Page 7

I look between Jacques and Elena. Elena no longer wears that oddly childish expression of triumph, but there’s a good deal of mistrust in her eyes as she meets my gaze.

“Are you serious?” I ask her. “You want to search me?”

“Just to clear you of suspicion.”

“Grandma?” Sophie asks. “What’s wrong? Is Mary in trouble?”

“Go to your room, Sophie,” Elena and I say at the same time.

“But—”

“Now, please. It’s all right, dear.”

Sophie hesitates a moment longer, then slowly gets to her feet and heads to the elevator. She carries her half-eaten sandwich and a juice box with her. She looks so small.

My anger fades somewhat, replaced with embarrassment for Elena. When the elevator door shuts behind Sophie, I turn to her and say, “Dr. Rousseau, I am truly sorry for the loss of your pocket watch. In the interest of putting this issue to bed and allowing Inspector Moreau to more quickly proceed with effective avenues of investigation, I will allow him to search my room.”

Elena shuffles her feet and at least has the decency to look embarrassed when she says, “He’ll have to search you as well.”

“Me? As in my body?”

Jacques offers the age-old line used by all police officers. “If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about.”

“I have nothing to hide,” I reply. “I simply don’t want a stranger’s hands probing my body for no other reason than my employer’s unfounded suspicion.”

“But you were there, Mary,” Elena says almost desperately. “Someone had to have gone into that room and taken that pocket watch, and you were one of the people there.”

“Along with dozens of other guests throughout the day.”

She frowns, but the look is more petulant than angry. “Just let him search you. It’ll ease my mind, and then we won’t bother you any further about it.”

I’m not happy at all with this, but I don’t see a good reason to argue, nor do I believe arguing will result in a good outcome for me. I sigh and say, “Very well. Let’s proceed.”

Jacques reddens further. He also has the decency to look embarrassed when he says, “Of course, ma’am.”

He searches me brusquely and efficiently. He is as respectful as a person can be when they’re running their hands all over someone, but I can’t help but feel my skin crawl. To suspect me of theft! As though I were some common criminal! What possible use could I have for Elena’s watch or for anything in whatever hidden compartment it might contain?

I keep myself calm, though, and allow Jacques to finish his search. When he steps away and nods to indicate that he’s finished, I ask, “Do I need to be present when you search my room?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Very well. Please be gentle with my belongings. I’m going to check on Sophie.” I look at Elena. “If that’s all right with you, ma’am.”

Elena, her eyes rooted to the floor, nods. “That’s all right. Thank you, Mary.”

I head to Sophie’s room and find her sitting on her bed watching a cartoon. I don’t love that she has a tv in her room. I don’t believe that children should be sheltered from television, but I believe their consumption should be moderated and monitored.

I smile at that. A strange man is rifling through my underwear fifty feet away, and I’m worried about Sophie’s television habits.

Sophie looks at me, and her eyes widen in relief. “Mary! Is everything okay? Are you in trouble?”

“No, Sophie, I’m not in trouble.”

“Do they think you took the pocket watch?”

I think through my answer carefully. I am angry with Elena, but it won’t be helpful to anyone for me to disrespect her to her granddaughter. “Your grandmother is very upset. She’s trying to look for it everywhere it might be.”

Sophie looks over my shoulder, then shuffles up to me and whispers, “Did you take it?”

I burst into laughter. I can’t help myself. Sophie’s innocence is absolutely adorable. I give her a brief hug, then say, “No, Sophie. I didn’t take it. That would be very rude of me. Your grandmother has offered me a job and a place in her home. If I were to steal something from her after that, I would be a very low person indeed.”

She smiles at me. “Yeah, that would be awful. I’m glad you’re not a thief.”

“As am I.” I narrow my eyes. “Did you take it?”

She giggles and shakes her head. “No. If I were going to steal a clock, it would be the big cuckoo clock in the first room. The one with the farmer and all of the animals.”

I have to stifle a grimace as I recall the automata jerking and shivering in the malfunctioning clock as though struck by seizures. “It’s a beautiful clock.”

