Rhythm 'n Blues [Short fiction]

This story had the following conditions for acceptance into a competition:

1. It must take place in a HOTEL
2. It must include a PHOTOGRAPH.
3. It must include the following words: COLLAR, GLOOMY, POLICE, RHYTHM, SAPPHIRE

Here's what I came up with.

Absently I tapped the bell with the one-long and two-short rhythm the PorterBot recognised.

'Room five-ten.' I know I was terse, but it was four forty-seven and I was coming to the end of a long, boring shift. Well, long shift: I was never bored. Not that there were any other humans around who cared. 

The PB collected the bags and lead the gloomy couple towards the stairs. They hadn't been too happy about the turbo lifts being out of order.

'We really ought to book somewhere else,' she had bleated. To tell the truth, she looked a bit like a sheep - small face, long nose and over-weight.

He had consoled her. 'Honey, our cred's already been accepted so let's just make the best of it.' It didn't really work. And he looked more like a sheep dog - lithe, sinewy and constrained energy despite looking distracted.

With that honey short-circuiting my concentration, I didn't really see her until she was standing right there at the counter. But it was enough to send the rest of my synapses into frenzied tweeting. She was gorgeous. Eye-wrenchingly beautiful. I'd even venture to suggest she was flawless.

A brass choker with a deep blue sapphire at its centre encircled her throat. Her eyes, the same colour, were unblinking and inviting, daring me to answer her question.

'Are you in charge here?'

I'm pretty sure I didn't reply.

She stretched her neck a little in seeming discomfort. 

'We're looking for this person.'

A tall man (I think he was male) stepped out from behind her. Between his right index and middle fingers he held a thin, metallic tab illuminated by an image. In his other hand I could see a strap made of some sort of closely woven dull metal mesh. It was attached to the back of the woman's neck.

'I'm sure you must be in charge here,' she said, her eyes imploring, voice perfectly modulated.

'He's not,' snapped the Tall Man and jerked the strap. 'He merely knows where this man is. Or will be. Isn't that so?' A question that felt like a statement.

The person in the photograph on the tabscreen was indeed familiar to me.

'He, just this moment, went up those stairs to his room.' The Fun Police unnerved me almost as much as flawless beauty.

'Arigato,' - he glanced briefly at the name on my chest - 'Julius. This Companion - Sapphire Class - has been assigned to him. My job? Make sure she gets there. And your job?' He held his gaze for a second and turned away.

I knew my job, but in one minute it was about to change. The Servant Class are service providers, after all.

I watched Tall Man and his Companion move towards the stairs, touched palms with the night shift who had arrived and followed my new boss.

I had evidence to collect. Flawless beauty didn't unnerve me THAT much!