Designer Detective (A Fiona Marlowe Mystery) (20 page)

Jake looked around. “I was the only person I
knew in there. But let’s look again. I’ll buy you a drink. You could probably use
one.”

The No Name Lounge, as it was oddly called,
featured the elegant carved wood look. We settled at a high top table for two.

“This is a stake out,” I said, pulling my
sunglasses down to look around.

“Fiona, take off the shades. You’re overdoing
it.” Jake said, signaling for the waiter.

“Sure.” I slipped them into my purse. “We don’t
want to draw attention.”

“Red wine for the lady,” he said, “and a Sam Adam’s
on tap.”

I smiled at the waiter who looked no more than
ten years old. I contemplated carding him.

“Excuse me,” I said. “You didn’t happen to
notice a striking woman in here who looks a lot like Elizabeth Taylor.”

“Elizabeth who?”

“No, you’re too young. You wouldn’t remember.
She has black hair, wears lots of makeup,
dresses
nice.”

He crinkled his wrinkleless brow. “We have a
lot of ladies come in here look like that. I’ll get your drinks.”

He scurried off, probably to report us to the
police.

“So much for our stake out,” I said and scanned
the room which for the lateness of the hour was pretty crowded. The younger set
was in predominance, and they were the usual loud bunch. The waiter was half right.
Every girl in the room seemed to have black hair and wore layers of makeup in a
rainbow of color. I couldn’t say a lot for their skimpy dresses, because there
wasn’t much to them.

“Will you tell me why you are so fixated on
Alice?” Jake asked as we waited for our drinks to arrive.

“Jake, don’t you get it?
 
Alice is the key. The man in the fedora who
we fled from in the garage was last seen in the company of Alice. She was the
woman at the door when Cody answered. Cody said so himself. Cody reminded me
several times that the man wanted me disappeared, as he put it. Alice is
connected to that man. I want to know how. I want to know what she is doing
here, the same place you, me, Opal, and Hudson are tonight.”

“You better stay in the room with me. I can
protect you then. Besides I doubt they have any more rooms. There’s a big dentist
convention in town, and people with perfect smiles are here from all over.”

I considered his suggestion, believe it or not,
more seriously this time. “You think she might try to abduct me if I stayed in a
room by myself.” I’d heard this line before.

Our drinks arrived, and the child hurried off
before I could quiz him again.
Smart boy.

“You bet. She may try. Or one of those guys
will try. I think you need my protection for the night.”

I sipped my wine and knew that if I had too
many of these, my morals would slip again. I frowned. My thinking ran wild.

“You’re just saying that because you want me in
the sack.”

He shook his head. “I’m serious. If you think
Alice is a threat because she’s connected to Cody’s business associates, we
better take precautions.”

“Good. I’m glad you’re finally coming around to
my way of thinking. I propose we ask if there is a woman named Alice registered
here and search the hotel.”

“We don’t know her last name.”

“Yes, we do. Her last name is Wonderland. She’s
Alice Wonderland. Don’t her parents have a great sense of humor?”

“More like strange sense of humor. Okay, we can
give it a try.”

“Bottoms up.
We’ll do
some sleuthing. Are Opal, Hudson, and the boys tucked in for the night?”

“Opal went to bed,” Jake said. “Hudson and the
boys went out carousing.”

“Hudson carousing?
That
seems out of character for him.”

“He’ll be fine. He’s in good hands. They
promised to have him back by the stroke of midnight.”

“It’s way past midnight.”

“Then I’m sure they’re back.”

“Is Opal’s room beside yours?”

“No, we’re all over the place. The boys and
Hudson are in one room.”

“Maybe we should all stay in one room for the
night. I worry about Opal.”

Jake didn’t look like he was too pleased with
that picture. “Let’s see if we can scare up the mythical Alice,” he said.

* * * * *

We
checked out the exercise room, sauna and steam room and scared two nude guys
wrapped around each other in a serpentine embrace, checked out the restaurant
but it was closed, went to the bar again, but no Alice.

