Authors: J. Fields Jr.
“Take one of your sleeping pills or something.
Don’t go walking around like that.
And what’s up with the stupid hat?”
“It’s a disguise.
You done working yet?”
“Yeah.”
“You smell sweaty.
Is it hot up there?”
“Little.
You telling me I stink now?”
“What are those marks on your back?”
“What marks?”
“Look in the mirror.
Go ahead.”
Oh shit,
thought Max.
She’s going to do it right now.
“Those marks?
Must be from the chair upstairs.”
“That chair has a good manicurist.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m
saying
that those are from fingernails, not from a chair.”
“Must be your fingernails.
Maybe you
should
get a new manicure.”
“Maybe I should get a shot of penicillin too.”
“Huh?
You’re drunk.
You had too much champagne.”
“Actually I could use another drink.
I know exactly where I left the bottle.
Upstairs, right outside the guest room.
Let’s go get it.”
“Upstairs?
You spying on me now?”
“No, but I’m not
DEAF
either, dumbass.”
Their footsteps followed each other up the spiral staircase and across the second floor landing.
Their voices fell down over the railing at him:
“Here it is!
Oh look.
The bed in the guestroom has been used!”
“So what I took a
nap
.”
“Gee Goldilocks, do you like to try out ALL the beds?”
Max, cramped between the wall and the sectional, had been so absorbed in the melodrama that he hadn’t realized Shannon led
Brandon
upstairs so he could have the opportunity to get out.
Oh!
He worked his shoulders sideways and slid upright, peering over the back of the sofa and up towards the landing.
“A condom wrapper!”
Shannon
’s voice was excessively loud now.
“So let me get this straight – you were working on your music, got tired, took a nap, then decided to jack off.”
“Who are you – the fuckin cops?!”
“Oooh, isn’t this nice?
It smells like raspberries.”
Max rolled over the back of the couch, swung his feet to the floor, dropped the purse on the cushion and stood up, quick-stepping towards the foyer.
“What’s this CSI bullshit?
You want a blood sample too?”
“Yes, turn around and I’ll swab those fucking nail marks on your back.”
Max was at the door to the suite.
He opened it and found the security officer still at post.
Max waved him over.
“Come with me,” he said, and stepped aside so the man could enter.
The officer looked around the foyer.
“What’s up?”
“Domestic dispute.
Don’t mention that you let me in here, okay?”
The man nodded.
Max called out, “Hello?
Butler
services…”
Footsteps from the second floor landing.
Shannon
called out from the balcony.
“Yes?”
“My apologies, Miss Moon,” said Max, feeling more like Antonio than ever.
“I’m sorry to say this, but we got a call from an adjoining suite that there was loud conversations coming from in here.
Is everything okay?”
“My boyfriend fucked a slut in the guestroom.
Is that okay?”
Brandon
’s voice rang out, “No you didn’t just say that!”
The security officer rolled his eyes.
“Can you two come down here please?”
They came down opposite sides of the spiral staircases.
It was the first time Max had really seen
Brandon
.
He was young, wearing lycra warm-up pants, designer tennis shoes and no shirt.
His upper body was lean, muscular and tattooed.
Shannon
was no longer wearing the cowboy hat or the sunglasses, but still had her coat and slippers.
She walked directly over to Max.
“I want another room.”
“Of course,” said Max, offering her his arm.
“Don’t forget your purse.”
The security officer said, “I’ll grab the suitcase.”
Outside in the hall Max held the suitcase while
Shannon
went through her purse.
The security officer was still inside the suite explaining to
Brandon
that he had to stop yelling.
Shannon
pulled out a prescription bottle and shook it.
Pills rattled.
“I’m going to need these little babies tonight.”
She suddenly looked up at him.
“Hey.”
“What?”
“You rescued me in there.”
“No, I think you rescued
me.
I was the one trapped behind the leather sectional.”
A laugh escaped just before her hand came to her mouth.
“Is that where you were hiding?”
“There weren’t a whole lot of options.”
“That suite is
huge.
I could hide a marching band in there and no one would know it.”
“I had to think fast.”
“Then you came back and rescued me.
You’re some butler, Max, you know that?”
“Well,” he cleared his throat.
“It’s our duty.
You know, the butler…code.”
“There’s a butler code?”
“Yes.
To serve and protect. Our guests.”
“I thought that was the police code.”
“We added the last part about the guests.”
She licked her lips.
“I think you just did it for me.
Go ahead, you can tell me.”
Max picked up the cowboy hat and sunglasses from the floor.
“I can’t tell you that.
It’s against the code.”
“You have a code of silence too?”
“Something like that.”
“Any other codes I should know about?
How about chastity…”
“That’s monks and priests.”
“Not you.”
“Not voluntarily,” he said.
The security officer emerged from the suite, shutting the door firmly behind him.
He looked at
Shannon
and said, “No offense.
That guy’s a jerk.”
“Try dating him.”
“He’s not my type.”
The officer shook Max’s hand.
“I didn’t realize you were a butler, sir.
Sorry about my behavior.”
Max waved away the apology.
“Thanks for helping us out, and taking care of
Brandon
.”
“You won’t tell Antonio?”
The officer glanced at
Shannon
.
“I mean, I like getting these guard posts up here.
I don’t want my name taken off the list.”
“I won’t tell him.”
“So where’s the new room?”
The officer’s radio squawked and he reached down to his belt, where the radio was clipped, and turned the volume knob.
“You want a post outside that room too?”
“Uhm,” said Max, frowning.
“I’ll let you know.”
The man nodded.
Turning to
Shannon
he said, “Sorry about your evening, miss.
Try to enjoy the rest of your stay with us.”
She leaned towards him.
“If he comes out of there, you can shoot him.
I won’t tell anybody.”
The officer chuckled.
“All I have is a radio.
No weapons.”
“That’s a shame,” she said, slipping her arm around Max’s arm.
“I’m ready for my escort.
I need a new room, some water to take my sleeping pill, a new boyfriend, and about six months of anger management therapy.”
Max said, “Let’s see what we can find for you.”
“I’ll even take three out of four,” she said as they walked down the hallway.
“But it’s up to you which three.”
She looked up at him and laughed, nudging his arm with her shoulder.
“That’s so
cute.
”
Chapter Twenty-One
“There’s lots of Asians around here, especially on the weekends,” said Chewie.
“We bus ‘em in from
China
Town
.
Both
China Towns.”
“You grab that footage,” said Chloe.
“I’ll scan for the engineer from last night.
I think I remember something.”
She ducked over a second laptop and began typing.
Her hand darted to the wireless mouse, eyes locked on the screen, and she clicked an icon.
“What time was that?
You were taking a break.
But it was before the chick peed in the stairwell…”
“The girl with the lacy panties.”
Chewie nodded, busy at his own terminal.
“That was eleven twenty.”
“Great,” said Chloe.
“That’s an awesome thing to remember.”
She brought up a view of the Villa hallways, empty.
At the bottom of the screen was a motion bar with tags at random intervals.
“Let’s find some movement,” she said, clicking the first tag and jumping to the point where the camera detected motion.
Antonio waited patiently, hands clasped behind his back, idly looking at the wall of monitors.
Cocktail waitresses streamed in and out of one of the service bars located on the casino floor.
A group of Environmental Services attendants cleaned a spill in the back hallway near the employee cafeteria.
Valet jockeys ran the length of the interior corridor of the parking garage and hopped on the man-lift, the odd vertical conveyor belt that allowed them to step onto a small plastic foothold and grasp a handle while they descended down to the lower parking levels through a series of openings in the concrete floors.
On an upper monitor he recognized the Villa hallways, thankfully empty.