Chapter 5

She'd promised Marcelle she would fix it.

Fixing it started at the Selwyn's service door.

By two o'clock Vinnie was back in Savannah, the storm blown out to sea, still in the gray uniform.

Ilene walked beside her with the folio and a flash drive.

They took the back hall toward the records office behind the front desk.

Two men in blazers already stood in the doorway.

Security. The same two from the night before.

"Ms. Day." The taller one didn't move. "We're told you're not allowed in the building."

"Her name is Drayton," Ilene said. "And this office holds the file for a sale she is party to. Move, please."

They didn't move.

Leland came out with a folder under his arm.

"You've got nerve," he said. "Walking back in here after last night."

"I came for the closing file," Vinnie said.

"The closing's dead. You put a theft complaint on yourself the second you touched that ring."

"I never touched a ring."

"214's missing a ring, and the housekeeping log says you were the last one in that room."

Vinnie didn't raise her voice.

"Pull the log. I signed in at 4:10 and out at 4:35. The ring was reported gone at 6:30."

"Which means you carried it around for two hours," Leland said.

He was fast. He kept moving the line.

Down the back hall, footsteps.

Devon came up in his street clothes, off shift, phone in his hand.

"Mr. Gaskin." His voice shook, but he kept walking. "I kept all of it. From the start."

"You're off the clock," Leland said. "Go home, son."

"Play it, Devon," Ilene said.

Devon set the phone in her hand.

She tapped it to the wall monitor in the records office.

The lobby came up on the screen, loud and bright.

There was the column. The old man sliding down it. Vinnie on her knees.

There was Leland crossing the floor, pen on his pocket, mouth already going.

"Turn it off," Leland said.

"Let it run," Ilene said.

On the screen, Leland grabbed the cart.

He wheeled to shout at the room, and for one second the camera looked past his shoulder.

Past him, to the reception counter behind the front desk.

Ilene stopped the video there.

She stepped close and spread the frame with two fingers.

Under the warm lobby light, something small and gold sat on the counter in plain view.

A man's signet ring.

Leland stopped talking.

The security men leaned in toward the screen.

Ilene didn't say a word.

She let the frozen frame hold the room.

On Leland's own counter, in his own light, the missing ring sat beside his silver pen.