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Charlotte sputtered. “That’s not even the biggest problem right now! Where is that painting? Xander, it’s worth so much money. Like, more than all the other paintings on the wall of that room combined.”
Xander winced.
“Is it possible that someone stole it?” Kelli demanded, her voice very low.
“I don’t think we should jump to any conclusions,” Xander said.
But Kelli’s head was whirring with images of Miss Jennings, of the woman with the stolen rings, and now, of the empty space on the wall where the painting should have been. Something was going on. Although her gut was often wrong (she had married Mike, for crying out loud), it now felt so terrible that she couldn’t ignore it.
Again, Charlotte’s text came in rapid succession.
CHARLOTTE: Help! We need more champagne!
Kelli groaned as Xander tried to calm her.
“Let’s go to the kitchen. After that, we can head to the security room,” Xander reminded her.
“Right! We can check the CCTV footage to see when the painting was moved,” Kelli said. Overwhelmed with emotion, she tore forward and kissed Xander with her eyes closed, so grateful for his help. “You are a brilliant, brilliant man.”
Xander laughed. “I’m not brilliant in the slightest. This hotel management stuff is a whole lot harder than it looks.”
“Add an art heist to the mix, and things get complicated,” Kelli agreed.
Together, Kelli and Xander hurried back to the kitchen, where they found Charlotte in a similar state of stress. She hovered over ten boxes, all of which she’d torn open, on the hunt for the champagne. She also spoke quickly into her walkie-talkie as she worked, trying her best to sound chipper even as she fell apart.
“Hi!” Charlotte’s eyes were enormous.
“No luck?” Kelli asked.
Charlotte’s shoulders fell forward. “I don’t have any idea what to do.”
“We have plenty of white wine and beer,” Kelli reminded her. “Maybe I can call another hotel here on the island and see if they can lend us some champagne.”
“It won’t be enough,” Charlotte said. “And you know as well as I do that all of the hotels on the island have weddings today. It’s a gorgeous Saturday in June! It’s prime real estate for weddings!”
Kelli took a step back, away from Charlotte’s volatility. Although she adored her little sister, there was nothing she could do for her right then.
“Listen,” Kelli said. “There’s some weird stuff going on here at the hotel. Have you seen anyone around? Anyone who looks suspicious?”
Charlotte gaped at her. “All I can do right now is keep myself, the bride, and the bride’s mother afloat.”
“Of course. Of course!” Kelli tried to laugh it off, but sensed there was nothing she could say to get Charlotte back on track. But as she stirred in the silence, Chef Billiard stormed into the kitchen in his chef whites and cried out, “Where on earth is my knife?”
What now?Kelli stared at Chef Billiard, whose cheeks were beefy red with anger. Instead of projecting his anger toward her, however, he began to scream at all of the members of the kitchen staff, accusing them of misplacing his perfect Japanese knife.
“I cannot, under any circumstances, produce this wedding dinner without that knife!” Chef Billiard blared. “What was the first rule I told each and every one of you during your very first shift with me?”
When silence proceeded his question, Chef Billiard’s face got, impossibly, even redder. “I don’t hear you! What was the first rule I taught you?”
“Never touch your knife!” one of the kitchen staffers cried, his voice wavering.
“That’s right. Never, under any circumstances, touch my knife. Now, it seems that one of you has gone out of your way to disobey me.”
Kelli’s stomach twisted with fear. Stuttering, she said, “Chef Billiard, the wedding dinner is set for five. I don’t suppose you could make an exception, just this once, to work with another knife?”
But Chef Billiard flat-out ignored her and continued to storm through his kitchen, enraged. Meanwhile, servers came and went, bent on delivering the beautiful hors d’oeuvres to Amanda’s guests.
“Come on,” Xander muttered into Kelli’s ear. “We can check on this storm in a little while. Let’s look at the CCTV footage.”
