Lovers From Beyond Ep. 05

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?"

"The usual." Darina answered. "Coffee, tea, ice water."

"No soft drinks? No alcohol?"

Darina shook her head. "From what I was told, these will be high end visitors, so no soda and no beer." She turned her back, as she sometimes did when she was about to say something stingy. "We were delivered a special box of pastries for this event. I'd rather you set out the old pastries from this morning's breakfast buffet first, before you set out any of the new ones."

Tony looked to Byron, who was shaking his head no. That meant he could go ahead and serve the fresh pastries instead. Darina could be a real cheapskate sometimes, but whatever, the bellman thought. It was part of her job to keep a close watch on the hotel's purse strings.

"Any idea how the ballroom will be set up?" Tony asked.

"Not yet." Byron answered, just as the intercom on the manager's desk buzzed.

Darina went to her desk and clicked the intercom on speaker. "Yes?"

"The parking attendant just called," Kathy's pretty voice said. "A Mr. Mathew Ward just pulled into the lot."

Darina suddenly looked ashen. "I've always had a strange fear of ghosts, so I hope you don't mind taking over now, Byron." She snatched up her purse and started quickly for the door. "I'd rather not be here when Mr. Ward arrives. I'll be taking Kathy with me. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

In a flash, she was gone from the office.

"You'd think the hotel was on fire." Tony commented on the woman's haste.

Byron swiveled around in his chair, lightly tapping on his keyboard to wake his computer from sleep mode. As soon as it was ready, the assistant manager pulled up a search engine and typed in some words. A moment later, his eyes popped open. He turned to face Tony with a face half as ashen as Darina's had been, and half amused.

"Guess what?" Byron started. "I just typed in the words Mathew Ward and San Diego. One of the top results that comes up is about a man with that name who claims to be a clairvoyant."

"What does that mean?"

"That's he's psychic."

"No, I get that part. What I meant was, what does that mean for the hotel?"

"Tony," Byron was giving him that sly look, and using that suave tone of voice that made the bellman uncomfortable because it was coming from a gay man. "I think we're going to have a séance here tonight."

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

A few minutes later, Tony stepped out of the elevator and into the parking garage. He strode purposefully toward the hotel's VIP stalls, where he saw a single car. This was an older model, gray-colored Mercedes Benz. Standing beside the car's open trunk was a tall, lean, and distinguished looking gentleman. The man wore a business suit in a dark gray, not in keeping with the latest trends, but still looking very dapper. He had composed features and a head full of scruffy gray hair that was topped with a gray-plaid beret.

Tony wasn't able to gauge right away whether or not the man would be a good tipper. "Good evening, Mr. Ward."

The gentleman turned at his approach and eyed Tony's bellman get-up. "Ah, good evening to yourself, young sir. I'm afraid I won't have much for you, as I do tend to travel light while I'm in town."

In a sharp contrast to some of the hotel's more snobby guests, Mr. Ward actually took the time to shake Tony's hand.

Curious to see what a spiritual medium carried around in his trunk, Tony stepped close enough to get a good look. The bellman was disappointed when he saw nothing more than a tiny rack with a handful of colorful ties, a box full of the man's published books and a few small electronic devices.

The man was studying his assortment of ties. "Perhaps you could give me your opinion here." He held out two ties, one a dark green with an assortment of angled squares and rectangles on it, and the second of a royal blue with darker blue spirals. "What is the first thing that comes to mind, when you look at these two items?"

Right away, Tony answered, "The green one reminds me of money, but more like old money that's been sitting around for a while. The blue one reminds me of the ocean, and I love looking at the ocean. That's where I go on my lunch break, down to the beach so that I can watch the ocean waves coming into the rocks."

"You're very open." Mr. Ward said. "And very perceptive. You would recommend that I wear the blue one tonight, I gather?"

Tony nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Oh, none of that sir or Mr. Ward nonsense with me. Plain old Matty will suffice." The man said, glancing back into the trunk of his car. He pulled out a simple, micro-cassette recorder. "I don't want to make your trip down here a complete waste of time. I would appreciate it if you could take this upstairs, along with the satchel in the front seat. Will you wait for me inside of the ballroom? I'll be up in just as long as it takes me to put on this tie."

Tony nodded as he took the two items and departed to the elevator. The hotel's assistant manager was waiting before it when the doors opened on the second floor.

Byron peered quizzically into the elevator. "Where's our guest?"

"He'll be up in a minute." Tony said, stepping out to walk across the lavish lobby and toward the ballroom.

Byron followed closely. "What's he like?"

"He's tall and has about the same build as you do." Tony compared. "I guess you could say he's handsome."

"Really? Do you think he's my type?"

"He's in his fifties, but no, he didn't sound as if he was your kind of guy."

"Oh." Byron frowned. "Pity."

They both stepped into the ballroom, which was still set up as it had been for that morning's breakfast buffet. Ten circular folding tables, all covered in white linen, were uniformly spread across the room. Thankfully, no plates, utensils or fancy napkins had been put on the tables yet, so Tony wouldn't have to clear all that stuff away.

Byron scanned across the room. One good thing about the manager was that he wasn't above helping out in a pinch. "It looks like you have a lot to do. I'll tell you what. Since we don't know how Mr. Ward wants the ballroom organized, why don't we get started with the refreshments? I'll begin with the coffee and hot water, and you can bring out the ceramic cups and tea bags, and the pastries."

"That sounds like a deal." Tony agreed, setting down Mr. Ward's items on a nearby table.

The two men stepped into the hotel's crowded kitchen area and got to work.

A few minutes later, Matty's head popped in the doorway. "Excuse me? May I have a word with you gentlemen?"

Byron bustled over to introduce himself. Tony followed both men back into the ballroom.

Matty scrutinized the décor. "Do we have any linen besides the plain white?"

"We have some in a dark green, or a dark red that combines well with the carpet." Byron replied.

"I'd like to see a sample of both, if I could."

Knowing this was his cue; Tony dismissed himself and hurried over to the linen room. When he stepped back with the two samples, he noticed that Byron and Matty were standing next to one of the two narrow storage rooms at the rear of the ballroom.

Matty saw the two linen cloths in Tony's hands. "The red will do quite nicely. As to the layout of the room, I hate to put you through all this trouble..."

"No trouble at all, Matty." Byron said. "It would be our pleasure."

Tony hated when any of the managers said that, because it usually meant that Tony was about to have some hard work heaped onto his shoulders.

"Well, it would help matters considerably if we could remove all of these round tables, and bring out these rectangular ones instead." Matty directed. "Six or seven should suffice, covered with the red linen, and arranged in a big circle directly in the center of the room." The older man looked up at the ceiling. "I wonder if these lights are adjustable?"

"They are." Byron replied. "They can be adjusted from very bright to very dark, and anywhere in between."

"It would be fantastic, if we could lower the glare in the room, once we're done placing the tables of course." Matty said. "And even more fantastic if we could place a short candle at every table."

"We do have a good supply of candles." Byron nodded, as he turned to Tony. "Why don't you get started on the tables, and I'll finish setting up the refreshments?"

Tony nodded and got to work. Since he'd organized the ballroom on short notice before, and had even done it on the fly on occasion, it only took him about twenty minutes to get it the way Matty asked. Six tables proved optimal, since seven left too wide a space in the center. The tables were all covered up in red and had their candles set on them, just as Byron and Matty both finished up the pastry and refreshment tables.

"Splendid." Matty said, as he checked his watch. "And not a moment too soon. My guests should begin arriving within the next quarter hour."