing the wedding party. There was the reception hall, where the receptionist sat, still looking a bit stunned. One big door led to the ballroom; the other door opened into a corridor that led to the kitchens. The offices were on either side. Across the hall, two broad staircases led to a balcony, and from there to the guest rooms.
Kami had told everyone to spread out in different directions as soon as they were in the door, so when she headed purposefully for the offices, she was startled to find Jared at her heels. Go investigate somewhere else! she ordered.
No, said Jared. Someone’s still after you. I’m not leaving you to be pushed into another well.
How many wells are you expecting to find in a guesthouse? Kami inquired.
Well, I’m not leaving you to be smashed on the head with a candlestick in the billiard room either.
Kami could tell Jared was serious, so she didn’t waste her time arguing with him. She approached a door, beckoning Jared toward it, and then flung it open on a room full of cleaning supplies. A mop tipped over with a bang. Kami tried not to jump at the noise.
Next one, Jared said. He opened the next door, which led to a room full of washing machines and dryers. And a couple, the woman sitting on the washing machine, pulling the guy’s shirt open and tie aside while her legs wrapped around his waist.
Kami squeaked.
Jared coughed, said “Sorry,” and shut the door fast.
It was okay that she’d squeaked, Kami told herself. It wasn’t that she didn’t have nerves of steel. She went ahead and tried the next door. It slid open to reveal an empty desk with filing cabinets arranged around it. “I’ll take the computer; you take the cabinets,” Kami said.
There was a purple Post-it under the stapler with CASSIE41 written on it. When Kami turned the computer on and tried to access the Guests file, a box popped up asking for a password. Kami typed “CASSIE41” and it let her through.
Unfortunately, along with the lack
of security was a lack of organization. Kami spent a while finding a lot of entries for this year’s guests in last year’s file. She resisted the urge to reorganize it. As the light in the windows died, she squinted at the glowing surface of the computer screen and cursed the fact that she could not turn on the lights.
Then she found the records for the night of September 10. She heard Jared turn and walk to the computer.
