He motioned at her belongings. “What do you want to do?” He picked up her clothes, laying them all on the bed.

  “I want my money back on this room,” Elizabeth cried indignantly. “I want a different one. Obviously somebody broke into this one.”

  Nelson reached for the phone on the night table, called down to the manager and told him her room had been broken into. When he hung up, he turned to look at her. “The manager is coming up.”

  She nodded. “What do I tell him?”

  “The truth,” Nelson said cheerfully. He sent off a text as she watched.

  “Now who are you contacting?”

  “Taylor. Just brought him up-to-date.”

  Elizabeth sagged onto the bed. “I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t bring much with me.”

  “What about your passport and wallet?”

  She tapped her tote bag. “I always keep them close. And the spare money hidden in the false bottom of my bag. If the hotel doesn’t have a safe, and I didn’t feel the hotel here would have a safe I could depend on, I keep it all with me.”

  He nodded. “Tickets?”

  “Online booking,” she said.

  “So nothing’s been ruined or stolen.” Nelson stood, took a look around with his hands on his hips. “Can you tell if anything is missing? That’ll be the one of the first things the manager will ask you.”

  She went through her clothing and carry-on bag, which had some of her work. Her paperwork copies were still there, which had been opened and flipped through, but nobody understood what they meant unless they were a mechanical engineer working for the US government on submarines. She’d brought a few manuals she’d wanted to check out if she got a chance. They were still here too. She walked into the bathroom. Her toiletries were still there, though the lipstick was open; so was the eye shadow. She looked at them with revulsion. “Talk about feeling violated.”

  Nelson stepped into the bathroom behind her. “I gather you didn’t leave them like this?”

  Elizabeth shook her head. “What possible reason could they have for opening my makeup?”

  “Checking to see if you had anything hidden in there.”

  She shot him a sideways look. “Do I look like James Bond?”

  He laughed. “Not necessarily, but I guess they didn’t know what kind of connections you had, or if you had people behind you. Like if you’re CIA or FBI or something like that.”

  Her jaw dropped. “Seriously? Is that what they’re looking for? Proof I’m a government agent?”

  “I would be looking to see if you had any interesting connections if I was searching your room,” Nelson said. “Obviously you don’t, and they didn’t find anything because you aren’t connected in that way, and that’ll be the saving grace here.”

  “Who do you think did this?”

  “My first choice would be King,” Nelson said with a smile. “Double-checking he didn’t get taken in by you. Making sure you are who you say you are.”

  She sank down at the end of the bed. “There’s no trust anymore.”

  He shook his head. “Hell no. More than that, it makes good sense on his part to have checked you out. But it would have been nice if they hadn’t destroyed the place in the meantime.”

  “Do you think we’ll see more of him?”

  “Obviously they’re taking note of everything we do, so the answer will be yes.”

  “Good,” she said. “Then I’ll have something to say to him about the way he left my room.”

  Just then a knock came at the door. Nelson looked at her and said, “That’s likely the manager.”

  She groaned, walked to the door, checked through the peep hole and pulled it open.

  The manager came in, took a look around and shook his head. “Was anything taken?”

  “No, it doesn’t appear to be,” she said, “but everything has been tossed. The door is broken. The lock on it is jimmied, and I certainly don’t feel safe that somebody got into one of your rooms.”

  He gave her a half smile. “Normally it doesn’t happen. I’ll get the lock fixed right away.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Nelson said. “She’s checking out.”

  The manager turned to face him. “Oh, there’s no need for that. We’ll be happy to upgrade her room and give her a much nicer one.”

  “She’s not safe here.” Nelson crossed his arms over his chest. “She won’t be able to sleep, knowing the locks are jimmied so easily.”

  “They aren’t,” the manager said, examining the lock. “I don’t understand how that happened.”

  “Well, it did happen,” Elizabeth said. “So no way am I staying another night here.”

  The manager appeared to want to argue, but then he nodded. “I’ll arrange for your checkout then. It’s past the normal time, but, considering the issue, I’ll waive any fees.”

  As he walked out, Nelson snorted. “Good thing.”

  “I feel like I should get some compensation as it is,” Elizabeth said. “But it’s not worth the fight. I just want to get out of here.”

  With his help, they made short work putting the rest of her belongings together and repacking. With one final look around the room, they left. She said, “Presumably the manager will straighten out the rest of the room.”

  “He can’t offer that room again until the lock is fixed.”

  When they got to the main lobby, she finished checking out. The manager had profuse apologies this time. She just ignored him, accepted the paperwork and left. She was certainly not in a high-end hotel, but she hadn’t expected it to be broken into either. She turned to look at Nelson. “So where am I going then?”

  “Taylor has already booked the room beside ours. It connects to the one we have,” Nelson said. “We can talk easier, and we’ll hear if anybody tries to break in again.”

  That was great news. She wasn’t looking forward to sleeping in a new room on her own. “Good,” she said. “And then, being closer, we can work together better.”

