by Lily Webb
“Do you buy that story?”
“Who knows? Rich people do all kinds of strange things I’ll never understand. For what it’s worth, she won’t even allow housekeeping into her room — not at all. She’s probably terrified someone will see her with her bandages off,” Delia said, and my heart rocketed into my throat like a makeshift Adam’s apple. Could Feal have walked in on Tara? Based on the brownie’s interaction with Emile, I could totally see her going barging into Tara’s room even after being explicitly told not to.
“Anyway, I’ve spent more than enough of my life talking and thinking about the lovely Ms. Dupree lately. Do you mind if I hold on to this for a while?” Delia asked, wiggling the vial between her index finger and thumb. “I’d love to research it.”
Though I heard Blair’s voice in my head screaming at me to say no, I nodded. “Sure. Actually, that’s part of the reason we came up here. We were hoping you could help.”
Delia shrugged. “I can’t make any promises, but I’ll try.”
“If anyone can do it, it’s you,” I said, laying it on thick on purpose.
Delia smiled and pocketed the vial as Jadis and I finished loading the last of her things. “All ready?”
“Yeah, I think that’s everything,” I said, and Delia held the door open for us as we wheeled the much heavier carts out of her room and back to the elevator. Delia pressed the button to call for the lift. When it arrived, she slid back the grate and stepped inside.
“There’s not enough room for everything, so I’ll go up first and you can meet me,” she said and closed the grate without waiting for us to agree. She vanished a few moments later, and Jadis let out a long, exasperated exhale as she pressed the down button.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“She’s so extra.”
I laughed. “Well, we aren’t finished with her just yet, but I don’t think we have anything to worry about with her. As difficult as she is, I don’t think she’s our imposter.”
Jadis shook her head. “Neither do I, but I never did.”
The elevator dinged as it returned, and though it was annoying, Jadis and I somehow wheeled everything inside.
Upstairs, we found Delia waiting for us on the landing, still staring at the contents of the vial. She smiled and re-pocketed the glass as we opened the grate and fought to get the carts out. “Looks like the room is this way,” she said, pointing down the hallway and strutted off without waiting for us.
By the time we reached room 510, my shirt had soaked through with sweat. Breathless, I pulled the iron key out of my pocket, slipped it into the lock, and turned it. The door popped open, and a gust of musty air from the apparently unused room drifted out — along with a sound like a door slamming from somewhere inside.
“What was that?” Jadis whispered, pale-faced.
“Sounded like a door,” Delia said and strode around me. She pulled her wand from her robes and pointed it at the ceiling. “Illumino,” she muttered, and the light fixture above burst to light, revealing a near carbon copy of the room Delia had left behind. She charged through the room to the closet, but it was firmly closed. She yanked it open, looked inside, and shrugged before closing it again. “It was probably left open and slammed closed from the air movement when we opened the main door.”
“Oh, yeah, probably,” I said, though I wasn’t entirely sure myself. As logical as it sounded, it seemed a bit too suspicious, but I couldn’t exactly spend all night scouring Delia’s new room while she tried to settle into it. “Anyway, let’s get all this moved so you can get back to work,” I said, and gestured at Jadis to get busy.
To sate my morbid curiosity, I opened the closet and put several of her bags inside just to get a look at its interior. Disappointingly, though unsurprisingly, it looked like any other closet, so I closed it again and set the rest of the bags on the bed and on the surrounding floor.
It took far less time for us to unload the carts than it had to load them, but it still wasn’t easy work. When we finished, Delia smiled and nodded. “Thanks, girls, I appreciate it. Tell Blair how thankful I am, too.”
“No problem. Let us know what you find out about the stuff in the vial,” I said as I wheeled my cart toward the door.
“Of course.”
“Thanks. Here’s your key,” I said, and passed it to Delia.
“Great, I almost forgot.”
“Have a good night,” I said, and ushered Jadis and our carts out.
