Authors: Adrienne Giordano
He
still
hadn’t gone home. Even after she’d nagged him about taking better care of himself. His normal sagging eyes drooped heavily and she wondered just how much sleep this man—the heart-attack-waiting-to-happen—got.
Maneuvering around the two uniformed cops and three Fortuna security people, Don beelined straight for her.
“You alright?”
“I’m fine.” She pointed at the offending image of the bloody handprint still sitting on the desk. “I got here and found it. The PD has a crime scene tech on the way, but he’s county so we’re waiting. Why are you still here?”
“I wasn’t. They called me and I came back. I have a rental in town so I don’t have to schlep back to Vegas every night.”
Brilliant. And she’d imagine, way up here, rentals were reasonable. “That’s smart.”
“With the hours we work? Bet your ass.”
He did a quick survey of the room. “Anything else out of place or missing?”
“Nothing.”
“Breach points?”
She’d checked them all. The huge sliding door leading to the balcony, the ceiling and adjoining room’s door, anywhere someone could get in. Nothing.
“All clear. Whoever entered, got in through the door.”
“Good. Whoever the son of a bitch is, we’ll have him on video. Did you see anyone when you came back to the room?”
“Just a couple. They left the elevator and went to the opposite hallway.”
“You’re sure? Whoever this is, could be watching you. Have you noticed anyone creeping around?”
“No.”
The word came out sharper than intended and Don’s head snapped back. Her irritation though was aimed at herself. Her own fault for being distracted with Ross. Even if someone had been skulking around, she wouldn’t have seen them.
Nope. She was too busy being a lovestruck, flighty female.
“All right,” Don said. “Don’t get ornery. We’ll have video shortly.”
Above the soft chatter of the men, Don’s phone blared. The theme from
Mission Impossible
? Seriously? Despite herself, she laughed. “You are a trip, Don Sickler.”
“I like
Mission Impossible
. Sue me.” He lifted the phone. “Whatcha got?…Okay.” He ended the call and poked the screen. “Here we go. Look.”
She huddled up next to him and waited for the video to download.
“Hi.”
And
fabulous. When the heck did Ross show up? She turned and, yep, there he was, still in his suit but missing his tie. The top button of his shirt was undone, a few wisps of dark hair curling over the V where the shirt parted. Something in her brain snapped.
Damn
. Even with all this going on she itched to run her hands over that little bit of exposed skin. She imagined this man, with the way he filled out a suit, would make any sculptor delirious.
“Hi,” she said.
Don held the phone up. “Video.”
He joined them and for ten seconds, all the video revealed was an empty hallway. Four seconds later, someone entered the shot. From the size of the build—thin but tall with hunched shoulders—the person looked male. He wore a hoodie that covered his hair and he tipped his head down giving only a glimpse of the very tip of his nose and the top of the hoodie.
Without checking the hallway for bystanders, he stopped at her door, swiped a card key against the pad and entered the room.
Voila. Just like that, he was in. Flawlessly done. If anyone
had
been in the hallway, no one would have paid him any mind. He simply looked like a man entering his room. Total pro.
“Whoa,” Ross said.
Don shook his head. “Shit.”
“Lovely,” Kate said.
Ross held up his hands. “We got this. We’ll see who made a duplicate key. Everything is in the system. If one of those clerks takes a bathroom break, we know about it.”
Don continued watching the video but waggled his free hand at Ross. “Look it up on your phone.”
Sixty seconds later, Ross had his answer. “Denise Bowles keyed the room at 11:32 PM. She’s on the 11-7 shift and still here.”
“Good,” Don said. “Let’s see what the hell she’s doing giving out a guest’s room key.”
* * *
Ross stepped off the elevator wondering how the hell a night could turn to shit so fast. He’d left Kate at her door, smiling at him and making him think that maybe all of his friends who were settling down hadn’t gone completely off their rockers. Minutes later, he gets a call from one of his shift supervisors telling him Lowville PD and hotel security were on their way to Kate’s room.
All the while he’d stood outside her damned door, staring into those green eyes and convincing himself not to attempt to get laid, a bloody handprint sat on her desk. What it meant, he didn’t know, but he’d find out.
And it started with the front desk clerk who’d created a duplicate key.
He glanced at Don, doing his best to keep pace. Ross eased up and bumped Don with his elbow. “Let me do the talking. You’ll wind up scaring the crap out of her.”
“Maybe that’s what she needs. She gave a fucking room key to a stranger. What if the guy was a murderer. Or how about a rapist?”
Visions of that hooded guy pounding himself into Kate’s body dried up every ounce of spit in Ross’s mouth. Damn, what if Kate had been in that room when the guy showed up?
Ross jerked his hand up. “I get it. I’m still doing the talking.”
“Awright, kid, but if I don’t like the way it’s going, bets are off.”
Ross sighed. The level of tired he felt minutes ago when he arrived at his office to crash on the couch was nothing compared to this. This was total decimation of his senses.
The horseshoe shaped registration alcove lined surrounding glass walls where arriving guests enjoyed a view of a three-story waterfall. Now, in the dead of night, a blue spotlight that had been there since the grand opening illuminated the water and gave it an eerie hue. During the day? Beautiful. In the middle of the night? Creepy.
He’d have to talk to Samuels about changing that blue light to something lacking a creep factor.
Two guests stood at the far right counter, their carry-ons beside them as they checked in. Even at this hour, guests came and went.
Not as familiar with the hotel staff, Ross scanned the two women and man working the desk. One of the women glanced up from her computer and immediately straightened. “Hello, Mr. Cooper.”
He nodded, gave her the easy smile that had gotten him three promotions in as many years and checked her nametag. “Hello, Millie. Is Denise around?”
