Chapter 5
Séance At The Savoy
The six year-old, white Nissan sedan turned off Prospect Avenue. The sedan drove a short distance from the fairly busy thoroughfare until it came to a halt and waited for a few cars to pass by from the opposite direction. As soon as traffic cleared, the vehicle made a sharp left. It drove over an indented sidewalk and down a steady slope whose deep shade quickly stamped out the light from the dwindling day.
Tony Valero was behind the wheel. He was a college student, age twenty-two, and he wasn't accustomed to working this late in the evening. Usually, Tony spent the bulk of his evening hours studying.
By day, the young man was a valet at one of the busier lunchtime podiums in La Jolla. In this capacity, he had the privilege of driving very expensive vehicles he could in no way hope to afford, either now or at any time during the next decade, as far as he could figure. As a way to supplement his meager income, when he wasn't at college or studying he sometimes also worked during the afternoons. In this post, Tony served as a bellman at the ritzy Savoy Hotel. It had come as an odd request that the hotel's manager had called him up and asked if he'd be willing to work a rare night shift. Since he wasn't doing much in the way of homework that particular night, Tony agreed to take the hours.
Tony reached out and pulled a ticket from the automatic ticket dispenser, before driving ahead to the small parking booth. Since the same outfit ran the valet stand and the hotel's parking garage, he was intimately familiar with both places. Tony even parked overflow valet traffic in that same location at times.
The attendant on duty, a fellow college student named Kyu Han, opened the booth door to speak to him. The young Korean, also a college student like Tony, wore the requisite company attire. This consisted of an ugly red vest, a short-sleeve white button shirt and black slacks.
"Hey, Tony, what's up?" The parking attendant asked.
"What's up, Kyu?" Tony greeted back. "Let me borrow your pen, yeah?"
As soon as he had the pen in his hand, he signed off his parking ticket. He returned both items to the attendant.
Kyu noted that Tony was dressed in a similar uniform: a long-sleeve white button shirt and black slacks. Tony's vest rested on the front passenger seat. It was colored a much fancier bronze-gold compared to Kyu's plain and ugly red vest, with artistic and leafy designs all over its front.
"What are you doing here, anyway?" Kyu asked, somewhat intrigued thanks to his boring work shift. "Kind of late for a hotel gig, isn't it?"
"Actually, the hotel called me in on short notice." Tony explained. "Something about a special event. You don't know anything about it, do you?"
"I know they're doing something up there." Kyu shrugged. "Whatever it is, they're being pretty quiet about it. What little I do know is that there were a couple of guests already staying here. They were both moved into the La Valencia Hotel across the street, at the Savoy's expense. We haven't had any new check-ins either, so I think the hotel is completely empty right now. I don't think they've ever been entirely empty like that in the almost two years I've worked here."
"Sounds mysterious." Tony joked.
"I've got two guesses." Kyu considered. "Either it's some kind of secret political fundraiser, or some mega-celebrity rented out the entire hotel. If it's the second deal, I'd appreciate it if you kept me informed on our mystery visitor's identity. Oh, and they told me not to allow anyone to park here unless they knew the secret password. The password is Poltergeist. Can you believe that shit?"
"Are you fucking serious?"
"That's what I was told." Kyu nodded. "If they say the password, I'm not supposed to charge them at all. I'm supposed to direct the cars straight to the hotel's VIP parking spots."
"Well, if it's a movie star or a rock band, I'll call down and let you know. Maybe we can score some sweet concert tickets or autographs or something."
"Nice!"
They bumped knuckles, before Tony drove into the garage and parked. He took out his clasp and loop bowtie. It wasn't a clip-on like the one Kyu had on, and he carefully adjusted it in the tiny vanity mirror. After this, he exited and trotted over to the elevator.
Tony bypassed the first floor, since it wasn't part of the hotel and only housed a couple of intimate apparel and beauty aid shops. The second floor made up the entirety of the Savoy, with twenty luxury suites. Also part of the hotel were a beautiful and fancy museum grade lobby, a tech-friendly conference room that could comfortably seat twelve, and a small, extravagantly carpeted ballroom that could fit around fifty. It was the perfect place for private parties or people wishing to maintain discreet affairs.
The young man exited the elevator, observing the front desk clerk, a pretty young blond named Kathy who'd also worked there for a couple of years. As soon as Kathy saw Tony, she anxiously waved him over.
"Do you know what's going on tonight?" She asked.
Tony shook his head. "Not yet."
Kathy leaned forward like a conspirator. "Byron asked me earlier if I believed in ghosts. I said that I was terrified of them and guess what? He's going to send me home early. He's going to take over the front desk for the rest of my shift."
