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THE NEXT MORNING, CARTER found Gina waiting for him in the pool and jacuzzi building. Heat drifted from the chlorinated water into the chilled air, while she sat at a table organizing white envelopes and jotting down notes on a legal pad.
“Are you ready for breakfast? I’m starving,” Carter said, glancing down at her work. He noticed the room numbers hand printed on each envelope.
“Change of plans.” She scooped her belongings into her leather satchel and then slipped a coat on over her mint-green sweater. “My aunt wants our help. She’s come up with a plan to catch the thief.” She placed the handle of her satchel into his outstretched hand. “And she has donuts. I asked the café to send a box of pastries to Sophia’s office every morning for the next week. We need comfort food.”
“You had me at ‘a plan,’ but I’ve never turned down chocolate donuts or anything with sprinkles.”
“Sprinkles? How old are you?”
“Twelve,” he replied with a grin.
“Just checking.” She chuckled, as he tugged open the glass door.
He followed her onto the cement path. As they walked closer to the main building, he heard barking.
“Over there.” Gina pointed between two cottages. “Isn’t that the same dog that knocked me into you?”
Amused, Carter watched the white husky bark at Isaac, the security manager, who was supervising the maintenance man standing on a ladder. They were installing the new cameras on the cottages. Isaac kicked at the dog who jumped about and barked louder.
“If I didn’t know better,” Carter said, “I would swear that dog is trying to tell everyone he found the thief.”
“All he needs to do now is bark at the evidence to convict him.” Gina stepped aside as he reached to tug open the lobby door.
They found Gina’s aunt sitting at her computer while the new intern worked on the opposite side of the desk. A faint smile appeared on Sophia’s tired-looking face. “Good morning.” She gestured at the papers in front of her. “Amy and I were tweaking a plan to watch the cottages while completing our work.”
“We want to find that thief as much as anyone,” Amy added. “I can’t believe the manager thinks Sophia could be guilty. I have never met anyone who works as hard and is as generous as your aunt.”
Carter guessed the girl to be about nineteen, and her voice sounded like a peppy pageant queen.
“That’s what I have been saying.” Gina removed the white envelopes from her satchel and placed them down on the desk. “Sophia, Amy, this is my friend Carter. He’s here to help.” She selected a maple-covered donut and then handed him the box.
“Friend,” he murmured back at her. He thought he was more than a friend at this point.
She shrugged in response.
“I better start my rounds.” Amy collected the envelopes and her burgundy, leather portfolio. “It was nice meeting you.” She turned to Sophia. “I’ll deliver the photos, check the housekeeping carts, and then do my paperwork where I can watch the cottages on the south end of the resort.”
“Call me on my cell if you see anything suspicious.” Sophia waited until Amy closed the door before she continued. “Now, let’s get down to business. If management thinks I’m going out without a fight, they have another think coming. I am going to find this thief and parade him into Joe’s office.” She turned to him. “Joe is the manager. All he cares about is the profit margin. Finances over people.”
Carter nodded his understanding. He admired her spunk. “What’s the plan?”
“Amy and I are splitting up during the day to cover more ground. With Gina taking more pictures outside by the pool area, we should have most of the resort covered. But that isn’t all. I figure, if the thief is an employee, then he or she probably stole at their last place of employment.”
“And didn’t get caught,” Gina concluded.
“Or they didn’t have enough evidence to convict,” Carter amended.
Sophia showed them a list of employees with comments written beside the top five names. “I have been calling former employers as part of a follow-up employment history check.”
“Follow-up?” Gina quirked a brow.
Sophia smirked. “I claimed we’re considering this person for a position in security and am interested in knowing if they thought their former employee could handle the added responsibility. I told them we’re concerned because we heard jewel thieves were hitting Arizona hotels. Then I asked if they ever had to deal with a similar situation.”
“Are they buying it?” Carter knew he wouldn’t.
“They sound confused, but they do end up talking,” Sophia said. “So far, no one has had any problems at their hotel or with our employees. I figure we can cover more ground if we split up the rest of the list.”
“Of course.” Gina tore off the bottom section and held it up. “Are you in, Carter?”
“Anything for another donut.” He reached for a chocolate-cream filled with sprinkles on top and then took the middle section of the list from Sophia. “I’m assuming the employees gave you these phone numbers when they filled out their application.”
Gina’s jaw dropped. “You think some of those numbers might be bogus, don’t you? If we call on a reference for the burglar, a friend or relative could pose as a manager at another hotel.”
