Twilight's Child (Cutler 3)

"Oh, Mrs. Bradly, are you sure it's missing?"

"Florence Eltz and I have gone over and over it. We have all our receipts to the penny, and there is no doubt the money is gone."

I sat down beside her. My heart began to pound. Mrs. Bradly was too polite to say the thing I feared her saying. She would wait for me to ask.

"What do you think might have happened, Mrs. Bradly? Could it have been misplaced, put into another account? A wrong deposit, perhaps?" I asked hopefully.

"Dawn, Florence and I checked all those possibilities out thoroughly before I decided I had to come see you. We forced poor Mrs. Avery to go over and over the week's deposits. You know that meant funds from the cocktail lounge as well as room deposits, but she didn't complain. She was as eager as we were to find the error.

"Only," she said, sighing, "there was no error. No, Dawn," she said, shaking her head. "There is no doubt in our minds now—the money was taken. The people who have been working in my department have been working with me for years and years. I'd swear by all of them . . . all except one," she added. Her final words fell like balls of lead. Numbly, I bowed my head.

"Did you ask her anything about it?" I wanted to know.

"She was there while we were all searching frantically. She knew we had discovered the funds missing, but she didn't say a word."

And she had access to them?" I asked, lifting my head. It felt as if it had turned to lead itself. Mrs. Bradly bit down on her lower lip and nodded. She shook her head, her eyes filling with tears again.

"There's no other explanation, I'm afraid," she said. "As soon as she saw all the commotion, she said she had to leave. She told me she had to go home to do homework. I did ask if she knew anything about this, and she snapped a quick no and then ran off.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you all this," Mrs. Bradly added.

"Now, now, Mrs. Bradly, you did the right thing in coming to me," I said, patting

her hand. "My husband doesn't know anything about it, does he?" I asked her quickly.

"Oh, no, I've told no one a thing, and I've asked my people to keep their lips sealed about it. None of them will say a word. I can assure you of that."

"Very well. Let me look into it," I said. She looked as if she would break into tears again, so I hugged her and helped her to her feet. "Just go on and don't let it bother you at all, Mrs. Bradly. It's certainly no reflection on you."

"Thank you, Dawn. I'm sorry," she repeated, and she left.

I felt a cold chill come over me and embraced myself. I recalled when I had glanced into Fern's pocketbook that evening in New York as we left the hotel and had seen the pile of money. Could she have been lying about her allowance? Had she been stealing from Clayton?

I thought I would try to get to the bottom of it without involving Jimmy, if I could, so I left the office and quickly went to the house. Mrs. Boston greeted me in the entryway and told me Fern was up in her room. I hurried up the stairs and went to her door. It was slightly open, so I peered in and found her lying on her stomach on her bed, reading a romance magazine.

"I thought you came home to do your homework, Fern," I said, spinning her around. She gazed at me with that furious dark look in her eyes.

"It's not nice to sneak up on people," she responded.

"I'm not sneaking up on you. I've come to check up on you. You told Mrs. Bradly you were going home to do homework. Why aren't you doing it?"

She sat up quickly and closed her magazine.

"I just told her that because I was tired of staying there. It's boring, a lot more boring than I thought it was going to be. I want to do a different job at the hotel. Maybe I can help the waiters and busboys," she suggested.

I stepped further into her room. She looked up at me suspiciously when I continued to stare at her, and then she shifted her eyes away, guiltily, I thought.

"Your wanting to leave the front desk wouldn't have anything to do with the money that's missing, would it?" I asked.

"I don't know where it is. Why, did Mrs. Bradly say I did?" she demanded, the fire returning to her eyes.

"No, but I was hoping you might be able to help us locate it."

"Well, I can't. I don't know anything about it. She must have lost it. Maybe one of those other women took it. They look poor and probably couldn't resist," she said.

"All those other women have been working here for years and years and are very trustworthy people."

"Well, so am I," she cried. "I don't steal!"