Jessica's Life Journey (10) - A Wedding Invitation

I am running the agency single-handed at the moment.

It is a situation of my own making, really, but one I had been dreading.

The first time that Will had proposed marriage, I had treated it as a joke. It sounded like one, especially when he had euphemistically said:

“Are you going to make an honest man out of me, Jessica?” 

I realised he was deadly serious about it as that overture was repeated on several occasions.

When, for the nth time, the subject came up for discussion, I thought that enough was enough and put a stop to it once and for all.

I told him straight I wasn't ready to settle down to domestic life and value my independence.

That put the kibosh on our relationship and our plans in doubt.

Whether it was the result of our disagreement or the lack of work that seemed to have dried up since my first successful case, Will decided he would take a sabbatical.

Murphy's law dictated that as soon as he left, a job would come my way.

It came about through the recommendation of the taxi driver, whose name I had cleared on my debut as a sleuth.

He had become friendly with a hotel's receptionist who would ring his firm whenever a guest needed transport.

She informed him that there had been a spate of robberies at the hotel and that expensive jewellery had vanished without a trace. 

The odd thing was that although they happen in broad daylight the thief or thieves manage to escape being caught.

I was engaged by the management to investigate. The best way to do so without raising suspicions was to assume the role of a chambermaid.

I could go from room to room with no questions asked as I would be seen to be carrying out my normal duties.

I watched with eagle eyes all around me to detect any abnormal activity within the staff among whom I believed the culprit/s to be.

I decided to set a trap. In the morning, while all the guests were in the breakfast room and the bedrooms unoccupied, I placed an open box with a string of pearls (cultured not natural) and some paste jewels that looked genuine, in plain view in the penthouse apartment of a rich American actress.

It was bound to entice the burglar; I and a security guard hid out of view and waited.

A cleaner with a laundry basket containing clean linen entered the room and came out soon after hurrying down the corridor. I ran inside and saw that the box had gone. 

I signalled to the security girl to search the suspect but nothing was found, either on her person or in the laundry basket.

Momentarily baffled, I had a sudden flash of inspiration and looked out of the window. A moving platform with a window cleaner inside was slowly descending.

By the time it reached the ground, two burly security men were waiting for him.

The stolen box, that had been handed to him by his female accomplice, was in his possession.

#

Having been thoroughly absorbed by my latest exploit, I hadn't kept up with what was happening in the outside world.

Quite a number of newspapers and a lot of correspondence were lying on the doormat on my return home.

A week-old copy of the Times caught my eye: it announced the imminent nuptials of William Browning and Katja Kaplinskova.

This was confirmed by a wedding invitation addressed to me that was among the letters that had accumulated in my absence.

My only immediate thought was about the future of the business. 

I suppose its fate will be decided when  Will returns from his honeymoon.

© Luigi Pagano 2022