“I don’t anticipate any problems from my end. I’m still as excited about all this as ever.’’
“Good. Lee?”
“I could use a beer, but other than that I’ve never had it so good. All my gear in the back is quality stuff. I’ll be able to handle rushes bigger than the ones we had at The Emerald Room without any backup. That Hobart dishwasher practically does all the work itself, and so does the glassware rig. They even have element driers in them.”
“Same goes for my gear, Vera,” Dan B. said, inserting another big dollop of lobster into his mouth. “Everything works great. Only thing I got to complain about is that Kyle motherfucker. He wants to start some shit, and I don’t like it. ”
“I know,” Vera said. “He wants to make us look bad and himself look good—brownie points. The best way we can counter that is to forget about it and just give everything our best. We can’t let room service show us up, and we won’t if we don’t let Kyle get to us. I know his game. Let me handle him.”
“And what about these funky-looking maids?” Lee observed. “Walking around here, giving us the eye, not talking. They’re treating us like trespassers.”
“In a way, we are trespassers,” Vera commented. “To them, we’re the newbies walking on their turf. Just stay on good terms with them, and they’ll get used to us. And don’t cause a stir; I think a lot of them are here without green cards.”
They all concurred, however reluctantly. Then Dan B. continued, “And there’s another funny thing. I was snooping around the room service side today after I inventoried our stock. I wanted to see what they had compared to us—”
“Let me guess,” Vera ventured. “They had twice as much stock as us.”
“That’s just it, I don’t know. All their pantries and walk-ins had padlocks on them.”
Vera’s brow rose. “What did Kyle say about that?”
“Nothing, he wasn’t there. In fact, I haven’t seen nimnose since earlier today when you and I first met him.”
Neither have I, Vera realized. And she hadn’t seen Feldspar either. After Kyle had shown her her room, she’d looked for Feldspar, needing the initial workman’s compensation and F.I.C.A. forms for her staff payroll, but Feldspar was not to be found in his office or anywhere, though she’d spotted his Lamborghini out in the lot. Perhaps he and Kyle had gone out on the grounds to supervise the tree-trimmers or the excavator crew working out back. “I’ll hunt him down later,” she remarked. “He said he was going to give me the twenty-five-cent tour tonight.”
Dan B.’s quick scowl made no secret of his emotions. “Better if you just stay away from the guy unless you’re with one of us. He’s got the hots for you fierce—”
“No, he doesn’t,” Vera dismissed.
“I don’t know about that, Vera,” Donna jumped in. “That guy’s a womanizer if I ever saw one—”
Then Lee: “And you should’ve seen the way he was—”
“I know,” Vera interrupted. “Gandering my rib melons. Dan B. was kind enough to point that out to me earlier, and if you want my opinion, I think you’re all being silly. I’m an adult, remember? I know how to handle guys like Kyle.”
She left them, then, to their objections, amused and mildly flattered. “I’m not kidding, Vera,” Dan B. continued to rant after her. “You be careful around that guy.”
Vera laughed and went out into the atrium. It was dark and quiet now; The Inn felt subdued. Someone had lit a fire in the huge stone fireplace. She could feel its heat crawl on one side of her face. The front offices occupied the lower east extension of the ground floor. Cool fluorescent lights buzzed down on her when she entered the short L-shaped hall. Again, Feldspar’s office, done up like a London banker’s, was empty. general manager, the door’s brass plaque read. It surprised Vera to find the office unlocked. There seemed to be many expensive curios about: Hummel ashtrays, a gold Mont Blanc pen set, and a beautiful gold-and-crystal carriage clock, not to mention a brand-new PC and Hewlett-Packard laser printer. She saw no harm in taking a quick peek into the top desk drawer. Rolls of stamps, clusters of keys, and an enameled cash box. Jesus, she thought. This guy’s not very security conscious. The cash box, too, was unlocked. She flipped it open and noticed a few bands of one hundred and fifty dollar bills. There must be ten or fifteen grand sitting here, she realized, squinting. Lucky for him I’m honest. She was about to reclose the drawer when she noticed something else.
She touched it, slid it out…
A gun.
Vera frowned. All right, it was legitimate for a general manager to have a gun, but that didn’t mean she approved. The gun itself, a revolver, looked big, clunky, and old, like an antique. Perhaps Feldspar owned it as a collector, but if so this whole thing made even less sense. Anybody could walk right in here and take all of this stuff, she thought. It was good to know that Feldspar trusted his people, but this was just plain stupid. She locked the door behind her when she left.
Around the bend came another office. Unlike Feldspar’s, it was locked. Vera frowned hard at its doorplate. room service manager. A third door read, simply, accounting. This addled her. Where’s my office? she complained to herself. Fucking Kyle gets an office but I don’t? Where do I do my work? The goddamn coffee station? A petty complaint, she realized, but it still pissed her off.
“I know what you’re thinking.”
Vera turned, almost startled at the voice. “Hello, Kyle,” she said when she recognized him. “I’ve been looking for you.”
His grin flashed white, even teeth. “You’re wondering where your office is, right?”
“Well…yeah.”
“It’s right here.” Immediately he produced a Philips’-head screwdriver and removed the accounting plate. Then he replaced it with a brand-new one. restaurant MANAGER, V. ABBOT.
That’s better, she thought. “Where are you moving the accounting office?”
“You and me, baby,” he jested. “We’re it. But you won’t have to worry about any of the auxiliary bills, like housekeeping and utilities. I’ll be doing all that myself, since I’m more experienced.”
You dick, Vera thought. “What makes you think you’re more experienced at accounting than I am? I’ve got a degree in restaurant and hotel management.”
Kyle shrugged. “A degree means nothing. I’ve been working for Mr. Feldspar for ten years. I know the ropes. Don’t get hot about it.”
Ten years, my ass. He couldn’t be more than twenty-five. What, he’d been in the business since he was fifteen?
Kyle stood with his hip cocked and arms crossed, smiling derisively. “Best way to learn is to just jump in there and do it, you know? I started at the bottom and I worked my way up, learned everything. When Mr. Feldspar first took me on, I was peeling potatoes and emptying garbage cans. Now I do the quarterly taxes and all the deduction schedules with my eyes closed.”
Big man, Vera thought. This was not worth going on with. “It’s getting late,” she changed the subject. “How about showing me the rest of the place before I turn in.”
“Sure.”
They left the front offices and recrossed the atrium. Firelight jittered about the carpets and paneled walls, prismed through the great chandelier. A coved door to the left of the reception desk took them down a long wide corridor appointed in dark hues and deep-green carpet. “Banquet room,” Kyle pointed through a set of double doors. Vera gaped at its size. “It’ll seat five hundred easy,” Kyle bragged on. “Got a couple smaller banquet rooms upstairs, on the third floor.”