Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [515]
CHAPTER 29
It was late by the time Maggie got to the Ramada Plaza Hotel. She started to feel the exhaustion of the day. A tight knot throbbed between her shoulder blades. Her eyes begged for sleep. And she wondered if her mind was playing tricks on her. In the parking lot, while she unloaded her bags, she felt someone watching her. She had looked around but saw no one.
As she waited for the desk clerk—or rather, according to Cindy’s plastic clip-on badge, “desk clerk in training”—Maggie tried to decide what she’d tell Gwen. After everything that had happened today, she wasn’t any closer to knowing where Joan Begley was. For all she knew the woman was still here at the Ramada Plaza Hotel, lying low and simply escaping.
Maggie watched the desk clerk as she plugged in her credit card information. Hotel policy wouldn’t allow them to give out Joan’s room number. And Maggie didn’t want to draw attention to herself or cause alarm by whipping out her FBI badge. So instead she said, “A friend of mine is staying here, too. Could I leave a note for her?”
“Sure,” Cindy said, and handed her a pen, folded note card and envelope with the hotel’s emblem.
Maggie jotted down her name and cell phone number, slipped the card into the envelope, tucked in the flap and wrote “Joan Begley” on the outside. She handed it to Cindy, who glanced at the name, checked the computer and then scratched some numbers under the name before putting it aside.
“Here’s your key card, Ms. O’Dell. Your room number is written on the inside flap. The elevators are around the corner and to your right. Would you like some help with your luggage?”
“No thanks, I’ve got them.” She slung her garment bag’s strap over her shoulder and picked up her computer case, taking several steps before turning back. “Oh, you know what? I forgot to tell my friend what time we’re supposed to meet tomorrow. Could I just jot it down quickly?”
“Oh, sure,” Cindy said, grabbing the note and sliding it across the counter to Maggie.
She opened the envelope and pretended to write down a time before slipping the card back in, this time sealing the envelope and handing it back to Cindy. “Thanks so much.”
“No problem.” And Cindy put the card aside, not realizing she had just shown Maggie Joan Begley’s room number.
Maggie threw her bags onto the bed in her own room. She kicked off her shoes, took off her jacket and untucked her blouse. Then she found the ice bucket, grabbed her key card and headed up to room 624. As soon as she got off the elevator, she stopped at the ice machine to fill the plastic bucket, and she padded down the hall in stocking feet to find Joan’s room. Then she waited.
She popped an ice cube into her mouth, only now realizing she hadn’t eaten since the sandwich at the quarry. Maybe she would order some room service. And as if by magic she heard the elevator ding from around the corner. Sure enough a young man clad in white jacket and black trousers with a tray lifted over his head turned the corner, walking away from her to deliver to the room at the far corner. She waited until he came back and saw her, before she slipped her key card into the slot.
“Darn it,” she said loud enough for him to hear.
“Is there a problem, miss?”
“I can’t get this key card to work again. This is the second time tonight.”
“Let me try.”
He took her card and slipped it into the slot, only to get the same red-dotted results. He tried again, sliding it slower. “You’ll probably need to have them give you a new card down at the front desk.”
“Look, I’m beat, Ricardo,” she said, glancing at his name badge. “All I want to do is watch a little Fox News and crash. Could you let me in, so I don’t have to go all the way back down tonight?”
“Sure, hold on a minute.” He dug through his pockets and pulled out a master. In seconds he was holding the door open for her.
“Thanks so much,” she told him. She was getting good at this. She stood in the doorway and waved to him, waiting for him to round