Chapter 7 Maggie
MAGGIE
When Hester accused her of theft, Maggie’s heart and stomach went into freefall, plunging to her feet. It was happening again. She was about to lose her last chance. And she hadn’t even done anything this time.
At least she didn’t think she had. When she queried the bird inside her, it seemed as confused as she was.
It wasn’t entirely unheard-of for shifters to black out when their animal took over, but it was very rare; it was a disorder, not the usual way that a shifter’s dual nature worked.
And Maggie had never had it happen to her, that she knew of.
Even when her bird’s instincts were in control, she was still there, riding as a passenger in their shared mind.
She hadn’t done it. And she couldn’t think of any way to prove she hadn’t. Charlie was a witness, but Charlie had been asleep. If Maggie was dead set on slipping out of the room as a magpie, she had done sneakier things in her life.
And then Sam defended her.
She still couldn’t get over it. She seemed to be floating in a dizzying cloud of unreality. She still couldn’t believe it, even as the two of them went back into the lobby to examine the—well, she supposed she might as well just call it what it was. The crime scene.
“Do you really want my help, or were you just saying that?” she asked him.
Sam gave her a look. “I meant it. I don’t say things I don’t mean.”
No. He didn’t. She could tell that about him.
“You’re a detective, right? Private investigator. What help could I possibly be?”
A smile quirked the side of his mouth. He hadn’t shaved today, and his chin was dusted lightly with salt-and-pepper stubble. “You can lend me the benefits of your expertise.”
Her expertise—as a criminal. She felt as if she had been kicked in the chest again, in a completely different way. Sam’s smile faltered at whatever her face was showing. What did he expect? Gratitude?
“Yes, of course,” she said, and swallowed. She pulled back a hand, which had started to drift toward him for some involuntary reason. “You’re right. I can help. Just ask me what you need to know.”
Sam was studying her now with a slight crease between his brows, as if she was a puzzle he wanted to work out. Well, that was all she was to him, wasn’t it? Everything was a mystery to solve.
As soon as she saw the charity tables, however, her unhappiness was submerged beneath focused interest. She really did want to figure it out.
She wanted to prove to Hester, and to Sam, and to everyone else who thought she would never be anything other than a thief that she could do better. Be better.
“Maggie—” Sam began.
“This is the place, right? Show me what’s missing.”
Sam cleared his throat and got down to business. “There are three items that disappeared. They’re all fairly large. Two food baskets, one collection of fancy soaps and other personal care items.”
Maggie frowned at the table. “Why would anyone take those? There’s a lot more valuable stuff here.” Her magpie homed in on the jewelry immediately, because of course it did. She forced herself not to linger.
“I know,” Sam said. “I thought of that, too. Value obviously isn’t the main criteria.”
“Food and soaps,” Maggie mused. “Someone in need, perhaps?”
“If we were in the city, I would agree. But we’re in the middle of the wilderness. The only people around here for miles are the people in this hotel, and they have plenty of food and all the hotel soaps they could want.”
“Are we sure about that?” Maggie asked.
“I guess there’s no way to be absolutely sure. We could ask Hester and Mauro if there are any sightings of someone living rough in the woods lately. But there’s food in the hotel kitchen; why not just take that?”
“Hmm.” Maggie examined the tables. “If it was someone from outside, they would have left tracks in the snow, wouldn’t they?”
“That’s a good point. Only thing is, it snowed again last night.”
“Oh,” Maggie said. This was what she got for trying to play detective.
“But we can still check. Anything at the front of the hotel would have been obliterated by now, but there’s a back door and a hall that goes straight to it from the lobby. That’s the most likely place for someone to have come in.”
They went down the hall, and Sam opened the door marked EXIT. Outside, it was brightening steadily. There was a concrete walk along the side of the building under the roof overhang, drifted lightly with trampled snow. Beyond that, the fresh snow was well over a foot deep.
“Huh,” Sam said. He crouched down and pointed. “See that?”
Maggie was no tracker, but she could see what he meant. Among the various boot tracks, there were clear, distinct prints of bare feet.
“That has to be someone who had shifted or was planning to shift, right?”
“Yeah, but it could just be someone going out for a midnight run in their animal form. Hard to say.” Sam stood up and peered across the snow-covered lawn to the dark wall of the trees.
“There’s no following a trail out here, not after last night’s snow.
But at least we know it’s possible an unknown shifter might have entered the hotel last night. ”
There were few lights back here, behind the hotel, and the forest was a stark study in black and white, pine trees and snow, gradually becoming clearer in the growing dawn light.
It was beautiful and also forbidding, a wild place where people weren’t meant to be.
Maggie, as an urban bird shifter, felt generally comfortable in city or suburban settings, but she was unused to true forest.
“Do you have a shift form that can trail by scent?” Maggie asked.
“I’m a horse, so not really.”
“Magpies aren’t exactly known for their scent tracking either.” Her magpie ruffled up its feathers. Come on, bird, you know it’s true.
Sam smiled at her, and she reluctantly smiled back. Maybe he did just think of her as a criminal. But he had defended her to Hester. And he was investigating this theft as an outside job. Whatever else he believed of her, he didn’t think she had done this.
“I think we’ve seen all we can see here,” Maggie said. Nerving herself, she asked, “Do you want to grab something to eat before the breakfast crowd shows up? I’d like to get some food in me before they want me in the kitchen. And we can go over what we know already.”
Sam grinned, not a smile this time, but a full on, teeth-showing grin. If she’d thought him handsome and charming before, this was absolutely panty-melting. “I’d love to. Let’s go.”