Page 33 of A Vineyard Love

“The painting in the foyer has been taken, as has Chef Billiard’s knife,” Kelli explained under her breath. “I’m beginning to think that all of this is related to the jewelry thief.”

Sandra wrinkled her nose. “I hate to say it, but I’m pretty sure Miss Jennings and that other woman were just making that up to get a free room.”

“That’s what I thought, too. But my prize painting in the foyer is gone. And I checked the CCTV footage, and it’s just a loop of the recent hours.”

Sandra’s eyes widened.

“You haven’t seen anyone touch the painting, have you?” Kelli demanded.

“I haven’t,” Sandra said quietly.

“I’m going to ask others,” Kelli said. “I don’t have much hope, though. It’s been such a crazy day. Maybe someone was able to slip out with it undetected.”

“But there was a cop here,” Sandra reminded her. “Wouldn’t that have scared a thief off?”

Kelli frowned, sensing Sandra was right. “Maybe they have another way in. A way that allows them to slip in and out undetected.” After a long, ponderous pause, she jumped up and said, “I have an idea!”

“What is it?” Sandra cried, but Kelli was too quick to answer, waving at Xander, who, on the other side of the foyer, was in conversation with one of the bell hops. “Xander! I’ll be back!”

Xander nodded as Kelli again whipped back through the crowd, pausing for a moment to say hello to her little brother, Andy, one of her best friends in the world.

“You look happy!” Andy said, smiling in a way that reminded Kelli of Andy when he’d been a kid, long before he’d gone to war.

“I don’t know about that. But I think I’m on the verge of figuring something out,” Kelli told him.

Andy frowned. “Do you need help?”

“No! No. Keep having fun. I’ll catch you later. We can talk during the reception!” Kelli said, as though she was sure every single fire would be put out by then. She had to believe it.

Kelli returned to the kitchen, where the chaos had stalled. Charlotte was nowhere to be found, but she’d left the boxes strewn across the kitchen again, and several of the kitchen staff members were angry about it. Kelli hurried around the boxes to the side door, where a number of vendor trucks sat. One of them was particularly huge, as it had brought the majority of the fresh fish, fresh vegetables, and alcohol they’d needed for the wedding.

Kelli approached this larger truck, her shoulders back. She needed to prove her dominance. A vendor worker stood out behind the truck, smoking a cigarette as he scanned his phone.

“Hi there!” Kelli greeted him and stopped a few feet away. “How’s it going?”

The vendor worker puffed his cigarette, looking bored.

“I’m the manager of this hotel,” Kelli explained.

“And I’m the vendor charged to deliver for this Harris wedding,” he said half-sarcastically because it was obvious who he was. He couldn’t have been anyone else.

Kelli felt he was purposefully trying her patience. She used the very last of her strength to continue to smile at him, which felt like a waste of energy. “Have you been out here all day?”

“Just got here around eleven-thirty,” the man told her.

“And you’ve unloaded everything?”

“Not everything,” the man told her. “The wedding planner has run in and out frantically, ordering us to bring this and that in and take this and that out. It’s all such a delicate affair.”

“Yes. The wedding planner is my sister,” Kelli told him. “She’s brilliant, one of the best in the business. But she can be hard to be around on wedding days.”

Kelli wanted to get on this guy’s good side, but the vendor hardly smiled back.

“Listen,” Kelli said, placing her hands on her hips. “There has been a bit of difficulty here at the hotel today.”

“Oh no,” the man said, mocking her.

Kelli bristled. “Since you’ve been out here all day, I was curious if you’d seen anything. Anything fishy.”

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