Suspicious (On the Run) (10 page)

“You’ve been a big help.” Jack checked the time as he handed the magazine back to Nico, who tossed it into a basket near the couch with more glossy covers. “Mara likes to keep up with the celebrity news.” He glanced at the cover then back at Jack. “In fact, Mara was telling me the other day that McKinley will be in Ischgl on Monday for a charity ski race event.”

Zoe had been checking her watch, but looked up. “Ischgl. That doesn’t sound like it’s in England.”

“No. Austria.”

“It wouldn’t happen to be anywhere near Lermoos would it?”

“I don’t know, but Austria is not a big country.” Nico pulled the laptop closer and typed. “Yes, they are both in Austria. About eighty kilometers apart.”

Zoe looked at Jack. She didn’t have to say anything. The travel printouts showed Harrington needed directions to Austria. McKinley was scheduled to be in Austria at that same time…

Jack stood and held out his hand to Nico. “Thank you.”

“Stay for another drink? A coffee?”

“That would be—” Zoe began.

“No, we really must go.” Jack said, shooting a sideways glance at Zoe.

One minute
, she mouthed back at him.

Nico again tried to convince them to stay, but Jack hustled them to the door. “I’ll walk out with you then. I have a meeting,” Nico said, and they had to wait by the door as Nico gathered up his keys and his phone.

“I’ll hold the elevator,” Jack called and opened the door.

Zoe followed him into the hallway where he was repeatedly punching the DOWN button. The elevator arrived with a ding, the doors glided open, and they stepped in, both of them checking their watches.

“Twenty seconds over.” Jack grimaced. “I’m losing my touch.”

“I’m in the mood for Margherita pizza, I think.”

“We’ll look for something on the way to Austria.”

Zoe nodded. They didn’t need to discuss it. They had to go. It was the only lead they had. The only question was how they would travel. “Even though a flight is the quickest way, that might not be the best way for us to travel.”

Jack kept his finger pressed on the button to keep the doors open as he replied. “Leaves too much of a trail. We’d have to use a credit card,” Jack agreed. “And the train would be the same, unless we paid in cash, and we don’t have enough to buy two tickets from here to Austria, anyway. No, we need something more under the radar.”

“Like a car,” Zoe said as Nico joined them in the elevator, apologizing for the delay. “Except we have the same credit card issue with renting a car,” Zoe said. “I suppose we could try to buy one…but how would we pay for it? Our daily cash withdrawal limit is too low to get enough money, even for a clunker.”

Nico said, “You need a car? Borrow one.”

Jack pressed the button for the lobby. “Can’t take a chance on something like that.”

Nico looked offended. “I don’t operate that way. Well, not anymore.” He smiled faintly. “I am not a kid in Napoli. No, I mean use a car and return it.”

“We can’t take yours,” Jack said. “That would link us too closely to you. You’ve already taken a chance by talking to us. We don’t want to do anything else—”

Nico cut him off. “Not my car. Mara’s. She won’t mind. Come, I’ll show you.”

A few minutes later, they stood in a parking garage not far from the apartment in front of a sunflower yellow Fiat while Nico worked a key off his key ring. “It is perfect. Small, easy to drive. Good gas mileage. It is a little bright, yes, but there is no paperwork.”

Jack reached for the key and thanked Nico. She could tell Jack would have rather have had another option, but short of stealing a car, this was their best choice. They said good-bye to Nico, and climbed in the car.

“I have to say I’m surprised,” Zoe said.

“That I took Nico up on his offer? It’s not exactly nondescript, I’ll give you that,” Jack said as he started it, “but we have to work with what we’ve got.”

“No, that Mara has such a…cheerful car. Yellow. Maybe she and Nico will work out after all.”

"I don't think Alessi will be happy that we left Rome." Zoe kept her gaze on the twin beams of the Fiat’s headlights, which cut through the darkness, illuminating the strip of road and an occasional road sign. For the moment, they were alone on the road as they drove north, their lights the only specks of brightness in the night except for the pinpoints of the stars overhead. Streetlights were few and far between on the rural portions of the Autostrada.

A quick check of a road map that they bought on their way out of Rome confirmed that Nico was right. Both Ischgl and Lermoos were in Austria, a little over an hour and a half apart. They had swept along the road, passing turnoffs for city after city, Florence, Bologna, Milan, each just a name on a sign, and Zoe felt only a faint twist of longing as they gained on, then passed each destination. Their situation had her wanderlust firmly in check.

"No, Alessi wouldn't like it. Although, he never actually told us not to leave." Using his cell phone as a flashlight, Jack checked the map, creating a reflection of his profile on the passenger window against the opaque blackness.

"I think he'd consider it one of those things that are implied,” Zoe said. “Something that didn't have to be stated."

"I'm sure he would. Hopefully, he won't realize we've left the city at all."

