Sarah Painter - The Secrets Of Ghosts

‘We aim to please,’ Anna said automatically, looking from Katie to Max.

‘No chance,’ Katie said, her hand on the door. ‘Staff only. No MOPs.’

‘What is this MOP business?’ Max said.

Katie opened her mouth to tell him not to change the subject but Anna answered him: ‘Member Of Public. MOP.’

‘What about “lifer”?’

Anna frowned. ‘Have you worked in a hotel?’

Max shook his head. ‘I heard Katie say it.’

‘Permanent resident,’ Katie said. ‘Like Hemingway or Fellini.’

‘Yeah,’ Anna said. ‘Patrick would love a couple of those but I keep telling him this isn’t London or New York. We don’t get people with that kind of money.’

‘Really? This place is pretty swanky.’

‘Okay, say you were a millionaire with a yen to live in a hotel, with all the choices you’d have, would you choose this one? In Wiltshire?’

‘Fair point but some people want the quiet life.’

‘If you want it quiet, you don’t live in a hotel. You live on an island or on your own private estate or something.’

‘But there’s quiet and then there’s silent. If you live in a hotel you get to be around people, but not have to interact with them — at least, only on your own terms. You get to be alone but not lonely.’

‘You sounded almost wistful then,’ Katie said. She pushed open a door marked ‘private’, then turned to Anna. ‘If I’m not back in five minutes, send out a search party.’

Anna gave her a thumbs up.

Katie stepped aside so that Max went in front of her down the short flight of stairs. If you walked in front of people on steps they could push you down them.

‘You know, we don’t keep any cash in Lost Property,’ she said, wanting to distract herself from the fact that she was entering an enclosed space with a strange man.

Max shot a charming smile over his shoulder. ‘Handkerchief, remember?’

‘Of great sentimental value,’ Katie said, her voice heavy with sarcasm.

He nodded. ‘I’m distraught.’

‘I can see that,’ Katie said.

Downstairs, underneath the kitchen and next to the wine rack, was a short, wide corridor.

One side was completely filled with shelving and boxes.

Max pulled one out a little way and put his hand inside.

‘I wouldn’t do that.’ Katie pointed to the handwritten label on the outside of the box, faded from time and barely legible.

‘Teeth? You’re serious?’

‘You’d be amazed at the number of people who leave their dentures in their room.’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘And then there’s the knickers.’

‘Pardon?’

‘Look.’ Katie pulled out a bigger box from further along the row and produced a handful of silk and lace from inside. ‘Women bring their best undies when they visit a hotel. Then they have a night of passion and leave them at the bottom of the bed. Totally forget about them and — bam — they end up in our knicker box.’

‘Please tell me you’ve washed those?’

Katie dropped the crotchless pink thong back into the box. ‘Of course. Well, Housekeeping did. Not me personally.’

‘Why do you keep them?’

‘In case their owners come to reclaim them. We’re custodians of the lost pants, the dentures, the vibrators—’

‘No. Really?’

Katie nodded.

‘Any jewellery?’

‘Sure.’ Katie stepped closer and stretched her arm to reach for a shoe box on a high shelf. It was filled with watches. Leather straps, plastic straps, a red Swatch and a huge diver’s watch.

‘Why don’t you send these on to the guests? You must have their details.’

‘Anything really valuable — like a diamond ring — we do break the pact and contact the MOP, but for everything else...’

‘What pact?’

‘The pact of “see nothing, hear nothing”. Very important in the hotel trade.’

‘Okay,’ Max said, looking confused.

‘It breaks the illusion of invisible service if your knickers turn up in the post three days after your holiday. It’s like slapping them in the face with them.’

‘Right. Fair enough. But this is worth about three hundred quid.’ He picked up the diver’s watch.

‘Really?’ Katie peered at it. ‘It’s fugly.’

‘It’s waterproof to two hundred metres, measures depth up to one hundred metres and is made of titanium.’

‘Woo-hoo,’ Katie said.

‘Ah, come on. It’s shiny.’

‘And being more evolved than a kitten that isn’t enough to excite me. Sorry.’

There was a pause that lengthened past the point of comfort.

‘Okay, then. Moving on,’ Katie said, hating the fact that she knew she was blushing.

Max was standing close. He leaned towards her and, just for a moment, Katie leaned towards him.

Then she regained her senses and took a step back. ‘You want to look for your handkerchief?’

‘My what?’ Max’s voice had gone a bit husky. He cleared his throat.

‘Your hankie,’ Katie said. ‘The deeply sentimental one.’

‘Right. Is there a box for those?’

Katie pointed further down the corridor.

‘Oh, bugger,’ Katie said, sorting through the shoe box of watches. ‘How am I supposed to know which one is his?’

‘You didn’t see him wearing it?’

‘I wasn’t looking closely at him, no.’ Katie felt cross. She hadn’t known she was going to be quizzed on Oliver Cole’s accessories. Culpeper’s Herbal had never warned her about that.

‘May I?’ Max held out his hand.

‘I’m not letting you take Mr Cole’s watch,’ Katie said, gripping the box tightly. ‘I don’t care if you won it.’

He shook his head. ‘I doubt we’re after the same thing, that’s all. The watch I won was a woman’s one. Diamonds around the outside. Flashy in a mobster’s moll kind of way.’

‘So he was gambling with his wife’s watch?’ Maybe that explained why he wanted Katie to find it. Maybe his spirit felt bad about losing his wife’s property.

‘You didn’t tell me why you need to find it. You don’t even know what it looks like?’

‘No.’ She raked through the box, holding up the Swatch then dropping it back in. ‘I’m an idiot. I’ll just ask his wife. I’ll say he mentioned it was missing — I don’t need to tell her when he told me. Then I’m not lying. Perfect.’

‘Perfect if you trust his wife not to pick the Breitling watch and sell it for a tidy profit.’

‘Just because that’s what you’d do.’

‘In a past life, perhaps,’ Max said. ‘I’m turning over a new leaf.’

‘Is that a fact?’ Katie had the box held against her hip. ‘You done, here?’

‘Yeah,’ Max said and they walked back upstairs, into the light.

Chapter 5

Cam was working late at the office and Gwen had taken the opportunity to go through all of Iris’s journals. Back when she’d first inherited the house and had been reading the journals for the first time, it had often felt as if they fell open at exactly the place she needed. These days, she practically knew them by heart, but had to go through them in the normal way. Since there wasn’t any kind of index system, that meant the slow way. After hours, in which the heat of the day made her want to put her head on the table and sleep, she wasn’t at all sure the effort had been worth it.

When Katie arrived, Gwen delayed talking by making smoothies in the blender. As the fruit and ice whizzed noisily and Katie fetched tall glasses and straws, Gwen tried to think of a gentle way of explaining what she’d just read. Katie reached across and switched off the KitchenAid. ‘What?’

‘It’s not good.’

‘Tell me,’ Katie said. ‘I’d rather know.’

‘Okay.’ Gwen poured out the smoothies. She added a shot of vodka to her own and offered the bottle to Katie who, as always, shook her head. Outside in the garden, Cat was stalking something in the undergrowth and the scent of lavender hung thickly in the air. The evening sun still had plenty of warmth, but it was gentler than earlier in the day. Gwen sat on her wooden bench, passing one of the cushions to Katie and rearranging another behind her own back.