Page 108 of Maneater
“Oh, good, you’re here,” Rory says. “We have alotto talk about.”
“Find anything?” I ask.
Rory tips her head, neither confirming nor denying. “No pings or emails to Tanya or Daniel leading up to or during the sabotage.”
“You bugged Tanya as well?”
She waves her hand over the housekeeping uniform she’s wearing. “Her work devices, yeah. With this outfit and Rowan in my back pocket, I can pretty much bug any room.” She clicksa few more times before turning the computer toward me, where a screen displaying a storage room appears.
“Should I be nervous?” I ask, a brow lifted at her ominous tone, and she shakes her head.
“No, no. It’s just…” She hits play, and I can hear low sounds outside of the room.
“Is that one of our cameras?” I ask, and she nods in confirmation.
“Right outside the restaurant. Time stamp is six forty-one.” I open my mouth to say something but close it when Daniel and Tanya walk in, Tanya’s jaw tight and angry, Daniel looking clearly annoyed.
“What the fuck is that?” on-screen Tanya says, throwing an arm toward the door once Daniel closes it behind him.
“What?”
“Thatguest,” she says. “The one whose tits you can’t stop looking at.”
Oh. So they’re fighting aboutme.
“Tanya, baby—” he starts with exasperation in his voice.
“Don’t you, Tanya,baby,me, Daniel. I can’t believe this.”
He steps closer to her and sighs, but she steps away.
“It’s part of the job! I spilled water on her, and I offered to comp her dinner to make up for it. She’s flirty—I didn’t want to insult her and get a negative review!”
I smile to myself at my successful flirting, but a small part of me feels bad because Ihateit when I seem to get in the middle of a relationship.
“You think I’m really that stupid, Daniel? I know you, remember. I know how you work.”
“If you’re going to be such an uptight—” He doesn’t get to finish what is clearly going to be a rude insult, because a ringing slap on his cheek cuts him off.
Honestly, he deserved it.
“You’re out of your fucking mind,” he says with a shocked shake of his head. “This is over.” And then he leaves to go back into therestaurant. I remember him touching his cheek a bit when he returned, seeing the pink mark, and putting the pieces together.
For a moment, I thought he and Tanya had left to set up the mice, but considering he was only gone for a few minutes during dinner and we have footage to show his every step, I don’t believe he could be the one who actually let the mice go, which lowers him on our suspect list, if not removing him completely.
But Tanya moves a bit higher on the list when she sniffles in the staff room and then takes in a deep breath and puts her shoulders back, as if gathering herself.
“He’s going to regret this, fucking with me,” is all we can catch before she’s out the door. We sit in silence after Rory pauses the video, indicating there’s no more to this stream.
“It seems like they’re dating, or at least she believed they were,” I say, remembering Daniel saying they hooked up and she thought it was more. “He’s a flirt. We’ve seen him flirt with half a dozen guests by now, not including Rory and me. If Tanya gets jealous every time she catches him, and she throws a tantrum, maybe that’s it. You heard her say he’s going to regret fucking with her. She could easily have left that room and released the mice.”
“Agreed,” Rory says. “Plus, it’s definitely not Daniel. When I went in there, I was able to bug his transmission and copy his hard drive. He was the one who referred us to Annette.”
My eyes widen. “What?”
“It seems he used our services for his ex-wife two years ago. When he realized no one could explain the issues at the resort or pinpoint the source, he suggested the Mavens to Annette.”
“No fucking way,” I whisper. “How did you find that?”
