“Who has the combination to the safe?” Nancy asked Zoe.
“Just my father and me,” Zoe answered.
“Do you remember who opened the safe last?”
Zoe frowned. “Not really. Things were so hectic today, with that British tour group checking out and a few families checking in. I must have gone into the safe nearly a dozen times myself. But it’s not like Papa—or me—to forget and leave it unlocked.”
She returned to the inventory with grim determination. “Let’s see if anything else is missing,” she said.
“A diamond necklace!” Bess remarked as a glittering necklace spilled out of one envelope.
“We’ve come across a lot of cash, too,” George added. “It’s hard to believe that a thief would leave all this behind.”
Good point, Nancy thought, checking the area around the safe. A shelf of ledgers seemed undisturbed, as did the wooden file cabinet beside the safe. It looked as if whoever had opened the safe and stolen Bess’s passport knew exactly where to look for it. And it wouldn’t be hard for a staff member to watch Zoe or her father open the safe and remember the combination.
“Who uses this room?” Nancy asked Zoe.
“My father uses it as an office. And sometimes the desk clerks and the cleaning staff come in here,” Zoe explained. “They need extra keys from the board when there aren’t enough master keys to go around.”
Nancy immediately thought of Niki Christofouros. Since she was one of the hotel’s maids, no one would question her appearance in the office. And the girls had caught her going through Bess’s luggage. What if Niki had been trying to steal Bess’s passport? Once she saw that it wasn’t in the room, maybe she had looked in the hotel safe. The question was, why would she do such a thing?
Nancy decided not to say anything about Niki for the moment. She didn’t want to implicate the girl without solid evidence, since Niki could lose her job over this. Just to be safe, though, Nancy suggested that Zoe question the entire hotel staff. In the meantime, Nancy would do some of her own checking on Niki.
“Oh, no! Not another one,” Bess groaned a few minutes later. She held up an envelope marked Leo Nelson. “His passport is missing, too,” she told Zoe.
George was frowning into another envelope. “Make that three missing passports,” she said. “Joseph Seidel’s isn’t in his envelope.”
Zoe circled the two names on her inventory sheet. “Two American men—and Bess,” she said wearily.
Luckily, the remaining envelopes contained everything they were supposed to. When the girls were finished, Zoe pushed away the list and leaned back in the desk chair. “So three passports were stolen in all. I can’t believe this is happening. It’s not good for the hotel. If word gets out, we’ll lose customers.”
“Not to mention the fact that three passports are now in the hands of strangers,” George said.
Bess drew her breath in sharply. “I don’t like the idea of someone using my passport illegally,” she said in a shaky voice.
“You’ll need to get a new one,” George advised her.
Leaning over, Zoe squeezed Bess’s hand. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “The police will know the best way to report it to your embassy.”
Just then a tall, husky man with salt-and-pepper hair walked into the room. He assessed the scene, a bewildered expression on his face, then addressed Zoe in rapid-fire Greek. She answered, nodding at Nancy, Bess, and George as she talked.
“This is my father, Kostas Kavalis,” Zoe said, introducing the man to Nancy, Bess, and George.
Mr. Kavalis gave each of the girls a hearty handshake. “I’m very sorry about your passport, Bess. I will report it to the police immediately.” He glanced back at Zoe’s list and frowned. “I must notify those two American men, too.”
Shaking his head, Zoe’s father went into the front office to call the police.
Nancy sat down on the edge of the desk and mulled over the situation. Three passports had been taken, but dozens of others had been left behind. The thief hadn’t touched any of the cash or jewels, either. It didn’t make sense.