Millie shifted to the woman two terminals down. “Yes. That’s Denise.”
“Terrific. Thank you.”
Don angled around Ross, who in two steps had passed him. The old man better not go rogue after he’d agreed to let Ross handle it. “I’ve got this,” Ross muttered.
“I know. Don’t screw it up.”
On their approach, Denise’s warm, lightning quick smile showed no sign of impending trouble. If she knew she was busted for giving out that key, she was one hell of an actress.
“Hello, Mr. Cooper. Mr. Sickler. May I help you with something?”
Ross kept his features neutral. “Hi, Denise. At 11:32 you made a duplicate key for suite 1207.”
She nodded. “Yes, sir. Ms. Daniels’ husband lost his key.”
Ross gawked. “Her
husband
?”
“Yes, sir.”
Ignoring Ross’s edict to let him handle this, Don rolled one hand. “What husband? She’s not married.”
Denise’s welcoming smile dropped like a brick in a free fall. Her gaze darted from Ross to Don and back. “I’m sorry?”
“She’s not married,” Don repeated.
“I don’t understand. He said—”
“Did you check his ID?”
Denise cupped one hand over her forehead and her skin flushed.
Dammit
. She hadn’t ID’d him. Ross locked his jaw. If there’d been one thing they pounded, literally drilled into employees’ heads, it was that no one gets access to guest rooms without permission from the guest and ID.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “He told us Ms. Daniels had his wallet. But we called her to verify that. He gave us her cell number since there wasn’t one on file. She confirmed she had his wallet and that we should let him in.”
What the hell? Ross rubbed one hand across his cheek. “Okay, Denise. Let’s take a second here. Are you sure we’re talking about the same room? Could there be another room you rekeyed and you’re mixing them up?”
“No, sir. He came to the desk right after I started my shift.” She tapped at the computer keyboard. “Yes. Here it is. I rekeyed it at 11:32. Daniels. Joe Daniels. I noted it right here.”
Call or not, the woman shouldn’t have given the key out without an ID. “And Ms.
Daniels
said you could give her husband a key?”
“According to the notes in the folio. It says Ms. Daniels called the desk and said it was okay to give her husband, Joe, a key.” She gestured to the other female clerk. “Millie spoke with her.”
“I did,” Millie said. “I noted it in the system.”
Denise held out her hands. “When he didn’t have ID we called her to check.”
“And this Joe Daniels gave you her number?”
“Yes.”
“What happened? Is something wrong?”
Again, Ross looked at Don. Something was definitely wrong.
Don punched at the screen of his phone. “I’m on it. Let’s see who this guy is.”
“Ladies,” Ross said, “we can’t give you more information. Not yet. Going forward, no one gets a key without ID. If the person gets belligerent, feel free to kick it up to your manager. Or to me and I’ll take care of it. Now, we need to rekey Ms. Daniels’ room. Immediately.”
“Yes, sir.”
Don waggled his phone. “I got video.”
He zoomed in on the screen where a guy, roughly thirty, wearing slacks and a sport coat stood at the desk. Blond hair. Wide build.
And definitely not the hoodie-wearing guy who’d entered Kate’s room.
Don paused the video and showed it to Denise. “This him?”
“Yes. That’s him.”
“Okay,” Ross said. “Now we figure out where he went.”
A minute later, Denise handed him two new keys. “Thank you. We’ll let you know if we need anything else.”
Ross and Don angled around the thinning crowd at poker and made their way through the casino to the elevator banks. “I don’t know what the hell’s going on here.”
“Other than Kate doesn’t have a husband?”
“How do you know?”
“What?”
“That there’s no husband. Did you check that?”
“Damn straight, I did. You think I’m going to give her access to my system without checking her out. I don’t give a shit if Samuels hired her. It’s my ass on the line. She’s not married. Never has been. Guess you never bothered to ask when you were trying to get up her skirt.”
The elevator opened and Ross stepped on, punched the button for Kate’s floor. “Screw off.”
The doors slid closed, leaving Don and Ross alone in the car. Ross slouched back against the wall and Don faced him, got right up in his grill. “Get your head together. What we have is an unknown female pretending to be Kate instructing our staff to give her husband a room key. Enter Kate’s imaginary husband who gives our employee fake Kate’s phone number. If this guy’s a pro, it’s a no-brainer.”
Ross knew this. Professional thieves often targeted hotels, pulling similar scams to access wealthy guest’s rooms. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the desk clerks did nothing but try to accommodate a guest in distress, but the hotel wound up losing its ass in a lawsuit.
In this case, not only had the scam worked, he and Don had failed to protect their guest. Even if that guest was on their payroll, they still had to provide for her safety.
In short, they’d failed.
Miserably.
Work the problem.
He jerked his head. “Let’s talk to Kate and figure out why someone followed her here and pretended to be her husband to get access to her room.”
Don’s cell rang and he ripped it from his belt. “I can’t get five minutes tonight.” He stabbed at the screen and brought the phone to his ear. “What?…When?…I’ll be up.” He ended the call.
“What is it?”
“Suspicious activity, table 10. They need my eyes.”
The elevator eased to a stop and the doors slid open for Ross. “Go. I’ll talk to Kate and call you. Send me that video and I’ll show it to her. Have someone track this guy. Every place he went after he left the desk.”
God knew, with the number of cameras they had, they could backtrack and trail a person through the entire building.
With any luck, they might find this guy yet tonight.
* * *
Three quick knocks landed on her door and Kate checked the peephole.
Ross.
Hopefully with information on who the guy was who’d let himself into her room.
She opened the door and Ross stormed by her, his demeanor tense. Stiff. Whatever had gone on downstairs didn’t make him happy. He tossed two key cards on the desk. “I had the room rekeyed. We could move you if you’re not comfortable.”