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“I’ll be waiting for you,” he said, surprised by his own words. He’d never waited for any woman before. Why would he wait for one now? He opened the door and looked both ways, then took the service elevator to the basement level. From there, he went out the backdoor and turned down Canal. With a wave of his hand, a taxi stopped, and he took off.
Lucianna straightened the bed, then opened the door and walked back toward her cart, two doors down. Just when she was about to wheel it toward the elevator, two men burst through the stairwell door. She let out a scream, and they silenced her.
“Get down,” whispered Bodhi. She kneeled behind the cart, watching as the men broke down the door of the room. What could they possibly want with him? He’d been nothing but kind and loving to her, treating her with reverence.
A few moments later, the men emerged from the room.
“Have you cleaned that room yet?” asked Ethan. He knew that she had, but he suspected she might not be honest.
“Yes, sir. I cleaned it about thirty minutes ago. I was in this room when I got Rosanna’s call.”
“Why didn’t you answer right away?” he asked. She pulled the earbuds from her pocket, and he nodded. “Did you see the man leave?”
“No, sir.”
“Come downstairs with us,” said Bodhi. “We have a few questions for you.”
Lucianna was scared to death of the massive men surrounding her, but Rosanna assured her she’d done nothing wrong. No one knew about the intimate time she’d spent with U-Jin, and she wasn’t about to tell them.
“May I go now? I still have six more rooms to go,” she said.
“I’ll take care of them, Lucianna. Thank you for cooperating,” said Rosanna. She watched as her employee nervously left the lobby, heading toward the employee lounge area.
“Where does she live?” asked Ethan.
“That information is confidential. Lucianna was cooperative with you, and you have yet to say why you’re looking for this man. I would have thought you’d speak with our own security first before all of this.” Rosanna was making a point. She wasn’t about to let them get to one of her employees without good cause. She’d been cooperative. To a point. Now, she was pissed.
“We should have involved your security, and in fact, we will. We’ll want to see security footage from that floor to see just how long Lucianna was in his room.”
“Are you implying that my employee was having a relationship with a guest?” she spat.
“I’m not implying it. I’m telling you that she was. That room was neat and tidy, but the bed wasn’t quite tidy enough for someone who had just cleaned it. When I smelled the sheets, it smelled like perfume and sex. Unless she’s screwing herself in the sheets, she was fucking around with that guest,” said Bodhi. The woman paled, and she stared at the team.
“I think I’ll call security now.”
An hour later, they were watching the last of the video clips, seeing Lucianna enter the room for the ninth time. Each time she went inside, she was there for at least forty-five minutes, never less than thirty. This last time, she’d been inside for almost two hours.
“How long should it take to clean a room?” asked Frank.
“Twenty minutes if it’s not completely a mess or a check-out situation,” said Rosanna with a sober expression. “Just a basic cleaning on a long-term stay guest is fifteen to twenty minutes.”
“Do you not check on your housekeepers?” asked Bodhi. The woman stiffened, the security manager staring at her, her boss over her shoulder.
“I do. Lucianna is one of my best. She’s never done anything like this before, so I usually don’t have to worry about her.”
“I’m asking again. Where does she live?” Rosanna looked back at her boss, then toward the men again.
“I’m not giving out personal information for an employee without written consent,” she insisted. They heard someone clear their throat behind them and turned to see Piper smiling at them.
“If anyone is interested, I have her address.”
“How?” asked Bodhi.
“Simple. She wrote it on the notepad beside the bed. Oldest sleuth trick in the book. Shade over it with pencil. Let’s go, boys.”
“Hey, what did we miss?” asked Rory, kissing his wife.
“Hi, babe. Nothing. Not really, anyway. Someone needs to sit with our head of housekeeping here. I’d like to make sure she doesn’t call Lucianna before we get there.”
