But so far, my attempts to retrain myself had not been successful, and I suspected that the most important factor in falling safely was having a laid-back temperament. I’d never qualify.
Think positively, I told myself.
“Where do you have the key card?” I asked Caroline.
“In my right pocket,” she said. “But I don’t dare let go to fish it out.”
At least it was in the pocket on my side. I managed to lean over and fish out the room key card. I also snagged her cell phone and put it on the dirt in the geranium pot, where she might have a chance of reaching it if she needed it. Then I began carefully climbing over the rail.
“What are you doing?” Caroline asked.
“I’m going to use my ninja training to jump down and land lightly on the loading dock,” I said. “And then I go around to the front of the hotel, walk in like someone who knows she has a perfect right to be here, and hurry back up to the room so I can unlock the sliding glass door from the inside.”
“Use your ninja super-speed while you’re at it, dearie,” Caroline said.
“I’ll try.” By this time, I was dangling from the bottom of the railing, arms stretched as far as they would go. The gap between my feet and the concrete seemed to be at least the length of a football field, Maybe two football fields. “If by some chance I kill myself, is there any chance you could manage to call 911? Just tell them to come and pick up the dead ninja on the loading dock.”
“I’ll tell them two dead ninjas,” Caroline said. “Because if you go splat, I don’t think I can hold on until they get here.”
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and let go.
Chapter 28
“Meg? Are you all right? Speak to me!”
Easier said than done. I’d dropped and rolled with beautiful form—my old martial arts teacher would have been proud of me. Unfortunately, while rolling, I’d managed to hit my solar plexus on something—probably my own knee—and I didn’t have enough breath to answer her. And her back was to me, and she couldn’t turn around without falling off the ledge.
“I’m fine,” I croaked.
Apparently she didn’t hear me.
“Help! Help!” she began shouting.
“Ssshhh,” I hissed, as loudly as I could. The hissing sound carried only slightly better than my feeble croaks.
“Meg?”
I was near a garbage can. I tapped out “shave and a haircut—two bits” on it with one foot.
“Lost your breath?”
I kicked the can twice. Then I staggered to my feet.
“Fetching help!” I wheezed. I checked the loading dock doors, but unfortunately they were all locked, so I stumbled off to circumnavigate the hotel.
By the time I reached the front door, I’d gotten my wind back, and my stomach had mostly stopped hurting. I nodded graciously to the doorman as he let me in. If he was puzzled that he’d now let me into the hotel twice without letting me out in between, his calm face didn’t show it.
The two businessmen were still by the fireplace—or two others remarkably like them had taken their place. Leonard Fisher was sitting at a table in the lobby bar with a glass and a Perrier bottle on his table, reading some papers. I wasn’t sure my imitation of someone with a good reason to be at the Inn would hold up nearly as well if I had to talk to him, so I was relieved when I made it through the lobby without attracting his notice. I picked up the pace once I got into the corridor to the Annex, ran up the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator, and sprinted down the hall to 212.
“What took you so damn long?” Caroline said when I opened the sliding glass door.
“Nice to see you, too,” I said.
It took a while to get her inside the room. I finally leaned out and grabbed the back of her blouse and the waist of her pants so I could haul her in.
“Just stop gripping the railing,” I ordered. “I’ve got you now.”
“I’m not sure I can,” she said. “I think my hands are paralyzed.”
“Hurry up, or I’m going to lose my grip on you.”
That worked. She let go so suddenly that we both landed in a heap on the floor inside the door. I managed to roll out from under her and lay back on the floor panting.
“Okay, they’re not paralyzed, but they have gone numb from holding on so tightly,” she said, grimacing as she slowly flexed her fingers. “And I’m dehydrated as hell. I’ll be lucky if I don’t have heatstroke.”
“You want me to call Dad?” I said. “I could take you over to have him look at you.”
“Maybe later,” she said. “Follow me.”