Byron was the assistant manager of the hotel, a tall, blond and very handsome man in his mid-twenties. Byron also just happened to be the biggest fruit on the planet.
"Kyu told me that the hotel was empty right now." Tony said.
"It is." Kathy nodded. "They don't even need me here unless the phone rings and I have to answer it. All I've been doing for the last few hours is bugging my boyfriend on my cell phone."
"But yet, management feels that they'll need the services of a bellman tonight?" Tony asked, becoming more and more intrigued. "And I was called in on short notice?"
"Tell me about it. Byron told me to send you into the office as soon as I saw you. He's in there waiting for you right now."
Tony shrugged. "Okay."
The young man stepped away from the front desk and walked a grand total of about ten feet until he came to the manager's office. He rapped on the door lightly, but since it usually wasn't kept locked, he went ahead and slid it open just a few seconds later.
The office had an irregular rectangular shape. The four desks crammed into it, as well as the various shelves and folder racks, were incessantly cluttered with paperwork and boxes of various colors and designs. Also visible was the occasional piece of flair that the manager of the hotel, Darina, had used in her constant attempts to bring beauty to the otherwise drab and untidy place.
Byron was seen leaning back in an executive chair, his long legs stretched out before him. The very pretty, petite and thirty-something year-old Darina leaned against her desk and held her hand up against her mouth fretfully. Tony greeted them both. Byron gave him a hearty smile, while Darina merely nodded to acknowledge him.
Tony did catch Darina's quick nod to Byron, which prodded the assistant manager to clear his throat. In this way, the worrisome Darina would always delegate the thornier or more difficult errands over to Byron, the young man knew.
"I forgot to mention this earlier, Tony, when I called to ask you if you could come in tonight." Byron said. "You aren't by any chance afraid of the supernatural? More specifically; you're not afraid of ghosts, are you?"
"They've never bothered me." Tony said, which was close to truth. He should have added the word 'much' to the end of his sentence.
"Me either." Byron said. "But apparently, someone felt that this question had to be asked of everyone in attendance tonight."
From the tone of the man's voice, Tony guessed that the assistant manager was being kept in the dark as well. When such unusual problems arose in the Savoy, and they occasionally did due to Darina's excessive tendency to secrecy, Tony and Byron used coded tactics to get the woman to talk.
Guardedly, Tony started, "Look, I know the hotel's empty. We aren't expecting any guests, and I don't want to stand around and twiddle my thumbs all night like Kathy is doing at the front desk. Either you tell me what I'm going to be doing tonight, or I'm going home."
Tony's tone implied a threat. He knew that sooner or later, the subterfuge would backfire on him and he might really get in trouble. Byron always managed to soften the harsh blow by taking up his role in the good cop, bad cop scenario.
In his gentle, cultured voice, Byron said, "I would like to know this as well, Darina. I'm not relishing the thought of sitting at the front desk all night with nothing to stare at except Tony, who is so painfully straight. And Tony will be doing the same; just standing there and staring right back at me, for hours and hours on end."
The worried look on Darina's actually intensified. Her eyes darted back and forth throughout the office as if she were looking for somewhere to hide.
"Will you please tell us?" Byron prodded.
"I don't know what is happening either." Darina sighed. Her voice was crisp and pretty, like the sound of tinkling glass.
"Can you tell us what you do know?" Byron asked, while Tony stood by and gauged whether or not he would have to verbally push her again.
"I received a telephone call from the hotel owner." The pretty manager admitted. "He said that we were to move our guests to the hotel across the street, and also to refer tonight's check-ins there. I can't understand why he'd do this, because we're turning away money and we're barely making enough as it is, and..."
She was running off about expenses, like she sometimes did, so Byron cut her off. "What kind of event are we getting set up for?"
Darina shrugged. The motion looked very cute when she did it, kind of like an Asian anime girl with big, pretty eyes, except Darina was Czech with auburn hair.
"I was told that some people are going to show up to use the ballroom. They are going to talk about ghost stories all night. The owner said that we shouldn't take any chances in scaring away any of our guests, so that's why we've sent them all away to our competitor."
"So our visitors for tonight are not staying in the suites?" Byron asked.
"The owner said that any of these people could stay the night if they chose to." Darina informed them, obviously frowning. "This is to be a complimentary stay. Can you believe that? We're practically giving the hotel away!"
The pretty woman paused, before she got all worked up again. Then she started scrambling through her assorted paperwork until she came to a single, tiny Post-It note. She held it out for the two men to look at. "A man by the name of Mathew Ward should be arriving soon. He will be using the ballroom at his discretion. We are to be expecting between ten and twelve guests to arrive. That is all I know about tonight's event."
"Well, it's a start, anyway." Tony said, already formulating a plan in his head. "What kind of refreshments should I set up?"
