Jill Churchill: Bell, Book, and Scandal

She'd even shopped a bit in the interval between seeing the suite earlier and returning to it. Three casual skirts, four blouses with coordinated

lightweight sweaters. She also had black trousers and a sparkly black top for the banquet night. She'd even dug out a few pieces of jewelry that she seldom wore. A sapphire and diamond ring her parents had given her for her twenty-first birthday. A cheap but good-looking silver linked necklace that made her neck itch if she wore it for too long.

It was more than she needed, but she didn't want to miss a moment running home if she spilled coffee on herself.

Jane arrived at the hotel at ten and went to the suite. She'd thought about hauling the manuscript to the lobby and studying it one more time. But that would look too needy.

Instead, she took along a copy of the latest Felicity Roane book with her. She positioned herself close to the front desk, so she could glance up from time to time and see if she recognized any of her favorite mystery authors. There had been photographs of them in the last brochure she'd received.

She saw a man who had to be Zac Zebra arrive wearing black trousers and a black sweater thrown over a shiny white shirt, open at the neck too far. He had black-and-white-striped hair. She knew he was one of the speakers. Did they have their rooms paid for? she wondered. He took out a credit card, but that meant nothing. Even when you had a free room, as she did, hotels wanted a credit card for incidentals like food, drinks, and dry cleaning.

She went back to reading her book, glancing up from time to time.

A woman who might be Felicity Roane herself checked in about ten minutes later. Jane glanced at the formal photo on the back of the book. If this was Ms. Roane, she was a lot more casual than the picture. Her hair wasn't up. She had a windblown ponytail with a scarf around it. She was in jeans and a baggy lightweight gray sweater.

Jane hoped this was the author she liked so much, and liked, too, that she seemed less daunting than the photo. It was all Jane could manage to stay seated. She wanted to run over to the front desk, book in hand for autographing. But Ms. Roane might have had a long trip and wouldn't want to be fawned over while waiting for her room assignment.

She went on reading, so caught up in the story, in spite of the fact that she'd already read it when it had come out in hardback, that she probably missed several other famous attendees. When she finally looked up the next time, Shelley was checking in. Jane put a bookmark in the book, stuffed it in her purse, and approached her just as the bellhop was taking up her suitcases.

Fishing in her pocket, Shelley pulled out a five-dollar bill and tipped him before turning to Jane. "Have you spotted anyone yet?"

"Zac Zebra," Jane said. "Nobody could mistake him. And a woman I think was Felicity Roane. But I'm not positive it was she."

"Where are you sitting?" Shelley asked.

"Right over here. Don't you want to go up and unpack?"

"I'd rather gawk with you for a while."

While they watched the front desk, chatting about what fun the conference was going to be, a rather heavy, terribly overdressed young woman came in. She and the man with her were wearing cowboy hats and flashy western clothing and lots of turquoise jewelry.

"Probably country-western singers performing somewhere in Chicago, don't you think?" Shelley asked. "Nobody dresses that way for no reason."

"Maybe. Or maybe they're just rubes come to the Big City for the first time."

"I'm going to ask who they are," Shelley said. "Watch my purse," she added as she strode off.

"Excuse me," a voice said from in back of Jane.

Jane, startled, stood up and turned. "You're Ms. Felicity Roane, aren't you? I was hoping to meet you."

"I noticed you as I came into the hotel," Ms. Roane said, sitting down in the third chair in the grouping. "I'm always looking at people on planes reading, hoping to see them reading one of my books. The only time I did, I made a fool of myself. The woman was right across the aisle and I said it was so nice to see her reading that book. She just looked at me blankly and said that it was the only one in the airport with a nice cover. She clearly didn't recognize me," she said with alaugh. "I told her I wrote the book she was reading and she said, 'Of course you did.' I didn't know if she meant it or thought I was crazy.

"But I spotted you reading my most recent paperback," she went on, "and thought I'd give it another try. Would you like it autographed?"

"Oh, yes please, Ms. Roane," Jane said while she fished the book back out of her purse.

"Please, don't call me Ms. Roane," she said with a smile. "These mystery conferences are really casual. Everybody calls me Felicity. And old friends call me by my real name. Freddy for Fredricka. Feel free to call me anything that starts with F, except the F-word, and I answer." She took the book and got a pen out of her bag. "And you are…?"

"Jane Jeffry. And the woman approaching us is my next-door neighbor Shelley Nowack."

"Jane Jeffry is a good name. You're sure you didn't make it up? Are you a writer or reader or both?"

"Both," Jane admitted. "So far unpublished though. I came here to learn tips on how to market my book."

Shelley had returned and introductions followed.

"That's what everybody who wants to crack the shell should do," Felicity went on. "And what about you, Shelley?"

"I have no writing aspirations, though I read a lot," Shelley said. "I'm just along to help out Jane.

I'm planning to go to different lectures to take notes because she can't be in two or three places at one time."

"Shelley isn't quite telling the truth," Jane said with a laugh. "She writes the best letters of complaint you can imagine."

"A skill I wish I had," Felicity said. "Where are you ladies from?" she said, signing the book with a flourish of green ink.

"Only a few blocks away," Shelley said. "Would you sign another one for me later?"

"I'd be delighted. Have you had breakfast yet? I'm starving. Will you join me? Just give me ten minutes to change out of my airplane garb and fix my hair."

Jane was thrilled but refrained from gushing. "We'd like that."

When Felicity was out of earshot, Shelley said, "This is astonishing. John at the front desk said those cowboy people checked in as part of this conference. And there was another odd thing I overheard. That Zac person who's been lurking near the desk went up to the woman and young man checking in. He gave a paperback book to her, saying, 'Sophie, you must read this.' "

"That's sort of strange," Jane said, still preoccupied with how very nice Felicity Roane had turned out to be.

Felicity met them at the door of the hotel restaurant shortly. Now she looked a lot more like the photo on the back of her books.

When they'd ordered, Felicity said, "Have you seen any of the others arrive? I'm a bit early. I always like to get rid of the airplane hair and rest up my white knuckles before I go into author mode."

"I saw Zac Zebra," Jane said. "There's no mistaking him." She studied Felicity as she spoke. The author had put her hair up in a twist at the back and was wearing freshly pressed tan slacks and a pink blouse. A lovely soft scarf draped over her shoulder was held in place with a pretty gold pin.

"Zac must go to every mystery conference in the country," Felicity said. "He's an unforgivable show-off with that crazy hair. He claims to have written several books under a pseudonym, but I don't believe that. For one thing, nobody's really named Zac Zebra, are they?"

"I hope not," Shelley put in. "Do you already know all the other guest speakers? Do you do this a lot?"

"I know most of them. But not, thank goodness, the E-Pubbed Wonder."