“Hold on, I’m pulling up the audio at the desk. Shit, it’s spotty, but take a listen.”
“Police?” the woman said cautiously.
“Yes, we are searching for a murder suspect.”
“What? Here?”
“Yes. We believe she is in room ten-forty-seven.”
“The suite? You can’t be serious?”
“We’ve seen weirder things.”
“I don’t know. I should call my manager.”
“Or I can call our superior and have the entire hotel rousted out.” The man started to lift his phone.
“Can I see your IDs again?”
Both of the men flashed their wallets at her. She shook her head. “If I get in trouble for this, I’m reporting both of you.”
“You do that.” They took the card and walked away from the desk.
“Did you see any badges?”
“No.” Blake walked to the door and slipped into the hall, where he called up the elevator and stepped inside. He looked up. “Bingo.” Jumping up, he grabbed the metal crosshatcheson the ceiling and pushed a panel away, patting around for … Grabbing two credential holders, he dropped to the floor, then retreated into the room and checked on Elise before going back into the bathroom. He took a picture of both IDs and the badges.
“They look real. A fucking pro made these.” Blake examined the credentials.
“Send the credential holders to me, too. Maybe we can figure out who is making the IDs for the bastard. Oh, and Dude, I need to get into their phones. Let me tell you how to open the lock screen.”
Blake rolled his eyes. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just treat me like a moron. It would make me hate you more than I already do.”
“Why do you hate me, man?”
“It’s hereditary,” Blake murmured as he went through the process to open the phone.
“Well, at least that makes sense. I have no idea why your old man is such an asshole.”
“Sure, you do. You tried to one-up him when he gave you his normal attitude,” Blake said before reciting the first number. Then he switched to the second phone.
“And that’s a reason to hate me?”
“Fucking with his phone is the reason he hates you more than anyone else. He hates everyone. It’s easier that way.”
“You should have him tested.”
“We did, and we’re still employed. What does that tell you?” He recited the other number.
Con snorted. “That Guardian needs new shrinks, duh. Hold on.”
Blake stared out at the dark room where he’d been sleeping on the couch.
“Okay, props to the person who developed the encryption for this phone. They made me work for it. So, let’s see … Idiot Onegot a text three days ago. A picture of Elise’s passport photo and a picture of her going into a … shed, I think. Not sure where that was.”
“Antwerp,” Blake supplied for him.
“Awesome. He was told to find and eliminate her. I’m going through his texts and phone calls. Oh, lookie here. He had a phone call tonight from a newly activated cell phone registered to … yep, your little visitor from this evening. Lasted about three minutes, and I’m doing a triangulation on where junior was … Outside the hotel you’re at now.”
