Page 36 of The White Octopus Hotel
“Nan!”
A voice rang out across the Breakfast Room so loudly that Eve and Nan both jumped. Anna was striding across the room towards them, looking cross. She’d swapped her violet gown of last night for a belted mint-green day dress with two breast pockets, buttoned cap sleeves, and a pleated skirt. Her long black hair was tied up in a chignon bun. Nan didn’t hang around to be scolded; she scurriedacross the restaurant to join two older boys lingering in the doorway. Eve guessed they must be her brothers because they had the same auburn hair, but she only saw them for a moment before all three disappeared into the hotel.
Anna continued to Eve’s table. “I’m so sorry,” she said, smiling. “The children are under strict orders not to disturb you. Or any of our guests.”
She held an apple in her hand, extraordinarily shiny and red, so perfect that it looked more like a painted apple than the real thing.
“It’s fine,” Eve replied. “But I have a question, actually, while you’re here. I’ve heard a lot about your grandfather’s art and wondered if I might be able to see his paintings.”
Anna raised the apple and bit into it with a loud crunch. She chewed for a moment before swallowing and said, “I’m afraid that won’t be possible. The paintings have all been lost.”
“Allof them?”
“Well, all but one. And you’d have to win the scavenger hunt to see that. But it’s a very special one. It’s where it all began, you see.”
Eve frowned. “Where what all began?”
Anna flashed a smile again and there were those dimples. “Some say it’s the first artwork Nikolas Roth ever produced at the White Octopus, but I suppose it depends.”
“On what?”
She gave a small shrug. “On whether you look at it from the point of view of the artist or the point of view of the hotel.”
“Do hotels have a point of view?”
“Some believe this one does.” Anna calmly took another bite of her apple.
“What’s it a painting of?”
Anna tilted her head. “I suppose you’ll have to win the scavenger hunt to find out.”
“But what happened to the other paintings?” Eve asked. “Were they stolen?”
It seemed unlikely, given how remote the hotel was. After all, it would be extremely difficult for any thieves to transport a painting back across the lake and down the mountain.
“No,” Anna replied. Up close, the shining silver leaf on her necklace looked even more lifelike. Eve could see every single vein in the blade, delicate and beautiful.
“Are there any clues at all as to what happened?” she pressed.
Anna shook her head and then flashed another smile, exposing her cheek dimples. Eve tried not to think of Bella.
“None at all,” Anna said.
“That’s a great shame.”
“Isn’t it? Well, enjoy your breakfast, Miss Shaw. And good luck with the scavenger hunt.”
Anna turned and walked away without another word, leaving Eve to stare at her retreating back. Max Everly wasn’t the only person who could tell when he was being lied to. Eve was fairly certain that if Anna had spoken those words about the paintings to her in the Palm Bar, in the presence of the Eavesdropper, then there would have been a great deal of desperate coughing indeed.
She finished her breakfast quickly, eager to start the scavenger hunt properly. But on her way out of the Breakfast Room she spotted Jane at a table by herself. Her mother was wearing a lemon polka-dot dress, her plate of fruit untouched before her. She had a pen in her hand and was writing something on a hotel napkin. Eve knew she should probably walk straight past but couldn’t resist stopping and saying hello.
“Oh. Hello.” Jane glanced up and managed a smile, but she looked tired and there was a redness around her eyes that suggested she’d been recently crying.
“I thought you might have left already,” Eve said.
“It’s my last day at the White Octopus,” Jane replied. “I wish I could stay. I don’t really want to go home.” She paused, then said, “I don’t think I’m very good at it.”
“At what?”
