Caught on Camera

Chapter 3, Scene 2, Part 5

Chapter 3

Working Guy

Scene 2

Clad only in a guest bathrobe over embarrassingly ratty underwear and wearing sensible black rubber-soled work shoes, Rachel pushed the housekeeping cart briskly down the corridor, ignoring her assigned rooms. She needed to find the head housekeeper fast.

After stowing the cart out of sight in the floor linen room, she gingerly extracted the camera pendant from her robe pocket, sprayed a cloth with disinfectant and wiped down the pendant and cord. Although panicked about whether it still worked, testing must wait until an opportunity arose to escape to her room.

Rachel snuck down the service stairway to the second floor and along the corridor, zipped past a couple of housekeeping carts parked outside rooms with doors open, co-workers inside stripping beds and vacuuming. This was not the time to answer questions. Finally she reached the main housekeeping supply room.

"Angeline! Thank the hospitality gods." Rachel slipped in and shut the door.

Angeline Cousineau, Head of the Housekeeping Department, scowled and waved her inventory clipboard. "You're supposed to be on Third. And what are you doing dressed like that?"

"The GM hasn't told you?" Rachel double-knotted the robe belt that had loosened on her mad dash to the supply room.

Guest complaints to the general manager were Angeline's biggest fear. With four young mouths to feed at home, the squat local woman of native heritage needed the job. Alarm chased impatience across her face. "What's wrong?"

"The bride, Catherine Kane, insists that I be in her wedding." Details of the situation tumbled out.

Angeline's expression see-sawed between disbelief and shock, settled on doubt. "No one told me anything. I'll check with the GM, but meanwhile you--" she waved the clipboard in a scooting motion. "Get back to work. I assigned you five turnovers for check-ins, plus four occupied rooms. Did you finish the Bridal Suite?"

Rachel wrung her hands. "That's what I've been trying to tell you. Ms. Kane insisted I try on the bridesmaid's dress. She's still in the suite with her dog. She peed on the bed."

"Ms. Kane?" Angeline registered no surprise. Twenty years in the hotel business, she'd seen the gamut of guest behavior.

"No, her incontinent dog. She ordered me to walk the animal every four hours all weekend."

Angeline's dusky cheeks paled, and not because she cared one bit about the dog. "You haven't cleaned the Bridal Suite? It's almost noon! Which rooms are done?"

Rachel, well aware she'd dropped a bomb into Angeline's orderly world, babbled, "I've only had time to clean Twelve and Sixteen. Some guests slept in, probably jet-lagged with the three hour time change between here and California. The Bridal Suite king has to be stripped down to the mattress and a fresh down duvet found for it." Rachel buried her face in her hands. "I'm so sorry."

"Un-be-lievable." Angeline simply stared at her, trying to wrap her mind around the enormity of this disaster. Then her gaze sharpened. "Hey! The guest robe you're wearing. Where's your uniform? If you've been fraternising... well, that's a firing offence and you know it."

"Good grief, no! I have not been fooling around. While I tried on the bridesmaid's dress, the dog peed on my uniform." She tugged the collar of the cotton robe. "I had to borrow this or run here half naked."