“You too,” Delia said and closed the door softly behind us.
As soon as we were alone in the elevator again, I turned to Jadis. “Do you really think that door slamming was a coincidence?”
Her face still pale, Jadis shook her head. “No. Do you?”
“Not even a little.”
Chapter Eleven
Blair and Kiki waited for us outside the elevator on the ground floor, so they must’ve been watching us somehow. Blair flung the grate open, an expectant look on her face, her eyebrows raised.
“Well? What did you learn?” she asked as she helped us wheel the carts out of the elevator.
“Not much, honestly,” I answered, and disappointment swept over Blair’s face. “Though I’m reasonably sure Delia’s not our imposter, so I guess that’s the most important thing. I let her hold on to the weird liquid we found in the kitchen. She said she’d research it and get back to us.”
“Hm, I see,” Blair said, and though she seemed uneasy about my decision, she apparently trusted me enough not to question it. “Well, hopefully she can come up with something because we’re at a dead-end here. Anything else to report?”
Jadis and I looked at each other, neither of us eager to share with Blair and Kiki what’d happened in Delia’s new room. “It might just be paranoia setting in after all that’s happened, but I dunno… Something weird happened when we got to room 510.”
Kiki raised an eyebrow at me. “Weird in what way?”
“We’re sure the prior guest left the closet open, but when we opened the front door, another door inside slammed shut,” Jadis answered. “I’ve heard that kind of thing before, and I’m telling you, this wasn’t the same sound.”
“That definitely sounds paranoid to me,” Blair laughed. “Not that I blame either of you for feeling that way. I’m more than a little spooked myself.”
“Oh, that reminds me,” I jumped in, “Delia told us something interesting about Tara Dupree. She admitted to it being a rumor so I can’t put too much stock in it, but she said she heard through the grapevine that Tara tried to curse someone else and it backfired, which is why she needed all that surgery.”
Blair laughed and batted my words away as if they were a swarm of particularly determined mosquitoes. “I can’t say definitively that isn’t true, but it seems unlikely to me. I wonder which tabloid rag Delia got that one from? That kind of thing is exactly why Ms. Dupree came here to recover.”
“Well, even if it’s not true, Delia also said that Tara’s adamant about not allowing anyone in her room, which got me thinking… What if Feal walked in on her when she shouldn’t have? I mean, Emile told her to leave his kitchen alone and she didn’t listen, so it would fit, right?”
Blair seemed skeptical, but Kiki’s face lit up. “She has a point, Blair. I can’t count on both hands the number of times Ms. Dupree has said she doesn’t want her room cleaned. I’ve always thought that was a little strange, even by our clientele’s standards — especially for someone who’s been here as long as she has.”
“Would you want someone in your room if you were in her condition and had her reputation?” Blair asked. “What if one of our staff were to sneak a photo of her and sell it to the press? I can’t blame her for wanting to be alone. Besides, in her vision, Selena saw Feal on the sixth floor, right, Selena?”
“Well, I’m not sure about that, actually. I saw what I thought was Feal trapped behind the door of room 666 in the first vision, but in the one I got when I touched Feal’s broom, I didn’t see
the room number or anything that made it clear where the scene occurred.”
“Which means it could’ve been anywhere in the inn,” Kiki said, smiling.
“We’ve barely seen Tara since our first night here, remember?” Jadis asked. “Her reclusiveness could just be an excuse. She could’ve been sneaking around here the whole time undetected because we assumed she was hiding from everyone in her room.”
“Let’s slow down,” Blair said. “I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves and making connections that may or may not be true. Just because we haven’t seen Tara doesn’t mean she’s guilty. She might have just been resting.”
I didn’t know who or what to believe anymore. If Tara had undergone as much painful work as Delia implied, could she really have been sneaking around the inn while posing as other people? It didn’t fit, especially with the way she’d stormed out of the kitchen on my first night after Lox and Keez splattered her pot pie everywhere. In a true stereotype of the well-to-do, she either thought she was too good for us, or she really did just want to be alone.
