and experience. We live in a youth-obsessed culture, but by valuing yourself and exuding confidence, you needn’t become invisible.”
“Thanks, Kristin,” Judith said, feeling as if her face had frozen.
“I’ll think about that. If I agree with you, I’ll let you know.” And no thanks for making me feel like a lowly, worthless worm. If, as you suggest, I had more spunk, I’d wring your neck and stuff you in the Dumpster. “Now I have to look for some missing guests.” Before Kristin could respond, Judith started up the back stairs.
Phyliss was coming out of room six, which was where one of the two Alaskan couples was staying. “Are these Eskimos checking out today?” she asked, setting a trash bag down in the hall.
“No,” Judith said. “All of the Alaskans are staying another night. And I don’t think they’re Eskimos.”
Phyliss glowered at Judith. “They’re from Alaska, aren’t they?”
“It doesn’t matter what they are,” Judith said. “I’m looking for the couple in room three. Are they up yet? Breakfast is nearly over.”
“What couple?” Phyliss responded. “I thought that crazy blasphemous sinner was hauled off to the hospital.”
“New guests arrived last night. Did they go out to breakfast?” Phyliss stared at Judith.
“I don’t know anything about them. The room looks just the way I left it yesterday. Neat as a pin.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Judith said. “Let me have a look.”
“Go ahead,” the cleaning woman said. “Have I ever told a lie?”
“No,” Judith admitted. “Maybe I’m going insane.”
“It happens to a lot of people I know,” Phyliss said. “Straight to the booby hatch. I’m taking out the trash. If you see phantom guests in room three, keep it to yourself.”
Phyliss was right. Room three was pristine, as if no one had occupied it since the previous day. Judith checked the wastebasket, the bathroom, the closet, and the bureau drawers. There was no sign of the Zs. They seemed to have evaporated into thin air. Am I delusional? she wondered. But she recalled putting the $220 cash payment in the strongbox. She also remembered that the Gauthiers had arrived just as the Zs headed upstairs. The vanishing act baffled her, but at least she hadn’t been stiffed for the room fee.
Judith closed the door. In her fifteen years as an innkeeper, there had been many strange, puzzling, and even tragic incidents. People were unpredictable. They came and went. She’d probably never cross paths again with Dick and Jane Z. Going back downstairs, Judith dismissed them from her mind. They were gone and might as well be forgotten.
She was only half right.
Chapter Four
The next two days passed in a blur of activity for Judith. That was just as well. There was little time to worry about the Zs’ disappearing act or reveal her impending departure to Mike and Gertrude, or to figure out who’d lost a gold band. All the guests who had been staying at Hillside Manor during the week had checked out by Sunday morning, but their vacated rooms were filled with newcomers. Mike and Kristin had taken the boys to the zoo and the aquarium on Thursday, returning Mac and Joe-Joe to their grandparents’ care while they dined at a waterfront restaurant. The McMonigles spent Friday visiting a haunted house, a corn maze, and a pumpkin patch. Saturday morning Kristin took the boys to see a play based on “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” at the nearby children’s theater. In the afternoon, Joe and Mike went on a ferryboat ride with the boys to visit the naval shipyard across the sound. Kristin lunched with a friend from her college days and did some shopping downtown. To Judith’s relief, there had been no opportunity for another of her daughter-in-law’s self-esteem lectures.
“I’d forgotten how bossy she is,” Judith said to Renie as the Flynns and the Joneses left Our Lady Star of the Sea’s eleven o’clock Mass. “But she has many good qualities and I shouldn’t gripe about her,” she added, looking up at the cross on top of the church steeple. “I should be more charitable.”
“Count your blessings,” Renie said. “You get to see Mike and his family fairly often. Our three and their spouses live too far away. Not to mention that we have no grandchildren.” She made a face. “I just did mention it. Damn.”
The cousins stopped by Joe’s MG. “What’s our plan for getting to the train?” Judith asked. “I’m almost packed, but I feel edgy. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
Renie’s gaze shifted to Bill and Joe,