Hotel Vendome Read Online Free PDF Page B

staying at the hotel with her assistant, her hairdresser, her current boyfriend, her bodyguard, her two children and their nanny, and they had a block of suites on the tenth floor. And when she helped the maids turn down the room, Heloise had been excited when she caught a glimpse of the actress, Eva Adams. Heloise thought she was even prettier than her pictures. She had two Chihuahuas with her, and she had been very nice when Heloise asked if she could pet the dogs. She had wanted to ask for her autograph but knew that was against the rules, and that was one rule her father never permitted her to break. No one in the hotel was ever allowed to ask their celebrity guests for autographs, and he was intransigent about it. He wanted guests to feel at home and protected, not invaded by employees requesting autographs. And of course they weren’t able to ask for photographs either. And no one ever broke those rules. It was one of the reasons why celebrities felt so comfortable at the hotel, because their privacy was respected, according to Hugues’s orders to his staff.
    “She’s really pretty,” Heloise said happily as she chatted with Ernesta when they made the rounds.
    “Yes, she is, and she’s a lot smaller than she looks on screen.” The movie star in question looked tiny and delicate, and had a dazzling smile and enormous blue eyes. She had been lounging in the suite with her entourage when they came in, and she was very pleasant to the maids and thanked them for what they did, which wasn’t always the case with movie stars. Heloise had heard many stories about how badly they behaved and how rude they were sometimes. But this one had been warm, friendly, and polite.
    Heloise was still talking about her when she and Ernesta went down to the laundry with a rolling basket full of towels from the tenth floor. As Ernesta handed over the basket, Heloise noticed something sparkle in the heap of towels, and she reached in and grabbed it just before Ernesta dumped it into the big bin. Much to everyone’s surprise, Heloise held up a diamond bracelet in her hand. It shimmered enticingly and looked very expensive. It was about an inch wide and was solid diamonds all the way around.
    “Wow!” Heloise exclaimed as everyone stared at what she’d found.
    “You’d better call security,” the head operator of the laundry told Ernesta, and she nodded and reached for the phone, but Heloise shook her head, still holding the bracelet.
    “I think we should call my father.” It looked like a very fancy bracelet, even to her, and Ernesta didn’t disagree. She wanted to get it into the right hands as quickly as possible. Someone was going to be reporting it as lost or stolen very soon. Guests often misplaced their valuables, and the maids were always the first to be accused. Ernesta wanted none of that. Heloise dialed her father’s office, and Jennifer answered, and when she heard the story, she told them to come up. So far no one had called.
    Hugues was in his office, signing some papers at his desk, when Ernesta and Heloise appeared, and his daughter held out the bracelet, and his eyes grew wide.
    “Where did you find that?”
    “In the towels,” Heloise said as she handed it across the desk to him, and he took a closer look at it. There was no question, it was real, and a valuable piece.
    “I’ll put it in the safe. Someone should be calling about it very soon.” He smiled at Ernesta then and thanked her for her honesty, and she looked at Heloise.
    “I didn’t find it, sir. Your daughter did. She pulled it right out of the towels. I didn’t even see it.”
    “I’m glad she did,” he said, and handed it to Jennifer to put in the safe. “Let’s see what happens,” he said quietly, and much to everyone’s surprise, no one called for two days. He had gone down the list of all the guests on the tenth floor, but none of them had reported the bracelet missing, and he had to wait for someone to call so it didn’t wind up