Still, her absence ate at me. In a situation in which we had next to no answers to the myriad of questions swirling, I couldn’t ignore how suspicious Tara looked. The only circle I couldn’t square was why, if she were our imposter, she’d want to incapacitate Emile and carry him off somewhere.
Until the collision with Emile in the kitchen, the imposter had gone undetected, so drawing attention to themselves like that didn’t seem their style, nor did it seem like the something the skittish Ms. Dupree would do.
“We have to talk to her,” I said. “We can’t afford to overlook anyone right now.”
Blair sighed but shrugged. “I think you’re wrong about Ms. Dupree, but you’re right, we have to find out.”
“Then what’s our plan?” Jadis asked.
That was a good question. I had no idea how to get to Tara without scaring her off, which didn’t seem at all difficult to do. If we just showed up on the third floor and knocked on her door, she might not answer, but even if she did, I couldn’t guarantee she’d tell us anything honest or useful.
“Meals are usually the only thing that brings her out of her room,” Blair said. “And speaking of, now that our chef is missing, I suppose we’re going to have to pick up the slack.”
My heart skipped a beat. “That’s it! We can do room service tonight. Delia said she didn’t hear a thing from the battle in the kitchen earlier, so the others probably didn’t either. We’ll make the excuse that Emile’s not feeling well, and Jadis and I can bring the food to her room. Then we’ll have the perfect opportunity to talk to her.”
Kiki smiled and nodded. “I’m not convinced she’ll answer the door, but I can’t think of anything better. At least this way the four of us can stick together in the kitchen without it seeming suspicious.”
“That’s great because I think we’re going to need the extra hands,” Blair said. “Okay, I’ll start calling everyone to let them know about the special dinner service tonight. Why don’t the three of you get started in the kitchen and I’ll meet you there when I’m done?”
Dread swirled in my stomach. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to split up?”
Blair pulled her wand and winked at me. “Don’t worry about me. I think if there were going to be another attack, it would’ve happened by now. The imposter, if they know what’s good for them, is lying low.”
“And if they aren’t?”
“Don’t worry about me, Selena. I’m a big girl; I can take care of myself.”
“Come on, girls. Let’s get moving,” Kiki said, gesturing toward the kitchen. Though I didn’t like leaving Blair alone even for just a few minutes with a copycat roaming the inn, I realized I didn’t have a choice, so Jadis and I followed Kiki, who led with her wand drawn, toward the kitchen. Though no one had touched it — or at least not to our knowledge — since the last time we were there, somehow, the destruction in the kitchen seemed even worse than I remembered.
Kiki sighed and shook her head. “Thank Lilith for magic. I couldn’t imagine having to clean all this up by hand,” she said as she waved her wand in the mess's direction.
I watched in awe as what must’ve been millions of pieces of porcelain flew upward and reassembled themselves into recognizable shapes, as if someone or something had just hit the rewind button on the universe. The overturned, twisted metal tables came next, popping and snapping as they unfolded themselves and plopped back in their original positions. Finally, the hole blown in the tile wall Emile had gone sailing through grew in on itself from the outside, healing like a wound.
And just like that, in less than two minutes, the kitchen looked like nothing at all had happened inside it earlier in the evening.
“Much better,” Kiki said with a self-satisfied smile. “Now, what are we feeling for dinner tonight, girls?”
I laughed, unable to believe how she could remain so nonchalant in the face of everything happening inside the inn, but maybe that was the only way she knew how to cope — and it wasn’t like I could think of a better way, so I joined her in it.
“What if we switched it up a bit? I mean, since Emile isn’t here, maybe everyone would like something a little different, something outside his palette,” I suggested, and Kiki’s smiled widened.
“I like that idea, but we can’t go too far off the menu; it still has to be vegetarian. What did you have in mind?”
