Page 92 of The Hotel Nantucket
Lizbet’s brow wrinkles. “Where’s Alessandra?”
“At lunch,” Edie says breezily, as if Alessandra hasn’t been gone for over two hours.
A few minutes later, Beatriz appears with another platter of cookies. She shakes her head at Edie in mock disgust—asking for extra cookies isno buenobecause Beatriz is prepping for evening service at the Blue Bar—and Edie says, “You’re going to make one guest in particularveryhappy.”
“It better be Shelly Carpenter,” Beatriz says, and Edie laughs, but when she steps out onto the patio of the family pool and sees Mr. Ianucci under an umbrella with his laptop out, she thinks,Is Mr. Ianucci actually Shelly Carpenter?Hehasasked for a lot of special favors, starting with the two-night stay, which means he’ll be checking out by eleven a.m. the following day, conveniently one hour before the post comes out.
“Here you go, Mr. Ianucci,” Edie says, offering him the cookies. She’s so hungry she could eat the entire platter herself. The fresh-from-the-oven cookies are studded with milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and toffee bits; they’re crisp at the edges but soft in the center.
“What service!” Mr. Ianucci says, helping himself to two. Again, not quite a “thank you,” Edie thinks. She wants to peek at whatever Mr. Ianucci is writing on his laptop. Is Shelly Carpenter really Bob Ianucci? A man?
Oh, Edie hopes not. That would be such a disappointment.
Edie steps back into the lobby to see a woman heading for the front desk like a blond bullet. She looks at Edie, then at Alessandra’s unmanned computer.
“Where is she?” the woman hisses.
“I’m sorry?” Edie says. “Where is who?” Though Edie fears she knows.
“The little Jolene!” the woman says.
Jolene?Edie thinks, and she relaxes a bit. She thought the woman was looking for Alessandra.
“Her!” the blonde says, holding up her phone. She starts scrolling through photos: Alessandra in someone’s kitchen, Alessandra on a bathroom scale, Alessandra lying across a very nice king-size bed that Edie suspects isnother bed at Adam and Raoul’s house. “She sent these to my husband and told him she’d forward them to me if he didn’t pay her fifty thousand dollars.”
Despite her empty stomach, Edie feels like she might vomit.
“She’s blackmailing him!” the woman says. “Where is she?”
“At lunch,” Edie whispers. What’s that saying? It takes a thief to catch a thief. Alessandra is a blackmailer just like Graydon! She’s a hypocrite! She had sex with this woman’s husband and took pictures of herself in their home (they aren’t nudes, thank God).
It’s now a quarter past three; Alessandra left for lunch two and a half hours ago. Of course Alessandra would make an exit right before she had to face the music.
“Let me call her cell,” Edie says. “What’s your name?”
“Heidi Bick. She knows who I am.”
Edie dials Alessandra’s number, her eyes stinging with tears. She and Alessandra becamefriends. Theybonded.Not only because Alessandra stood up to Graydon and got Edie’s money back, but also because Alessandra is smart and funny, and she’s the only person who understands the ins and outs of Edie’s days. Graydon told Edie she gave people too much credit, and that’s something Edie now cherishes about herself. But she was wrong this time. So, so wrong.
The call goes to voice mail. Edie looks at Heidi Bick in frustration. “She’s not answering.”
“Shesleptwith myhusband,” Heidi says. “Shelivedin myhouse.”
Edie closes her eyes. She thinks about how, in nature, insects and reptiles that are brightly colored or flagrantly marked are the most venomous. Alessandra had all the signs—the attention-grabbing hair, the eye crystals, the upside-down name tag. She lured in vulnerable people, trapped them, exploited them.
“Andthen!” Heidi says. “The pièce de résistance! She robbed my neighbor Lyric and planted her things in my house so I would think Michael was having an affair with Lyric!”
Good God,Edie thinks.
Heidi narrows her eyes. “It was so damn clever that if I weren’t appalled, I might be impressed.” She reels back. “But I’m appalled. She’s a despicable human being.” Heidi holds up the phone. “This is blackmail. Fifty grand? It’s extortion. I’m pressing charges.”
The door to the family pool opens and Mr. Ianucci steps in. “Pressing charges?” he says. “Sounds like things are getting hot in here.”
Edie whips out her fake smile like a gun from a holster. “Can I help you, Mr. Ianucci?”
“Seems I’ve lost my room key,” he says. “Can you make me another?”
Please,Edie thinks.You mean,Can youpleasemake me another?