  *

  Nelson had to really hold back when he saw her room. He didn’t want her to realize just how dangerous this mission had become. Her room was a targeted attack. A warning. He wasn’t sure exactly what they were after because there hadn’t been anything for them to take. He figured it was King. Now Nelson and Taylor needed to send a message back to leave her alone … or else. He walked into his hotel and checked her in, then moved up to their rooms. He walked into his room with her and opened up the connecting door. He motioned at the adjoining room. “This one is yours.”

  Elizabeth dropped her bag on an overstuffed chair, and they left the connecting door open between them. Back in his room she sat down at the table with her laptop and said, “Any hope Taylor is coming back with food soon?”

  Nelson chuckled. “He’ll be back when he gets back.”

  She looked up at him. “Are you not worried about him? Maybe King wanted to talk to him again.”

  “I think we need to be more worried that Taylor didn’t go and talk to him.”

  She gasped. “He wouldn’t do that without you as backup, would he?”

  Nelson gave her a hard smile. “We’re not pushovers, and we don’t like it when somebody close to us, particularly a defenseless female, has her room searched.”

  She nodded. “I get that. But I don’t want Taylor injured either. Finding one dead body today was more than enough.”

  “It won’t be Taylor next. I think even King realizes he’ll bring more down on his head than he wants if anything happens to Taylor or me.”

  “Why? Do you guys have a badass rule between you?”

  “No,” he said, “but we understand each other, King and I.”

  She smiled at that. “I think we’re dealing with the opposite meaning here.”

  He chuckled. “Just relax. Taylor will be here soon.” He opened his laptop and sat down across from her.

  “I suppose you’re telling Mason now.”

  “I am,” he said. “And Mason’s talking to NCIS.”

  “Which means, they’ll want to talk to me again.”

  “Which is good. Any open dialogue is good. And they’ll look at this from a whole different perspective now. You might have been a pain in the ass for them before, but they might now see you as a valuable resource.”

  She shuddered. “That’s hardly what I’m looking for.”

  “We’re all just looking for answers,” he said. “Keep that in mind.”

  She smiled. “I don’t have anything to do, so, if you don’t mind, I’ll bury myself in some other work. It’ll help calm me down and get my mind off this morning.”

  “Go for it,” he said absentmindedly.

  He was flicking through emails from Mason, making sure he hadn’t missed anything. With the new Gmail system, so often the emails got stacked up, and it was easy to miss one. Just then his phone rang. He pulled it out. “Mason, what’s up?”

  “NCIS will be calling you in about an hour. Peter was, indeed, an active seaman. He went missing the same time Skunk did.”

  “So it is related then?”

  “We’ll proceed on the assumption it is,” Mason said.

  “Are they sending somebody here?”

  “There’ll be one investigator coming later this afternoon. That’s what the call is about. They want to meet with you.”

  “Okay. I’ll be prepared.” He had no sooner hung up when his phone rang again. He frowned. “So much for an hour from now.” He answered it formally and waited for the identification at the other end.

  “This is Special Agent Stan Johnson. I’ll be there in approximately four and a half hours. I’d like to meet up.”

  “Pick the place,” Nelson said, “and we’ll meet then.”

  “I believe you have Elizabeth Etchings there as well. Is that correct?”

  “Yes, that’s correct. And Taylor.”

  “Yes, he’s on my list. If the four of us can meet all at once, I can conclude everything in my investigation and get back home.”

  “It might not conclude that quickly,” Nelson said. “We have one death and one missing person.”

  “Likely connected,” the officer said. “We’ll sort it out when we speak this afternoon.” And he hung up.

  Nelson laid the phone on the table. “That didn’t go well.”

  “He thinks they’re connected, correct? And my brother’s responsible,” she said.

  There was such a fatalistic tone to her voice. “Correct,” he said, “so we don’t have much time to find new evidence before he gets here.”

  “We aren’t likely to,” she said sadly. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t continue to find evidence after he leaves. NCIS will come in to cross their Ts, to dot their Is, to make sure they weren’t negligent, and then they’ll leave.”

  “Yes, but only on a basic level. They already have somebody to pin it on. And I’m afraid your brother is it.” He nodded grimly. “They can do whatever they want to do. We’ll find out the truth. I promise you that.”

  “But how?” She sounded defeated. “As long as my brother runs, he’ll never be there to face the accusations.”

  “I know that,” Nelson said. “And the problem is, if we don’t have something to help clear Chris of these accusations, as soon as Stan arrives, Chris will be considered guilty. All kinds of shitty events will happen to him then. Sure, he has to be found before he can be punished, but the longer he’s missing, the guiltier he’ll look.”

  Elizabeth nodded. “No wonder he ran.”

  “Right? No one wants to be blamed for something like this. Not to mention that, unless there is forensic evidence on the body that leads to who might have done this, Skunk could still take the fall. He was seen with these men, and it’s his word against several men. He’s connected to the case no matter what.”

  “That forensic evidence would be very nice,” she said. “But so far we haven’t had an easy run of it.”