They had made a quick detour to their hotel before they left Rome. After parking the car in a nearby garage, they returned to their room long enough to pick up a change of clothes and a few other essentials, such as Jack's backpack. Jack had said they shouldn't bring their suitcase, and Zoe agreed. Neither of them had spotted the man or woman who'd been trailing them earlier, but the shift could have changed. They might have new watchers, people they didn't recognize. Neither Jack nor Zoe wanted to tip off anyone that they were leaving Rome—even if it was just for a few days. Their hotel was paid through the next week, which gave them a full three days to salvage their reputations.

Zoe had stuffed the essentials—a change of clothing and toiletries into her messenger bag while Jack had done the same, filling his backpack. They had turned in their key and mentioned dinner plans as well as discussed a possible tour of Tivoli as well as Ostia, two popular day trip destinations, with the afternoon desk clerk. If Alessi did notice they were gone, they hoped he would assume they'd gone on one of the excursions, buying them some time.

She moved her hands on the wheel, gripping it tightly. "Somehow, I think that's too much to hope for."

"Don't think about Alessi. Even if he realized we're gone, he won’t be able to figure out where we are. He can't trace our cell phone. We didn't rent a car or take a flight out of Rome. We have enough cash that we can buy gas without using a credit card."

They'd stopped at an ATM before they left the city and made a large withdrawal, but they'd been doing that every few days, using the money to pay for food and entrance fees, so that transaction wouldn't raise any flags. "Even if he does find out we've left, we're okay,” Jack continued. “We’ll find Harrington then follow him. Hopefully, he’ll meet McKinley in Ischgl to sell the jewels. We can alert Alessi, and the police can scoop them both up—the thief and the fence. If he can make two arrests and recover the jewels, he won’t complain, and we’ll be in the clear of the theft of the Flawless Set, which will clear us of the other robberies because there’s nothing to link us to them except speculation.”

“The part about alerting Alessi is a bit vague,” Zoe said. “How are we going to do that? And how will Alessi be able to swoop in and make arrests in another country?”

“You’ve obviously never seen Interpol at work. I have. Believe me, these European countries can cooperate with frightening efficiency. Frightening, for criminals, that is. I can’t believe that neither Italy nor Austria will be willing to let a jewel thief walk away with the Flawless Set. Any police force would love to have the good PR associated with recovering such a famous set of jewelry.”

Zoe shifted her hands on the wheel again. "I know. It's a good plan. Well, it’s a plan. It’s as good a plan as we’re going to get. It's this all-encompassing blackness. Makes me edgy. And don't you dare make any comments about being afraid of the dark."

"Wouldn't dream of it. We all have something that sets the butterflies flapping. For me, I'd rather eat glass than do anything that puts me anywhere above ten feet off the ground. For you, it's hospitals—”

"You remembered that, did you?"

“Of course. You’re rarely scared of anything, so I’m not about to forget one of the few times I’ve seen you looking absolutely terrified.”

“Not
absolutely
terrified.”

“Oh, absolutely. It was definitely, absolutely terrified. You looked like I would if I’d found out I had to walk across the Grand Canyon on a wire. Absolutely terrified. But back to the darkness. Think of it this way—darkness is good."

“How?”

“It makes it easy to be sure we're alone." Jack glanced out the rear window. "No tail. Just pitch black, as far as the eye can see."

"I still don't like it."

"Want me to take over?"

"No, you should get some more sleep." Jack had driven for several hours while Zoe slept fitfully in the passenger seat. Now it was his turn. “I’ll just concentrate on how tiny and isolated and safe the absolute pitch blackness makes me feel. I'll wake you in a few hours.”

“Okay. Brenner Pass is coming up then we'll be in Austria. Not far to go.”

***

They switched places again after a stop for a quick breakfast at a McDonald’s with a view of the Alps so stunning that it could have been a five-star restaurant. It was early, only a little after six in the morning, but the horizon had begun to lighten around five, and now the rough peaks of the mountains were washed with the pink of sunrise. Zoe thought the growing brightness would make it harder for her to sleep, but she dropped off quickly and awoke later with a crick in her neck. She sat up and stretched.

“Oh good. You’re awake. You can navigate.” Jack handed her a coffee cup and the papers with the driving directions.

Zoe gratefully sipped the steaming coffee. “When did you get this?”

“Stopped about ten minutes ago. You slept right through. Didn’t have the heart to wake you.”

Zoe sipped some more, blinked, and wrapped both hands around the warm cup. The temperature had been dropping the farther north they drove, and now it was actually cold. Jack had switched on the heater, and Zoe was glad she’d changed into her one pair of jeans she’d brought. Jack knew her well enough to leave her alone until the caffeine worked its way to her groggy brain. After a few minutes, Zoe looked at the driving directions, then the map. “Where are we?”

“Ah, I knew you’d come back to the land of the living if I gave you coffee.”

“You are disgustingly cheery in the morning.”

“Good thing you love me anyway.”

“Good thing. Otherwise, I might murder you.”

“Right. Disregarding that comment. We’re through Innsbruck and off the main highway. We should be in Lermoos soon. You can read off the directions from there.”

Zoe took another gulp of her coffee. “Sure.”

Since they didn’t have the address of the final destination listed on the papers she’d retrieved from Harrington’s trashcan, they’d decided to drive to Lermoos and follow the driving directions.