“How about some comfort food? Like vegetable soup. When I was a kid, if I was sick or upset, my mom would make this great—” I trailed, the mention of my mom like a knife in my heart. Since arriving in Starfall Valley, it’d been so easy to forget about her and the way she and my dad had discarded me. I didn’t miss them, not really — as unbelievable and quirky as it’d been so far, life with Blair, Kiki, and Jadis was much more my style — but it did still hurt to think about my parents.
“Oh, honey,” Kiki groaned and pulled me in for a big hug. “Don’t you worry, I’ll make up a batch of vegetable soup so good you’ll never want your mom’s version ever again. Before Emile joined us, I was the chef around here.”
I beamed at her. “That sounds great.”
“How can we help?” Jadis asked.
“You can start by peeling some veggies,” Kiki said and waved her wand again. Heaping crates of potatoes, carrots, and zucchini popped into existence around us, and I could barely believe my eyes. “Normally, I’d do this all myself, but if you’re really determined to contribute, I won’t stop you. There are peelers in the drawer there,” she said, pointing across the room.
By the time Blair swished into the kitchen several minutes later, Jadis and I had piles of potatoes and carrots washed and peeled in the sink. “Ah, I see she’s already put you to work,” Blair said as she came around Kiki from behind and planted a kiss on her cheek.
“They volunteered,” Kiki corrected her. “Did everything go as planned with the phone calls?”
Blair shrugged. “As expected, Ms. Dupree sounded least excited about it, but even she agreed it was a good idea and sent Emile her well wishes.”
“Perfect,” I said, smiling.
“Well, almost,” Blair said, her happiness faltering. “Tara’s requested that, when you bring the food to her room, you knock and leave it.”
“Crap,” Jadis and I blurted together.
I dropped my peeler in the sink. “Well, what if we just waited until she came out and ambushed her?”
Blair laughed. “You’ve seen how skittish she is. I doubt you’d have much luck with that plan.”
“We have to try. We’re out of other options.”
“But what would our excuse be to talk to her if we’ve already left the food?” Jadis asked, always one step ahead of me.
I looked her in the face while I thought and eventually shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe we can tell her we forgot to leave silverware or salt and pepper or something?”
“Bread,” Kiki said, prompting Jadis and me both to look at her
like she was crazy. “Oh, come on, don’t play dumb. What goes perfectly with soup? Fresh-baked bread. When she opens the door, thinking you’re gone, come back and pretend you forgot to offer her some bread. You can take a whole loaf up there, one you’ll have to cut by hand, giving you a bit of time to make small talk, or at least peek around her to see inside her room.”
“Do you really think that will work?”
“Ms. Dupree loves bread, so I don’t see why not.”
“Only one way to find out,” Jadis said with a devilish glint in her eyes.
“This isn’t exactly the first family meal I had in mind for the four of us, but I guess it’ll do,” Kiki said, her eyes twinkling as she smiled at me.
“Really?” Blair asked. “I couldn’t think of a more suitably bizarre situation for us to find ourselves in.”
“You sure this is what you signed up for, girls?” Kiki asked us.
Jadis and I looked at each other, smiling, and I nodded at Kiki. “Are you kidding? Even though we’ve got a shape-shifting psycho running loose in the inn, I’d still rather be here than back in Denver.”
“It’s much more exciting around here, that’s for sure,” Jadis agreed, and Kiki howled laughing.
“That’s true. No one could ever accuse Kindred Spirits of having a dull moment.”
“For what’s it worth, and I think I can speak for Kiki when I say this, we’re thrilled to have you with us,” Blair said, her eyes misty. “It’s nice to have family around again. Aside from Kiki, I’d almost forgotten what that felt like.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” I said. “If it weren’t for Jadis having my back through the last year, I think I would’ve fallen apart a long time ago.”
“Well, now you can always count on us too, no matter what,” Blair said and stepped across the kitchen to pull Jadis and I into a hug. “That’s what families do.”
