Laura was feeling a lot happier by the time she came back down to the reception hall later that evening. The three hour sleep she had on the sofa refreshed her, and the belief that she’d solved the problem of Igor having some privacy with his girlfriend contributed to her ‘feel good’ factor.

     ‘How did you get on in the storeroom?’ Jenny asked as soon as she reached the desk. ‘I assumed, when I didn’t hear any screams, you didn’t come across any ghosts.’

     After flopping down in the opposite chair, Laura looked back at Jenny with a satisfied grin. ‘Great… well as good as I could hope. It's perfectly usable as a bedroom, so I thought I would give it to Igor. It seems a shame that he has to trek all the way across town at the crack of dawn every morning, especially when it’s just sitting there empty. I’m going to try and get it cleared by Friday, so I can surprise him with it after his Polish night in the restaurant.’

     Jenny raised an eyebrow. ‘But I thought he had a place at his uncle’s. Why does he need to live here?’

     There was no way Laura was going to tell Jenny about overhearing Igor’s conversation with who she believed to be his girlfriend in the dry store, or about her ungainly departure from Carl’s party. He had rescued her, and she was glad she had a means to return the favour.

     ‘He was a great help last night after the party,’ she told Jenny instead.  ‘To be honest, it would be nice to have a man about… just in case there’s anything I can’t handle.’

     Jenny hesitated before she answered. Although she thought it was a good idea with regard to Igor being ‘on hand,’ she was still concerned about what she’d been told when she first came to work at the Bedford. ‘But what if the room really is haunted?’

     ‘Well, if it is, I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.' Laura replied with a shrug. 'It didn’t feel spooky to me, and as long as we don’t tell Igor about the rumour, he won’t be looking for something I’m sure doesn’t exist. Are we the only ones who know about the ghost story?’

     Jenny thought for a moment. ‘Yes, I think so. There’s none of the original chambermaids here anymore, so there’s no one to tell tales.’

     Laura looked relieved. ‘Well, let’s keep it that way. What Igor doesn’t know won’t hurt him… Now, how’s it been this afternoon? Anything I should know about?’

    Stifling a yawn, Jenny looked back at her with bleary eyes. The truth be known, she hadn’t had much sleep the night before either. ‘No, it’s all quiet on the western front. All the new guests have checked in, and I’m ready to go. I promised Dominic I would take some of the empty bottles to the bottle bank on my way home. Our glass recycling bin is overflowing, and it doesn’t get emptied till Wednesday.’

      ‘Do you need a hand?’ Laura asked when Jenny got up and picked up four of the eight carrier bags bulging with empty bottles that Dominic had left by the desk.

     ‘What do you think?’ Jenny chuckled. ‘I just want to get home as soon as possible and crash. George’s cat woke us up again at four this morning, so I’m absolutely knackered.’

     Laura got up and grabbed the remaining four carrier bags, two in each hand. ‘I thought you’d banned the cat from the bedroom?’

     A snort of disgust escaped Jenny’s lips. ‘I did, but we could still hear it screaming through the door. The bloody thing seems to sleep all day and keep us up half the night. It’s caused so many arguments, I’m at my wit’s end.’

     As they went through the swing doors on the way to the back door in the kitchen, Laura asked Jenny if there wasn’t somewhere in her house they could put the cat where they wouldn’t hear it. Jenny shook her head.

     ‘I wish. We can’t lock him in the kitchen with Katie and Brody. We tried it once, and I came down to a sea of cat litter spread all over the floor, and paw prints all over the work surfaces. It was like world war three had broken out. We also tried locking him in the living room but, because it’s under our bedroom, we could still hear Jasper meowing through the floorboards. Honestly, Laura, I can see George and me splitting up if we don’t do something soon.’

     As she opened the back door, Laura had an idea. ‘Why don’t you leave the cat here for a few days? I’m sure we can find somewhere to put him where nobody would hear him if he starts making a racket.’

     Jenny considered the suggestion for a couple of seconds before shaking her head. ‘But where? The only place that’s not within earshot of the guests is the dry store…’

     She hesitated for a moment before turning back to Laura with an enlightened smile. ‘Having said that, I noticed a couple of mouse droppings in there when I was getting some more toilet rolls for housekeeping this afternoon. Perhaps having a cat around for a while might be a good idea.’

     Igor, who was preparing sandwiches for one of the guests, dropped his knife on the metal work surface with such a loud clatter, Laura and Jenny nearly dropped the bags of empty bottles.

     ‘You no need cat!’ he almost screeched at Jenny when he turned to face her. ‘We have trops!’

     Surprised by his reaction, Laura turned to Igor with a frown. ‘And have we caught any mice in the ‘trops’?’ she asked.

     With a dumbfounded expression parked on his face as he tried to work out what to say for the best, Igor looked as though he’d just been asked to expand on Einstein’s theory of relativity. If he said no, then they might check out the mouse traps and find out he’d sabotaged them by jamming the springs. How would he be able to explain that? No, it was better to say yes, he was sure.  ‘We cotch plenty of mice, we no need cat,’ he reiterated.

     Laura could only imagine Igor was opposed to the idea of a cat being in the dry store because of his clandestine meetings with his girlfriend. But that wouldn’t matter if he was going to move into the redundant bedroom upstairs. The problem was, she wouldn’t be able to get the room cleared for a few days, and she didn’t want to mention it to him until she did. On the basis that he might have arranged another meeting with his girlfriend during the week, she suggested Jenny bring George’s cat over on Saturday.

     Igor was nearly in tears. The possibility that Nadzia and her babies might be murdered by a cat was the last thing he’d expected…

     As they walked towards the car park, Jenny suddenly stopped in her tracks after she looked up at the rear of the building, ‘Did you leave the lights on when you checked out the storeroom?’ she asked Laura over her shoulder.

     When she looked up and saw the soft glow of the bedside lamp shining in the window, Laura’s jaw dropped open. She was certain she hadn’t turned the lamp back on after she cleaned it...