“I hope he has the diamonds with him,” Zoe said.

“So we’re continuing with the dreary disposition?”

“Jack, you have to have thought about it, too. What if we’ve come all this way, and he ditched them before he got here? He could have stopped anywhere along that stretch of dark road and dropped them off with someone or hidden them.”

“Then why would he go to Austria?” Jack asked. “Why leave Rome? Why ask around about McKinley? Why drive all this way?”

“Maybe he likes to ski.”

Jack frowned. “I see him as more of a fly-fishing type of guy.”

“Be serious. What are we going to do if he doesn’t have the diamonds? Or, what if we’re completely wrong, and he’s not even here?”

“You’re usually not so negative.”

“I’m not usually a suspect in a jewel heist either,” Zoe snapped then ran her hand over her face. “Sorry. I should have a rule. No conversation until my second cup of coffee.”

“It’s okay. I’m worried, as well, but before we get too carried away, let’s see exactly what our situation is.”

The road dropped down through densely forested hills that were layered with snow into an alpine village on the edge of a wide, valley dotted with small wooden sheds. Snow piled along the side of the road and stood several inches deep on the roofs of white stucco houses with wooden balconies, but the roads and sidewalks were clear. Murals decorated the stucco of some of the buildings, ranging from religious scenes to ornate lettering with hotel names. On the other side of the valley, wisps of clouds shifted and snagged on the craggy, snow-covered mountain that dominated the valley. Around the foothills of the valley, ski gondolas dangled, motionless in the quiet morning air on a network of lift cables that climbed through the lower slopes to the mountains along white swaths where trees had been cleared.

They maneuvered through the little village, passing a church with a curved onion-dome bell tower, and Zoe directed Jack to a road that hugged the valley and took them closer to the towering mountain, but before they reached the foothills, they came to their next turn.

“It says take a left, here,” Zoe said, catching a glimpse of a sign as Jack turned under a bridge and they plunged back into the forest. “I know where we are. That was a sign for the Zugspitze. I remember it from one of the guidebooks I copyedited. It’s the highest mountain in Germany, but it actually straddles the Germany-Austria border.”

“And we’ve just entered Germany.” Jack nodded at a sign. The road twisted through a narrow valley, skirted around the Zugspitze, and followed the sweeping course of a tumbling river with ice-edged banks. Unlike the wide, populated valley they’d just traveled through, this area was more rural with only a few buildings scattered far apart.

“The directions say we keep straight for another ten kilometers or so.”

They passed a few signs for smaller towns and recreation areas and then they swept into Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Unlike the small villages on the other side of the mountain, Garmisch was a good-sized town. It was early, and the main street was quiet as they cruised by large neighborhoods of alpine-style homes, clothing shops, and restaurants. Only the bakeries were open, and Zoe’s mouth watered at the thought of fresh baked bread, but she didn’t suggest they stop.

Instead, she read off more directions. “At the Marienplatz, turn right. The hotel is on your right.”

Jack made the turn and slipped into an open slot in a small parking lot between a hotel and a pedestrian zone that ran alongside another church with a rounded onion-shaped dome.

“That must be it,” Zoe said, looking toward a hotel with carved wooden balconies running along each of its two stories and mosaic curlicues painted over each window. The name, Hotel Bavaria Alpina, was painted in gothic script on the side of the building above a mural of the mountain range.

Jack turned off the ignition. “It’s early, hopefully he hasn’t left his room yet.”

“It doesn’t look like anyone’s left their room yet.”

They watched the hotel for a few minutes, but even in that short amount of time, the temperature inside the car dropped quickly. Zoe’s gaze shifted from the quiet hotel to the street in front of them where a few people had appeared. Some were walking dogs, others held baskets and appeared to be setting out to do their shopping. She looked back to the hotel. “I wish there was some way to know for sure if he’s checked in.” Zoe blew on her hands. “How cold do you think it is here?” She pulled her lightweight cardigan tighter. It was the only long-sleeved thing she’d brought. She’d thrown it in her suitcase in Dallas, thinking that she could wear it on the plane when they were at altitude. Even with a thin shirt layered under it, the combination was no match for the Alps. Her feet, bare inside her skimpy leather sandals, which had been perfect for the warm Roman weather, were icy already.

“Probably around freezing now.” He glanced up at the sky. “Since it’s a clear day, it should warm up. Maybe it will get up into the forties.”

“Let’s hope it does because we are not dressed for this weather.”

They sat for an hour, watching as the Hotel Bavaria Alpina came to life and the sun climbed higher in the sky, but even when the sunlight crept across the windshield, the car didn’t warm up, and Jack intermittently started the engine so they could run the heater for a few minutes. Some guests departed the hotel, dragging suitcases to cars or taxis, and traffic gradually picked up on the main road.

Zoe wiggled in her seat. “Good grief, this is boring. If we don’t see Harrington soon, you’re going to have to restrain me from going in there. You know they have heat. And food. Probably a breakfast buffet with soft warm rolls and steaming coffee and—”

Jack sat up straight. “I think that’s Harrington.”