by Kailin Gow
Skyla looks flabbergasted.
“But I’m…”
“I know. It’s crazy. But in this world you never know who you can trust.” I smile sheepishly. It sounds so stupid saying it all out loud. “I feel like I’m losing my mind, Skyla,” I admit.
“You’re so innocent,” Skyla laughs. “Despite everything. The handsome playboy. The lothario lover. The skilled businessman. And you’re still so gullible…my gosh. Ben had you fooled, I know. He’s one of the top PIs in the world. He can impersonate almost anyone – the man deserves an Oscar. But Jaymie? She’s a relative newbie when it comes to this world. She couldn’t impersonate me if she wanted to. And if you need to see all of me to prove it, well…I’ve seen her naked, on one of their tapes, and I promise that there’s no resemblance. My body is all my own.”
“You’ve seen me have sex?” I feel the heat of embarrassment rise to my face. “That’s…I mean, how?”
“Someone’s been bugging the Blue Room, Xander.”
“If any of our clients found out…”
“Likely some of them know already. Blackmail. But the rest? You’re right. Heads will roll if this ever gets out.”
“All of them?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out, Xander. But so far, it seems like many of the appointments have been taped.”
“Not me and Staci. We never did it at the Blue Room – or almost never, in any case. That tape of me wouldn’t have been me and her. It would have to be me and…”
“Well, what a sight for sore eyes!” I hear a familiar strong female voice and turn to look. Jaymie sashays in, all bright and cheery, wearing – well, practically nothing. A skimpy crop top that shows off her curvaceous rounded breast and shorts that all but show off the cheeks of her ass. She fans herself. “My it’s hot in here. I forgot how the heat rises when you get into these place – and all the brothers are together.”
So, that settles it. Jaymie isn’t Skyla. But whoever she is, she makes my body go hot inside. My body remembers everything Skyla saw on that tape: how good it felt to come inside of Jaymie, how good it felt to be with her, to be in her.
“Jaymie,” I say.
Skyla looks less pleased than Terrence and Danny do at the interruption.
“I figured…” Skyla says curtly. “Nice to see you, ah, again.”
Jaymie walks right up to us at the front of the room. “What did I miss? Anything important happened while I was gone?”
Now I’m angry. I grit my teeth and clench my fists, trying not to lose my temper. “You can drop that little miss innocent act now,” I say. “You were on the job. We trusted you. We relied on you. Then you went missing. We thought something bad happened to you and we went looking all over. Staci was worried about you enough to care to look – but all this time you were out doing your own thing. I wouldn’t be surprised…” All the lies flood back to me. “Did you film us on purpose?”
I throw my hands up in the air and walk off. I’m too angry to do anything else.
“Film you?” Danny asks. “Like…a sex tape?”
Terrence glowers. I know what he’s thinking. Me and Staci? I can’t handle this.
Skyla turns on the projector. All around us we see clips – naked men and women, all together, and even me…
“Oh hell no!”
Terrence is on there, too. Not with Staci, thank God.
“Look, Staci – that was a long time ago,” Terrence protests. “Before I ever even met you. It was some other girl from the Blue Room – I barely remember her name.”
“How long ago was that?” Skyla asks.
“A year, maybe. Give or take.”
“So we’ve got tapes going back a year or even longer…” Skyla frowns.
“So what? What’s the point?”
“If our clients know…” Terrence gulps. “This could ruin us. This could destroy us.”
“So we have to destroy them right away. Before it destroys the Blue Room.”
“Who could do something like this without us knowing?” I wonder aloud.
“Before we panic and do something rash like destroying evidence.” Jaymie puts her hands on her hips.
“Exactly,” says Skyla, still glowering at Jaymie. “The tapes we found are valuable in unlocking this mystery.”
“As are some of my discoveries,” Jaymie says, looking equally put out. “I had a legit reason to go AWOL on you, which you’d know if you bothered to talk to me instead of yelling. You wouldn’t have believed me if I told you why. I had to get the truth on my own.”
“Okay,” I say. “Fine. Please, you two, both of you, either of you, I don’t care. Just tell me what’s going on.”
