Blue Room Confidentials: Vol. 3 Page 4

  I know exactly how he feels. I have my own company to run, and I’d rather be back there, making my own money, instead of cleaning up the Blue Room’s neverending messes.

  You want to pull back your duties at the Blue Room? I ask him.

  You know I can’t. I made a promise, same as you, that I’d help Terrence take over the place. And the last thing any of us wants is Terrence in charge on his own.

  I have to agree with him there. As much we love him, when it comes to actual business, Terrence is a liability, not an asset.

  But our publicist Yolanda knows how worried I am about what happened at the Blue Room. She doesn’t know the details – kept her in the dark as much as possible – but she knows newspaper reporters are yapping at the heels of the Never Knights, and there’s trouble brewing at the Blue Room. Something has to be done.

  What are you saying?

  We need a team meeting. All of us. Terrence, Staci, everyone. Ten a.m. sharp at the Blue Room Board Room. I want to bring Yolanda in on this.

  A new person? Because that worked so well the last time…

  Yolanda’s trustworthy. I vouch for her. I’ve known her for years. And we need her to understand what exactly she has to do. This isn’t an ordinary PR cleanup job and you know it.

  Don’t I just? I glower as I type.

  We need her help, Xander.

  I let out a deep breath. As much as I hate to admit it, I know he’s right. We need someone to keep the press as far away from this as possible. Bring in the press, the police will soon follow, and then our entire operation will be ruined.

  Great. Just what we need – another crazy stalker on the premises. Fine – bring Yolanda tomorrow, and I’ll get the other two there too.

  I close my phone and turn to Terrence and Staci.

  “Okay, guys.”

  “More good news?” Terrence says sarcastically.

  “Team meeting tomorrow. Board Room. 10 am. We’ll need to figure it all out there and then. Including how to get Jaymie back.”

  Staci and Terrence lock eyes, both considering together.

  “Yes,” they both nod at the same time.

  Chapter 5

  Staci

  There’s no getting out of it. I thought I was free of the Blue Room. Discovering my inheritance as a Tannenbaum and getting engaged to Terrence was supposed to start a new life for me, one where I wasn’t stuck in my old haunts. But somehow here I am again, me and Terrence and Xander, just like old times, trying to solve another mystery – the whereabouts of two people who could be our closest allies – or our darkest foes. We still have no way of knowing. Still, Terrence does his best to try to keep things calm, normal. Businesslike, even. It’s odd, considering how much shit we’ve been through over the past few hours, but somehow the “board room meeting” approach works. It keeps things feeling like we’ve got a semblance of normalcy in our lives. Even if “bring back our kidnapped PI” isn’t exactly common on board room agendas. Terrence and I pass a sleepless night together back at the house. Normally we have sex every single night – our high sex drives are one of the things that make us so compatible, usually – but tonight we don’t do anything but cuddle. We’re both too stressed, too tired, too worn out, too exhausted, for that.

  The next morning we arrive at 10 am sharp. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Terrence early for anything in his life. That’s how I know he’s serious about this – and how bad things have gotten. We’re in the hotel by 9:55; by 10 we’re sitting at the boardroom, bleary-eyed, exhausted. I don’t think any of us has gotten a good night’s sleep tonight. Xander is sitting at the head of the table, dressed in one of those perfectly tailored business suits of his, one of the ones that screams I’ve got as much money as I could ever need – and twice as much taste – one of the sexy-as-anything suits that made me fall for him in the first place. I bite my lip and try not to look at him. I can’t let myself get distracted by desire right now, not after everything that’s happened. I can’t let myself want Xander, not after all that has happened between us. I’ve hurt him enough, I think. The best thing, the only thing, to do is to let him go.

  Still, when I turn my seat and catch a glimpse of Terrence sitting beside me, I’m reassured that I made the right decision. My heart still palpitates so strongly in my chest every time I see him. He’s not wearing a business suit but what might be known as “smart casual” – finely tailored blue trousers and a pale blue shirt, open-neck, no tie. The look brings out his eyes, and makes me catch my breath. He looks every inch the sexy cocky playboy I first met when I first came to the Blue Room, the one I couldn’t resist, no matter how much I wanted to. A playboy who could have – and did have – any and every girl he wanted. But for now, he’s mine. All mine. And I relish the surety, the power, the truth, of that love.

