CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Cass got into the Uber with barely a wave at Ranulph and settled herself as comfortably as she could.
Soon they were crossing Hyde Park, then going up a wide street full of large houses near Paddington Station, nearly all hotels of some description. None of them looked like a place Cass would want to stay in, she was convinced.
The car finally pulled up outside a hotel with a neon sign with only half its letters lit. For a moment she considered asking the cab to drive on, but then she braced herself and got out. She said goodbye and thank you to her Uber driver, with whom she had exchanged barely a word, feeling he was her best friend in the world. Now she had to enter the building where Austin awaited her.
She pushed open the door to the hotel. There was a man on the desk who was engrossed in his mobile phone. She didn’t think she could befriend him if things got difficult. She really wished she had not been talked into the sundress without the bra. She felt practically naked, even after she had put on the cardigan and done up all the buttons.
‘I’m here for Austin Gilmour,’ she said. ‘Can you call him and tell him I’m here?’
The man glowered but picked up the phone. ‘I’ve got a woman here for you,’ he said. Cass exhaled, trying to keep calm. The man looked at her. ‘He wants you to go up. Room Nine.’
‘Sorry, can you tell him that he needs to come down here to see me? I’m not going into his room.’ She spoke firmly and with authority.
The man sighed and picked up the phone. ‘She said you have to come down here.’ He was silent for a couple of seconds and then put the phone down again. ‘He says unless you go up to his room, you won’t get what you came for.’ This time he stayed looking at her, as if trying to work out what that was.
Cass’s mouth went dry. What on earth should she do? She’d gone to a lot of trouble trying to get her father’s camera back: could she abandon it now for reasons of personal safety? Her father would definitely say yes, she should just leave, get out of there, and forget about the camera.
Memories of the day of the second hurricane flooded back to her. Thinking of the danger she’d been in then – danger that she’d had to cope with – was going into Austin’s hotel room so much worse? She couldn’t decide.
The telephone on the desk rang. The man picked it up, listened, nodded and put it down again.
‘He says if you’re not in his room in the next two minutes you can kiss goodbye to what you wanted.’ He paused. ‘He sounds angry. I’d hurry up if I were you.’
Now Cass was sweating. Things were getting worse, not better. But a fragment of the conversation she’d had with Rosa’s sister the previous night came back to her. Something about taking risks. She cleared her throat. She had decided what to do.
‘Tell him I’m on my way, please,’ she said and quickly texted Ranulph, giving the address of the hotel.
After a thumb had been jerked in the direction of what Cass had to trust was Austin’s room, she added, ‘And if I’m not out in ten minutes, I want you to call the police.’
Cass was not surprised by his look of utter disbelief, but at least she had taken this precaution.
As she walked along the dark corridor with holes in the carpet she wondered why Austin had made her meet him somewhere so vile. Was he really that short of money? It was possible, and she realised that the cash she had concealed in her bag, separate from everything else, might not be enough to get the camera back.
A couple of cockroaches scuttled along the gap between the wall and the greasy carpet as she knocked on the door.
Suddenly, Cass and Austin were standing toe to toe as he pulled it open.
‘Well, well, well, don’t you scrub up well!’ he said. ‘Last time I saw you, you looked like a drowned rat.’
‘And you know why that was,’ said Cass. ‘Hello, Austin.’
He beckoned her into the room, and she followed him, trying to make sure she was nearer the door thanhe was. Annoyingly, he was too quick for her. She put down her basket.
‘I don’t suppose you could make me a cup of coffee, could you?’ she asked. She was very conscious of him being between her and the door and this would give her a bit more space.
Not that she’d dream of drinking the coffee. This was the sort of establishment that inspired urban myths about what people did with electric kettles in hotel rooms. She hadn’t believed them before; now they all seemed possible, likely even.
Austin came over to the kettle and started searching through sachets looking for coffee.
‘This isn’t the sort of place I thought you’d stay in, Austin,’ said Cass, determined to get the upper hand. ‘It’s a bit low-rent for you.’
‘I don’t need it for long.’
‘So, you’re just going to give me the camera and I can leave?’
Austin thought this was funny. ‘Surely not even you are as naïve as that.’
