The two men from the dining room were sitting on one of the sofas in the front office, waiting to check out. “I hope you weren’t waiting long,” Nell said, putting as much upbeat energy into her tone and expression as she could. You get back what you put out — positive staff attitudes lead to happy guests. She’d told new Wildforest staff that too many times to count, and she’d learned it first-hand in her martial arts training: if the instructor is having a good day, the class will too, and a grumpy instructor’s mood spreads like the plague. “Now, I understand that you’re leaving a day early because of the weather. Is that right?”
“Regretfully, yes,” said the thin man.
“It’s my health,” said his partner, looking rueful. “Jude wants to get me home. It’s nothing against the resort, we’ve had a lovely time here.”
“I’m sorry to hear you’re not well, s—” Nell began, then caught herself; she’d been about to use sir outside of training. Men tended to object to that less than women minded ma’am, but still. She glanced down at the computer screen. Mary had called the thin man Mr. Leith, so… “Mr. Halliday. I expect you’ll feel better once you’re in your own home. And since you’re leaving for health reasons, I can waive the early departure fee for you.”
Mr. Halliday smiled. “That’s very kind. And please, call me Finn. He’s Jude. We aren’t formal.”
She printed out the summary of their stay and charges and tax, tucked it into a cream-colored cardstock folder, and turned to where Eamonn lounged against the wall. “Could you take this over to the gentlemen so they don’t need to get up?” He took it with an agreeable nod and carried it over to them, while she looked around for the credit and debit card terminal that had to be around somewhere but wasn’t in evidence on the desk. Must be a wireless model, she thought, and sure enough, she spotted a base for it. Locked up overnight, maybe? One of the keys on her ring was for the desk’s two lockable drawers, and she found the unit in the second one, along with the petty cash box. “Are you paying with a card? I can bring the terminal to you if you are.”
“Please,” said Jude. He produced a leather wallet from his coat pocket and drew out a platinum Visa. Nell took a seat on the other sofa as she punched in the necessary information, then handed the device to him.
She felt the sofa compress as Eamonn sat down beside her. “I’ll be honest with you,” he said to the men. “We’re trying to find out what happened to the person who usually works in the office here. She seems to have disappeared.”
“That nice young woman? Oh, dear,” said Finn. “I hope you find her. We haven’t seen her since Tuesday afternoon, when she replenished the tea and coffee in our cottage. That would have been around four.”
Jude looked thoughtful. “You might try the hospital. I thought I heard a siren yesterday morning but we’re isolated enough here that I figured I must have been dreaming. It was early.”
“Nine o’clock is early for you, dear,” Finn teased, but he nodded. “I thought I heard a siren too, around seven thirty — and I was definitely awake, but no one else said anything so I assumed I must have imagined it.”
Site managers were expected to be awake and in the office at seven. At seven thirty in the morning, on an ordinary day, Jessalyn would have been at her desk right there in the office, preparing check-in and check-out packages for the day, dealing with her email, drinking her coffee, and resolving any problems that had come up the night before; that is, anything she hadn’t had to get up in the night for. As a site manager, she’d signed up to live on the premises for the summer and be on call twenty-four hours a day, hadn’t she?
“A siren,” said Eamonn. “That’s interesting. Not a fire, presumably, so… ambulance, or police?”
And wouldn’t that be a disaster, Nell thought, if the site manager had been arrested. Wildforest management had a tendency to hold the site supervisor — her — responsible for anything that happened, no matter how surprising or out of her control it might be. “Let’s assume it was an ambulance, for now,” she said firmly. “There’ll be information here somewhere on emergency services and the closest hospital. That gives us somewhere to start. Thank you both so much.”
Jude held out a business card. “If you wouldn’t mind emailing to let us know when you find her, we’d appreciate it.” Finn nodded agreement, and coughed. They got up and shook hands with Nell and Eamonn. Nell held out the receipt from the card terminal, which she realized she’d been holding all that time, and Jude tucked it into the folder that held their summary of charges and stay information. “We’ll come again,” he said.
“I hope you do,” Nell told him. “Finn, I hope you feel better soon.”
He smiled, the sort of smile that people with chronic conditions give to those statements, and shrugged a little. “I’m lucky I have Jude to take care of me.”
“Have a safe drive home,” Eamonn said, and then Finn and Jude were out the door, and shortly the silver Lexus roared off down the rainy drive.
Nell got up from the sofa and went behind the desk to look for the site’s information binder. Every site had to have one so that the site manager could answer guests’
