by Vakey, Jenn
“You can’t be serious,” she said as the men started filing out of the room. She reached out to stop Wilcome, but he pushed her away and continued out. When she ran out the door after them, she found only a long, empty hallway. She glanced down at her watch and panicked when she realized she was already late. Running as fast as she could, she came upon the first room she was to clean.
When she walked in, she was almost knocked back by the sight. The bathroom, which was as large as her entire house, looked like one you would expect to find in a rundown rest stop. “No time to waste,” she heard coming from the intercom above. “You have one hour to get the room entirely spotless.”
“How am I supposed to get this done in just an hour?” she asked as she pulled the bucket of cleaning supplies toward her. She emptied it out on the floor, but found only a small bottle of cleaner and her toothbrush. “I can’t use this,” she called out.
“Only twenty minutes left,” the voice called out again.
Panicking even further, she grabbed the toothbrush and started scrubbing the sink with it. She had only managed to clean a small circle when a loud buzzer echoed through the room.
“Your time is up,” the voice said. This time there was a note of pleasure in it that left her worried. Before she could respond, though, three large guards walked in and led her out of the room.
She considered running but they soon came to a stop. She looked out and saw a large throne sitting several feet in front of her.
“Tsk, tsk,” the woman sitting in it said. “That just won’t do at all. Away with her!”
Rilynne tried to plead with the woman, but before she could even get a word out, the guards surrounded her and pushed her backwards. She took a step back but the ground vanished below her. She was falling. With every motion her body made, it was met by sharp pain. She was tumbling uncontrollably down a large flight of stairs.
When her eyes shot open, it took her a moment to remember exactly where she was. “This is going to be interesting,” she said softly to herself.
Chapter Five
Rilynne pulled her uniform on, careful not to miss any buttons on the way up. When she finished, she stood in front of the mirror on the door and looked herself up and down. She had worn a lot of different outfits while on the job, but this was her least favorite. The black short sleeve dress was cut about four inches above her knee, and both the white waist apron and the collar were lined in white lace. Rilynne had never been entirely comfortable in a dress. This one was no exception.
“I’m going to kill Wilcome,” she mumbled aloud as she let out a resigned sigh. She pulled her wavy hair up into a clip, careful not to miss a single strand. When she was finished, she slid her shoes on and ventured out of the room.
Instead of going to the kitchen for breakfast, Rilynne headed straight to the east wing. Her morning assignments consisted of cleaning all twelve restrooms in the house, then dusting and polishing the shelves and furniture in the library. While she was less than excited to start in on the bathrooms, she knew the faster she finished, the more time she would have to look around.
Luckily, the first restroom she walked into was the cleanest one she had ever seen. She had a feeling no one had even stepped foot in it since it had last been cleaned. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said about the next one on the list. It was the one used by the children. Larger than her master bathroom at home, it looked like a pack of wild monkeys had been locked in it. There was toothpaste half way up the walls, and wadded toilet paper stuck to the ceiling. The end of the nearly empty toilet paper roll was in the toilet, which led her to believe they had placed it into the bowl and flushed, watching it unroll as it went. The bathtub was also completely covered in what looked like a combination of bathtub crayons and paint. She had hoped that running water over it would take it easily off, but was sadly mistaken.
It took her nearly an hour just to get the bathtub cleaned and begin on the rest of the room. She had just started scrubbing the walls clean when her phone rang.
“Can you talk?” Matthews asked.
“Yes,” she replied shortly. “Though I’m currently contemplating interesting ways of torturing each and every one of you for this.”
Matthews sounded like he was trying to muffle a laugh. “Well, have you been able to look at any of the items that could have been used?”
She stopped herself from snapping at him as she let out a deep, irritated breath. “I’ve been cleaning bathrooms since I woke up this morning. That hasn’t given me much time to do anything aside from wanting to vomit.”
Again, he seemed to be trying to refrain from laughing at her. “Well, I just received word that the Lewis’ are hosting a benefit tonight at their house. That should give you a good opportunity to look around while everyone’s distracted. Wilcome suggested you start with the underground tunnel and the stair cases.”
“All right. Have there been any breakthroughs?” she asked hopefully.
“Nothing since yesterday. Wilcome tried again to get a warrant to search the property, but the judge insists on having physical evidence.”
“How’d he get them to agree to an undercover assignment if they aren’t allowing a search warrant?” she asked curiously.
“Lewis doesn’t know about the undercover assignment, so he can’t threaten to cut off the support he gives the city,” he explained. “He’s one of the largest backers of both the police department and the mayor. Having an undercover officer there is the only way to investigate without the mayor getting furious calls and limiting the scope of our investigation.”
“This is why I don’t like politics,” she replied. “And as far as my new uniform goes, all of you are going to pay.”
After hanging up, Rilynne quickly moved through the rest of the restroom until it sparkled. The other ten restrooms took less time combined than the children’s one had. Most surprising of all was the bathroom that belonged to Jared Lewis. Where his bedroom looked like a tornado had torn through it, the bathroom was strangely organized and clean. It was not at all what she had expected.
