Chapter 10: Two Signatures

The housekeeper handed in her first weekly report at eight on Monday morning, in the lobby of the Holloway Grand.

I was waiting for her.

So were Lorna, who had come in for her usual Monday coffee, six bellhops, the whole front desk and about forty guests with luggage.

Rafe stood next to me with his hand on my back.

We had spent the night in a hotel suite on Winnie's orders, and I had not slept at all.

"Good morning, Mrs. Holloway," the housekeeper said, and held out a cream envelope to Lorna. "Mr. Jarrett's countersigned it, as agreed."

"Thank you, dear," Lorna said, and didn't take it.

I did.

"May I?"

"Of course."

I opened the envelope and read the single page aloud.

"Week one. Mr. and Mrs. Holloway occupy separate bedrooms. Mrs. Holloway has not slept in the master bedroom. No marital contact observed."

The lobby went quiet.

"Under it, in blue ink: W. Holloway."

Lorna's head turned very slowly.

"Separate bedrooms," she said.

"That's what I saw, ma'am."

"You took forty-one pictures of the guest room."

"The bed hadn't been slept in."

"The guest bed," I said. "The one in the room where you were taking pictures. I stood in front of it and said that room was mine, remember?"

"I don't recall that, Mrs. Holloway."

"You asked me which room was mine. I said, this one, and you wrote in a notebook that I hadn't slept there."

"My wife has slept in my bed every night this week," Rafe said.

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