“Do you have any future plans?”

“Take a long vacation. Then who knows? The hotel business isn’t so hot right now, but like everything, it cycles. Maybe by the time I start looking, opportunities will present themselves.” Grace gave a practiced smile. “You’re not here to listen to my issues. How can I help you?”

“We’re looking for one of your guests.”

“Ms. McLaughlin. Someone called here yesterday to ask about her.”

“That would be me,” Eliza said.

“I’ve thought about it. I haven’t seen her since maybe the middle of last week.”

Eliza said, “That would be around Wednesday?”

The phone rang. Grace held up a finger, answered the call, and transferred it to the dining room. “Wednesday…maybe Thursday.”

“And you didn’t see her over the weekend?”

“I didn’t work the weekend.”

Eliza went through her notes. “That was Harvey Dulapp and Sara Littlejohn. They didn’t see Terry that Sunday, but we know she was here.”

Decker said, “I was told that Ms. McLaughlin was a very friendly person. Did she ever drop in just to say hello?”

“Not just to shoot the breeze,” Grace said. “If she dropped in, it was to collect her mail or pick up her messages. Um…I remember a few weeks ago, there was a maintenance issue with her toilet. She came in personally to tell us about it. And she was very friendly.”

“Do you know who serviced her toilet?”

Grace smiled. “Is that important?”

“Anyone who went in and out of her suite is important to us,” Decker told her.

“I’ll call maintenance and see if they have a record of who answered the service call. I must tell you that they’re down to a skeleton crew. If something breaks, we’ve been given the orders to transfer the guest into another room and just black out that problematic room.”

“Did they move Ms. McLaughlin to an upgraded suite?” Eliza asked.

“No, she was in a premium unit. They had to fix her toilet. All I’m saying—” The phone rang. “Excuse me.”

Grace was several minutes on the phone. When she came back, she gave the detectives a weary look. “Vis-à-vis our conversation, one of the TVs isn’t working. I have to find another room for this guest. Excuse me, what did you want again?”

“The names of anyone who went in and out Ms. McLaughlin’s suite.”

“You mean the maintenance people.”

Decker said, “Maintenance, housekeeping, room service. It might be easier if you gave me a list of employees. That way Detective Slaughter and I can go through them and check them off one by one.”

“I’m sorry, Lieutenant, I can’t give you that. You’d have to talk to someone in senior management. Besides, so many of our employees have already left.”