  Danny is the last one to arrive, right at 10. He looks like a rock star, still – dressed down even more than Terrence is, with black tight jeans and a silk shirt of the same color. His wavy hair, dark and luscious, only brings out the chiseled cheekbones on his tan face; his muscles bulge underneath his lithe, fitted frame. He had the trademark Blue look – bright azure eyes, dark jet-black hair, full, sexy-mouth. I have enough on my plate as is, and I respect Neve and Danny too much to ever admit it out loud, but I find Danny hot, too. Who wouldn’t? He shares the family charm – the family irresistibility, and he’s a rock star who plays a mean guitar for the Never Knights.

  With Danny is a tall, stunning women in her thirties – so elegant it’s breathtaking. Her white blouse and loose white silk trousers perfectly complement her deep brown skin; her hair is long silky caramel and relaxed– a look that brings out her impeccable bone structure, her bright chestnut-red lips. Her skin is smooth and silky. I admit, she takes my breath away, too. She looks like a pop star herself, not a publicist – although I assume that this is the Yolanda I’ve heard so much about. PR whiz for the Never Knights. Well, we’re going to need a PR whiz.

  With her is another woman – a woman with a passing resemblance to Yolanda, but a completely different dress style. If Yolanda’s clothing is airy and light, this woman’s outfits are practical: jeans, combat boots, leather jacket. She wears her hair natural and close-cropped, and wears no makeup – the better for her shining brown eyes to truly sparkle.

  What an attractive bunch, I think.

  Then: but who is she?

  “Hi everyone,” Danny says. “Good morning.” He looks around the room at our confused faces. “Terrence. Staci. Xander. I know you all know – or know of – Yolanda, our publicist. But when I explained our – ahem – delicate situation she suggested that perhaps we should require a different form of inside help: somebody capable of dealing with the extraction of Jaymie and doing some of the ground work. But somebody we can trust – not an outsider. This is Yolanda’s cousin – Detective Skyla Strong. Former LAPD. Now she’s a private detective for hire. And she’s on retainer for Blue Corporation.

  I look over at Terrence and Xander. They barely look less shocked than I feel.

  “But Danny…” murmurs Terrence in a low voice through gritted teeth. “I thought we had planned to just keep this within the Blue Room for now…”

  Danny shakes his head. “Believe me, little brother, that’s what I thought too. Hoped, even. But if we don’t get some serious help, we’re in over all our heads. We need to get Jaymie back, and Rick too, and soon, or bad press will be the least of our problems. And if we can’t go to the police directly without explaining the whole situation, we have to find someone who can help us as best we can. I called this meeting not just to introduce us all to our good detective Skyla Strong, but also to tell you that Yolanda is pulling double duty, now. She’s no longer just the Never Knights’ publicist. She’s also ours. We will need her expertise when – and I say when, not if – the shit hits the fan with some tabloid reporter trying to get dirt on me and now sniffing around the Never Knights’ trail at the Blue Room. And you know what that means….”


  “Holy shit!” Terrence sounds as baffled as I do. A tabloid reporter nosing around the Blue Room? That can’t be good for anybody involved.

  “That’s what I thought,” Danny says dryly. “Now you understand why this was so important – and why I sought out outside help. Here is how it’s going to go down. Yolanda Strong will be handling the media, and Detective Strong…”

  “Will be handling the case as she handles all her cases,” Detective Strong cuts in. “To the best of my ability, professionalism, and discretion as a detective.”

  “Did you know Jaymie?” I ask. Still, I’m desperate, hoping against hope that somebody here might be able to provide me with some sign of her, some information about who this mysterious woman truly is.

  “I’m happy to say I don’t,” says Detective Strong. “I don’t know a single solitary soul here except for Cousin Yolanda. You might say I come in with a clean slate. No bias. Which is exactly what you need, if you’ll forgive my saying so. The “incestuous” approach seems to have produced nothing but complications.”