“Do you have a woman registered by the name of
Alice Wonderland?” I asked the attendant at the front desk, who maintained a
plastic smile on his youthful face.

“Alice Wonderland,” he said as he read the
computer screen. “No, I’m sorry we don’t.”

“How about just Alice?”

He widened the smile. “I’m sorry but I can’t
search on just a first name, we file by last name.”

“Too bad,” I said.

Jake and I stepped aside to consider our
options.

“Of course,” I said, “if she were staying, she
may not be registered in her real name. Maybe Alice Wonderland isn’t her real
name. She may have a hundred aliases.”

Jake yawned. “How about we get some rest and
resume our search in the morning?” He checked his watch. “I guess that will be
in just a few more hours.”

I looked at him. “You’re right. I’m dog-tired
myself. This has been too exciting a day.”

“We’ll go to my room and do nothing but sleep.
I can look after you better that way.”

“I think we should check on Opal. We should
probably camp out in her room for the duration of this night.”

“She’s been in bed for hours.”

“I know, but I’d feel better if we checked to
make sure she’s okay.”

Jake led me by the hand to the elevator.

“Has anyone seen Cody?” I asked as the elevator
zipped up to Opal’s floor.

“Not a sign.
Vanished.”

We got lost in the endless morass of look-a-like
hotel doors and corridors, had to backtrack several times, but finally found
the right room number. Jake knocked softly at the door, and we waited.

“Better rap louder. She might be in a deep
sleep,” I said.

Jake rapped,
then
pounded, but still no answer.

“Do you have her room key?”

Jake shook his head. “I brought her to the room,
and she said she’d be fine. I never thought to ask for an extra key for her.”

“How are you at breaking into a room?”

“Through these doors?
They make them practically burglar proof now.”

“I heard you can open them with a credit card.”
I rummaged in my purse and pulled out one. “Let’s see if we can get it open.”

“
Wait,
what if we have
the wrong room.”

“You mean you aren’t sure this is the right
one?”

“Maybe we should check with the front desk to
make sure. Remember this room number.”

“501,” I said, writing it down on my hand for
safekeeping.

Down we went to the front desk.

A new receptionist was on, a young woman with
piercings and maroon hair. She matched the décor. Her smile revealed two steel
tipped teeth. Our standard of beauty these days escaped me.

“We’re looking for our friend, Opal Crawford,
who should be in room 501. Could you confirm that number for us? We’ve come to
pick her up.”

“Certainly.
One
minute.” She ran Opal’s name through the computer. “Yes, that is correct, she
is in room 501. You can call her on the house phone.”

 
Jake
followed me to the house phone set in a lighted alcove, and I dialed the
number. No answer. The phone rang and rang. I shook my head at Jake and hung
up.

“She isn’t answering. I’m worried.”

Jake chewed his cheek. “I know I put her in
that room. I carried in her bag myself.”

I tried the number again. No luck.

“I vote for breaking in,” I said. “She may be
having a stroke or something. She is in her eighties, you know, and this has
been a stressful week for her.”

“Let’s try the credit card thing.”

Back we went and I pulled out the card again.
“I’ll take the first pass.”

“Let’s knock again.” Jake pounded away.

No answer.

“Have you ever done this before?” Jake asked.

“Of course not.
I’ve
never associated with people like you and your friends before.”

I knelt before the door and slipped the card
between the frame and the door latch. We worked every position, being as quiet
as possible, afraid we’d wake someone up.

“What if someone kidnapped her,” I said,
voicing my worst fears.

“How would they get in, if we can’t? Let’s go
to my room and re-group. I’ll call the boys. Maybe they have Opal with them for
some reason. We can’t keep banging and trying to break in without someone
calling security.”

 
In the
quiet of his room, he dialed one of the boys cell phone number.

“Hey, give me a call. We want to know if Opal
is with you.” He closed the connection. “He’s not picking up. It went to his
answering machine. “I’ll try the other guy.” He listened. “Call me.” He closed
the connection again and shook his head.