When she finished the last restroom, she made her way to the library on the west wing. It looked more like a public library than one in a home. Covering two floors, she couldn’t even begin to estimate how many books were housed on the shelves.
Before she started on the room, she looked around for any object that could have been used to strike the victim. When she was satisfied that nothing in the room met the specifications, she grabbed her caddy and climbed the ladder just right of the door. She had never been on a rolling ladder before. After fastening her caddy to the top step, she worked her way across the wall, quickly dusting every shelf. Though incredibly tedious, it didn’t take her long to finish the first wall.
Rilynne had just stepped off of the ladder when the library doors abruptly swung open.
“Who are you?” Jared Lewis asked when he hurried into the room. Although she had seen pictures of him, he was not at all how she imagined. He looked much younger in person, no more than thirty if she had to guess. His short brown hair, though combed neatly down, had specks of at least three different colors of paint in it. The same colors were also splattered all over his button up shirt and dress pants.
“I’m,” she paused, taking in the peculiar sight, “Naomi Howard. The agency sent me over to fill the vacancy in your staff.”
“Wonderful,” he said energetically. He looked her up and down quickly before searching the room with his eyes. “Life has been far too boring around here lately. It’ll be a pleasant change to have a new face around. Now, have you by chance seen a purple dog running through here? She seems to have gotten away from me.”
Rilynne shook her head, unsure of how to respond. She thought for a brief moment that he might just be messing with her, but the look on his face said that he was quite serious. She now understood why everyone described him as eccentric. In her opinion, he was downright crazy. He peered quickly under the table before swiftly leaving
the room without another word. It took several moments before she was able to shake off the encounter and get back to dusting the shelves.
“Miss Howard,” a tall woman called out a few minutes later. Her dark hair lay neatly down her back, not a strand out of place. Though hidden behind a pair of rectangular glasses, Rilynne could make out the vibrant green of her eyes. Unlike her husband, Cyndi Lewis looked just like the pictures she had seen. “Would you please come with me to Mr. Lewis’ study.”
“Yes, Mrs. Lewis,” Rilynne answered as she grabbed the caddy and followed her from the room. They walked for what felt like a full city block before stopping in front of a pair of large, wooden doors.
“It would appear that my husband has forgotten that we’re hosting a fundraiser tonight. Please have this mess cleaned up before our guests arrive,” she stated firmly before turning and walking away. Rilynne hesitated for a moment, not knowing what to expect when she pushed the heavy doors open. As she did, she let out a shocked gasp. It was now clear where the paint covering Jared Lewis had come from.
She stood in the middle of the large room, unsure of where to begin. It appeared that Lewis had filled dozens of small balloons with paint and thrown them around the room. Whatever his intentions were, the walls and ceiling were now covered in close to a dozen different colors. The question that popped into Rilynne’s mind was how he managed to not get paint all over the furniture or floor. In fact, there wasn’t a drop on them.
Before she started cleaning, Rilynne made her way through the room, examining all of the items. Unlike the other rooms she had cleaned, there were several objects in the study that could have left the bruise on the victim’s back. After sticking her head out the door to make sure no one was around, she pulled a small black light out of her pocket and ran it over each object. To her dismay, none of them had any trace of blood. She tucked the light back into her apron pocket and made for the nearest wall.
To her relief, the paint was incredibly easy to wash off of the walls, taking little more than a wet sponge to remove. Because of the size of the room, though, it would still take several hours to complete.
She was just finishing the first wall when she heard a chuckle coming from behind her. She turned to find Danny leaning against the doorway, arms folded in front of him as he looked around the room. He had an almost impressed look on his face.
“Well, that’s new,” he said with a grin. “I thought I was passed the point of being shocked by the things Mr. Lewis does, but this is really something. Are you sure it wouldn’t be easier to just paint over everything?”
She shook her head. “It’s actually coming off without much work,” she said as she rung out the sponge in the colored water. “If I had to guess, I’d say he actually used washable paint. Don’t ask me why, though. I would think the point of making a scene like this would be to keep it around for a while.”
“I gave up trying to understand the things he does long ago,” he said. “I was hoping we could sneak away for a bit, but it looks like you have your hands full. I guess I’ll just have to catch up with you later,” he said with a flirtatious grin.
“I guess you will,” she smirked. The moment he disappeared, she let out a guilty sigh. She had tried to convince herself the night before that there wasn’t anything wrong with deploying this tactic, but it hadn’t worked.
After finally cleaning up the last of the paint, Rilynne retreated to the kitchen. When she walked in, she was pleased to find almost the entire staff sitting around the large table. Other than the security team, the only members missing were Danny and the nanny.
“I heard you got your first taste of shenanigans today,” the cook said as Rilynne joined them. “Usually he’ll wait to pull something so big until after the honeymoon period. I’ve never seen him do anything on someone’s second day before.”
“It was definitely interesting,” she said as she looked around the table. It took just moments for her to put names to the faces, despite not having pictures in the files she had read. “I had no idea what to think when he walked into the library covered in paint. I know I wasn’t expecting that, though.”
