Page 34 of The Claiming of the Shrew
Fawkes returnedto his backpack and clothes to find a missed message on his phone. It was a voicemail from Hester, the lodge owner. That didn’t seem like a good sign, as late as it was. He listened to the message while pulling on his socks.
“Hi, sorry to bother you, but Leah’s sister Joy wants to get in touch with you pretty urgently. I’m still up and will be for the next hour or so. Call me back if you aren’t asleep.”
What did Joy want with him now? He wondered warily if Leah had told her about the jewelry. He thought about letting it go until morning, then decided he ought to get it over with, and dialed Hester back.
“Fated Mountain Lodge.”
“Hi,” he said. “This is Fawkes. I thought this was your personal phone.”
“It is. It rings through from the main lodge number after hours. Just a minute.” She moved her head away from the phone and he heard her say something about ... finishing the dishes? There was a laugh and a reply in a male voice that he couldn’t hear very well.
“Sorry,” Hester said, returning to the phone. “I’m just doing some after hours work at home. Mmm, Mauro, that’s nice, but just give me ten minutes.”
Another quiet male laugh, and the other voice—her husband Mauro, Fawkes decided—said, “I’ll go lock up the equipment sheds for the night. If you’re off the phone when I get back, I have a surprise for you.”
A door closed in the background. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Fawkes said.
“In a few minutes you would have been. But I did ask you to call.” Hester’s voice turned brisk. “Joy, Leah’s sister, has called me a couple of times. She’s not spending the night at the lodge, and she wants to know where her sister is. Joy says Leah isn’t answering her phone. She hoped she was with you.”
“No,” Fawkes said. He looked up at the bulk of the lodge, with most of its windows dark. “I was supposed to meet her earlier, but she wasn’t around.”
“Let me text you her sister’s number. She said it was all right to call or text her and let her know.”
His phone vibrated with an incoming text.
“Thanks,” Fawkes said. His heart was hammering. He hadknownsomething was wrong. “By the way, I think I’m pretty close to figuring out who your thief is. Hopefully I’ll be able to tell you in the morning.”
And hopefully Leah hadn’t found the thief first, and gotten in trouble.
“Oh, by the way,” Fawkes added, stomping into his shoes. “Can I get a key to Joy’s room from you? You know she’s not there, and I can check with her if it’s okay for me to be there, but that’s where Leah was supposed to meet me. I can check if she’s asleep or whatever.”
“I don’t know about actually giving it to you,” Hester said. “But I’ll meet you up at her room.”
Fawkes texted Joy:She’s not with me, but I’ll check her room.
Joy texted back:Thx. I know it’s dumb but I couldn’t get in touch earlier & it worried me. I asked her to please text back next time & she’s not & I know it’s just her being her but I’m worried.
Will let you know,Fawkes texted her.
He all but ran to the lodge. Hester was waiting in the upstairs hallway when he got there. She was wrapped in a fluffy pink robe that made her look like a pompom. She even had a matching pair of pink house slippers.
“Were you outside?” she asked, as Fawkes pounded up the stairs to join her. “I knocked on the door of your room, but you didn’t answer.”
“I was with the theater troupe.” Technically. They just didn’t know it.
“Aha.” She knocked briskly on Joy’s door. “Hello? Leah? This is hotel management. I need to open your door for a minute. Please tell me if you’re there.”
After knocking again, she took out one of the hotel’s old-fashioned keys.
Fawkes’s palms were sweating as she unlocked the door.
The lights in the room were on, but even at a glance Fawkes could see it was empty.
He gave it a quick visual sweep, looking for the pillowcase of jewelry, but he didn’t see it anywhere.
What he did see was a pile of clothes on the floor, along with Leah’s crutches.
Fawkes’s breath hissed out. Looking around the floor to make sure he wasn’t about to step on her, he stepped carefully inside and crouched beside the pathetic pile of Leah’s things. Everything was there—crutches, clothes, even her purse.