“No luck. And Hudson has no phone.”

He dialed their room. “No answer. I’m going to
their room and see if I can rouse them. They rented a car. I can check the
parking lot to see if the car is back but who knows where they may have parked.
You wait here.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“No, if Opal or any of the guys show up,
someone has to be here. Fiona, promise me you’ll stay here. This is getting weird,
and now you have me worried.”

“All right.
But call
me with reports, will you?”

I stretched out on the bed, thinking to rest my
tired eyes for a minute. I dozed off and snapped awake to a tap at the door. I
struggled up, disoriented from the new venue and lack of sleep. Jake had the key,
so why would he be tapping? Maybe it was Opal or Hudson or the boys. I checked
the burglar hole but saw no one. I cracked the door.

A small woman in black with huge dark glasses,
red lips and violet headscarf stood in the hall.

“Hello, Fiona, may I come in?”

“Who are you?” I said through the crack in the
door.

She removed the glasses and pulled off the
scarf.

“I’m Alice. I understand that you are looking
for me.”

“Holy Smokes.
How did
you know?”

“Are you going to keep me standing in the
hall?”

“Can we meet in the restaurant in about fifteen
minutes?”

“We could but it’s closed and I have only a few
minutes. If you don’t want to see me, I’ll be on my way.”

“No, wait, come in. Yes, I want to talk to
you.”

 
She
pushed past me and walked to the room phone. “I’m calling room service. I could
use a latte. You want anything?”

“Sure,” I said, wanting to be agreeable.
“Same for me.
Won’t you have a seat?”

After ordering, Alice sat at the little table
for two and indicated I should do the same. I eased into the seat and sat on
the edge. I had trouble thinking of what to say now that the real Alice sat
across from me. She checked her appearance in a hand mirror she pulled from an
expensive leather purse and pushed her hair around a little.

She looked at me. “Well?”

I
launched in. “How do you know I was looking for you?”

“A little bird.”

“And here you are.”

She smiled. She really did look like Liz Taylor
in her younger days. Alice may have been about forty, no wrinkles, dark violet
eyes, black hair with not a hint of red in it.
Expensive
short haircut.
Perfect teeth.
Perfectly applied
make up, lots of it.

She checked her watch. “I don’t have much time.
I wanted to meet you, too.”

That was intriguing. “What do you want with
me?”

She smiled again. “I don’t know how much you’ve
figured out about Albert Lodge’s demise.”

“I have more questions than I have answers.”

“Yes. I assume you wanted to find me because my
name came up on the radar.”

I nodded.

“Whatever it is you know about me, it doesn’t
matter. I’ve found out a lot about you since you appeared on my radar screen.
Frankly, I don’t know what to do with you outside of warning you to back out of
your meddling and take a flight to Sydney tonight.”

“I’ve been trying to extricate myself from this
family mess, but I keep getting sucked back in.”

“I’m here to take you out permanently. We don’t
intend to kill you, though that is an option. Don’t look alarmed. I mean to
take you out of this operation. We don’t need you mucking it up. And you are
mucking it up.”

“Can I inquire as to the nature of the
operation?”

“No. Suffice it to say that we are trying to
break the back of a criminal operation that extends into many countries. I am
not here with you. I am a figment of your imagination.”

Room service knocked and I opened the door, not
sure what to expect. A little uniformed guy stood with two carry out lattes on
a tray. He conveyed them to our table and left with a tip.

Alice opened hers and took a dainty sip. “I
love caffeine,” she said with closed eyes.

Mine was steaming, and I set it aside, waiting for
more revelations from Alice, the figment of my imagination.

“We’re prepared to give you an incentive to
distance yourself from this. If you don’t take it, we may put you someplace you
don’t want to be.”

Meddling was getting more and more lucrative.
Of course, I was interested.

“Take the trip to Sydney and lay low for a
month or so. We arrange to pay your expenses at a location of our choice in
Sydney for the time you are there. We make a car available and provide a daily
stipend.”