Big Easy Escapade (28 page)

“That will not be possible,” he said.

Kate
quickly conjured a list of fire code sections specific to transient
lodging from her early days at the architecture firm. “If the
corridor partition is not per ASTM E 1966, and the undercut on this
FM-rated door is not within the specified tolerances, and the smoke
alarm is not installed per IBC Chapter 9, Section 204.1.2, you
could be in trouble as we speak. I mean, someone
died
last month.” Finger pointed,
articulating every syllable, Kate added emphatically, “In. This.
Room.”

The man sighed and said, “One moment,” and
closed the door.

***

The guy who had pulled Daisy off of Sonu two
days prior ran into the room and ordered her into the bathroom. He
had a roll of gray duct tape in his hand. She hesitated to get up
from the chair, so he ran over and picked her up onto his shoulder
and carried her in there. He shut the door and slammed her down
onto the toilet. Then he pulled a gun on her.

“Do not make one sound or you will die.”

He looked like the kind of guy who had no
qualms about killing people.

He pulled a strip of duct tape off the roll
and put it over her mouth. He motioned for her to get into the
bathtub. She didn’t want to die, it would interfere with her plans
to escape, so she climbed in. He kept the gun trained on her.

***

The man opened the door to the suite and
motioned for Kate and Lea to come in. “Please be quick.”

Kate
pushed past him.
Those years working on hotel prototypes finally paid
off!

Lea followed behind, stepstool under her arm
and with a pleased look on her face.

Kate scanned the suite and assessed three
bedrooms, the nearest door of which was closed, and a bathroom with
the door open. Dirty towels littered the floor. She looked back at
the closed door, and the man placed himself between her and it.

Lea unfolded the stepstool. “Where do you
want this?”

“Under that smoke alarm, right there,
please.”

Lea set it in the middle of the living room,
under the chandelier. Kate took the three steps up and reached for
the smoke alarm but couldn’t get to it. She stepped down and
glanced at the man. “Would you mind pushing that little button up
there?”

He scowled but did as she asked. The alarm
shrieked for a second.

“Excellent! Sounds like it is in perfect
working order.” Kate pulled out her iPhone and continued the fake
inspection around the living room. She opened the flashlight app
and waved the beam up and down at the curtain as if it were a metal
detector. “Looks like these curtains just barely pass the Class A
flammability rating for a Type R occupancy.”

She then moved into the nearest bedroom and
rapped on the walls and inspected the curtains. She nodded to the
man, then repeated the action in the second bedroom.

Back in the living room, Lea pointed to the
closed bedroom door. “She’ll need to inspect in here.”

The man gave a tight smile, opened the master
suite door and walked in first.

The smell of sour food hit Kate and she
coughed. Towels were piled against the wall near the closet. She
did the wall tapping and curtain charade, then stooped at the end
of the king-sized bed. She pounded on the floor and loudly
proclaimed, “This floor-ceiling assembly is sufficiently
fireproofed!” She took a good look under the bed, and there it was,
Daisy’s Shoe-Be-Do shoe.

W
endy
tapped on the table, watching everything that moved and even things
that didn’t. She couldn’t help but laugh at a person dressed in
jeans and a T-shirt and a giant, brown dog head. He was slumped
against the lamp post, tallboy of Keystone in one hand and a sign
that read “Ruff nite” in the other. A top hat was flipped over in
front of him, and she watched as people dropped money
in.

People can make a living here doin’
nothing!

The waitress delivered a glass of water and
Wendy tipped her $2, then took a sip. She almost spewed it
everywhere as a limo pulled up and two guys stepped out, followed
by GQ. Gary rushed to meet them and started talking to GQ. Wendy
couldn’t hear the conversation, but she could see it was mostly
one-sided. She quickly texted Kate, Lucy and Vivian.

***

Vivian looked around the bar, glanced in the
mirror above it and felt worse and worse about sending Kate to meet
her fate. She decided to text Antonio. He needed to know where they
were.

We’re at Hotel Versailles. We might have
screwed up.

She started to put her phone away when
another text came in, this time from Wendy.

