Like in a desert, in front of a witness…with a bomb that he’d rigged to do the job.
Guess he hadn’t been in control of everything, though, because Jim Heron hadn’t left him where he’d lain and so he hadn’t died according to schedule.
Without Heron’s interference, though, he wouldn’t have eventually met Mels.
And he wouldn’t be using this information in the way he was going to.
This felt like the better outcome.
Except for the losing Mels part, that was.
Just before he signed out, an abiding curiosity got to him. With a quick shift, he pulled out of his shadow account and his little secret locker of information—and signed in for real, using an account he had set up for one of his administrators about six months ago.
It was still active. And the password hadn’t been changed—which was stupid.
Going into the personnel database, he typed in a name and hit return.
In the center of the gray screen, a tiny hourglass spun slowly, and seemed to do that weightless rotation forever. In reality, it was probably less than a second or two. The data that flashed next was Jim Heron’s profile, and Matthias quickly scanned the orderly notations.
He wasn’t worried about this activity getting traced—and it would. Operatives were going to show up at this particular computer ASAP.
Naturally, they would know it was him, and they wouldn’t be surprised.
The next profile he reviewed was his own, and he went back to Heron’s again before he signed off. He wasn’t sure exactly what was wrong, but something stuck with him, something that just wasn’t right. No time to figure it out, however—at least not in this office.
Matthias jacked out and crushed the flashdrive in his fist. After shutting down the comp, he popped open the door, looked to the left and the right, and stepped into the hall. Walking off, he—
“Can I help you?” a female voice demanded.
He paused and turned around. “I’m looking for Human Resources? Am I in the right place?”
The woman was short and stocky, built on the lines of a dishwasher or maybe a file cabinet. She was dressed in a steel gray suit, too, and her hair was cut right at the jawline, like she felt as though she had to prove that she was all business, all the time.
“I’m the head of HR.” Her eyes narrowed. “Who exactly are you here to see?”
“I’m applying for a waiter position in the restaurant? The front desk sent me here?”
“Oh for godsake.” Ms. VP looked like she was going to boil over on the spot. “Again? I’ve told them not to refer you guys here.”
“Yeah, I know—shouldn’t I be meeting with the hospitality manager or something—”
“Take this hall here out to the lobby. Go past the restaurant—until you’re almost at the fire exit. There’s a door marked ‘Office’—you’re looking for Bobby.”
Matthias smiled. “Thanks.”
She wheeled away and started marching in the opposite direction, the muttering suggesting she was already on the phone with whoever she was about to bitch-dial.
Have fun with that, he thought as he strode out.
49
“You okay, big guy?” Jim asked as he carried Dog back up the stairs to the apartment over the garage.
The little man had been guarding the place all night, keeping everything as it should be, his eyes as fierce as his fur was not.
Up in the studio, Jim put the animal down and went over to the kitchen. “Just kibble this morning, sport. Sorry. But I’ll bring you back a turkey club, ’kay?”
As Dog let out a chuff of agreement, Jim figured deli sandwiches were probably not the best diet, but life was too short not to enjoy something as simple as what you liked to eat. And Dog loved ’em.
Running water in the sink, he rinsed out a small red bowl and refilled it. Putting the thing on the floor next to a cup and a half of Eukanuba, he stepped back and let Dog sniff around, take a test bite, and settle into his breakfast.
With the meal in progress, Jim walked over to the door and took out his cigarettes. Lighting up on the landing, he exhaled and braced one hand on the rail.
The reporter was at work; he’d checked on her as soon as he’d left the Marriott. And given that there was no sign of Devina anywhere, and the tracer spell remained up and rolling on both Matthias and the guy’s female, he’d decided to head back here and make sure all was cool.
Now he wasn’t sure what to do…except listen to Dog crunch.
Off in the distance, a truck traveled over the road on the far side of the meadow, going at a steady pace. Closer by, crows cawed to one another on the pineboughs. Behind him, Dog kept working his jaw.
Everything was so damned tranquil, he nearly jumped out of his skin.
It was on his second coffin nail that he realized he was waiting for Nigel to make an appearance. That British dandy always seemed to show up at critical times, and now felt like one: Jim couldn’t believe what Ad had done. The self-sacrifice, the mission critical, the man-up. On some level, it was unfathomable.
Eddie would have been really proud of the guy.
But what were they going to do now? Jim still didn’t know where the crossroads were, and Devina was undoubtedly getting up to something.
“Nigel—my man,” he muttered on the exhale. “Where are you.”
Instead of a royal visit, all he got was ashes to tap off the tip of his Marlboro, and he began to wonder if there hadn’t been a trickle-down effect to Devina’s getting her chain yanked by the Maker: Looked like the archangels were sitting back on this round as well.
Fair enough—
Just as he turned around, another vehicle came into view on the opposite side of the meadow. It was traveling fast—and it had a friend, a perfectly matched buddy.
Cops.
And what do you know, they were hanging a louie and shooting down the lane.
“We got company, Dog,” he muttered, grinding out his butt in the ashtray he kept on the railing. “Come here, my man. Let’s disappear together and watch the show.”
As he ducked inside, the pair of squad cars tore right up to the double doors, dust rising from their wheels grinding to a halt on the pea gravel.
Naturally, his phone went off as the unis were getting out. With his animal under his arm, he answered the call softly and watched through the drapes.
“I’m busy, Ad.”
“Where are you?”
“At the garage. And the CPD just showed up—make my day and tell me you got rid of the body?”