Wet: Undercurrent by Zenobia Renquist Page A

It’s a tax write-off for them and makes them look like they are giving back to the community.”
    Now why the hell was she helping out the competition? Lulu was too good at her job. She couldn’t shut it off, not even when she wasn’t at the place where she worked.
    “That’s a good idea. I hadn’t thought of that. Thank you. I’ll have to speak to the manager. I’m Richard Grant, by the way.” He held out his hand.
    Lulu shook his hand with a congenial smile and noticed the way his gaze darted down to her left hand. Of course. He was flirting. She’d almost missed it. “Lulu Swade. I’m a human resources admin.” She offered a generic title for her profession since he’d already told her his. Hopefully he wouldn’t ask her to elaborate.
    “That sounds tough. I’m sure you’ve been looking forward to this vacation for a while.”
    “Oh, you have no idea.” She really hated small talk. “I was just on my way to relax in the hot springs before dinner.”
    “Me too.” He stepped back while watching her expectantly.
    Lulu obliged him and they walked back to the hallway that led to the hot springs. She half listened to Richard’s chatter about hot springs and the cultural significance to Japan, but her thoughts stayed on the invisible hallway. When the door that separated the women’s side from the men’s side appeared, Lulu almost sighed in relief.
    Richard said, “It’s a shame they separate the two sides, but that is holding with the Japanese culture.”
    “So I’ve heard.”
    “Perhaps we can meet for dinner, and I can tell you more about that painting.”
    “That sounds interesting.” Actually it did. Richard must have come alone if he was flirting with her. She hoped that was the case. She hadn’t signed on to this trip for dramatics. Plus talking to him would help with her assignment.
    Lulu had glossed over the décor. She hadn’t expected the paintings and sculptures to be real Japanese objet d’art. If they were, that might be the difference. Maybe Voda could embrace the Russian motif a bit more. People liked the myth of Princess Anastasia. Even if Voda couldn’t get originals, close facsimiles -- advertised as such -- would do just as well.
    Richard said, “How about we meet in the lobby at seven?”
    “It’s a date.”
    “I’ll see you then, Lulu.” He pushed open the door of the women’s side and held it while Lulu passed him.
    A gentleman. Point in Richard’s favor, though no amount of points would do him any good. Lulu had no plans of getting tangled up with any man while on this trip, least of all him. He was a means to a researching end.
    Besides, her interests lay with that mysterious hallway and why Richard hadn’t seen it while standing right in front of it. It wasn’t a hallucination, since she had walked down it. Once she returned to her room, she would do a search on the building plans for this hotel.
    Thinking up possibilities for why the hotel had a hidden hallway kept Lulu from enjoying the dip in the hot spring. She decided to cut her visit short so she could do research instead. Yup, vacations were definitely lost on her.
    She rushed back to her room without looking like she was rushing and sat at her computer. Before she started typing, she set her phone alarm for six. That would give her enough time to shower and get dressed. She didn’t want to get immersed in her work and forget her dinner date.
    Except her precaution wasn’t needed. There was nothing to immerse her. An hour of searching turned up no information, useful or otherwise. Lulu had access to many sites and resources that should have given her details about when the hotel was built and how. There wasn’t even a public record of the building permit. That wasn’t too surprising. Onsen had been around since the town was founded. The city probably hadn’t gotten around to scanning in the physical copy.
    But the original hotel had changed drastically from the wooden structure of two hundred