Skyla and Jaymie exchange glances. “I’ll go first,” Skyla says. She switches screens and plays footage: the back of a woman on top of a man, straddling him and riding him before a loud pop goes off. There’s a little smoke from near the cameras. Then I see the woman falling dead to the ground. A shot right between the eyes. Then, out of the shadows, a dark figure comes with a gun, holding the gun to the man. The man’s hands are up – and then I recognize the killer.
The dead girl? That’s Roz.
And the man who was the old Mr. X., Mr. X before me – was the very same man Gloria Tannenbaum had shown the picture of to me ten years ago.
“Is that…” Terrence’s mouth drops open too. “Well, that takes our client base to a whole new level. Royal blood. Jeez.”
“Roz…” I whisper.
“So, that’s our Mr. X?” Terrence asks.
“For the night he was,” I say. “He keeps changing his identity. He’s so big, so famous, he leaves nothing to chance. He never wants to be found out.”
“This is the guy Roz was in love with – according to Staci?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
“But who is it in the shadows?” asks Danny. “Who really is Roz’s killer/”
Chapter 6
So, here we are. The final mystery. The mysterious man in the shadows. Who is he? What does he want? What did Roz’s killer really hope to accomplish?
We all look up at Jaymie. She is sitting on the conference table, her shorts hitched so high you can see she is not wearing panties, and she is wet as she stared at me, uncrossing her long, shapely legs, a beautiful button frown on her luscious dark red, cinnamon-hot lips. Her hair falls so gently down her sweat-tinged shoulders. I want to inhale the scent of her but I hold myself back. The sight of her, despite the situation, gets me harder. But my anger with her, as well as Skyla’s presence, keep me in check.
“I had the same suspicions as Skyla over here,” Jaymie starts to say. “I knew something was up when I saw the trail of the videos. But I had to be discreet. I didn’t want to arouse any suspicion.”
Jaymie’s arousing something, all right, I think, staring at her. I find my eyes irresistibly drawn to her crotch, which she had positioned in a way only I can see her wet intimate parts beckoning me to come lick her. I swallowed.
“Well, my personal choice wouldn’t have been to pretend to be kidnapped – or hint that I was Skyla in disguise. But I didn’t know who I could trust. Until I was sure who the leak in the Blue Room was, it could have been any of you. Ben figured a red herring or two would work on you Blues. You’re all so suspicious, so gullible. You’ll believe the worst of everyone and anyone – even poor Skyla here. That’s what Ben said, at any rate, and I trust him. He’s been around a long time. He knows what buttons will work, what buttons to press or push on all of you…”
“Ben again!” Terrence all but cries out in disgust. “That man – that monster. Whoever he is, he absolutely can’t be trusted. If it were up to me…I’d beat that untrustworthy son of a bitch until next week.”
“Ben’s a good egg in the end,” Jaymie says. “I swear it. He’s on the job, same as me. We have mixed methods but in the end we do what we need to do to get the job done. Ben taught me every single thing I ever knew about being a PI, well he taught me the advance par
t, where Rita left off. But let’s not get off track. I need to tell you my story. What I found. Believe me, guys, you’re going to want to hear every word of this.” She purses her cherry-red lips again. I’m mesmerized by their smell, their taste, their sinuous shape.
“I found something while checking out Mrs. Walter’s records. Something that didn’t make sense. Her signature changed about a year ago. Look…”
She puts something up on the projection. Two signatures. One a fine, curved hand. One…little more than a scrawl.
“And this second Mrs. Walters,” Jaymie adds, “she was doing a lot of work. Checking into highly confidential files. Hacking into the system to access files only the Blues were supposed to be given access to. Which made me wonder. What if Mrs. Walters wasn’t Mrs. Walters? About a year ago, her signature subtly changed. The same time the cameras started appearing in the room. I saw a lot of transactions with a UK bank on this second Mrs. Walters’ statements. Figured maybe she had some time in England – past, present, or future. So I needed to go investigate these ties. Figure out who it was that impersonated Mrs. Walters, placed the cameras in the Blue Room for blackmail, taped the clients. But she forgot it was on when she shot Roz.”
