Page 80 of The Maid's Secret

“Can we get to the point?” Stark asks.

“I’m trying to, but this lot keeps chirping me,” says Cheryl. “I went upstairs and started cleaning rooms. I took off a bunch of sheets, and my laundry bags were full by the time Sunshine found me.”

“Correction: I didn’t findyou.I found Molly’s trolley blocking the hallway, and you’d disappeared.”

“Let me guess, ‘taking a load off’?” I say.

“It was break time,” Cheryl replies.

“When I spotted Molly’s trolley,” says Sunshine, “I thought I’d lend a hand by taking it downstairs. I left the bags at the laundry, then spotted Cheryl ‘taking a load off’ in the change room. She told me Molly wasn’t coming to work, which means I’d just inadvertently done Cheryl a favor by bringing her back the trolley.”

“Why did the chicken cross the road?” Detective Stark asks out of nowhere.

Everyone shrugs.

“To find outwhere the hell the egg was!” she yells as she slams a hand on Mr.Snow’s desk. “Can wepleaseget to the point?”

“I realize this story is taking a circuitous route,” says Mr.Snow as he adjusts his crooked glasses, “but you’ll see why once we get there. Sunshine, continue.”

“I told Cheryl to get back upstairs, then left the change room,” says Sunshine.

“And I took Molly’s trolley to the kitchen,” says Cheryl, “leaving it in the hallway while I dropped off a bin of dirty dishes I’d collected from guests’ rooms.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Juan asks. “You took a little something on your way out of the kitchen.”

“Oh yeah. Some sweets on a tray,” says Cheryl. “They looked like crap, but I scoffed one down and it wasn’t half bad.”

“That wasn’t crap. That was a prototype marzipanimal!” Juan says. “You have no idea how hard it is to make a giraffe out of marzipan! And here’s where my part comes in, Detective,” Juan continues. “Istopped mixing icing and went out to the hallway to give Cheryl a piece of my mind, but then I saw Molly’s trolley there. I knew it was hers the same way everyone else did: no one stacks toilet paper like Molly does—a perfect pyramid. Then Lily appeared in the hall, so I asked her why Molly’s trolley was outside the kitchen when Molly herself was at home.”

“And I said not to worry,” Lily interjects. “I told Juan I’d take care of Molly’s trolley. I was planning to bring it back to the housekeeping quarters, but first I went to the Social, because Angela needed tea towels.”

“I can corroborate that,” Angela replies. “I was behind the bar, but Lily has this way of sneaking up on you, stealthy as a ninja. I was pouring a cranberry soda, and bam, she spooked me, and the drink went flying, making a big pink mess of Molly’s toilet paper pyramid. ‘Shite on a kite!’ I said to Lily. And together we started pitching the soggy rolls into the trash.”

“When we got to the middle row, we both saw it,” says Lily. “The egg was nestled right in there. I screamed. I couldn’t help it.”

“I swore,” Angela says. “Do you wanna know what I said?”

“Some things are best left to the imagination,” Mr.Snow suggests.

“We were both in shock,” says Angela. “We covered the egg with a tea towel, then I picked up the phone and called Snow right away.”

“And shortly after, I called you, Detective, and then I called Molly,” says Mr.Snow.

The detective removes her cap and rubs her forehead. “You could have just said the egg was found in Molly’s trolley.”

“No, we couldn’t,” Angela replies. “You needed to hear the whole trajectory. Because the Fabergé was either in that trolley from the very beginning of the day or someone along the way put it in amongst the toilet paper rolls. Those suspects are all here in this room.”

Detective Stark nods slowly, making a note on her pad.

“I didn’t do nothing,” says Cheryl. “You can’t arrest me just because my co-workers hate my guts. You gotta have proof.”

“Thanks for the legal lesson,” says Detective Stark, though her tone seems to suggest a lack of sincere gratitude.

“If I were the thief,” Cheryl offers, “why would I go to all the trouble of stealing the egg just to return it?”

“Don’t know, Cheryl,” says Angela. “Why don’tyoutellus?”

“I never took it in the first place!”she snaps.