Chapter 50
“Where were you last night?”
Therese stretched and yawned before answering. “Just chatting with some insurance type guys down in the hotel bar. They’re part of the conference that sucked up all the rooms with queen beds.”
She looked over at Maeve, who was packing her toiletries into her carry-on bag. “By the way, has anyone ever told you that you’re a big cover hog?”
“No. But I’d love to know why you have to twist and turn all night? You’re like a damn rotisserie chicken.”
“These hotel pillows are like foam rocks. I miss normal pillows.”
Therese disappeared into the bathroom and came out twenty minutes later, dressed in black leggings, an oversized Kiss T-shirt from the 1980 Unmasked Tour, and her Chuck Ts. She had a towel wrapped around her still-damp hair.
Maeve made a point of looking at her watch. “We need to be on the hotel shuttle in thirty minutes, so you need to get a move on, big sister.”
“I’m moving,” Therese said. She picked up her purse and looked inside. “Have you seen my phone?”
“No, but I haven’t looked for it.”
“Call my number, okay?”
Maeve tapped the icon with her sister’s number, but it didn’t ring in the room.
“Shit. I think I put it on silent last night while I was in the bar.”
“Where did you have it last?” Maeve asked.
“Not sure. I know I had it in the pocket of my jacket when I went downstairs.”
“Could you have left it in the bar?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I was talking to a guy from Atlanta. His sister went to St. Mary’s, but she was a couple classes behind you—”
“Therese, focus!” Maeve wanted to shake her sister.
“I am focusing.” Therese went back into the bathroom, shook her head. Opened the drawers in the nightstand. “Not there.”
She got down on her hands and knees and stuck her head under the bed.
“Found it!” She held the phone aloft like an Olympic medal.
“Thank God. Come on, get your crap together. The elevators in this hotel are the slowest.”
The two sisters rolled their suitcases down the hall and stopped in front of the bank of elevators. Two had “Out of Service” signs on them. The display board for the third elevator car showed that it was on the twelfth floor.
The minutes ticked away as they watched the car stop at every floor on the way down.
Finally a bell dinged and the elevator doors slid open to reveal a car jam-packed with travelers and luggage.
A burly man extended his arm to stop them from entering.
“All full!” he announced. “Have to catch the next one.”
Therese pointed down the hallway to the staircase. “Come on, we’ll have to take the stairs.”
The sisters clattered down the four flights of stairs. By the time they emerged into the lobby they were red-faced and breathless. People were streaming past them toward the entrance, where an airport shuttle bus was parked at the curb.
“Hurry,” Maeve urged, but Therese was already a few paces ahead of her. They joined the line of passengers but were among the last to board the bus, meaning they both had to stand during the ten-minute ride to the airport, squashed butt-cheek-to-butt-cheek with strangers.
“At least we’ll be the first ones off,” Therese whispered in her sister’s ear.
They were making a beeline for the Delta check-in counter, but Therese stopped to tie her shoelace. Maeve turned around to wait, but Therese waved her on. “I’ll catch up.”
Maeve stepped up to the counter when it was her turn, placing her suitcase on the luggage scale.
“ID please?” the ticket agent asked.
Maeve pulled her passport case out of her crossbody purse, flipped it open, and stared. Her passport was gone.
She felt the blood drain from her face.
“Ma’am?” the agent asked politely.
“My passport,” Maeve said. She peered into her purse, but the only other things it contained were her phone, lipstick, pen, and a box of Altoids. She lifted her carry-on bag onto the counter and began rummaging through it.
“Ma’am?”
A trickle of sweat ran down Maeve’s back. “I’m sorry. My passport, it’s not in my purse. Maybe I somehow put it in my carry-on?”
She removed her laptop computer, a paperback novel, her cosmetic case, sweater, and phone charger.
“It’s not here,” she said, her voice hoarse with panic. “It’s gone. It was in the passport case I always keep it in…”
“Oh no,” the ticket agent said. “Check your pockets. Sometimes I put mine there instead of my pocketbook.”
Maeve patted her pockets. “No. I never put it anywhere but in its case. In my bag.”
A young mother behind her had a squirming toddler in her arms. She sighed heavily, signaling her impatience, but the agent seemed sympathetic to her situation. “Could you have left it in a cab, or maybe an Uber?”
The line behind her was growing, and people were beginning to grumble.
“Ma’am? Maybe you could step out of line and do a thorough search of your luggage?”
“I will.” She was near tears as she left the line.
Therese was four passengers back. “What’s going on?”
“I can’t find my passport. I always keep it in my purse. The case is there, but my passport is gone!”
“Okay, don’t panic,” Therese said. “Did you look in your carry-on?”
“Of course. It’s not there, I tell you.”
“Slow down. You don’t think it could have fallen out of your purse, like on the shuttle bus?”
“No! You saw how tightly we were packed in there. I always carry my crossbody bag tight against my chest in crowds, in case of pickpockets. Besides, it couldn’t just jump out of the passport case.”
“How about the hotel? Do you think you left it in the room?”
“No,” Maeve wailed. “I did a thorough walk-through while you were in the shower.”
“How about the rental car?” Therese asked.
“Oh shit.” Maeve ran her hands through her hair in a fit of frustration. “I don’t know. I guess, maybe…”
She glanced down at her phone and made a snap decision. “You go ahead and check in. I’m gonna try and find a quiet corner and call Hertz. I’ll catch up with you at the gate.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Go! The flight leaves in an hour. They won’t let you check your bag if you wait any longer. Go. Shoo!”
Maeve found a spot outside a gift shop that hadn’t opened yet. She found the paperwork for the rental car and called Hertz. After a ten-minute wait, she was connected to customer service.
“Hi. My name is Maeve Dunagin. I turned in my car at the Hertz counter at the Dublin airport yesterday, and I’m wondering if I could have left my passport in the car.”
“I’ll transfer you to lost and found,” the bored-sounding agent said.
She endured another ten-minute wait before someone from the lost and found department picked up. And ten minutes after that she got the answer she was dreading.
“No, ma’am. Sorry. No US passports were found in any vehicles returned yesterday.”
She slid down onto the floor and tried to regain her composure.
Her phone rang. It was Therese.
“Did the Hertz people find it?”
“No. Where are you?”
“I’m through security and at the gate. They’re starting to board. What do you want me to do? Should I come back and meet up with you?”
“No! The tickets are nonrefundable. Just … go ahead and board. I’ll think of something.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t fucking know, Therese!” she exclaimed. “I’m in a foreign country without my passport, and my flight home is leaving without me. I’ll have to figure something out. Maybe, I don’t know, see if I can get to the US embassy in Dublin to ask for their help.”
“Maevey, I’m so sorry. Wait! What about the inn? Is there any chance you left it in our room back at the inn?”
“Oh my God, I hope not. I guess I’ll call them and ask if housekeeping found it. But how am I gonna get all the way back to Wicklow to get it? I don’t even have a car.”
“Maeve? I’m so so sorry, but my row is boarding. I gotta go. Text me and let me know what happens. Love you.”