“No, only the break-in,” Ed said.
Julia nodded. “Someone wanted us to know that Gran was there, but they didn’t want us to know who actually took the thing. Or they don’t know who took it, and this is a setup to frame Gran.”
“She was filmed in the owner’s house,” Joe pointed out. “On the night the mummy was stolen.”
“But maybe the mummy was already gone.”
“That’s a stretch,” Ed said. “But the recording is useless now anyway—it became mysteriously corrupted this morning and can’t be used in court.”
“More tampering? Somebody definitely wanted Gran out of jail. Maybe the same person had something to do with Alice’s disappearance.” Julia had listened in while Joe spent the morning calling everyone he could think of, to stir up the investigation into the missing woman. There was no sign of her and nobody knew where to look.
“What has Elle dug up about Alice?” Julia asked Joe, because he’d been the one to talk with her. “Did she discover anything that can help us find Alice and the person behind all these weird things happening to Gran?”
Joe reached out to play with a lock of her hair, and Julia realised she’d relaxed back into the sofa beside him at some point. Against her better judgment, she’d left her hair down instead of putting it in her usual bun—all because she knew Joe liked it that way. She was a fool. She’d spent the better part of the night lying awake worrying about what was happening with them and vowing to put an end to it. And the first thing she’d done on waking was leave her hair loose for him. She was losing her mind.
“Elle hasn’t been able to dig up anything,” Joe said. “Alice’s credit cards haven’t been used and her passport hasn’t been scanned at any border.”
There was silence. Julia felt what Joe didn’t say. It was a rock sitting in her stomach. She took a shaky breath and said what everyone was thinking: “Either she’s dead or someone has her.”
Ed leaned forward. “I’m curious—why don’t you think she’s hiding?”
“Money,” Julia said. “Alice is paranoid about carrying around a lot of cash. If she hasn’t used her cards, then she doesn’t have money. You need money to hide.”
“That’s what I’ve been thinking,” her gran said as she strode into the room. “There’s no way that woman has run off, no matter what the police tell you. We’ve been friends since before we started school. There have been times I’ve wished she’d disappear and couldn’t get rid of her. She’d never wander off on her own now.”
“Somebody must have her,” Julia said, because the alternative was just too horrible to contemplate. “The question is why? Surely if they’re going to ransom her off, they would have contacted us by now.”
“You always were too smart for the rest of us,” Patricia said with pride. “Give her a puzzle and she’ll get to the bottom of it in no time at all. She’s a genius when it comes to arranging things in patterns that no one else can see. Never could get anything past her.”
Julia ducked her head, wishing she would just turn invisible. “Gran, that isn’t true.”
“Honey.” Her gran patted her head as she passed on her way to the food trolley sitting beside the dining table. “The university think tank tried to recruit you straight out of college. I still don’t know why you didn’t jump at the offer. Instead you took that awful job as a production assistant with that overblown moron, just to fit in with the family.” She lifted the lid on a warming plate and inhaled with a look of pure delight on her face. “Like you don’t already fit in perfectly. I hear that director is in a mental institute now, getting the help he so obviously needed. Small minds, dear, they all eventually crack. Trust me. I’m old and I know these things.”
Patricia grabbed a plate of steak and salad and sat at the table. “Do we have any wine to go with this?”
There was silence.
She let out a heavy sigh. “Let me eat and I’ll fill you in. Promise. Julia’s right—someone has Alice. I just don’t know why yet. Now can someone order a bottle of wine? Trust me. After the week I’ve had, I need it.”
Chapter 5
Things didn’t go as planned. While Patricia was eating, a porter delivered a large manila envelope. An envelope addressed to Patricia Matthews—the woman who had been out of jail for less than two hours. The woman whom no one should have known was staying in the hotel.
“The guy doesn’t know who it’s from,” Joe told them once the door was closed. “He says it was left at reception and they were told it was urgent.”
Everyone looked at Patricia. She pushed her plate away, even though it was still half full.
“Do you know anything about this?” Joe said.
“Yes.” Her shoulders slumped. “I was passed a message after Alice went missing. It told me to get out of jail as fast as possible and wait to be contacted. I assumed it was about Alice.” She suddenly looked closer to her age. “I thought the same as Julia, that someone was holding Alice for ransom. It’s a South American thing, isn’t it? Hold wealthy tourists for ransom.”
“I think that’s Colombia, gran.” Julia leaned over to pat her gran’s hand.
“Anyway”—Patricia pointed at the envelope in Joe’s hand—“I think that’s them contacting me. I really hope they haven’t sent me Alice’s ear.”
“Gran, don’t say things like that. That sort of thing only happens in movies.”
Joe didn’t bother shattering her delusions. Kidnappers cut off ears and a whole lot more besides. And all of it was stuff Julia was better off not knowing.