Page 20 of Jane's Story
“Sorry. If only the potion gave us some audio.” Aunt Penny wrung her hands together. “The spell’s helpful, especially for research, but it’s far from perfect.”
“Well, it’s more information than we had before.” Charles turned toward my aunt, and his eyes softened. “At least we can see what people did once they came into the suite. Thank you.”
“We need to look into everyone’s reasons for being in the room. I mean, why did the hotel manager and his concierge come up? And what else did the porter deliver? Did the housekeeper do anything aside from cleaning? Oh, and Catalina, Lance, Ashley, Kyle, and Owen were all there at one point. Who am I missing? I guess maybe seven people were up here, and any of them could have slipped back in and killed Armond, right?” My mind whirled with possibilities. “We should talk to everyone and see if what they say lines up with what happened in the room.”
“But how do we do that without being too obvious?” Charles appeared lost in thought until his eyes widened and he sat up straight. “The gala!”
“The what now?” Aunt Penny sputtered.
Charles clapped and rubbed his hands together. “The gala is tomorrow evening. We can’t cancel it. There are awards, and Darcy helps as MC. Oh, Jane, I hate to trouble you with this, but maybe you couldcome as my plus one? Normally, I go to these events alone and chat with everyone. But lots of people bring someone along. So you could come as my girlfriend. If you want to bring your camera along, you could as well.”
“I could, but I brought nothing that fancy to wear.” My heartbeat picked up at the thought of going to such a formal event with Charles.
“Right.” Charles frowned, but then his face brightened. “Well, we are in New York City, and there’s no better place to find a ball gown—company expense, of course. If you want.”
“I suppose so. As long as it will help.” I smiled and couldn’t stop butterflies from spinning through my stomach.
I caught Aunt Penny’s grin. Mercifully, she turned her face so Charles wouldn’t see it. She’d certainly be texting my mom within the hour. “Aunt Penny, I’d rather not have my parents catch wind of all this yet.”
She cleared her throat and in an official tone stated, “You mean the murder? Of course not. I’ll keep it quiet.”
Hopefully, she’d keep her word. “Thanks—I mean, for now Iwant to keep everything quiet. In the meantime, why don’t we try to figure out what everyone else had been doing in the suite?”
“Certainly.” Charles leaned forward, glancing at me.
“Oh, yes. I nearly forgot.” Aunt Penny picked up her oversized bag from the floor and plopped it onto the coffee table. Then she rummaged through it, pulling out a wig, sunglasses, and a floppy hat. “You see, I brought a few disguises in case I needed to help with the investigation. I’ve always wanted to play the part of a sleuth, or maybe even go undercover.”
Chapter 8
“AuntPenny,you’redelightful.”I laughed as my stout little aunt donned a sleek black wig, then changed her beige cardigan out for a flamboyant orange scarf.
“Why don’t I go get friendly with the staff?” She stood in front of a mirror and applied a layer of bright candy-apple-red lipstick.
“If you’re up to it. We were going to keep working on the case, too.” I said, impressed by Aunt Penny’s enthusiasm. “Should we meet back here in a few hours?”
“As long as you’re careful. I’m worried I’ve put enough people in danger this week.” Charles swallowed. “I’ve been thinking about who else to question. Owen and Kyle were up here, so we could start with them. And Catalina is in my suite fairly often to get approval for things. But I wonder what she left on the desk. Maybe one of them knows something.”
I rubbed my temples. “The brunette woman in the business suit with the clipboard, right? I’m trying to keep all of their names straight.”
“Yes, dark shoulder-length hair. She directed you on what to take photos of at the launch.”
“Right. And those men, what were their jobs?” Aunt Penny asked.
“Kyle and Owen are both engineers. The one arguing with Armond is our chief operations officer. His name is Lance,” Charles responded. “I don’t suspect any of them of anything. But I wonder what they saw.”
“Well, the last people who were close to Armond were the hotel manager and the porter. But they just handed him some stuff and left. The argument with Lance is concerning. Are you comfortable questioning him again?” I asked.
“Yes,” Charles nodded, then muttered to himself. “I think so.”
“I doubt the killer could be any of the hotel staff, especially if his death is connected to Margery’s. If so, the people from the company would be the only suspects, unless someone hid upstairs. But that would be…” A novel idea flashed through my mind. “Let’s find the double doors for this suite that connect it to yours. I heard a door slam earlier, and I thought it had come from somewhere else. But you never know.”
“Really?” Charles raised his brows. “That could change everything. Maybe.”
Aunt Penny set down her fake glasses with bright purple rims and looked around the suite. “I don’t know why you didn’t say anything before.”
“Well, it was probably nothing. Doors slam in hotels all the time.” I scanned the walls, which might connect to Charles’s suite. “There. Right behind the stairs.”
Charles nodded and tried the handle. The doors swung open, but right behind them we found another set, which were locked and would have needed to be opened from the other side. “These are pretty common in most hotels. Sometimes groups want to book a bunch of suites together, so the staff opens the doors.”
