The Alder Hotel lobby was full of people who had chosen to be there. Tess arrived at seven that Tuesday evening, after the lock at home had been changed, and felt irritated by their ease. A couple waited with theatre tickets between them. A man carried flowers toward the lift. Tess carried her own identification and a folder with three accounts of a stranger's calls.
The manager, Saira, took her to a side desk within sight of the lobby. “The package is still sealed,” she said first. “I checked the hold myself.”
Tess looked toward the lifts. “Is the woman who asked for it in this building?”
“Her room is active. I can't tell you where she is at this moment. If you prefer, I can bring the papers to a room off the lobby.”
“I want to see the desk where my name went into the record.”
Saira considered that, then led her to a corner of the front counter away from the queue. Tess could hear rolling bags and a clerk directing a guest toward the restaurant. She did not ask Saira to clear the lobby. She wanted the room error explained in the same ordinary setting where it had happened.
“I want to see the packet before I leave. First, show me where the room record says I arrived.”
Saira turned a screen so Tess could see her name at the top of a booking made Monday evening. Under it was a second name: Nell Voss, additional guest. “The additional guest checked in this morning with her own identification,” Saira said. “The clerk selected both names as present. It marked you here though you were not.”
A woman had used Tess's name to make a reservation, then slept or waited behind a door that told staff Tess had arrived. “Did she pay with my card?”
“No. Her own payment method is on the booking. We have no card of yours.”
“When did Nell ask about June's packet?”
“This morning, before she checked in.” Saira tapped an entry. “The delivery was logged at eight-forty. She asked at the desk before ten.”
Monday evening. Tess had barely got the case home. By the next morning Nell was at this counter.
“What did she say when she couldn't have it?”
“That the sender expected her to collect things for you. She couldn't show written permission or matching ID. Our colleague held it and called the number on the label.”
“The number was my work line. My mother put it there.” Tess looked at the name on screen. “Do you have her here now?”
Saira checked. “I can arrange for you not to meet her here.”
“I want a copy of the error as it is and a record of its correction. I also want the package held until I collect it with my own ID.”
“I can give you an account of the correction. Another guest's payment information is private.”
“I don't want her card. I want the times and the part that says I was here.”
Saira made a note of those items. The clerk who had handled the arrival came over when she called him. He looked younger than Tess expected and spoke without offering a reason first. “I selected both boxes when I checked her in. I thought I was opening the whole reservation. I shouldn't have marked you present.”
The clerk swallowed. Tess waited for him to look at her.
“Did you hear her call herself Tess Rowan?” Tess asked.
“She gave that as the lead name. Then she gave me her own ID. I can't say she told me she was you.”
Tess thanked him. Nell had put Tess's name where a hotel would look for a guest and then gone after June's package.
“Is her reservation still open?” Tess asked.
“Only under her own name, while security follows up. She asked whether anything else for you might arrive before Friday. Staff have been told not to release anything to her.”
Nell had left a name the manager could trace and still wanted another chance at the desk. Tess looked at the name on the screen. Whatever June had copied, Nell seemed more afraid of it than of being caught asking.
Saira had a colleague bring out the sealed packet. It was a flat brown envelope, not the whole locked case in miniature. June's block lettering named Tess as recipient and Friday as the date to hold it. Tess did not touch the seal. “Can I take it tonight?”
The label had the work number June used, the number that had rung among children's books that morning. Tess recognized the four and the final two digits before she recognized June's hand. The packet was thin enough that June had chosen pages from the case. Tess wanted to know which ones so badly she felt the weight of the hotel counter under her palms. She kept them there while Saira answered.
“If you want to. We can verify your ID now.”
Tess took her ID out and passed it over. Her new lock was already in; Mara was coming later. There was no reason to leave the packet in the building where Nell had come for it.
Saira checked the card against the label and had Tess sign for the envelope. Tess put it in her bag without breaking the seal. She wanted Mara there when she read it, someone who could answer back instead of another page in June's hand.
Saira gave Tess a collection receipt. The room-record correction would be ready to review the next day. Tess asked for a note that she had not authorized anyone to use her name for a booking. Saira added it to the incident record and said security would handle the remaining reservation under hotel policy. She did not promise Nell would be detained or that Tess would learn everything she did in the room.
Outside, Tess called Jo. “The woman has a name. Nell Voss. She put me on a hotel booking and tried to collect June's packet. I have it now.”
“Are you going home?”
“Yes. The locks changed.”
“Does the hotel know you're leaving alone?”
“Jo.”
“I know, you have legs and a phone. I asked if someone inside knows what happened.”
“The manager does.” Tess stood beneath the hotel awning. She could see the bus stop across the road. “I'll call when I get home. I meant it this time.”
She copied the booking and check-in times into her notebook while they were fresh. Tess Rowan had been aligning chairs at the library when the hotel marked her present. The correction would not tell her why June had written Friday on the packet or her name beneath six crossed-out women.