Obviously, Inez had removed the knife from his back and staunched the flow of blood, then retrieved a couple of bags for him, but where was she now? In her bed was his guess. She’d been exhausted and beginning to flag before they’d reached the small bevy of restaurants and bars where he’d had her sit at one of the tables to watch the entrances while he checked inside each.
Sighing, Thomas pulled the second, now empty, bag from his mouth and got carefully to his feet. There was only the slightest twinge from his back, telling him it was mostly healed. And the acidy cramps that had been attacking him from head to toe were much eased by the two bags, but he’d probably need another couple of bags at least before they were gone entirely. Moving to the cooler on the table, he retrieved a third bag and popped it to his teeth and then stood there with another bag in hand as he waited for this one to drain. He was about to switch bags when the hotel room phone began to ring.
Recalling that a phone’s ringing was what had woken him, Thomas tore the empty bag from his teeth and moved to the end table beside the sofa to answer it before it woke Inez.
“Thomas!” Herb sounded relieved to hear his voice. “I was getting worried. I couldn’t reach you on your cell phone or Inez’s and was beginning to think the two of you had disappeared right alongside your aunt.”
“No,” Thomas assured him quietly and reached into his pocket for his cell phone, only to find that it was missing from his pocket. Startled, he felt each of his pockets in turn, wondering if he’d put it in one of the others, but there was no phone.
“Obviously you aren’t at the park anymore. Did you find your aunt there?”
Thomas gave up looking for his phone and straightened, confusion flowing through him. “The park?”
“I checked a map, the location I sent you both to after the Escape night club should have been a park,” Herb explained. “Did you go to the wrong place? Maybe Inez misheard what I said. It sounded like it was noisy where you were.”
Thomas stood still for a minute and then barked, “Hang on.”#p#分页标题#e#
Setting the phone down on the end table, he turned and strode into Inez’s room. He didn’t bother to turn on the lights, his night vision was exceptional and he could see the bed was still made and unslept in. Cursing, Thomas whirled to hurry out of the room, but froze as the bedroom door leading out into the hotel hall suddenly opened. Pausing, he glanced to the door. His breath came out on a sigh of relief as he recognized Inez’s petite figure stepping inside, then the door closed again. Thomas immediately moved to flip on the light switch in the room. Light exploded around them as he turned to peer at Inez, and then he saw her face and froze. It was completely blank, no expression at all and her eyes were empty.
“Inez?” he said, approaching her carefully.
She didn’t respond to either his presence or his voice until he was standing directly in front of her and then she simply moved around him, saying expressionlessly, “I’m very tired and have to go to bed now.”
Thomas turned slowly and watched her walk to the bed. She immediately began to strip, apparently uncaring that he was there. He watched her undo and shrug out of her blouse, but then turned and left the room, his expression grim with concern as he returned to the living room and picked up the phone again.
“Herb, tell me everything that you know after I called you from the restaurants,” he said grimly.
There was a moment of silence and then Herb said, “But you know what happened. I gave you the next location. It turned out to be a night club called Escape and—”
“You told me? Or you told Inez?” he asked quietly.
“Well, Inez. You were in the bathroom or something,” Herb said and then fell silent for a moment before saying, “You weren’t in the bathroom were you?”
“No. I was here at the hotel.”
“But you didn’t answer the first time I called. What—?”
“It doesn’t matter now,” Thomas interrupted grimly. “Just tell me what happened.”
Herb explained about the Escape club and then sending Inez to the next spot in the park, ending with, “I checked the location again while she was on the way there, thinking that if your aunt had moved on again, we should call it a night and try at sunrise when she should stay in one spot, but it came back as the same location. However, when I tried to call you back on Inez’s phone to tell you that, she didn’t answer. So, I tried your phone again, and then I thought to try the hotel.”
Thomas was silent for a moment, and then asked, “Is this your second try calling the hotel or your first?”