On Wednesday morning, I put Callum's trainers in a bag and left them beside my door.
I had found an old pair of shoes at the back of the wardrobe. One rubbed my little toe, but at least the soles stayed attached.
His sweatshirt was folded on top of the trainers. I had washed it out by hand and left it over my radiator. It still smelled faintly of him.
I picked it up once, then put it back.
Downstairs, Tess was crouching behind reception, reaching for a guest key that had fallen under the cupboard. I heard a thump.
“You all right?”
“Murdered by furniture. Tell Mara.”
She crawled out rubbing the back of her head, with the key held between two fingers.
“Found it.”
“Can I talk to you?”
“Is it worse than this?”
I didn't laugh. She straightened and put the key in its slot.
“What's happened?”
Two guests came down the stairs behind me. Tess smiled and gave them directions to breakfast, waiting until they'd gone before she looked at me again.
“Ruby's money,” I said.
She let out a breath. “You've heard.”
“From Callum.”
“What did he say?”
“That someone saw his jacket.”
Tess folded the little map she'd been showing the guests.
“I saw a jacket,” she said. “Not definitely his.”
“Where?”
“By the rear door. I went through to get my dinner out of the kitchen. Someone was outside when I passed.”
“Was it him?”
“I couldn't see a face. Blue jacket, about his height. The person turned away from me.”
“Going into the hotel?”
“I didn't see that.”
I rested my hand on the reception counter. It was still damp from where she'd wiped it.
“What time?”
“About ten past eight. I'd looked at the kitchen clock because I thought I'd left my food in the microwave too long.”
“And Ruby's money went after that?”
“She found it missing at twenty-five past. That's when she came to reception. I was here.”
Tess's voice was flat and careful now.
“She told Mara she'd left her door unlocked while she carried dishes down. Mara asked if I'd seen anyone round the staff corridor. So I told her.”
“You didn't see anyone go into Ruby's room.”
“No.”
“But you said Callum.”
“I said it could have been. She asked about people we knew.”
I looked down at the counter.
Tess put the folded map away.
“Lena, if it was him, he could have been coming to see you. He's done that enough times. Seeing a jacket doesn't tell me who took money.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
I lifted my head. “I'm trying to find out what you actually saw.”
“Then that's it.”
A phone started ringing behind her. She answered, listened and wrote down a room number. I stood beside the counter while she said someone would bring more towels.
She hung up and tore the number off the pad.
“I was supposed to be with him,” I said. “At eight.”
Tess kept the paper in her hand.
“Was he with you?”
“Not until twenty to nine.”
“Then tell Mara that.”
“He says Ruby's trying to make him look guilty.”
“Mara can ask him where he was.”
I watched Tess put the towel request beside the keys. I had hoped she would say something else. That she'd seen another man after all. That the blue jacket had been green, or that the time was wrong.
“Is she in the office?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
I pushed myself away from the counter.
“Your tea's in the kitchen,” Tess said. “I made you one.”
“Thanks.”
“It's probably cold.”
“That's all right.”
Mara had her office door open and a cardboard box of light bulbs on her desk. She was checking them against an invoice. I knocked on the frame.
“Lena. Come in.”
I didn't sit down.
“Callum says you've asked him where he was last night.”
She put her pen down.
“I was going to ask you this morning. He said he was with you on the beach.”
“He got there at twenty to nine.”
Mara reached for a notebook.
“You mean eight forty?”
“Yes.”
“Had you met him before that?”
“No. We were supposed to meet at eight. I waited.”
“Are you sure about the arrival?”
“I looked at my phone when I picked it up. And I rang him at twenty past eight because he wasn't there.”
She wrote something down.
I gripped the side seam of my uniform trousers.
“That doesn't mean he took anything.”
“I haven't said it does.”
“Tess didn't see him go into a room.”
“I know what Tess saw.”
I let go of the seam.
“He's saying I might have remembered the time wrong.”
Mara looked up.
“Have you?”
“No.”
“Then I'll record what you've told me.”
She moved the notebook away from the light bulbs.
“Ruby's reported a hundred and eighty pounds missing. I'm trying to establish who's been through there. Callum used to work here, but that doesn't mean he can treat staff rooms as places to wander into.”
“He's allowed to visit me.”
“Of course. I'm asking about last night.”
She waited. I had nothing else to give her.
“All right,” she said. “Thank you for coming in. If you remember anything else, tell me.”
I left before she could ask how things were between us.
My tea was on the kitchen table with a saucer over it. I drank half standing up, took the towel request from reception and went to work.
On the second floor, Ruby was stocking a trolley. She passed me a bundle of hand towels without asking why I was staring at the shelf.
“These?”
“Yeah.”
She glanced at my face.
“You look awful.”
“Thank you.”
“I meant tired.”
I took the towels. She made room so I could get past.
I wanted to ask her whether she really thought it had been Callum. Not in the corridor, though. Not while I was still trying to make what I'd told Mara feel less like giving something away.
In the next room, I stripped the bed and checked the sheet before dropping it in the laundry bag. My phone buzzed on the trolley.
Callum had written, Mara's just rung. You really told her?
I sat on the bare mattress and typed, I told her you got there at 8.40.
The dots appeared. Disappeared. Appeared again.
Then: I thought we were doing this together.
I looked at the words until the screen went dark.
My hands were still holding the phone when Ruby knocked on the open door.
“Need a fitted sheet?”
I put it face down on the mattress.
“Yes,” I said. “Please.”