I was expecting her to lead the way to our next burglary target, but she charted an unerring course to the lobby bar. Leonard Fisher was still there, nursing his Perrier. We nodded at each other. Caroline and I took a table as far from him as possible, and a waiter scurried up.
“How may I help you, ladies?” he asked.
“A pitcher of water,” I said.
“I’ll have a martini,” Caroline gasped.
“If you really are worried about dehydration, you should have some water,” I said.
“Make it a double,” Caroline said. “And a pitcher of water for me, too.”
“Good,” I said. “And you should drink the water first.”
“Drink it?” Caroline snorted. “I plan to pour it over my head.”
The waiter bowed and disappeared.
“I don’t think I can go on,” Caroline said.
“Of course you can.” I wanted to ask “Go on with what?” Surely our adventure hadn’t soured her on life.
“No, I can’t. We’ll have to finish this another day.”
I was relieved. Apparently she was only giving up on today’s plans. I glanced at my watch. Almost noon. Amazing how time-consuming a life of crime could be.
“That’s okay,” I said. “I think we got the most important burgling done. I doubt if the Evil Lender’s execs keep many sensitive documents in their rooms.”
The waiter returned. He set Caroline’s martini in front of her, and put a pitcher of ice water and a tumbler of ice on my side of the table. Then he set a second pitcher, this one without ice, at Caroline’s elbow, along with a thick white bath towel, a matching washcloth, and a large porcelain bowl. Then he bowed and slipped away. Much as I railed against the Inn’s inflated prices, I couldn’t fault their notion of service.
“Ahhh.” Caroline took a large sip of her martini—actually more like a gulp—and sat back in her chair.
“I think he overheard you,” I said. “And took you seriously about dunking yourself.”
“I may yet,” she said. “You’re probably right—burgling anyone else would be useless as well. Denton was our best chance of learning something, and that was a complete bust.”
“What do you mean a bust?” I asked. “We may not have found any interesting papers, but we did learn something. Or were you too busy hanging on to eavesdrop on Fisher?”
“I might have been a little distracted,” she said. “Remind me.”
I glanced over at Fisher. It seemed doubly odd to be sitting across the bar from him, discussing a conversation we’d overheard because his burglary coincided with ours. I repeated what he’d said.
“So they were looking for something they thought Denton might have,” she said. “Same as we were.”
“Only ours was a random fishing expedition,” I pointed out. “And they seemed to have something very specific in mind. They’re looking for the original of some document that would cause them problems if we showed up in court with it.”
“Doesn’t help us much, does it,” she said. She poured a little of the water from her pitcher onto the washcloth and began patting her face and the back of her neck with it. “Should we tell the chief?”
“It might be a little hard to explain how we happened to hear it,” I said. “Besides, all we know is that they’re looking for the original of a document. We have no idea what document.”
“We could call your cousin,” Caroline said. “Festus,” she added, before I pointed out that I had enough cousins to populate a small city. “Isn’t he still handling all of Caerphilly’s battles with the Evil Lender?”
“Yes,” I said. “Do you want to ask him to represent us when we’re arrested for burglary?”
“We could ask him what kind of document would totally upset their applecart if we produced it in court.”
I nodded, already pulling out my cell phone.
I got Festus’s voice mail. At least a dozen times, Festus had reminded me and everyone else who would listen to him never to say anything in a voice mail or an e-mail that we wouldn’t want to see on the front page of The Washington Post. So I left a cryptic message suggesting that we had some new thoughts on the case, and could he call me as soon as he got a chance.
“We should be going,” I said, as I pocketed my phone again.
“Fine,” she said, taking another strong pull on the martini. Another swallow and she’d have it finished. “I’ll settle the bill if you bring the van around. I’m not sure I can walk with all this heat.”