  My heart sinks and my face blushes. I know that what she says is true.

  Danny cuts in before my embarrassment becomes too obvious. “Skyla is an expert in technological evidence analysis and cybercrime. She’s done some astonishing cases in her time.”

  “I’ve only been doing my job,” says Skyla. “Usually that means bringing in fraudsters and other criminals. But I’ve worked a kidnapping case or two in my time. Mostly mob. Some abduction. I can get your girl back. I just need the time and the tools to do it.”

  “She’s the best in the business,” says Danny proudly.

  Skyla considers us all individually, slowly, taking us in with a methodical approach, like she’s cataloguing each of us inside her brain. First Xander, then Terrence, then Danny, then me.

  “So,” she says at last. “You say you saw Ben disappear right on camera. Then another woman got hauled out of here like Faye Wray getting carried off by King Kong?”

  It sounds pretty ridiculous when she says it out loud.

  “Yes,” I nod miserably.

  “And what’s the camera?”

  “It’s a camera I had set up in the room,” says Terrence.

  “Can I see the footage?”

  “Sure. Whatever you need.”

  “Good,” Skyla says curtly. “I’ll also need a moment – just a few minutes – of your time. I want to interview you all individually.”

  “Whatever for?” Terrene looks flabbergasted.

  “Because,” Skyla says. “It’s nothing personal, but I’m going to carry out this investigation as neutrally as possible. And that means that everyone – every lady who works as a Blue Girl here, every one of you, is a suspect. I hope you understand – it’s for the good of everyone here.”

  “Of course,” we all murmur, one after another. But nervousness churns in our stomachs. Why are all these new people joining the Blue Room team? And after the debacle that was Jaymie’s involvement here – how do we know we can trust them, either?

  And how, for that matter, do we know whether or not we can trust each other, either?

  Chapter 6

  Terrence Blue

  Just another day at the office.

  Why can’t I ever have just a normal job? Like – just a day where I wake up, grab a coffee, sit down at my desk, check a few emails, get my secretary to make a dinner reservation, and cruise off to a nice candlelight dinner somewhere, a hard day’s work done? Why can’t I ever have normal work problems like IT systems down or losing money in the stock market or dealings with investors? Why does a typical work day, for me, include trying to recover a vanished or kidnapped PI, track down a mysterious person we thought was dead, figure out some age-old family connections that might involve criminals, and deal with my fiancée’s ex-lover to boot? I mean, anywhere else, that might be some kind of crazy “I can’t believe it’s happening” mind-blowing sort of day. Here at the Blue Room, it’s only Tuesday.

  Because I’m a Blue, I guess. This is what I signed up for. Being a Blue means getting involved in the Blue Room; getting involved in the Blue Room means putting up with all that comes with it: the sex, the drugs, the lying, the deceiving, the multiple identities, the false identities, the kidnappings, the killings – the list just goes on and on, doesn’t it? And that’s before I have to deal with the PR flack we’re getting about my half-brother’s band, the Never Knights.

  Turns out, having Danny Blue and his girlfriend Neve visiting a posh hotel about which prostitution rumors have been swirling for months is not the greatest way to make them America’s Sweethearts, marketed to impressionable rock band obsessed teens and their parents who faint at the hint of anything more than PG-13. I could be glib about it, of course. I mean, it’s not like their little princesses and innocent sweetums aren’t twerking their eleven-year-old butts to Miley Cyrus or whoever already – they probably have more than enough to worry about without focusing on the kinky sex lives of some California rock band. But being in this world means playing the game of the fame machine – and that means keeping the PR people happy. Even when you’re trying to find your kidnapped employee and solve a couple of murders to boot.

  Detective Strong’s suggestion is – well – a strong one. She thinks we should interview all the Blue Girls individually – as well as us – to figure out who might be a suspect in the disappearance of Jaymie, or the murders, for that matter. It rankles me to be bringing in outside help – the Blue Room is used to solving its own problems – but I know she’ll be discreet. And anyway, it’s not like I’ve been doing the world’s most effective job handling this on my own. I guess we need someone like Skyla on the case if we’re ever going to get to the bottom of this. And as the acting manager of the Blue Room – and the one that most of the girls know best, in all sense of the word, I’m the one who has to make Detective Skyla Strong’s entrée into the world of the Blue Room as smooth as possible.

