Six

W alt, out of breath, stopped in front of 327, Fiona right behind him. “You can’t be here,” he told her.

“Yeah? Well, guess what? I am.”

A plan formed in his head. “Okay…There’s a hotel phone back by the elevator. Call room three-twenty-seven. A man’s going to answer. Say you’re housekeeping or something. But keep him holding that phone.”

“Yes, of course. Now?”

“Now.”

She ran down the hall. Walt followed her with his eyes.

He waited. And waited.

The phone started ringing on the other side of the door. Walt waited for the ringing to stop, Webb’s passkey hovering over the card slot. But it kept ringing.

Walt slipped in the card. The electronic lock’s LED showed red, not green. Webb’s card should have been the equivalent of a master key. He tried it again: red. The only explanation he could come up with was that the privacy dead bolt was thrown from the inside. He tried the next door over: 325.

Webb’s card opened it. The room was pitch-black, the blackout curtains pulled. He called out, “Hello? Minibar.” His weapon was drawn and aimed at the carpet in front of him. Switched on the lights. The room was empty. There was a connecting door, locked from this side. He worked through the pulled curtains, headed out onto the balcony, and crossed to 327. Locked, and the blackout curtains drawn there also.

He debated breaking the room’s plate glass window, but its tempered glass would explode, and that would bring the cavalry. That, in turn, would mean a confrontation with Dryer or his men, and his father’s warning remained forefront in his thought.

He returned to 325. Fiona stood in the doorway.

“You cannot be here,” he hissed.

“We’ve been over that.”

“Shut the door. Lock it, and stay right there.”

She did so.

He unlocked the dead bolt to the connecting door. Connecting doors were paired-each lockable from its respective room-and he’d prepared himself to have to break down the second of the two doors.

But it hung open a crack-unlocked.

He raised his weapon. His chest was tight; his mouth dry. He eased open the door, but his eyes weren’t adjusted and he couldn’t see a thing in the dark room. He reached down for the Maglite at his belt, and the first thing he saw as the light flooded the room was a dog kennel, its door open.

Empty.