“We should look these places up ourselves,” Carter suggested. “A hotel employee can give us the phone number we need, and we can double check it against the one on the list.”
“Good idea.” Sophia turned her computer monitor so everyone could see.
An hour later, Carter checked off the last name on his part of the list. “These ten employees have valid references. One manager paused when I said we’re considering a maid for security work, but only because it’s an unusual career move. He did recommend her for the job.”
“The next name on my list is Violet, the boutique’s assistant manager,” Sophia said. “She didn’t work for a hotel.” Sophia dialed the number on her application and then furrowed her brow. “The number is disconnected.”
Gina took the application and read the name of Violet’s last employer, “Jenny’s Jewels.” Gina searched for the name on her Smartphone. “The website is no longer available. Jenny must have closed her doors.”
“That’s common with small businesses.” Carter glanced at the application. “Try her next reference.”
“That’s her only business reference. She worked there for six years.” Gina placed the application back down on the pile. “I don’t see any point in calling her personal references. They’re all friends.”
“The next name on my list is Emily Jones,” Sophia announced. “She worked as a maid for a hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico.” She moved her fingers over the keyboard, and a picture of the hotel appeared.
Carter noticed a section near the bottom-right corner and read the label, “Meet our friendly staff.”
Sophia clicked the area. “Her reference is Elizabeth Langley.” After several photos of smiling hotel workers, they located a picture of Elizabeth standing next to Emily during a staff party. “That is strange.”
Gina leaned forward to get a better view. “What?”
Sophia pointed to the heading. “According to this photo, the person I hired is Elizabeth Langley and not Emily Jones.”
“Let me call the manager.” Carter jotted down the name of the hotel. “I’ll get a physical description of Emily to make sure she didn’t steal the other woman’s identity.”
Loud barking caught their attention. All three of them moved to the office window. Carter lifted the blinds and found a thin, gangly dog catcher chasing after the white husky that had introduced him to Gina by way of knocking her into him. “Hey! That’s our dog. The dog catcher just chased him into that building where they keep the pool.”
“He can’t take our dog to the pound!” Gina ran out the door with Sophia and Carter on her heels.
Heads turned as they ran through the lobby, out the exit, and into the building that housed the pool and jacuzzi. A white ball of fluff leaped over a lounge chair.
“Get back here, you mangy beast!” The dog catcher held a catch pole with a loop hanging at one end. He shook his outstretched arms as he spoke.
“Harald, leave that dog alone!” Gina attempted to run interference.
“Harold?” Carter caught her attention. “You know him?
“Small—”
“Town,” he finished.
“He’s from a long line of dog catchers, who settled here from Germany. I can’t pronounce his last name.”
The skinny man, clad in a baggy, blue uniform, ran around her as he focused on the dog who leaped over the next lounge chair and then around another. Turning in one direction and then another, the dog catcher took one shaky step forward and then two back. His head, with its receding hairline, bobbed up and down with each step.
Carter blocked the man, keeping a careful distance from the pole. “He’s not going to come to you if you keep scaring him. Why don’t you let us capture the dog and take care of him until we find his owner?”
“Owner? He has no owner,” Harold’s high-pitched voice cracked on the last word. “He’s Eishund, an ice dog. He lives nowhere and everywhere. He’s a trickster.”
“And he’s not hurting anyone,” Gina said. “Can’t you leave him alone?”
“Isaac called me. He wants him gone. The resort is liable if the dog bites someone.” Harald ran around Carter and toward the jacuzzi. He held his dog-catching pole high like a warrior ready to strike. “I’m not leaving without him!”
“No!” Gina ran toward the blue-eyed husky as if trying to save him, but living up to his trickster moniker, he escaped her reach and slid on his bottom behind a wooden, pool supply box.
Harald raced them both to the box. Carter reached it first, but when he surveyed the area, the dog was gone. “Where did he go?”
Gina opened the box. Inside they found a pool skimming net and life preserver ring. “I didn’t see him run from the box,” she said, her voice heightened with concern.
Sophia checked under the lounge chairs. “He’s not here.”
“Not again!” Harald threw down his dog-catcher pole and planted his hands on his bony hips. “I don’t know how he does it, but he always escapes.”
Carter checked to make sure the dog hadn’t fallen into the pool or jacuzzi. The jets were off so he could see through the tranquil, chlorinated water to the bottom. No dog. His breathing returned to normal. Next, he studied the glass walls, windows, and doors. He couldn’t find any openings or loose boards. There was no way out. “I don’t know how he managed to get away, but I want to learn that trick.”
