Chapter 21

 

Sandy clamped her hand over her mouth, stifling the tiny shriek that wanted to escape when the doorknob rattled. She felt certain her eyes were every bit as wide as Gracie’s. Both women stood frozen in place.

On the other side of the thin door, the man cursed. After an interminably long fifteen seconds his footsteps sounded crisply in the hall. Walking away. Thank god.

“Do you think he came to this door by mistake?” Gracie said breathlessly.

“We won’t be that lucky.”

“Okay, then. Quick! Let’s get pictures of what we found.” Gracie pulled her phone from her tiny evening bag and snapped a photo of the closet safe and its control panel.

Sandy opened the folder from the tsarist collection exhibit and paged through until she found a contract, an appraisal and a receipt for Pen’s necklace. Gracie quickly snapped photos of each document and dropped the phone back into her purse. Sandy tamped the pages together and jammed the folder back in the drawer.

“Let’s go!” Gracie was at the door.

“Check the hallway first. We can’t let anyone see we were in here.”

Gracie peered out and waved Sandy forward. She pulled the door closed.

“Lock it,” Sandy whispered.

Good thinking. The same man returning would most certainly know something was up if he found the door unlocked now. Gracie twisted the thumb-turn on the knob and prayed they could get out without a sound. They’d nearly made it to the outer door when it began to open.

 

* * *

 

Pen edged her way through the crowd, as unobtrusively as possible, toward Stan Higgins, searching for a topic to distract him. But she was still a good ten yards away. Her eyes darted between that Staff Only door and Detective Caplin, who had procured a glass of water for her and was on his way back. No sign yet of Sandy and Gracie, and Higgins had his hand on the doorknob now.

She couldn’t think what to do. A glance in her purse revealed few choices. Her fingertips touched a tube of lipstick. With a flick of her wrist she flipped it out and sent it rolling along the floor.

“Watch out for that!” she called out to Higgins, rushing toward him at the same time.

The tube rolled into his path. Pen followed.

“Oh, heavens,” she gasped. “It just got away from me. Wouldn’t want you to step on that thing and take a tumble.”

Higgins bent to pick it up.

The Staff door opened and Sandy peered out. Quick assessment, seeing Higgins handing something to Pen. She grabbed Gracie’s elbow and steered her toward the busy roomful of people.

“Ladies?” Higgins gave them an intense stare.

“Oh, sorry. We thought this might be the way to the ladies room,” Sandy said.

He pointed to the sign on the door. “You’re mistaken.”

Gracie came up with a high-pitched giggle. “Silly me. I could have sworn—”

“Go back to the vestibule and you’ll see the sign on your right,” he said

“Sorry,” Sandy said. “She’s had a little too much …”

His head dipped politely but there was a twitch beside his eye. “No problem.”

Diplomacy of the non-profit director, Pen thought. She wanted to feel sorry for his having to cater to this crowd, but truthfully she found his position at the moment a little humorous. She stood still while Sandy steered Gracie toward the lobby and Higgins proceeded toward the offices. Detective Caplin arrived at her side, extending a glass of water to her, his sharp eyes taking in everything.

As much as Pen was dying to know what the other Ladies had discovered, she knew they dare not talk until later. She thanked Caplin for the water and drank it down. He excused himself, murmuring something about his duties.

She meandered toward the vestibule on the pretense of wanting to check out the items in the silent auction. Sandy emerged first from the ladies room and headed toward the same table Pen was browsing.

“We can’t be seen in conversation,” Pen said, not taking her eyes from the auction sheets on the table. “Ladies room, right before the dessert course?”

Sandy nodded, pointing at a copper vase with an intricate inlay as if she were interested in bidding on it.

Pen moved on. It was going to be a very long dinner.