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“Don’t mind if I do.” Caleb followed closely behind me with a confident leer. Worth and Ethan were on his heels.
As soon as I walked past the door, however, I knew something was ominously wrong. The first thing I noticed was that the lights were switched off. I never turned the lights off in my hotel rooms. I harbored a sense of safety in knowing I would be returning after a hard day’s work to a brightly lit room.
I racked my brain trying to remember whether I had maybe absentmindedly forgotten and turned off the lights anyway, but before I had a chance to decide, Worth tripped over something.
“Sorry,” I said, flustered and fumbling in the dark, reaching for the light switch on the wall. “I normally leave the lights on…”
I turned on the light switch and froze.
The desk chair was flipped upside down and currently in the foyer of the room, nowhere near where it should have been. The chair from the desk was no better; perched several feet away with its four legs poking up in the air.
“What in the world…” I stared at it, dumbfounded and unable to comprehend a reason other than seriously careless housekeeping.
“Um, why is the mattress hanging off your bed?” Ethan asked.
Tearing my gaze away, I saw the desk was the least of my concerns. My room had been completely ransacked. The sheets were torn off the bed. The mattress was laying halfway off the bedframe. Clothes were scattered everywhere. Someone had taken the bible from the nightstand and ripped it in half. Who even did that?
Worth turned around in a slow motion spin. “What happened here?”
“I… I don’t know. I didn’t leave it this way,” I said stupidly.
Caleb frowned. “Does someone else have access to your hotel room besides you?”
My head felt heavy on my neck. “No.”
Someone had ambushed my room.
“Well, does it look like anything is missing?” Caleb gave me a professional glance as if he were catapulting himself into the only job he ever knew.
I shook my head in a daze, walking around the room on wobbly legs that threatened to buckle. I opened my suitcase where I kept my jewelry tucked safely away in a zippered pouch on the side. It was concealed by the mound of clean clothes still inside. Whoever did this had ripped up some of my clothing, but not all of it.
I hastily yanked the zipper back, peeling the layers of clothes away so that I could get a better look. I glanced up at the guys. “None of my jewelry has been stolen.”
Caleb walked around the room as he inspected the area with a tiny flashlight he’d plucked from his pocket.
“Where did you get a flashlight?” I asked.
“I always carry this thing with me,” he explained with a shrug. “Along with a Swiss army knife.”
“Who do you think might have done this?” Ethan’s expression was all business.
“Guys, enough with the third degree,” Worth said sharply, then turned to me, cupping his hands over my shoulders. “Are you okay?” Worth gently cupped his hands over my shoulders, offering me comfort.
“I’m okay,” I said, although I was unnerved. My heart raced. My eyes scanned the room with paranoia. Answers to their questions were lost on me.
“Maybe we should check the bathroom for clues,” Caleb suggested.
Ethan rolled his eyes. “Who are you, Sherlock Holmes?”
“We need to call the police,” Worth said, voice authoritative.
“I am the police,” Caleb said.
I was suddenly dizzy. “I need to sit down.”
Worth was there in an instant, along with Ethan. “What can we do?” Hands rubbed my back consolingly.
“Maybe we should get her some water?” Caleb’s voice sounded distant, as if he was shouting from across a lake and his voice echoed over the distance.
