The Tattered Thread

  **********

  A very tall, muscular man with light brown hair and bushy eyebrows answered the door to the men’s quarters and gave both Elaine and Chloe a very cordial smile beneath a well-trimmed mustache. He looked to be in his mid to late thirties, and at first he seemed quite pompous. Elaine was soon to realize, however, that he wasn’t like that at all. His prominent cheekbones and bearded chin made him resemble a wonderful cross between Clark Gable and Steve McQueen.

  “Lovely to see you again, Chloe,” he said, a polished, English accent emanating from below that perfectly sculpted nose of his. “How was school?”

  “I did well. By this time next year, I will have earned a bachelor’s degree from there and looking forward to graduate school.”

  The man’s lazy expression jolted into a surprised one. “Time flies,” he said. “Seems like you just started, and now you’re a rising senior.”

  Chloe smiled. “Boy, that sounds good. It won’t be long now.” Pausing, she exchanged affectionate glances with him. “I’ve got someone here I’d like you to meet. Elaine Kostas, this is Zachary Cutteridge.”

  Elaine shook his outstretched hand. “Hello,” she said.

  “It’s a pleasure.”

  “Zach is the groundskeeper who moonlights as a painter. He opened the front gate for us when we drove up. Zach is something of a celebrity around here.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Here we go again,” he said, rolling his deep blue eyes.

  “Every so often museum representatives from New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and London stop in for photo shoots showcasing Zach’s murals. I’ll bet they can’t wait to rip his artwork off these walls and exhibit it in their own museums. Some of his stuff is probably worth a fortune.”

  “Not one of them has been appraised at more than twenty-three thousand dollars,” he explained. “The girl doth exaggerate.”

  “That’s because you aren’t dead yet, Zach,” Chloe teased, wrinkling up her nose.

  He stared at her with his mouth hanging open. “You just exude happy thoughts, don’t you?”

  She laughed and grabbed him by the arm. “Elaine starts work tomorrow. Housekeeping.”

  “Welcome aboard,” Zach told Elaine.

  “Is anyone else around?” Chloe asked.

  “Sammy’s out tending the horses, and John’s here but I don’t know where. Cameron took the old man out for a spin.”

  “How’s Tasia?” Chloe asked, a sly grin on her salmon-colored lips.

  His mood mellowed as soon as Tasia’s name was mentioned. It was easy to see that he cared for her, but he tried not to show just how much she meant to him. “She’s well,” was all he said.

  “Glad to hear it. Listen, I’m going to show Elaine the rest of the house.”

  “Nice meeting you, Zach,” Elaine said as she turned to leave.

  “Likewise,” he said, and then gave her a very courteous nod of his head.

  After talking with him, Chloe continued to show Elaine thirty-five of the ninety plus rooms. They strolled past bathrooms, the dual kitchen and pantry, the dining room, sitting rooms, parlor rooms, the indoor pool and the gymnasium. She saved Carl’s office for last.

  “This door leads to Mr. Kastenmeier’s office.” Chloe knocked before opening it.

  Inside was a reception room with a coffee table and a couple of sofas. To the left was a desk with a woman sitting behind it and answering several telephones. Rows of file cabinets lined the walls, as did a fair-sized bulletin board. A canterbury mounted on casters had several vertical partitions, and each space was filled with magazines. Carl’s secretary had everything she needed, like a fax, dictating, and copy machines, and the latest model Macintosh computer with an expensive ink-jet printer beside it. Finally hanging up the last line she was on, the woman looked at them with a smile.

  “Elaine, this is Mr. Kastenmeier’s office professional, Katerina Waltke. Kate, Elaine Kostas.” They greeted one another fondly. “Zach told me that Mr. Kastenmeier wasn’t in right now. May we go into his office for a moment?”

  “Sure, I don’t see why not,” Katerina said.

  Chloe walked over to the office door and opened it wide. There was a sofa against the far wall and a designing table on the left. Beyond the table was another bar and four stools, and in the center of the room and close to the right wall was a gigantic desk with a black leather chair behind it. Two smaller black leather chairs were in front of the desk. Behind the desk was a closed door.

  “That door leads to the smoking room. Only Mr. Kastenmeier uses it. Down the hall is his private bath and a spare bedroom for nights when he works late.” Chloe walked past a hall closet and the bathroom, and then opened the door to the bedroom. They were both surprised to see a young woman standing inside and sipping a beverage from a small brandy snifter. Her face was as red as a ripe Jersey tomato. It was funny, but she looked at home and uncomfortable at the same time. Even her hair was standing on end; it was silky and curly and had recently been permed. The minute they walked in, she obviously wanted to get out of there.

  “Chloe!” the woman said, her voice high-pitched. “When did you get in?”

  “This morning.”

  “How are you? How’s school?”

  “Everything’s fine, thank you. This is Elaine. She starts full-time tomorrow.”

  “The new maid?”

  “Yes.”

  She smiled at Elaine. “Nice to meet you,” she said. “I’m Tasia, the chef.”

  “Tasia? That’s an unusual name.”

  “It’s just a nickname. I’m Anastasia.”

  “I see.”

  The queen-sized bed in the room looked as if a battle had been waged in it; the spread was on the floor, the blanket dangled off the left edge, and the top sheet was pulled down. The bottom sheet was starting to come up from the mattress on the left side closest to the headboard. Elaine hadn’t seen much in her twenty-one years, but she’d bet everything she owned that Carl hadn’t been alone in that bed the night before. And based on the intense degree of guilt written all over Tasia’s face, she most likely had been the one in there with him.

  “Look, I’ve gotta get going,” Tasia said. “See you later.” Walking out of the room and then down the hallway, she didn’t carry herself like a servant. On the contrary, she could easily have been mistaken for a member of the family, someone who belonged in a place as magnificent as this.

  As she reached Carl’s office, Elaine and Chloe watched her from the doorway, leaning out far enough from the doorjamb to be able to see everything she did. Pausing only to set the lipstick-smudged glass she was holding down on the edge of the bar, she kept walking until she reached the outer door. A distinctive, crescent-shaped patch of maroon graced the glass in the form of a perfect lip print. Tasia left the office without once looking back.

  Chloe cleared her throat and said, “Mr. Kastenmeier always wants his office cleaned first. I guess it’s like destroying the evidence.” She stepped out of the bedroom and Elaine followed her. “I’m sorry about that, but everybody knows that Mr. Kastenmeier and Tasia sleep together.”

  “Is she a good cook?” Elaine asked, trying to be funny. Chloe picked up on that right away.

  “By the looks of the linens in there, I’d say so. Something was definitely cooking last night. The bed’s still smoking.”

  Elaine laughed as they walked through the office and past Katerina. Kate seemed embarrassed, looking up at them both apologetically. “I forgot she was in there,” she said with a shrug. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Chloe told her. “She’s in there so much, she’s starting to become part of the décor anyway.”