I arrived back at the Grand Palais Hotel five hours later with a temporary crown glued into my mouth. The pain in my jaw was gone, replaced by a tingling sensation from all the Novocain the dentist had administered. At least I could talk again, even if I couldn't feel my lips.

"Room 4624," I said to the desk clerk. She looked up casually, then did a startled double take before checking the cubbyhole. I guess she didn't get too many hotel guests with lips the size of pontoons.

"That key is gone. Someone must have picked it up already."

That meant Nana was back. Good. I had lots to tell her. "Have you found my suitcase yet?" I needed my own clothes. I'd seen Nana's complete wardrobe, and it only went downhill from the teddy bears in tutus.

"We haven't located it yet. I'm sorry."

I drilled her with a damning look that sent her back a step. "Not half as sorry as you'll be if I have to wear teddy bears in snowsuits tomorrow."

I took the elevator up to the fourth floor and knocked on the door to room 4624. "It's Emily, Nana. I'm back."

The door cracked open an inch. Nana poked her nose through the gap to eye me, then threw the door wide. "Had to make sure it was you and not someone tryin' to sound like you. How's your tooth?"

I walked into the room and came to a grinding halt. "I have a temporary crown. What's all this?" A three-foot-high mountain of shopping sacks lay cluttered on my bed. Big bags. Little bags. White bags. Blue bags. Paper bags. Plastic bags. "Did Bernice go on another shopping spree? I told her anything else she bought would have to go into her own suitcase."

"It was because of the fingerprintin'," Nana explained. "Folks had nothin' to do while they waited their turn, so's they went shoppin'. All the gift shops were havin' blowout specials on cuckoo clocks."

"But why is it heaped on my bed?"

"Because Bernice told a few people you were such a dandy escort, you were gonna take care a shippin' her cuckoos back home for her. Word got around, and everyone decided you might's well take care a their cuckoos, too. I don't s'pose there's any chance you could jam all these packages in with Andy, is there?"

"Not unless they send him home in a UPS truck." I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping that when I opened them again, the packages would disappear and this would prove to be a bad dream. I opened one eye, then the other. Nope. Still there. "What am I supposed to do with all this stuff?"

"You might wanna think about movin' everything off your bed so's you'll have a place to sleep tonight."

I slumped into a chair. I looked at the cuckoos on my bed. I looked at the cuckoos on the floor. I wasn't a math whiz, but given the small area of the room, when we transferred what was on my bed to the floor, we'd be fresh out of floor space. "Do you suppose anyone would notice if I strangled Bernice?"