“I know,” Sam said. “I thought of that, too. Value obviously isn’t the main criteria.”
“Food and soaps,” Maggie mused. “Someone in need, perhaps?”
“If we were in the city, I would agree. But we’re in the middle of the wilderness. The only people around here for miles are the people in this hotel, and they have plenty of food and all the hotel soaps they could want.”
“Are we sure about that?” Maggie asked.
“I guess there’s no way to be absolutely sure. We could ask Hester and Mauro if there are any sightings of someone living rough in the woods lately. But there’s food in the hotel kitchen; why not just take that?”
“Hmm.” Maggie examined the tables. “If it was someone from outside, they would have left tracks in the snow, wouldn’t they?”
“That’s a good point. Only thing is, it snowed again last night.”
“Oh,” Maggie said. This was what she got for trying to play detective.
“But we can still check. Anything at the front of the hotel would have been obliterated by now, but there’s a back door and a hall that goes straight to it from the lobby. That’s the most likely place for someone to have come in.”
They went down the hall, and Sam opened the door marked EXIT. Outside, it was brightening steadily. There was a concrete walk along the side of the building under the roof overhang,drifted lightly with trampled snow. Beyond that, the fresh snow was well over a foot deep.
“Huh,” Sam said. He crouched down and pointed. “See that?”
Maggie was no tracker, but she could see what he meant. Among the various boot tracks, there were clear, distinct prints of bare feet.
“That has to be someone who had shifted or was planning to shift, right?”
“Yeah, but it could just be someone going out for a midnight run in their animal form. Hard to say.” Sam stood up and peered across the snow-covered lawn to the dark wall of the trees. “There’s no following a trail out here, not after last night’s snow. But at least we know it’s possible an unknown shifter might have entered the hotel last night.”
There were few lights back here, behind the hotel, and the forest was a stark study in black and white, pine trees and snow, gradually becoming clearer in the growing dawn light. It was beautiful and also forbidding, a wild place where people weren’t meant to be. Maggie, as an urban bird shifter, felt generally comfortable in city or suburban settings, but she was unused to true forest.
“Do you have a shift form that can trail by scent?” Maggie asked.
“I’m a horse, so not really.”
“Magpies aren’t exactly known for their scent tracking either.” Her magpie ruffled up its feathers.Come on, bird, you know it’s true.
Sam smiled at her, and she reluctantly smiled back. Maybe he did just think of her as a criminal. But he had defended her to Hester. And he was investigating this theft as an outside job. Whatever else he believed of her, he didn’t think she had done this.
“I think we’ve seen all we can see here,” Maggie said. Nerving herself, she asked, “Do you want to grab something to eat before the breakfast crowd shows up? I’d like to get some food in me before they want me in the kitchen. And we can go over what we know already.”
Sam grinned, not a smile this time, but a full on, teeth-showing grin. If she’d thought him handsome and charming before, this was absolutely panty-melting. “I’d love to. Let’s go.”
SAM
Over mouthwateringomelets in the nearly empty hotel restaurant, Sam sketched a quick layout of the hotel and lobby on the back of a napkin.
“I don’t know what we can really find out,” Maggie said, delicately cutting a corner off her omelet. Sam had been bolting down his like a ravenous weasel, and had to make himself slow down. He wasn’t sure if Maggie’s table manners were just that impeccable, or if she was still on her best behavior with him, but he’d like to make at leastsomethingof a good impression. “—listening to me?”
“Yes, of course.” He absolutely had not been too distracted by the way she held a fork to remember the last couple of sentences. “Could you repeat it just to make sure?”
The corner of Maggie’s generous mouth quirked, causing a sudden dimple to flicker in her cheek, so subtle that only the right slant of light revealed it. “I was saying that I don’t know how much we can really learn, with a hotel full of guests coming and going, and the thefts having taken place at an unknown time last night. If they even are thefts. There’s every chance we’re going to find out one of the employees moved them forsafekeeping, or decided to hold them back and bring them out later.”
“Maybe.” Sam gave up on trying to figure out who had an opportunity—which was everyone at the lodge—and who had a motive, which would be either “everyone” or “no one.” Who on Earth would steal a fruit basket? Perhaps there was someone else around who had the same kleptomaniac shifter animal tendencies as Maggie, except it was a monkey with midnight fruit cravings.
“What are you going to do today?” Maggie asked, stacking their emptied plates on the edge of the table for the wait staff.
“Roust my daughter out of bed, first of all, and then explore the lodge’s options for outdoor recreation. Oh, and I need to let Hester and Mauro know that there might be someone sneaking into the lodge who shouldn’t be here, if I see either of them around. What about you?”
Maggie checked her wrist, on which she wore an elegant, old-fashioned watch. “I believe I’m due for my kitchen shift in about ten minutes, so I’d better change into something I don’t mind getting splattered with food stains and smelling like grease smoke.”
