Other People's Baggage by Kendel Lynn, Gigi Pandian, Diane Vallere

toward the door.
    â€œIt’s still pretty dark out. Would you like a flashlight?”
    I turned back to her, poised atop the crutches. “I don’t know if I can maneuver these and hold a flashlight, too.”
    â€œWhere are you going?”
    â€œI’m an early bird. I thought I’d go to the beach, sit on one of the rocks by the road, and listen to the waves.”
    â€œI broke my leg last year and was on crutches for a solid three months. It’s a bitch getting down the slope of Ocean Avenue with them. Hold on.”
    She disappeared behind a door to the left of her. I tapped my fingers on the marble counter, eager for her to return. I didn’t know what kind of time I had but I didn’t think I had much.
    From farther inside the hotel I heard a soft ding. The elevator. I quickly grabbed the crutches and moved to a yellow gingham sofa. I propped the crutches behind another column, out of sight. I reclined, pulling the fabric of the maxi skirt around my legs. I rolled into the back of the sofa and hoped I looked like someone who had chosen not to sleep in their room.
    â€œWhere is she?” asked a familiar voice. It was same man who had cornered me in front of the drug store before Jack Jordan had come to my rescue, before Jack Jordan turned out to be not who he’d seemed. It was Louis.
    â€œShe was here a second ago,” said Kitty.
    I curled back into a ball on the sofa but kept my head raised so I could hear their conversation.
    â€œDid you see which way she went?”
    An awkward silence followed. My mind pictured a thousand permutations of what was going on. I imagined the man seeing the crutches I’d stashed behind the column and coming over to me, to do—do do what I didn’t know, only, I was convinced it wasn’t going to be good.
    â€œShe said she was going to the ocean.”
    â€œAt this hour?” Louis asked. “Sounds suspicious.”
    â€œThat’s what I thought. I said I was getting her a flashlight but she must have left without it.”
    â€œTell you what, Kitty, I’ll look for her. The ocean, you said?”
    â€œThat’s what she said.”
    I waited on the sofa, considering my options. I could go back to my room, or I could follow Louis, the man from the elevators. After the front door to the hotel shut, I stood and flexed my legs individually, then spied a small flat rectangle on the lobby floor. A room key tucked into a paper sleeve. I felt my pockets for my own key. It was where I’d tucked it, in the pocket of the skirt.
    I bent down to pick up the keycard when Kitty called out to me. “There you are!”
    â€œI had to go back to my room for something, but I must have dropped my key.” I flipped the sleeve over. The number 419 was written on the back. I looked at the front doors, then quickly looked back down at the keycard. Louis had dropped this.
    â€œLooks like the sun is starting to come up. I won’t need that flashlight after all.” A cloudy plan formed in my mind. I made a show of fussing with my crutches and hobbling out the front door, then tossed them by the flower beds that decorated the walk up entrance to the hotel. Adrenaline coursed through my body and eliminated any pain that had been there days earlier. In the dark, I moved to the side of the hotel and reentered through another door.
    I picked up the receiver on the hotel phone that sat next to the ugly lamp on the marble table across from the elevators. I dialed 419. I counted at least ten rings, a good indication that the room was empty. With one hand on the wall, I moved through the hallway to the elevator, then hit the button for the third floor. A plan had formed, but first I needed to better my disguise.
    In my room, I emptied a packet of instant coffee into a hotel glass and added enough of the serum from Elli Lisbon’s overnight kit to make a paste with my fingers. I raked the resulting brown glop through my