Laughter quickly circled through the group. “I’m Lisa, by the way,” the cook stated. “This is Cole, Nancy, and Casey.”
“Hi, I’m Naomi,” she replied. “So it’s not always as exciting around here?”
“It definitely has its moments,” Casey laughed. Lisa reached up behind him and mumbled something about manners as she plucked the backwards cap off of his head. As she did, his near chin-length brown hair fell down around his face. Rilynne didn’t know why, but she had pictured him older, perhaps in his forties. She definitely hadn’t expected him to be in his early twenties, no more than twenty-two if she had to guess. He frowned at Lisa for a moment before turning back to Rilynne. “We have a pool going on who will completely crack first; Mr. Lewis because he’s a bit crazy, or Mrs. Lewis because Mr. Lewis is a bit crazy.”
Rilynne laughed. Even with the small amount of time she’d spent with the two of them, she couldn’t choose a clear winner.
“I was a little hesitant to accept the job after what happened to the last girl,” she said coolly. “My mom completely flipped when I told her I decided to take it.”
“I can’t blame you,” said Nancy. “Brittney was so nice it was almost unbelievable. I can’t think of anyone who would want to hurt her.”
“Other than you?” Danny asked as he walked into the room. He walked around the table-passing three open chairs-and sat down next to Rilynne. “You couldn’t stand Brittney. How many times did you try to get her fired?”
“Shut up, Danny!” she said harshly. Her red curly hair looked almost like fire dancing around her face as she quickly swung around toward him. “I may not have been fond of her, but I never would have wished her dead. I just didn’t like her work ethic. I was always getting stuck picking up her slack. I get that she was always being called away by Mr. Lewis, but that shouldn’t have meant she was unable to take care of her responsibilities.”
Rilynne raised her eyebrow as she felt a small surge of excitement. “Was there something going on between them, Mr. Lewis and Brittney?”
Danny shook his head. “They got along well enough, but it was never anything like that. Brittney dealt with the aftermath of his… escapades. It takes a lot of patience to clean up after some of his stunts. She had more than most.”
“The news didn’t-” Rilynne was stopped by the sound of a slamming door.
“You’re not paid to sit around and socialize,” Cyndi Lewis said as she stormed into kitchen. She folded her arms tightly in front of her and pursed her lips as she looked around the table. “We have three hours until the guests begin to arrive. You-” she pointed to Lisa. “You have an hour to get this kitchen cleaned and ready for the caterers. Mr. Jones, meet the valets at the service entrance and make sure they know exactly what they’re to do. Mr. Hicks,” she turned toward Casey, “make sure the yard is respectable. Pay special attention to the terrace. Several of our guests are cigar smokers and will be spending a fair amount of time back there. Mr. Lansford, make sure my husband doesn’t cause any further disturbances this evening. I want him presentable when the guests arrive. Maids,” she paused, looking from Nancy to Rilynne. “Go clean something.”
After issuing her orders, she abruptly turned and left the room.
“Is she always so uptight?” Rilynne asked as she looked around the table.
“Yes,” Cole said shortly as he stood and walked out after her.
Rilynne pushed herself up and followed the others out of the kitchen.
“I hate these events,” Nancy said as they walked toward the supply closet at the end of the hall. “We have to do extra cleaning the day before and then clean up the mess after. For people who are so paranoid about letting outsiders into their house, you’d think they would find some other place to do these things.”
“How often do they have one?” Rilynne asked curiously. She w
aited for Nancy to step back from the door before reaching in for her caddy. She wasn’t going to mention to Nancy that her workload for the rest of the day was relatively light.
“Every few months,” she replied, shutting the door behind them. “The end of the year is when it gets really busy. From Halloween to New Years, they have one every few weeks. In addition to all of the holidays, Mr. Lewis’ birthday and their anniversary fall in that time.”
They went their separate ways once they reached the foyer. Rilynne watched as Nancy made her way down the hall of the east wing before she climbed the grand staircase at the center of the room. As soon as she disappeared from sight, Rilynne quickly ran to the top and started searching for anything that could have been used to strike the victim. Before she was able to get a good look around, the children came thundering down the east hall toward her. Just behind them was the exasperated looking nanny.
“I said no running in the house,” she called after them. The eldest child, Charlie, saw Rilynne and stopped in his tracks. Lorraine, his little sister, had been looking over her shoulder at the nanny and didn’t notice he stopped until she ran into him, knocking them both over.
“Are you all right?” Rilynne asked as she reached down to help them up. Charlie looked up at her curiously as she pulled him to his feet. His resemblance to his father was striking. The only hint of his mother she saw were the bright green eyes sitting below his shaggy brown hair. He nodded up at her, but didn’t speak.
“I’m so sorry,” the nanny said as she reached down to pick up the little girl, who was sprawled out on the floor with a large grin on her face. The day seemed to have taken a toll on the young nanny. Her blonde hair, which appeared to have been originally pulled neatly back, was disheveled and hanging loosely around her face. She had a look of utter exhaustion in her pale green eyes. “You must be Naomi, the new maid. I’m Sydney. These two troublemakers are Charlie and Lorraine. Children, what do you say?”