Jaymie stands up and goes to Skyla’s laptop where she magnifies the footage. She zooms right into the shadows and there, in the shadows once the footage is brightened, is an unmistakable shadow. Mrs. Walters.
“Jeez,” Terrence yells. “This is crazy. I know it’s always the butler who does it – but Mrs. Walters!”
Our jaws collectively drop. We don’t believe this. Could Mrs. Walters, our stalwart, reliable, trustworthy Mrs. Walters, have been a murderess all along? And if she wasn’t, then what happened to the real Josephine Walters?
Chapter 7
Xander
My jaw is practically on the floor. How could this be? After all this time, the one person I thought I could still trust, the one stalwart companion that I thought could bring order to the chaos of the Blue Room – the person I could trust least of all?
“This is insane…” Terrence rolls his eyes.”Oh boy. I feel like I have to sit down or something. I have no idea how…I mean…her?”
“Not Mrs. Walters,” says Jaymie, tossing her long golden-dark hair. Don’t forget. The real Mrs. Walters – who knows where she is? The person impersonating Mrs. Walters, on the other hand…”
“But who is that?”
“Before I answer your questions,” Jaymie says. “Let me ask you one. Where is Staci? Haven’t you been wondering where she’s been this whole time during this big meeting?”
“Of course I have,” Terrence says impetuously. “My mind is always on Staci – day and night. But I trust that Staci knows what she’s doing. After she called us to this meeting, I stopped being worried for her. She’s a strong independent woman so I figured she’s all right if she hasn’t called me – and Skyla, you haven’t said a word. I figured whatever Staci is doing is the right thing.”
Skyla and Jaymie both nod. “That’s what Staci would want,” Jaymie says. “I’m sure of that.”
I can’t help but feel irritated at Terrence. Playing the playboy macho lover when it suits him, playing the trusting feminist when it suits him. He’s just the perfect man, isn’t he? No wonder Staci chose him… I suppress the rolling of my eyes. “Staci knows how to care for her own self,” I say. “She did just fine without us, as I hope you recall. In fact, we kind of messed up her life, didn’t we?”
“Maybe you did,” Terrence snarks straight back at me. “As for me, I should hope I enhanced it. I mean, we are getting married.”
I don’t say anything but I can feel my cheeks reddening with anger.
“Watch it, Terrence,” says Danny, punching Terrence lightly in the shoulder. “Xander looks mad.”
I am mad, as a matter of a fact, but I’m none too grateful at Terrence for pointing it out.
“Xander Blue, turning red…” Terrence smiles.
“I’m fine,” I say. “It’s just been a long day. A long month. With all this switching of identities I hardly know what to react to anymore, what to think. I don’t know if anybody’s real? Are you real?” I pinch Terrence’s cheeks. It’s a joke, but I admit I pinch a little bit harder than I have to. “What are these, prosthetics?”
“Ouch!” Terrence yelps out in pain. “I’m the real and only Terence and you know that, so stop it, right now, okay?”
“How about you? You the real Danny?” I know I’m being aggressive but I can’t help myself. I’m too mad. I pull Danny’s hair. “What, a wig?
“Jesus, Xander, stop it! Do you want me to go bald?” He rolls his eyes. “Just what I need. Losing my looks just when the newest record tour is coming up. And goodness knows there’s more of a future for me being in my band than hanging out with you clowns, dealing with all this bullshit at the Blue Room. First a murder, now a sex tape, what next? I’m telling you, if Never knew what I did on my off days she’d never….”
“Boys!” Skyla’s clear, sharp voice cuts through the banter like a knife through butter. “What are you doing? We haven’t even started yet. By the time we’re done presenting our evidence, you’ll be banging your heads and asking yourself if this is real.”
“Oh boy,” Terrence looks distinctly unimpressed. “As if we didn’t have enough shockers already to last us through a whole lifetime of therapy.”
“So where’s Staci?” Jaymie says. “What’s going on her?”
“I assumed she’s looking something up,” Terrence says. “”She said she had to follow up on a lead.”
Jaymie shakes her head in disbelief. “Go call her,” Jaymie says.