Red alert! Red alert! The Eagle has
landed!!!

Vivian’s heart raced and her stomach flipped.
She stared at her phone until the screen went blank. She looked
into the trifold mirror and almost fell off her stool. GQ was in
the middle mirror, walking toward the elevator. Lucy was in the
right-hand mirror, newspaper covering all of her face but her eyes,
which looked into Vivian’s with fear. Gary was in the left mirror,
trailing after GQ.

***

Kate’s heart raced but she kept her cool as
she walked around the room, pretending to further inspect. “There
are definitely signs of leakage under these demising walls. I’ve
got to check under the corridor baseboards in here.”

The man didn’t move away from the door.
“Someone is in there.”

“The corridor wall is in the bathroom. It’s
pertinent that I inspect it.” He shook his head, and the angry look
in his eyes convinced Kate not to push him. She turned to Lea. “I
have no choice but to red flag this suite.”

Lea let out an exaggerated sigh. “Are you
sure? Is there nothing else we can do?”

Kate tapped her clipboard with her pen. “I’ll
have to re-inspect next week when my schedule opens up. You know,
I’m a very busy woman.”

Lea’s walkie-talkie beeped and Gary’s voice
crackled. “Has the lavatory on the seventh floor been cleared?” Lea
looked at Kate. “I’ve got another issue I have to clear up.”

Kate tucked her pen behind her ear. “My
inspection is as complete as it can be for now. I’ll write up my
report and send it to the fire marshal.”

Lea and Kate hustled to the door. Lea called
over her shoulder just before the door closed, “Thanks for your
cooperation!”

***

Daisy heard a knocking on the walls and woman
talking about something being fireproof. She looked down the barrel
of the pistol and contemplated screaming behind the tape. The jerk
read her, pressed the gun to her forehead and tilted her head back.
She trembled and kept quiet. She heard radio chatter and then
another woman speak into it. Moments later she heard them leave.
Tears spilled from her eyes.

***

After GQ got onto the elevator, Vivian and
Lucy rushed up to Gary, who was talking into his walkie-talkie.
“Has the lavatory on the seventh floor been cleared?”

“You’ve got to get them out of the room!”
Vivian said.

His walkie-talkie beeped. “That’s
affirmative. The drain has been cleared.”

“Ten-four,” he said, then looked at Vivian.
“They’re out of the suite.” He rushed to the front door, put on a
fake smile and held it for a couple walking in.

Vivian and Lucy waited in the lobby for Kate.
Vivian sighed in relief as Kate walked off the elevator. She walked
through the lobby and out the door without glancing at them. Vivian
and Lucy waited a couple of minutes, then met Wendy and Kate inside
the restaurant across the street.

“She’s in that room,” Kate said as soon as
they walked up. “I saw her Shoe-Be-Do shoe tucked under the bed.
He’s got her!”

“Did you see her?” Lucy asked.

“No, but they wouldn’t let me go into the
bathroom in the master suite. I know she’s in there.”

“I’m not sure that’s the proof Antonio needs,
but he’s gotta do something,” Vivian said.

***

Daisy paced the room and looked out the
windows every few steps. Something was up. She heard Sonu shouting
in a foreign language in the other room.

A short while later, Sonu and the
pistol-toting nutcase came into the room. Crazy guy shoved a glass
of water into her hand and pointed his gun on her.

“Drink this,” Sonu ordered.

Daisy looked at the chalky water and didn’t
want to drink it. She frowned.

Sonu raised the glass to her mouth. “This
will be your last warning to obey me.”

Crazy guy inched closer.

I’m never going to get away with this motherfucker
around
.

Daisy
took a tiny step back. “What is this and will it kill me?”
Could their plan be to give me an overdose?

“It will only help you deal with our
departure,” Sonu answered.

Fuck it,
she thought, and chugged the water.

***

Vivian sat in the restaurant facing the hotel
and pulled out her phone. Antonio answered right away and she said,
“He has her.”

“What’d y’all do?”

