The Hotel - 31

"A star is born," Ramsey said as soon as the cast had taken their final bows and retired to the hallway behind the ballroom. He hugged Caitlin, kissing her forehead.

"I think I'll stick to making costumes," she replied, but she did look very pleased with herself.

"You can do what Noah does," Phil told her. "Split your time between acting and costuming."

"I make costumes?" Noah said.

"You know what I mean, brat," Phil replied, hugging him.

"Brat?"

Phil grinned. "If the shoe fits…"

"Oh, you are so going to get it, Mister." Noah paused long enough to give Phil a fast kiss. "Maybe when we get back to the city."

"About time," Marsh whispered to me. I agreed. It looked like maybe they were going to stop dancing around each other and take things to the next level.

It was good to see everyone had unwound, at least a little. The result of an excellent performance tonight, I knew, but I'd take anything I could get. Now all that had to happen was for Orville to figure out who killed Tessa and why—and hope against hope it was an outsider, although I didn't really believe that.

Even Jenn and Kirby seemed to be back to normal. They were whispering to each other, then he said, "Let's get out of costume and then we can hit up the cocktail lounge and sign autographs."

She laughed, telling him, "I doubt that's going to happen but I bet we won't have to buy our own drinks."

Probably not, I figured, which meant I'd better keep an eye on my people to be certain they didn't over-indulge.

* * * *

The cocktail lounge was crowded with hotel guests when I got there, so I wasn't terribly surprised to see Logan behind the bar helping Vern. I noticed that the young women who worked for the hotel were doing duty as waitresses.

Edwin was wandering, talking to people, as were some of the members of my troupe—the ones who weren't sitting at one of the tables in the middle of the room.

"Soaking up the accolades?" I whispered to Kirby with a grin after a woman told him how wonderful he'd been as Dracula.

He grinned back as he took another sip of the drink in his hand. "You bet. I think we all are. I'll try not to let it go to my head."

"I'll make sure it doesn't," Jenn said, smiling at him.