Page 20 of Cruel Riches

“I don’t think so. It was locked when I arrived ten minutes ago,” I said. “What about the food containers out there? You had stuff delivered, right?”

“Yeah, but I met the delivery guy downstairs in the lobby, so he didn’t come in at all. And I was only gone for a minute or two. There’s no way someone could’ve broken in and done all this while I was grabbing the food,” she said, sweeping her arm over the room.

An icy feeling prickled up my spine. “What if….” I trailed off, not even wanting to say it out loud. I cleared my throat and started again. “How long were you asleep for?”

“I’m not sure. I watched some TV for a while, but I was really tired after the glass of wine, so I probably fell asleep around half past nine,” she said. Her eyes widened again as she caught on to my train of thought. “Oh my god. You think someone could’ve gotten in and sneaked around while I was asleep on the couch?”

“Maybe. I only got back here at half past ten, so they would’ve had an hour to poke around.”

“I’m going to check my room. I’ll check all the windows too,” she said before turning on her heel and dashing down the hall.

She returned a couple of minutes later. “It looks a bit messy in my room, like someone’s rummaged through my drawers,” she said. “But I’m not sure. I can’t tell if it’s just a mess I made when I was getting ready earlier, or if someone has actually gone through it all.”

I looked at her, forehead creased with concern. “What do you think we should do?”

“I don’t know. Apart from this mess on your floor, there’s no sign that someone actually broke in, so we’ll look pretty stupid if we call the cops.”

“We don’t want to involve ourselves with the cops if we can help it, anyway,” I said. “If they get our names, they might run a background check on us at some point and realize who we are. Word could get out from there, and then the whole island will suddenly know that we’re back.”

“Yeah, that’s true.” Sascha’s brows knitted. “We could just go and talk to Eric.”

“Good idea.”

Eric manned the front desk down in the lobby every night. He was cool, so I knew he’d help us out.

We trudged downstairs and approached the desk. “Hi, ladies,” Eric said with a smile. “What’s up?”

“We’ve had a bit of an incident,” Sascha said.

Concern flickered in his eyes. “What sort of incident? Should I call someone?”

I held up a palm. “Not yet. We were just wondering if you could tell us who came in and out of the building tonight.”

“Over the whole night?”

Sascha nudged me. “I borrowed your purse at just before I went out, and your room was fine then. So it had to be after that.”

I nodded and turned back to Eric. “Between half past eight and ten. Not counting me.”

He scratched his chin. “Tonight’s been pretty quiet. I saw you leave at half past eight,” he said, looking at Sascha. “And then you came back about fifteen minutes later. Mrs. Gibson from the top floor came home around nine, I think. Oh, and there was a delivery guy here at some point, but that was for you, right?”

Sascha nodded. “Yeah. So there was no one else?”

“Not that I recall.”

“What happens if you need a bathroom break? Do you leave the desk?” I asked.

“I’m allowed to leave it for a few minutes at a time, yes,” he said. “We have cameras, so it’s not a huge deal.”

“Could we look at the footage?” I asked. “Just to make sure no one else came in while you were in the bathroom.”

“Sure. Just don’t tell my boss,” he said, clicking a few things on his computer.

Sascha and I went and stood behind him so we could look at the screen over his shoulder. The sped-up footage confirmed what he told us. Between eight-thirty and ten, the only people who came into the building were Sascha, Mrs. Gibson from upstairs, the food delivery guy, and me.

“Are there any cameras outside?” I asked.

Eric looked troubled. “Yes. Why? What’s happened?”

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