Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief

The next morning, Sammy returns to Grams’s apartment, but her grandmother is nowhere to be found. The girl grows anxious because Grams has never been away like this, and she begins to imagine the hotel thief “tying Grams up and stuffing her in the closet” (79). She feels silly when the closet is empty, but her worries persist. She vacuums the whole apartment to vent some of her nervous energy. While she cleans, she reasons that Grams is likely safe unless she was gone all night. She finds her dishes from breakfast in the dishwasher and notes that her toothbrush is still wet. Sammy finds a tissue that Grams used to blot her lipstick. This puzzles her because her grandmother only wears lipstick on special occasions, and she doesn’t know where she could have gone.

Grams still hasn’t returned by the time that Sammy finishes cleaning the kitchen, so she goes to Maynard’s Market to buy some chewing gum to put in the door to the fourth floor. Maynard’s son, T.J., is the only person in the store, and Sammy overhears him having an urgent phone conversation with an options broker about a failed investment: “I borrowed [the money] from my old man. I’ve got to make it back by the end of the week or I’m out of a job, out of a home, out of…” (81). T.J. spots Sammy and scolds her.

Next, Sammy goes to Madame Nashira’s House of Astrology, where she finds Gina working intently with a book and a calculator. The woman has lost track of time because the thief stole her watch, which is decorated with suns and moons. Gina discerns that Sammy is worried that the thief saw her, and the girl admits that she knows he did because she waved to him. To distract her from her worries, Gina offers to make her birth chart. She explains how knowing people’s precise time and place of birth allows her to provide insights into their personalities and health. She also suggests that Sammy try using her binoculars for stargazing. Gina mentions that the mall’s roof is a good place for this and can be accessed through the “Employees Only” doors.

Sammy retrieves her binoculars from the apartment, leaves a note for Grams, and goes to the mall. She sneaks into the maze of corridors behind an Employees Only door and runs into Brandon. She explains that she’s not in school because she was suspended for punching someone, and he comments that the person probably deserved it and gives her directions to the roof. Sammy takes in the view from her new vantage point and sees “Oscar, sitting on a planter by himself in the shade of a big tree, cleaning his glasses with a hanky” (91). When she looks at Graham’s house, she’s astonished to see him drinking iced tea and laughing with Grams. Her concern gives way to anger as she wonders if her grandmother is trying to teach her a lesson about vanishing and making people worry.

Back at the apartment, Grams explains that she wanted to get to know Graham because Sammy spends so much time with him, and she calls the man a flirt. Sammy keeps her word and explains everything about the hotel robbery to Grams. When she recounts talking to Officer Borsch at the Heavenly Hotel, Grams forbids her from ever returning to the hotel because it’s “no place for a girl [her] age” (94). Just then, Officer Borsch rings the doorbell, and Sammy hides in the closet. The officer has come in response to the threatening note that Mrs. Graybill received, and he mockingly suggests that Sammy’s recent actions are cries for attention. Sammy feels a swell of gratitude and triumph when Grams maintains the story that the girl lives in East Jasmine. Her excitement turns to horror when something brushes her shoulder.

Dorito lunges at Sammy, topples a pile of shoe boxes onto her, and bursts out of the closet. Grams quickly closes the closet door so that the officer will not notice her granddaughter. Sammy chafes as she thinks about how Officer Borsch, Vice Principal Caan, and Mrs. Graybill all think that she’s a liar. She’s determined to vindicate herself, and she senses that she already knows the information she needs to determine the thief’s identity.

That night, Marissa calls Sammy and tells her that she broke Heather’s nose. When one of Heather’s friends tried to guilt Marissa into giving her money, she retorted that “anyone who pricked [her best friend] in the butt with a pin deserved to have her nose broken” (99). Sammy tells Marissa about her visit to Madame Nashira’s House of Astrology, her trip to the mall’s roof, and Officer Borsch’s visit to Grams’s apartment. Marissa suggests that they investigate the Heavenly Hotel, and Sammy agrees to go there with her later that evening even though she knows that her grandmother would never approve.

At the hotel, the girls try to sneak upstairs while the manager at the front desk is talking to a blond man with a goatee. The manager spots the girls and tells them to leave, but he relents when Sammy claims that they’re there to see Gina. The woman is staying in the same dingy room that was robbed, although the doorknob has been replaced because the thief used a tool to break off the old one. Gina was in the shower at the time of the burglary. None of the other rooms were robbed, so Sammy asks Gina if anyone knew about the money. The only person she told was her friend Candi, whom she trusts completely, but someone may have overheard them talking by the corner store. Sammy suggests that T.J. might be responsible because of his recent money troubles, but Gina thinks that he lacks the initiative for such an undertaking. Suddenly, Sammy realizes that the desk manager, André, should have seen the thief enter the building unless they live at the hotel. Gina appreciates the girls’ concern and decides to follow up with the police. On their way out of the hotel, Sammy sees that the door to the fire escape has been jammed with a napkin to prevent it from locking. Written on the napkin are the letters “HH” and the number 423, which is Gina’s room number.

Sammy and Marissa realize that the note in the hotel door and the note that Mrs. Graybill received were both written on the napkins that accompany Double Dynamo ice cream cones. They hurry down the fire escape and climb over a chain-link fence. Sammy wants to go to the police station, but Marissa refuses because she ripped the seat of her pants on the fence. Sammy sees some tire tracks near the fence, but the trail quickly vanishes. Gina contacts Officer Borsch and berates him for missing the clues that Sammy found. When the officer exits the hotel, Sammy shows him the napkin and suggests that he compare this handwriting to the handwriting on the note that Mrs. Graybill received. Borsch accuses Sammy of manufacturing evidence to distract the police from her threat to the elderly woman and declares, “Of course the handwritings are going to match. They’re both yours!” (116). Marissa tries to come to her friend’s defense, but Borsch ignores her. The officer gives Sammy a stern warning to stay out of the investigation and drives away. Sammy has a sinking feeling that he’ll blame her for the robbery unless she can identify the thief.