“Sure.”
Terrence picks up his phone and dials, and soon he has her on the line. He puts her on speakerphone. “Where are you, babe?” he asks her in such a loving voice I want to throw up. “Baby, I’m worried about you. We’ve found something. You should be here to hear all about the big reveal. After all, this whole world – you’re at the heart of it. You’re a major part of this after all.
“I know…” Staci’s voice is vague.
“You know what? How important you are, Staci? How you’re the thing keeping this place sane for the both of us, for Xander and I?”
“Honey,” Staci coos. “I know that. But I know something else, too. What this craziness is all about. I’m trying to wrap my head around it. But I can’t. Not until…I guess, seeing is believing. I have to see for myself if it’s true. I have to see for myself what the truth really is.
She sounds vacant, confused. My heart starts to beat faster and faster with worry.
“Where are you, Staci?” Terrence asks.
“I’m at the Blue Room,” she says. “At my old room here at the Blue Room. She’s here.
We all look at one another, Terrence and Danny and Skyla and Jaymie and me. Who is she talking about? The ghostly figure on the video?
“We need to go,” Terrence whispers. “Now. Something’s wrong.”
Skyla shuts down her laptop and we hurry along the corridor, down to the old Blue Room suite where Staci used to work. Memories seem to rush over me like waves as I walk down these old hallways again, as I’m reminded of the balmy nights I spent coming to Staci’s room…
“Who’s there?” Terrence stays on the line, trying to sound as calm as possible.
“The woman…” Staci sounds like a little girl, a little girl lost in a trance. “I don’t know her name. She’s changed it so often. She pretended to be my friend, but then she kept lying to me. About her name. About her personality. About who she really was. Then she died – and what died with her were all the answers, all the answers I needed.
Terrence and I stare at each other in shock. Rita? Is she talking about Rita?
Is Rita alive?
We reach the door to Staci’s room, but it’s locked. I’m so worried I am ready to break the door down myself, but Danny stops me.
“Chill out, man,” he whispers, putting the key in
the doorknob.
I know I’m acting crazy. Not like myself. But I’m so rattled now, I think I’m losing my grip on sanity. I don’t even know what to think anymore.
The door opens quietly. At first we think the room is empty. The only sound is the clinking of glass, like a spoon dropped on a plate. We make our way to the bedroom.
There, tied to the bed, her wrists bound, is Mrs. Walters. Staci is feeding her some soup. She is tranquil, calm.
“As I was saying…” Staci is still so smooth, so soft. “I know. I know now what all this craziness is about. After all, I am a Tannenbaum.” She looks over at Mrs. Walters. “Just like her.”
“What?” Terrence stops. “What are you talking about? You’re the only Tannenbaum left besides your father.”
“No,” Staci whispers. “Don’t you see? I’m not. She’s a Tannenbaum – and there’s another out there too, only he doesn’t know it. A bastard. Gloria’s bastard son – the result of a passionate love affair she’d had with a high-ranking Duke, near the top of the line to the throne of England. My father’s half-brother…in line to the throne of England…”
“I know Gloria was obsessed with a pure bloodline, but…” Then I stop. Staci’s glaring at me, but she’s not the only one. Mrs. Walters is glaring at me too. And then it hits me. Hard.
Those eyes – despite the brown contact lenses, they look so familiar. The smoother skin – that could just be the result of laser treatments, couldn’t it? The fullness of the lips. The different hairstyle, different nose…
I realize I have seen those eyes, that face, before. Then it hit me.
Mrs. Walters is Gloria Tannenbaum.
“But…why?” I whisper. “Gloria…why?”
The room seems to freeze up as Terrence, Danny, and Skyla all gather around us.
At first there is silence. But then I see spreading across Mrs. Walter’s face Gloria’s characteristic, indomitable grin.
“It’s about time you figured it out, my boy,” she whispers. “I wasn’t dead at all. No – I’ve been alive, around the whole time. It was better this way. Become Mrs. Walters, get into the action here at the Blue Room myself. I can’t trust any of my plants. And I couldn’t trust Xander, turning on me the way you did, falling in love with the girl you’re supposed to…”
