both Sadie and Colin Doyle standing in the doorway, their eyes reflecting the horror of what was before them, their faces red with indignation and disgust. “What have I done?” Marcy sputtered. “You think I did this? I just got back, for God’s sake. You saw me walk through the door no more than a minute ago. You think I had time to do this?”
Sadie Doyle said nothing, her face absorbing the damage to the room.
“Would I do this to my own things?” Marcy waved her slashed underwear in Sadie’s face.
Sadie held firm, stubbornly folding her arms across her chest. “You’re responsible nonetheless.”
“I’m responsible? How do you figure that?”
“Looks like your friend didn’t appreciate your runnin’ off the way you did this mornin’,” Sadie said.
Tears filled Marcy’s eyes. “He didn’t do this,” she said, her voice shaking. He couldn’t have, she thought.
“Who then?”
“You tell me.”
“You accusin’ me of somethin’?”
Marcy looked from Sadie to her son.
“You think Colin did this?”
“Who else had access to this room?” Marcy asked.
“Aside from your gentleman friend, you mean? The one you ran out on this mornin’, the one who sat here half the day waitin’ for you to come back, the one who snuck out when he thought no one was lookin’?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talkin’ about the fact your boyfriend was still sittin’ here waitin’ when I came to make up your bed this mornin’, asked if I’d mind him hangin’ around awhile, ’til you got back. I said it was no skin off my nose, but I was gonna have to charge you extra. He said, no problem, he’d take care of it later. Then I saw him sneakin’ out of here about an hour or so later without so much as a fare-thee-well. I guess now we know why.”
“That can’t be,” Marcy muttered impotently. “He would never—”
Sadie scoffed, the harsh sound sweeping through the air like a broom.
“Where do you keep your keys?” Marcy asked suddenly.
“What?”
“The keys to the rooms. You obviously have a master set.…”
“They’re in a safe place.”
“Where? Behind the reception desk?”
The look that passed through Sadie’s eyes told Marcy her guess was correct.
“And you’re not always at that desk, are you, Mrs. Doyle?”
“It’s either me or Colin.”
“But sometimes you’re both busy with other things. It’s possible someone could have come in, taken those keys, and—”
“And what? Decided to ransack your room? Why would anybody want to do that?”
“I don’t know.” Marcy felt her knees grow weak and fought to stay upright. “I don’t know.”
“Yeah? Well, this is what I know. I know my room’s been trashed. That’s what I know. And I know somebody’s got to pay for the damage. Now, I don’t know how well you know that guy who spent the night, but frankly, he looked a little shifty to me. Maybe he was lookin’ for somethin’, maybe he thought you had some money lyin’ around. Any jewelry missin’?”
Marcy looked through her tears toward the empty drawer where she’d put her earrings. “My gold earrings are gone,” she said dully, glancing back at Colin.
“What are you lookin’ at me for? I didn’t take ’em.”
“I’m not accusing you of anything. I’m just trying to figure out what happened.”
“What happened is that my property got smashed up, and you’re on the hook for the damages,” Sadie Doyle said again.
“Let me get this straight,” Marcy said angrily, her patience exhausted, her head on the verge of exploding. “My room got broken into, my belongings were destroyed, my earrings are missing, it’s your hotel, and yet you expect me to reimburse you? You guys are nuts!” she added for good measure.
“Call the gardai,” Sadie instructed her son.
“WELL, HELLO THERE, Mrs. Taggart,” Christopher Murphy said in greeting, running his hand through the stubble of his short blond hair. He closed the door behind him, walked toward her chair. “It’s so nice to see you again.”
“Do you think we could dispense with the sarcasm?” Marcy asked, concentrating her attention on the messy stack of papers on the garda’s desk. It seemed to have grown substantially since she was there yesterday.
“How’s the eye?”
“Better, thank you.”
“Let’s have a look.” He tilted her chin gently toward his face. “Suppose you tell me what happened this time,” Murphy said as the door opened again and Colleen Donnelly entered the room, immediately followed by John Sweeny and his overhanging gut. Marcy felt her heart quicken at the sight of their neat, dark blue uniforms and immediately brought her eyes to her lap. “Is there a problem, Mrs.