Vivian gave him the rundown. She was just
getting to the shoe when a limo pulled up and one of GQ’s goons
started throwing luggage into the trunk. A purple-fringed,
horse-drawn carriage sporting a fleur-de-lis emblem clip-clopped to
a stop behind the limo. The driver was decked out in a lavender
dress shirt and purple pants, vest and top hat. He hopped down and
Gary walked over and took the reins. The driver indicated five
minutes, then went inside the hotel.

“They’re loading up the luggage,” Vivian said
into the phone. “They’re getting ready to leave. You’ve got to do
something.”

The goon slammed the trunk, then looked to
the hotel. Another came out arm and arm with a woman wearing a
full-bodied brown robe and a scarf wrapped around her face and
head, almost like a burqa. A third guy followed.

“I gotta go!” Vivian yelled, then threw her
phone into her purse.

The girls ran onto the sidewalk, but traffic
prevented them from crossing,

“Daisy!” Lucy yelled.

The woman looked up.

One of the bodyguards opened the back door to
the limo and shoved Daisy toward it. Gary tried to reach for her,
but the bodyguard pulled him aside and punched him with a hard
right. Gary went down.

Daisy was shoved into the car, and a goon got
in behind her. Another got in on the left side and slammed the
door. The third sat up front with the driver.

The girls started to run after the limo, but
it sped off. Vivian knew there was no way they’d catch them.

The midnight-black horse whinnied and Vivian
stopped, then turned and looked at him. She could tell by the spark
in his dark eyes that he wanted to run. He was tired of the slow
pace that was forced upon him in the streets of New Orleans day
after day. He stamped at the concrete with his front hoof and bit
at his bridle.

“Jump in!” she yelled to the girls, pointing
to the fringed buggy. She stepped onto the running board, snatched
up the reins and sat on the bench seat.

The girls changed course and hopped in behind
her, onto the rear bench seat.

Lucy crawled over the short railing and sat
shotgun. “Who’s driving this thing?”

Vivian cracked the reins on the horse’s back.
“Meeeeeeeeee!”

T
he
purple carriage raced along Chartres, trying to catch up to the
limousine that held GQ’s goons and Daisy. Cars screeched to a stop
and pedestrians jumped out of the way as the limo barreled down the
road.

Vivian flipped the reins up and down on the
horse’s back. “Giddy up, horsey! Go, go!”

“Do you even know what you’re doing?” Lucy
yelled as they zoomed past the Shoe-Be-Do.

“No, but I watched ‘Little House on the
Prairie’ when I was a kid!” Vivian smacked the reins again. “Yah!
Yah!”

A gold sedan with dark tinted windows began
to pull across the intersection right before the big courthouse but
the limo swerved around it.

“We’re gonna crash!” Lucy covered her
eyes.

“Where’s my ‘oh shit’ handle?” Wendy yelled
and gripped the side railing.

The horse expertly veered to the right and
they missed the car by inches, but Vivian saw who was behind the
wheel. “It’s that undercover cop!”

“What the heck?” Kate said and strained her
neck to look back.

Purple fringe was flying as they passed the
courthouse. As they neared the Camellia Grill, a herd of Japanese
tourists stepped off the sidewalk into the street. The limo driver
honked and the herd scrambled. As the girls flew past, the tourists
snapped away at the excitement.

“We’re coming up to Jackson Square!” Lucy
yelled. “The driver is going to run over people!”

The limo’s brake lights flashed and the tires
screeched as he approached the square. He tried to make a sharp
left onto St. Peter but fishtailed and skidded to a stop, metal
crunching as the front end of the limousine crumpled and jammed
into the back of a Dos Equis truck.

“This is our chance!” Vivian yelled as the
horse slowed.

The reverse lights came on, the engine
revved, and the back tires squealed and smoked, but the limo stayed
put.

“He’s trying to get away,” Kate shouted.

Vivian pulled up on the reins. “Whoa, horsey.
Good boy!”

The carriage came to an abrupt halt. The
girls jumped down, then ran toward the limo.

The driver got out of the car and slammed his
door, then put his hands on his hips, looking at the front of the
car.