She nods. “Grandmother says it’s called an automata clock because a cuckoo clock has to have a cuckoo automaton. Otherwise, it’s not a cuckoo clock. But I like to call it a cuckoo clock.”

“I like that too. Besides, people and donkeys can be cuckoo too.”

She giggles again. “That’s true. Sometimes I’m cuckoo.”

"Why, what a coincidence. I'm cuckoo sometimes too."

I hear Jacques clearing his throat again and turn to see him and Elena standing in front of my door. Elena faces away from me. Her arms are crossed tightly over her chest, and she stares down at the ground.

I turn back to Sophie and say, “Consider yourself lucky. I’m letting you watch television and play video games a lot more than I ordinarily would.”

She giggles. "People should steal pocket watches every day so I can watch as much TV as I want."

“And drive your grandmother into an early grave? Don’t say that, Sophie.” I look back at Jacques, who waits patiently with his hat in his hand. “I have to go talk to them. Stay in your room, all right?”

“All right. Bye, Mary.”

“Goodbye, Sophie.”

Elena should count herself lucky she has such a wonderful granddaughter. Were it not for Sophie, I would be packing my bags and leaving for home right now.

Well, not for home. I still need to figure out where Annie is. Or was.

The smile is gone from my face by the time I reach the two of them. Elena stiffens slightly but keeps her gaze away from mine. Jacques looks like he’d rather be anywhere else than here. I don’t blame him.

“Well?” I ask. “Have you satisfied yourself that I’m not a criminal?”

Jacques clears his throat. I believe it’s a nervous habit for him. “We didn’t find anything, Miss Mary. I’m sorry for the intrusion.”

I nod curtly. “Very well. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

He shakes his head. “No, ma’am.”

“Excellent.”

No one says anything for a long moment. Jacques breaks the silence by clearing his throat yet again, then saying to Elena, “If you can get me security camera footage, I’ll have my officers review it overnight. We’ll get to the bottom of this. I promise.”

Elena nods but says nothing. Jacques clears his throat a final time, then enters the elevator, presumably to leave the museum.

When the door closes behind him, I turn to Elena. She’s clearly discomfited, and I’ve already decided to stay for Sophie’s sake, but I’m very offended, and it’s important to me that she understands I won’t allow myself to be treated this way anymore.

“Do you have a reason to believe I would steal from you, Dr. Rousseau?”

She shakes her head. “No. It’s just shocking that the pocket watch has gone missing. I wasn’t prepared to lose something that valuable. I’m afraid I’m a little out of sorts.”

I sigh. “I don’t blame you. I only wasn’t expecting my privacy to be violated today.”

Her lips thin further, a feat I wouldn’t have thought possible if I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes. She looks at me, and I am surprised to see anger and not embarrassment in her eyes. “I apologize for the inconvenience I’ve caused you, Mary. It wasn’t my intention. I take this museum very seriously. I take my family’s reputation very seriously. The thought that our reputation could be tarnished is very concerning, and I’m not at my best right now.

“And I don’t know you. I had a good first impression of you, but that doesn’t mean anything. You could have been the thief. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, but I do feel justified in my actions.”

I would argue that she wasn’t justified, but I don’t. Best just to put this to bed. “I hope you find your pocket watch, Dr. Rousseau.”

She nods. “Thank you for agreeing to stay on. Sophie seems quite fond of you.”

“She’s a wonderful girl.”

She leaves me without another word, heading to the elevator. I walk into my room and see with relief that Jacques did his best to leave everything where it was when he searched.

I play back the conversation I just have with Elena. Something she says sticks to me. At first, she behaves as though the loss of the pocket watch is in and of itself the crime. The financial value of the piece and the history it represents matter to her.

But just now, she says that it's her family's reputation she's concerned with. She says that twice, in fact.

Why would the loss of a pocket watch affect her family’s reputation?

I think back to Sophie’s story of spies and wonder again. What could a spy learn about the Rousseau’s that could threaten the family’s reputation?