****
LATER THAT DAY, GINA continued working while keeping an eye for out for both the dog and the burglar.
“I don’t know how you can sit in a jacuzzi when it’s so cold out here.” Gina snapped another picture of the four Phoenix school teachers who had been joking and laughing for the past half hour.
The woman with salt-and-pepper colored hair reached for a water bottle on the pool decking.
“It’s hot in here!”
Sophia entered through the heavy door and motioned for Gina to join her at a table far from the guests.
“Thank you, ladies.” Gina smiled at the jovial women. She envied their camaraderie and the chance to take a carefree vacation. “Since you’re wet, I’ll leave the photo releases at the front desk for you to sign whenever time permits.”
“Can we see the pictures first?” The question came from an attractive teacher wearing a conservative black swimsuit.
“Of course. I’ll be right back.” Gina hastened her pace to the table when she witnessed the anguish on Sophia’s face. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
Sophia whispered, “There’s been another burglary.”
“What? When? Where?”
“An emerald and diamond ring was stolen from a cottage on the south side of the resort this morning.”
“Amy said she was going to patrol the south side,” Gina reminded.
“And she isn’t answering her cell phone.”
After a brief silence, a thought finally occurred to Gina. “The battery in her phone might be dead. Let’s go look for her.” She rushed back to the jacuzzi area to pack her bag. “Ladies, I have to head out. I’m going to leave free prints of the photos for you at the front desk. Each will have a letter on the back. If you’re okay with releasing any of the photos, write that letter on the press release.”
“Sounds like a plan,” the tallest of the teachers answered before taking a swig from her water bottle.
Gina followed her aunt in search of Amy. As they walked among the cottages, Sophia studied the landscape to their left, while Gina concentrated on the area to their right. Neither called out Amy’s name, not wanting to draw attention to the situation.
They bent low to check beneath the branches of snow-covered bushes that flanked the front doors of each cottage. Every few yards they meandered off the cement path to peer around pine trees.
A touch of color in an otherwise sheet of white caught Gina’s eye. “What’s that?”
Sophia rushed ahead and removed a burgundy, leather portfolio folder from the snow. Amy’s name had been emblazoned in the lower corner in gold lettering. “Something’s happened. She wouldn’t drop this and not notice. She carries it with her everywhere.”
Did she run into the thief? Gina’s gaze traveled the area around them. Only quiet cottages surrounded by winter scenery. Part of her expected Amy to suddenly appear from around a corner and thank them for finding her folder. It didn’t happen.
“We need to find Isaac.” Sophia quickened her steps. “He has this whole place under surveillance.”
The sense of panic on her face worried Gina as she followed Sophia to the main building. Warm air hit her face when they stepped inside out of the cold. They both marched through the lobby and down the hall to the security office.
“Isaac! Thank goodness you’re here.” Sophia told him their concerns, and he turned to his computer to run the footage from the south end.
“She passed by me this morning on her way to do her rounds.” Isaac moved the cursor across the screen. “I’ll start at that point.”
Four camera views popped up. He clicked and scrolled as both women leaned over his shoulders to get a better view.
Amy, wearing a pencil skirt and white long-sleeved blouse covered by a navy-blue jacket, walked out of a cottage in the upper right screen.
“There she is,” Gina announced, a little louder than she’d intended.
The three resort employees watched intently. Amy passed Leo, the maintenance man who had been installing cameras with Isaac early that morning. In the footage, he was tightening a screw on one of the maid’s carts. Emily, the maid whose name had been mixed up with someone else’s on a hotel website, stepped out of the supply room carrying a stack of towels. She waited for Leo to step away before loading her cart. Amy waved at Emily, who returned the gesture. Leo had his back to the women while he dropped his screwdriver into his toolbox. Amy continued south until she stepped into a cabin that showed up in the bottom-right corner of the screen. A moment later, the screen went blank. The other three screens continued to play on the monitor.
“What?” Isaac tapped on the keyboard.
“Did someone tamper with the camera?” Sophia moved closer to the screen as if hoping the burglar would suddenly step into view.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions.” Isaac played on with the mouse and keyboard for another minute. “I’m going to fast forward. Keep an eye out for Amy.”
After several eternally long minutes, the computer once again showed the area covered by the malfunctioning camera. They watched the door to the cottage open once again.
Gina expected perky Amy to exit, but instead, her aunt stepped out of the cottage. On her journey back down the path, the burgundy portfolio appeared where it had been found in the snow.
“Oh no,” Gina gasped.
“Oh no, is right.” Isaac turned to Sophia. “What happened to Amy?”