Six
T revalian heard a woman’s voice say, “Isn’t that him?” It came from the hotel’s registration desk. His instinct was to flee.
He turned and headed up the stairwell, pretending he’d not heard her comment.
At 3 A.M. the hotel lobby was empty. The woman at registration had to have been speaking to someone. The hotel detective?
He cautioned himself to stay calm. They couldn’t possibly connect him to the recent events. He’d changed shirts. Donned a jacket. Shaler’s clothes were in the knapsack slung over his right shoulder.
“Sir? Mr. Meisner?” A male voice a few feet behind him.
He knows my name.
Trevalian stopped and turned on the stairs. He was looking at a man in his mid-forties, fit and darkly tanned. A full head of hair. He’d sprung up the stairs like a ballerina.
“Yes?” Trevalian said.
“I wonder if you might have a minute?”
“You are?”
“Neil Parker.” He offered a business card. Sun Valley Company. Guest services.
“It’s three in the morning.”
“There’s been an…incident,” Parker said.
Two things occurred to Trevalian: They’d found the compound he’d cooked, or they had him for the break-ins.
“It’s a situation that requires discretion on all our parts,” Parker said.
“I’m afraid it’s very late, and I’m very tired and I don’t understand.” Trevalian evaluated his chances of breaking the guy’s neck without any noise. Not great.
Parker climbed another step.
Trevalian extended his hand to stop the man. “I don’t like tight spaces,” he explained. He could knee the man in the face from this position.
Parker lowered his voice. “There’s been an incident with one of our staff. A Ms. Cunningham.” He answered Trevalian’s blank expression. “Lilly Cunningham. Our lounge singer in the Duchin Lounge. I believe you met Lilly.”
He said nothing, wondering if he’d been set up. She’d managed to get into his room; she’d drunk his booze. An extortion racket?
“There’s been an assault. All I need is five minutes. Really. I’d rather not do this in a stairwell.”
“Do what?”
“Lilly remembered your room number. That’s how I got your name.”
Trevalian said nothing.
“She said you got a look at the man,” Parker explained. “A possible suspect. These can be tricky cases to prove. He-said, she-said.”
“A matter for the authorities,” Trevalian said. “Please leave me out of it.”
“She’s not pressing charges. The police are not involved. But if we can confirm the man’s identity, he will never set foot on company property again.”
Trevalian doubted the explanation. “I saw her with a man. But I’m afraid I didn’t get a good look at him.”
Parker’s face fell. “Anything about him would help. We’d like to get rid of this guy.”
Trevalian spoke, bringing the man into his confidence. “Let me put it this way: If you saw Lilly and some guy in the hallway, who would you be looking at?”
“Yeah…I hear you.”
“I’m sorry,” Trevalian said, “but that’s how it was.”
The man appeared crushed. “Listen, you remember anything, give me a call. The front desk can find me.”
“My apologies to Ms. Cunningham.”
“The difference is,” Parker said, more determined than ever, “you can choose not to be involved. But Lilly’s going to climb back up on that stage with that creep out there looking at her.”
“I’ll sleep on it,” Trevalian said. He rounded the landing and hurried up the stairs, thinking there was precious little time for sleep.
His mind had briefly been elsewhere-a mistake he rarely made. He had a switch to make, and, if possible, he wanted to do it now, while it was still dark out.