3 Service for Two by Kate Kingsbury

Author:Kate Kingsbury [Kingsbury, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 042514223X
Published: 2012-10-30T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

11

Cecily took a moment to regain her composure. “Just where did you see this man?” she asked, keeping her voice as even as possible.

“I seen him come out of one of the bedrooms. He had his arm around … some tart … and they was giggling together. He tried to push her behind him when he saw me. Guilty as hell, if you’ll pardon my French. Didn’t want me to see who it was.”

“Which room was that?”

“Room seventeen, mum. That’s how I knows they was up to no good, ’cos that room was supposed to be empty.”

It was indeed, Cecily thought grimly. “I don’t suppose you recognized the woman with him?”

Gertie flushed a deep red. “I didn’t see her properly, mum. I couldn’t tell, honest. She was hid behind him, like.”

Cecily fought the urge to insist. It was unlikely that Gertie would tell her, even if she had recognized the woman. In any case, Cecily did not want Gertie to know how important it was to her.

“I seen him again, later,” Gertie offered, as if to make up for her reluctance to divulge the name of the woman. “It was right afterwards. I had to fetch some wine from the cellar, and as I was going past the card rooms, this bloke comes out one of them. He looked right chuffed with himself, he did. Grinning all over his face.”

“You’re sure it was the same man? That it was the man in this picture?”

“I ain’t likely to forget,” Gertie said, glowering at the newspaper. “He pinched me blinking bottom, didn’t he. Cheeky bugger.”

“And can you remember which card room he was in?”

Gertie stuck a finger under her chin and stared up at the ceiling. After a moment’s thought, she looked back at Cecily. “No, mum, I can’t. Really I can’t. Could have been any one of them. He came up behind me, like, and I was so pissed at him, I didn’t think about which door he’d come out of.”

“And you are quite sure it was Sunday night?”

“Yes, mum. Positive. It was the same night that Mr. Jeremy Kent was here, I seen him talking to Michel in the hallway. I thought it was strange like, till I remembered Mr. Kent’s mother is Michel’s landlady.”

She shuddered. “I don’t like that Mr. Kent, mum. I really don’t. Nasty piece of work, he is. Gives me the creeps the way he looks at me.”

The back door opened so suddenly, for a fleeting moment Cecily wondered if Ethel had been listening behind it. But the girl’s face looked innocuous enough as she carried her tray over to the sink.

“Well, I would really appreciate it, Gertie,” Cecily said quietly, “if you would not discuss this with anyone.” Her faint emphasis on the last word was a warning. She could see by Gertie’s expression that she understood.

“Yes, mum. Me lips are sealed. On me life.”

Cecily seriously doubted that, but she hoped at least that Gertie would not spread the gossip all over the hotel. Tucking the paper under her arm, she left the kitchen and headed once more for the library.

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