“What’s missing?” she asked. Her voice came out too loud, harsh to her own ears.
Sam hesitated. He opened his mouth, then closed it.
“His daughter’s necklace is gone,” Hester said briskly. She moved to the other side of her desk. “It was last seen yesterday morning, while you were still sharing her room.”
“And I said that I didn’t think Maggie took it,” Sam said, his tone sharp. “You had no right to go and accuse her over my protests.”
In spite of the fracturing, unsettled feeling of yet another second chance falling apart beneath her feet, Maggie warmed at his defense.
“You reported the necklace missing, and I said I’d take it from there,” Hester said. She looked back at Maggie, and her cool demeanor softened a little. “Maggie, I’d like to believe you didn’t do it?—”
“I didn’t!” Maggie’s voice cracked. She had no idea how to defend herself, no way she could think of to clear her name. Even if she managed to find the missing necklace, which surely Charlie had dropped or mislaid, she couldn’t prove that she hadn’t had it all along.
This is it. This is the end.
“—but I have to consider all the possibilities, and a guest having a valuable belonging disappear while we have a known thief on staff is something I can’t ignore.”
“What about Maggie’s rights?” Sam asked, heated. “You agreed to let her make amends. I agreed to vouch for her. And I’m still vouching for her.”
Maggie swallowed a lump in her throat.
“I’m not doing anything until we know for sure,” Hester said. “Sam, I’d like to talk to your daughter. Can you find her, please?”
“Yeah. I don’t know where she got off to. She’s not answering her texts. The last time I saw her, we were looking in the lobby for the necklace in case she dropped it there.” Sam looked like he was about to say something else, then stopped.
“Let me know when you find her. I need to get back to work. We have a major winter storm hitting in the next hour, and I need to make sure we won’t be completely cut off.” Hester grimaced. “Maggie, I’m sorry to ask this of you, but I’m going to need you to stay with Sam for the rest of today, or until the necklace turns up.”
Maggie nodded wordlessly. At any other time, she would have appreciated the opportunity. Now she felt as if she was under surveillance—which was more or less true. At least Hester hadn’t insisted that she stay in her room.
They left Hester’s office together. Sam said quietly, “I’m sorry about all of this. I didn’t realize she’d accuse you when I reported the necklace missing.”
“I swear I didn’t take it.”
“I believe you.”
But there was still that undercurrent of—something else. It wasn’t accusation. Maggie nerved herself to ask, “What else were you going to say to Hester in there?”
Sam huffed out a breath. After a pause, he said, “I don’t think Charlie is telling the whole truth about the necklace. I don’t know what actually happened to it, but she says she left it beside the sink and it disappeared from our room. I don’t think that’s the real story. She doesn’t want me to know what actually happened, and I’m not sure why.”
“Why do you think she’d lie?”
“I don’t know. Because she’s protecting someone else, maybe? Or protecting herself. I just don’t know. She understands she’s supposed to take good care of that necklace. She wouldn’t deliberately lose or damage it ...” He trailed off.
“What?” Maggie asked. The look on his face alarmed her.
“I need to find Charlie.” He pulled out his phone. “Please go check her room.”
Maggie was about to say she didn’t have a key, but then realized that she did. Yesterday had been so busy and confusing that when she moved her things, she had forgotten to give the room key back to the hotel. The key with the heart-shaped head was still in her pocket.
However, a moment later she was back downstairs. “She’s not there.”
“I didn’t think she would be.” Sam looked completely alarmed. Outside the big front windows, snow had begun to fall. “I can’t reach her.”
“Maybe she’s ignoring you, or her phone ran out of battery?”
“I think she’s out of range of the wifi. I don’t think she’s in the hotel. Damn it!” He lashed out and kicked a stack of logs beside the fireplace. The show of temper was so unusual from Sam, always so tightly controlled, that Maggie was briefly startled into silence. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.”
Maggie cautiously placed a hand on his arm. The muscles were rigid. “Where do you think she went?”