  So I do what I can. The next day, at the Blue Room cafeteria where all the Blue Girls are sitting and chatting over their gluten-free corn rolls and their egg-white-omelets with an avocado topping, I walk in with Skyla. Standing alongside us is a slightly confused-looking Josephine Walters. I’ve tried to keep her out of the loop as much as possible – after all, I’m not sure if she’s somebody I can trust at all – but I can’t keep her in the dark entirely or she’ll get suspicious. So I’ve simply told her that there’s a detective coming to investigate the Jaymie disappearance, and leave out everything else.

  “Hello everyone,” says Skyla. She’s dressed in a chic business-suit, expertly tailored, that gives her an overwhelming sense of power. I have to admit it, she’s beautiful. I barely have eyes for anyone but Staci, and I’d never in a million years dream of considering everyone else, but every now and then I can’t help it if I still appreciate the female form.

  “Good morning, ladies,” I say. I put on my manager voice: the one that makes me feel halfway like a professional. “I hope you’re all well here at the Blue Room. I know you must all be wondering why it is that we’re having this weird little meeting, huh?” Everybody titters nervously. “We’re here to inform you that unfortunately one of our own – Jaymie Wakeley – has disappeared last night. No trace, no note, no word even to Mrs. Walters. We know she wasn’t booked in to see any patrons last night so we haven’t got any leads, but we’re all a bit worried. We want to make sure she’s OK. So we wanted to see if maybe she’d talked to anyone else here, maybe someone who might know where she might be? We’re not too worried yet, but just want to make sure she’s OK. That’s all.” I try to keep my voice as calm and level as possible. “Ladies, I want you all to meet Detective Strong. She’s a wonderful detective, a real ace, and I think she’ll be incredibly helpful when it comes to helping us find Jaymie.”

  I watch all the Blue Girls look at each other, exchanging worried glances. New girls look worried, afraid. I know what they’re thinking. Wondering if after Rita, Roz, Jaymie
– they could be next. Wondering if they’re safe at all here. They probably aren’t. The older girls, seasoned, cynical girls like Julie, just look expressionless. I wonder if it means they know more than they’re letting on – or if they’re just immune to this life by now. You must have to get used to a lot of weird shit in your time at the Blue Room.

  “Ladies,” Mrs. Walter says, “Due to the rather serious nature of this incident, and the urgency it requires, I have taken the liberty of cancelling all of your appointments with patrons today to allow you to meet with Detective Strong.”

  “Don’t worry, ladies,” I cut in. “We’re rescheduling you all – and compensating you for your scheduled hours as normal. So you won’t be out any cash as a result of this.”

  A few of the older girls breathe a sigh of relief at this news.

  “Well,” Skyla shrugs as she walks forward. “That’s all now. Let’s get started.” She smiles and takes a look around. Some of the girls give a nervous giggle. That’s all the sign she needs.

  “Okay ladies, I’m going to interpret that as you volunteer to go first.”

  She walks over to the cafeteria buffet, fills a plate with food – bacon, eggs, potatos, all the things the Blue Girls wouldn’t dare even sniff – and turns to me. “Where’s my office?”

  “Come with me,”” I say, as I lead Skyla out of the cafeteria.

  “Mrs. Walters,” Sklya turns to Mrs. Walters with a deferential grace. She’s smart, that one, I think. She even knows how to play Mrs. Walters like a fiddle. “Give me ten minutes to get situated in the office and send in the first ones I picked out.”

  “Right away, madam,” says Mrs. Walters, nodding.

  Skyla walks out with me into the hallway. I lead Skyla into my most private room – no glass windows anywhere. A whiteboard is in front.

  “Can you get me a projector?” Skyla asks me.

  “What for?”

  “You’ll see,” she says brusquely.