Page 21 of Maneater (The Mavens #1)

FOURTEEN

JOSIE

The following morning, I woke to an alert from the resort stating that the main pool would be closed for the morning.

After a bit of back and forth with Gabriel, I determined someone had swapped a clear dish soap container for the chlorine, creating a soapy mess.

An allegedly unsuspecting employee dumped it into the main pool like usual without checking the labels, and now the pool has to be drained, rinsed, and rebalanced, which means I know exactly where we will be today.

“Rory, you gotta get up,” I say in my kindest voice once the sun fully rises. It’s eight, and while I tried to let my friend sleep in, knowing she’s not a morning person, we’ve got work to do.

“Oh my god, it’s too early,” Rory groans, taking a pillow from her bed and putting it over her face as if she would like to smother herself.

I laugh at her dramatics and draw the curtains open. “It’s eight.”

“Exactly. Too early. Can’t they give us one morning in paradise before we have to work?” Despite her words, she sits up and stretches before looking at me with an entertained smile.

“Better than what Lana and Demi are dealing with,” I say of our fellow Mavens, who are on a different case. “Did you hear they’re assigned to some monster truck rally circuit?”

She nods, laughing. “Honestly, I can totally picture it. Lana is absolutely unhinged sometimes.” Rory yawns before reaching over to the bedside table and picking up her glasses.

“We’ve got a new update.”

That seems to perk her up.

“We do?”

I nod. “Someone swapped the bottle of chlorine for the pool with a bottle of foaming soap. The employee who dumped it wasn’t paying attention to what the bottle said, poured in his normal amount, and then the jets and filters kicked on, making for a huge mess.”

“Oh my god,” Rory says with wide eyes.

“Apparently, it looked like one of those crazy bubble parties.”

She lets out a laugh at the mental image before thinking about this new development.

“Do you think the pool guy is our guy?” I shrug.

“I mean, everyone’s a suspect, but from what I understand, the guy is beside himself, upset that he made a mistake like that.”

“Could it have been an honest mistake? Are they kept in the same room?”

“My research shows that the pool equipment and maintenance supplies are kept in a pool house that only stocks those things. The soap for bathrooms would be in a supply closet inside the resort, so someone would have had to bring it outside. I looked up a couple of commercial brands resorts like this typically order, and honestly, the bottles are shockingly similar-looking. It wouldn’t be hard not to notice until it’s too late, especially if it was dark and you were moving on muscle memory.

But the person who restocked the room with the wrong thing would have noticed, more likely than not. ”

Rory nods before sliding off the bed, moving to the bathroom, and starting to brush her teeth.

“Is that something trackable? Do they have to scan to get into the supply rooms or anything like that?”

I shake my head. “No, though, according to Annette, there is a paper log-in, log-out system, and the managers do a bi-weekly inventory on the computer to make sure everything is stocked up. But for small needs, they just jot down names and items to save time. I wouldn’t be surprised if most people ignored those, though.

It’s too much work when you can just grab what you need and bolt. ”

Rory nods. “Cameras?”

I shake my head. “They didn’t notice, but the camera pointing to the pool house has been on a twenty-four-hour repetitive loop for about four days. It could have happened at any time, and no one would have noticed.”

“So someone is hacking the cameras?” Rory asks, and there’s a hint of irritation in the words since she herself has been unable to do that yet. As of last night, she’s close but needs some more time to infiltrate their surprisingly strong system.

I shrug, not wanting to rub it in. “It seems so. Which means they have to have skill at infiltrating systems.” She sighs heavily before spitting, rinsing her toothbrush, and turning to me.

“So, it sounds like we’re going to the pool today?

I’d love to get in there somehow, see if we can see anything, and maybe even bug that pool house.

We should also bug the other supply closets, as this isn’t the first time we’ve had an issue with the supply.

Clearly, whoever our guy is, they have some skills with the security cameras, so we need some of our own.

” I smile, grabbing my red bikini and nodding.

“My thoughts also. That pool is closed today, obviously, but that means there will probably be more staff and guests at the other one. I wanted to get there early to grab a chair. Let’s go.”

An hour later, we’re lying out by the pool, taking note of the people around us.

