All she could do, with a rapidly sinking heart and gritty, weary eyes, was promise to investigate. He accepted this reluctantly. ‘I won’t let it drop. I know the money were there.’
After he’d left, a quick check confirmed that Leo and Geneva had done the room for the days in question. Nobody else could have, really, in view of Vittoria and Carlotta jumping ship. With a jolt, like stepping into an empty lift shaft, she recalled Leo racing downstairs in his elation that the bank had called to say his funds were retrievable... and him racing back up when he realised that he’d left Geneva alone, joking that she could have the twenty-euro tip.
Into her mind snaked the memory of Geneva admitting she’d lost her last job over a guest complaint. She’d been evasive aboutit, and Jade’s knowledge of Geneva was so recent and scant that it was hard to prevent her heart from sinking.
She tracked down Leo moving mattresses and small furnishings out of the top rooms in case of crashing ceilings and, tentatively, recounted the complaint. He frowned, blowing his hair from his eyes. ‘Nothing to do with me, obviously.’
‘Obviously,’ she agreed hastily. Then, although she already knew the answer, made the enquiry she knew she had to make. ‘Do you... ever leave Geneva alone in the guestrooms?’
‘No, you asked me not—’ Then horror swept across his face. ‘Oh. That day, when I got the call from the bank...’
Her eyes closed against this fresh disaster. ‘Dammit.’
Hating the job that faced her, she located Geneva in the kitchen, miserable that the older woman had worked quietly at whatever had been asked of her today and would now be repaid by an uncomfortable interview. ‘Can you join me in the office?’ Once they were shut away together, she said simply, ‘There’s a problem. A guest from room 203 says that a hundred and thirty euros is missing from his room. You’ll understand that I must ask whether you know anything about it.’
The lines of Geneva’s face snapped together as if flinching from a blow. ‘I expect you think it’s me. Did someone tell you I was fired from my last job for theft of a watch? It wasn’t me then and it’s not me now. Will you involve the police?’
Jade tried to be objective. As if Geneva were any employee, and not... who she was. ‘Nobody told me what happened at your last place,’ she replied truthfully. ‘It’s too early to think about the police.’ She wasn’t super-keen on having them at the pensione on top of everything else. ‘The guest might have made a mistake. If they were all drunk, any one of them might have taken it. Or people sometimes make false accusations in the hope of compensation.’
Slowly Geneva rose, fumbling to untie her apron. ‘It’s better for us both if I go. I have another job starting next week anyway. I was going to tell you later.’
‘Geneva...?’ But Jade was left staring at a swinging door as Geneva, head down, scurried from the room. Was she upset? Or guilty?
Feeling as if she bore on her shoulders at least the weight of the tiles that had plummeted from the roof, Jade telephoned Harry from Huddersfield. He and his mates were in a nearby bar, but returned to meet her in her office. Each of the young men looked her in the eye and insisted the money was supposed to be in the drawer and that they hadn’t touched it. ‘Although you should have used the safe in your room, for such an affordable sum, I will replace it.’ Frankly? It was the least of her worries today and she didn’t want other guests upset more than they were already if Harry made a public fuss.
Harry took the money she counted out from petty cash and stuffed it in his pocket. ‘I should think so an’ all,’ he muttered ungraciously. ‘We’re leaving first thing.’
Good, Jade thought. Watching the four men head back out into the rain pouring from a sagging grey sky, she wondered if she’d been scammed and her one hundred and thirty euros would soon be in the till of a bar.
By five o’clock, she was nearing exhaustion. With things on a reasonably even keel – the kitchen had shut now the weather had moderated and guests could get out for meals – she, Rosalie, Erin and Leo gathered for coffee in the apartment. ‘Thank you all for today,’ she said, feeling as if every eyelash was made of lead, so much did her eyelids want to close.
Leo took her hand. ‘You’ve been brilliant.’
‘Amazing,’ Erin agreed.
‘I wouldn’t have known where to start.’ Rosalie inhaled coffee fumes as if it was all that kept her awake, evidently unworried about caffeine in the circumstances.
When Jade’s phone rang for what seemed like the hundredth time today, she groaned. ‘Pronto,’ she replied wearily.
It was the insurance company. ‘Just a formality,’ a faceless male voice said. ‘But the initial report you gave to my colleague this morning suggests that you were absent from the premises overnight.’
Shock shimmered through Jade. Automatically, she stiffened her spine. ‘It’s true that I didn’t arrive until around six a.m., but both my sisters were on the premises.’
A pause. ‘May I have their names?’
Jade supplied them.
Another pause. ‘They don’t appear on the list of keyholders.’
‘They’re part-owners,’ she argued calmly. ‘I don’t believe they have to be.’
‘Have we been informed of the change of ownership?’
‘When I changed the insurance to your company, I explained that it was in the offing. And I followed up with an email,’ Jade said firmly.
‘So,’ the man said. ‘An informal arrangement. It doesn’t appear on our records. This might invalidate your claim.’
The day’s events caught up with Jade, igniting a flare of temper. ‘An email is very far from an informal arrangement. If you’re too incompetent to search your own records, I’ll provide the email from my sent messages. And I know I’m covered for storm damage because, if not, I wouldn’t have taken your policy.’
