‘Mrs Chatwell, I’m in a difficult situation. Your husband wrote a cheque to cover his…’ There was a long hesitation before she continued. ‘… expenses. Unfortunately, it was returned. When we tried to use the credit card number he left to secure his room, it was rejected. Mr Chatwell is a good customer, we are obviously keen to get this error sorted without any problem, or delay, but we’ve been unable to contact him.’

‘He’s not in his room?’ Molly said, trying to think, but finding it a struggle to make sense of anything.

‘He was seen leaving his room before 6am, Mrs Chatwell. He hasn’t been seen since.’ There was silence for a few seconds, then in a firmer tone, the manager said, ‘In light of the returned cheque and the declined credit card, we’ve been left with no alternative. Your husband’s belongings have been packed up and are awaiting collection in our luggage room. If you would come and collect these, and settle your husband’s account, we would consider the matter closed and not involve anyone else.’

Molly took a deep breath before saying as calmly as she could. ‘I can settle the account now with my credit card.’

‘I’m afraid we will need you to attend in person, Mrs Chatwell, to sign for his belongings.’

‘Fine,’ she said, letting her frustration show in the one blunt word. She thought about the car. ‘My car is in your car park; my husband was supposed to arrange for the clamp to be removed. I don’t suppose you know if that’s been done.’

‘Ah,’ the manager said, ‘did you park it in front of the maintenance door?’

Molly wanted to say she was desperate, that she’d been injured, that she was, in fact, fast approaching the end of her tether. She settled for, ‘Yes, I’m afraid I did.’

The manager sounded genuinely sympathetic. ‘Unfortunately, it was necessary to have your car towed. The maintenance team needed access to that doorway.’

‘Of course, I understand,’ Molly said, squeezing her eyes shut. ‘I’ll have to sort that out later.’ Once more, she was left with no choice. ‘I’ll be there as soon as I can.’

‘Thank you, it makes it so much easier; we don’t like to involve the police unless we have to.’

Molly gave an uncertain laugh. ‘The police! For non-payment of a hotel bill. Surely that’s a bit excessive. What are we talking about, a few hundred?’

‘Ah, I’m sorry, Mrs Chatwell, you don’t seem to understand. It isn’t only the hotel room, it’s also his casino debts.’

Molly felt her heart skip a beat. ‘How much?’

‘Just under seven.’