A few guests are grumbling about their complaints, and the extra staff are trying everything they can to accommodate them, but today, we’re more focused on the interactions between staff members.

We both are holding books, but neither of us is reading them.

Instead, we’re keeping an eye on which employees we might want to look into further.

Which ones are grumbling to one another, which look stressed out, and which, if any, are basking in the chaos?

“They’re definitely fucking,” I say, low, my eyes not leaving the group to the right of us. It’s four employees, one being the redhead we saw on our first day, and another being Daniel, the GM.

“What?”

“The redhead and Daniel.” I continue to watch. “And I don’t think he’s happy about it,” I say of the third in the group, who keeps shifting his eyes toward the redhead and Daniel. He’s younger, smaller, and wearing what I believe is the landscaping uniform.

“Is the redhead the same one who looked mad when he was flirting with you?”

I nod, not mentioning that she’s also the one who was a bit too friendly with the man I now realize was Rowan.

It doesn’t matter , I tell myself. He doesn’t matter . We have a job to do here .

“Interesting,” Rory says, and even though I don’t look, I can feel my partner’s burning gaze on me, and I wonder for a moment if that interesting was about our suspects or my own reaction.

“Looks like our target is cleared,” I say low, trying to change the subject when I realize the fourth person in the group is the woman who was standing near the pool house.

Rory nods and sets her book aside, leaving it on top of her towel-covered chair when she stands, and grabs her pool bag, slinging it over her shoulder as I follow suit, but leaving my own bag.

To anyone else, it looks like two friends heading to a bathroom break, but I know that tote holds Rory’s equipment to set up a listening device in the pool house.

Our plan is simple: I’m going to the poolside bar for a drink, the bar that conveniently has a perfect line of vision of the pool house.

There, I’ll be close enough that, if needed, I can create a distraction while Rory slips inside or finishes her job.

I’ve been watching the room for over an hour, so I know that there is currently no one inside.

We walk slowly, keeping an eye on the pool house and chatting casually as we go so as not to seem suspicious before I tell Rory I’m going to get a drink while she “uses the bathroom.” Instead of going right to the bathrooms, she takes a left and slips into the pool house.

I slide onto a barstool, and I take my phone out, pretending to fiddle with it before the bartender comes over.

“Hey, there,” he says, a wide smile on his lips. “What can I get you?”

When I look up, it’s one of the employees we’ve noticed at the resort a few times. He’s cute, though young, and always stares at my boobs when we walk past him. Instantly, I put my mask on, a wide, goofy smile taking over my face as I shake my head.

“I’m not sure. I’m waiting for my friend and figured I’d get a drink while I was here,” I say, a white lie of sorts. “She’s always the last to get ready.”

He nods again, his eyes drifting to my boobs before going back to my face.

While I’m here, I might as well see if I can find anything out from him.

I tip my head to the side, my silky hair falling in a curtain around my shoulders, and give him a wide, knowing smile. He blushes before looking around.

“What are you thinking? Give me some guidelines, and I can make something just for you.”

“I’m thinking…” I say, a finger grazing along my lip, a move he tracks. “Something fruity. Fancy and tropical.”

“Frozen?’

“Sure,” I say with a smile.

He’s moving behind the bar, dumping things into the blender.

“So, how long are you here?”

“Two weeks,” I say with a wistful stare. “I wish it were longer.”

He looks up as he throws some strawberries in, then pops the top on the blender and turns it on. “Have you done any activities yet? An excursion?”

I shrug. “Nothing crazy, just the cocktail mixer and laying out. We got here just a couple of days ago, and we were exploring our options. What’s your favorite excursion? You seem like the kind of guy who likes to have fun. ”

“I, uh,” he stutters, a blush burning over his cheeks. “I really liked the stand-up paddleboards, but they’re not available right now.”

“Oh, right,” I say with wide, innocent eyes and a small frown.

“The fire.” He nods, and I add, “What was that about?” He pours my drink, a pink frozen thing with a heavy hand of rum, before topping it with whipped cream and sliding it to me.

I give him a small smile, reaching out and touching his forearm. “I’m dying for some gossip!”