Abruptly, Judith stood up. “Let’s go.”
“You’re serious.” Reluctantly, Renie set her coffee mug on
the counter.
Judith nodded. “Two points—first, would whoever stole
the files keep them or burn them? Second, whoever
take them might not lock their doors. We can get rid of some
suspects.”
“Somebody’s already doing that,” Renie remarked, but she
followed Judith to the back stairs.
Andrea’s room wore a desolate air. But it had definitely
been disturbed since the cousins had searched it. The daily
planner was lying on the spare bed and the personnel files
were gone.
Max’s room was also unlocked. It looked virtually the
same as it had when Judith and Renie had gone with him to
look out the windows. There were no items of interest, and
it appeared that nothing had been burned in the grate except
logs and kindling.
The same was true of Russell’s room. Indeed, it was so
Spartan that it might never have been occupied. The cousins
moved on to Ava, who, they recalled was staying next door
to Russell. Somewhat to their surprise, Ava hadn’t locked
her door, either.
“I suppose there’s no point,” Judith mused. “They’re all
together during the day, or at least in pairs.”
“True,” Renie agreed. “If they don’t have anything to hide,
why bother?”
Judith scanned the top of the bureau where Ava kept her
personal items. There was a hairbrush, a mascara wand, an
emery board, and a packet of birth control pills.
“Maintenance or prevention?” Judith inquired with a sly
smile.
“Either one. Both. Lots of women take the pill for reasons
other than contraception,” Renie noted.
“That’s so.” Judith opened the small closet. The only items
hanging there were a yellow flannel nightgown, a black
bathrobe edged with white piping, and the red jewel-
necked sweater and woolen slacks Judith had borrowed.
“Odd,” Judith said under her breath.
“What’s odd?” Renie came to stand next to Judith.
“Why hasn’t Ava worn that red outfit? All three days, she’s
had on either the blue or the green ensemble. Wouldn’t you
change clothes if you had any?”
“Sure,” Renie responded. “Maybe Ava doesn’t want to wear
that one because you did. No offense, coz,” she went on,
poking Judith in the ribs, “but some people are funny about
things like that. Besides, Ava said she didn’t care much about
clothes.”
“Yes, she did,” Judith said, giving the red outfit one last
