Murder at the Mayfair Hotel (Cleopatra Fox Mysteries #1)- C.J. Archer Page 0,76

ourselves before we clean rooms.”

Edith pressed a hand to her lower back and winced. “I’ll be glad when this is all over.”

“Sorry about your hair,” Harmony said to me.

I touched my hair. “It’s not as elegant as one of your arrangements, but I have been doing it for many years now.”

She smiled. “I’ll fix it later for tonight.”

“I’m not going to the ball.”

“Don’t tell me it’s because you have nothing to wear. If you’d made your mind up days ago, you would have something by now.”

“I was going to say that I don’t feel like joining in the revelries,” I said defensively. “I’m still in mourning.”

Her lips flattened but her eyes were sympathetic.

Edith poured a cup of tea and handed it to me. “Harmony says Goliath is acting strange this morning. He says there’s been a development in the murder case but he can’t say more until you’ve spoken to the police.”

“He’s got a nerve not telling me,” Harmony said into her teacup. “I’m the one who got you involved in the investigation in the first place.”

Victor pushed open the door and entered with two other young cooks. Harmony straightened, as did several of the other maids. Where they smiled flirtatiously, however, Harmony pursed her lips and pretended not to see them.

“Good morning, ladies,” Victor said, joining us. “So what’s this I hear about Peter calling the police?” he asked me.

It would seem I wasn’t going to get away with keeping silent any longer. I told them about Mr. Hookly dining with a second person on the night of the murder, and then Peter’s telephone call to the police station nearest Mr. Hookly’s address.

“According to them, Mr. Hookly is dead,” I said.

Harmony gasped. “Then who’s our Mr. Hookly?”

“Maybe he killed the real Mr. Hookly,” Victor said, sitting on the edge of the table.

Edith put a hand to her throat. Her eyes were huge as they stared back at me, full of worry.

“Don’t be afraid,” I told her gently. “He died of natural causes. But the man we know as Mr. Hookly is impersonating him, for some unknown reason.”

“To kill people,” Victor said.

Harmony scowled at him. “Do stop it, Victor. You’re frightening Edith and not making any sense whatsoever.”

“Or I’m the only sensible one here.”

She rolled her eyes. “It was a good idea to contact the police, Miss Fox. Why haven’t they come yet? Did Peter stress how important it was?”

I hadn’t heard Peter’s call so I couldn’t be sure.

“There must be a mistake,” Edith said, frowning into her teacup. “If Mr. Hookly were dead, why does he have a letter of recommendation from that lord?”

“You know about the letter?” I asked.

“Doesn’t everyone?”

“Not me,” Victor said.

“I heard it from Peter,” Harmony said.

Edith searched my gaze. “Miss Fox? What do you think? Can Lord Addlington’s word be trusted?”

I patted her arm. “I’m sure it can. He’s very well known here, after all.” I didn’t want to tell her the letter could have been falsified. I didn’t want to upset her more.

Victor stretched out his legs, his heels trapping the edge of Harmony’s skirt. She didn’t notice. “You can’t assume it was Mrs. Warrick dining in his room that night either. For starters, she’s much older than him.”

“So?” Harmony said. “What’s wrong with a middle-aged woman having a liaison with a younger man?”

“She’s past middle age.”

“So?” she asked again.

He turned to me and she rolled her eyes again. “It’s more likely he entertained a…different kind of woman in his room,” the cook said.

“Victor!” Harmony’s voice drew the attention of the other maids and cooks. “Don’t be so vulgar in front of Miss Fox.”

Victor adjusted his crossed arms, pushing his hands into his armpits. “Sorry, Miss Fox, but I didn’t want to say whore in front of you.”

Harmony rubbed her forehead and sighed.

I tried to suppress my smile. “I didn’t think those sort of women came into the hotel.”

Victor merely shrugged and the women didn’t comment, but the moment I said it, I remembered the Russian count and his mistress in the smoking room. It would seem the hotel’s staff looked the other way if the whore looked sophisticated enough.

“Hopefully the police will arrive soon,” Harmony said with a glance at the clock. “If they don’t, make sure Peter calls them again.”

“Of course,” I said, thinking the same thing. The message he left last night must not have reached the detective inspector.

“I have to return to work,” Edith said, rising.

Harmony rose too, only to find her skirt trapped beneath Victor’s shoes. Instead of pulling