  “It’s not all bad,” he said. “We’ve found out a fair amount.”

  She snorted at that.

  Just then they heard sounds at the door. They could hear Taylor’s voice asking for help. Nelson opened the door to let Taylor in with his bags of takeout. The room filled with warm smells.

  Elizabeth hopped to her feet, closed her laptop and made room on the table as Taylor set his burden down. “Now that smells wonderful,” she cried out.

  He nodded. “We’ve got to eat to keep our energy and our spirits up.”

  She chuckled. “I’ll take it for energy. I don’t know that there’s anything to keep my spirits up.”

  As Nelson moved his laptop, Taylor looked at him. “What’s changed?”

  “NCIS. The inspector is supposed to meet us in four hours,” he said, checking his watch.

  “Great,” Taylor said. “And I presume they’ll take the easy answer and walk away.”

  “We would hope not,” Nelson said, “but you know they’re on a budgeted time frame too.”

  “Not to mention absolutely nothing proves my brother didn’t kill his friend.”

  Taylor opened the bags. “It’s what we expected. They’ll do an investigation, but we can’t blame them if there isn’t much to find. The case will stay open, and your brother will be a wanted man. If we have something to prove his innocence, then we can hopefully track him down, bring him in and get his name cleared.”

  “Sounds like a tall order.” She picked up a piece of fried chicken and chomped away at it.

  Nelson chuckled. “That’s good. Take your temper out on that poor chicken leg,” he teased.

  She flushed. “I figured it was easier than taking it out on your hand.”

  He pulled his hand back in mock shock because he’d been reaching for a piece of chicken too.

  She laughed. “Go ahead. I share.”

  The next hour was enjoyable. They ate comfortably and made a plan for the afternoon. It wasn’t much of a plan, but, short of hounding the local detectives for information, there wasn’t much they could do.

  “I wonder if King knows who killed Peter. If he has any evidence, photos, anything like that?” Elizabeth said.

  “It’s possible, but he won’t let it go easily.”

  “Or cheap, I presume,” she snapped. She finished her second piece of chicken and put down the bone, grabbed a napkin and wiped her fingers. “Nothing quite like the comfort of a hot meal.”

  When Nelson’s phone rang yet again, he groaned. “Can’t even have a decent meal in peace.” He wiped his fingers, answered his phone, and then turned to look at Taylor in surprise. “Absolutely. We can meet in half an hour,” he said. He put his phone down. “That was one of King’s henchmen. Chelsea’s henchmen rather.”

  “What did he want?” Taylor frowned. “That’s not cool that he got your phone number.”

  “They want to meet, and, no, it isn’t.” He turned to look at Elizabeth. “Did you have my cell phone number in your room?”

  She flushed. “Yes, I did. I wrote it down without thinking,” she said. “I do that. I doodle all the time on napkins.”

  “That explains how they got your number,” Taylor said. “But I wonder what King and Queen want?”

  “They’ll want to deal,” Elizabeth said.

  “But what’ll the price be?” Nelson asked. “He didn’t look to be suffering.”

  “No, not money. But I don’t think the henchmen ever have enough,” she said.

  “No way to know until we show up,” he said. “And is it the henchman we’re meeting or Chelsea or King?”

  “I don’t know which one to hope for,” she murmured.

  “I suggest we talk to King,” Nelson stated. “He’s the boss, not the second in command, if she’s in command of anything.”

  They continued to eat; then the men cleaned up. When the phone rang again, Nelson looked at it and said, “It’s the same number. Yes,” he spoke into the phone. “What’s up?”

  “King wants you to bring the girl to the meeting. Ten minutes. Don’t be late.”

  And before he had a chance to say anything, the call was cut off.

  He glanced at Taylor and then Elizabeth. “We’re meeting in ten with King, and he wants to make sure you come too.”

  She shoved her hands in her pockets and nodded. “That’s fine. He doesn’t scare me.”

  “He should.” Taylor’s voice was hard. “Don’t be fooled by his affable manner. He is and always will be a kingpin. That means he runs a lot of people’s lives, and they do his bidding, from murder to prostitution, whether they like it or not.”

  That unsettled her. She nodded. “Got it. He’s not a nice man.”

  “No, he’s not, but it’s possible he might have some leads,” Nelson said. “So we’ll play the game his way. Until that no longer works for us.”

  “Do I bring cash?”

  “Yes,” he said, “but give it to me to carry.”

  She walked through the connecting door and turned to look back at him. “How much?”

  “I hate to ask but maybe a grand?”

  She sucked in her cheeks, nodded and continued to the other room.

  Nelson looked back at Taylor, asking, “What do you think about that price?”

  “I don’t think you’ll get anything important out of him for less.”

  “But does he have anything of value?”

  “Let’s find out,” Taylor said. He grabbed the garbage. “No point in leaving it here. We’ll dump it on our way out.”

  The three together, Nelson holding the cash, walked down the stairs and out the front door. At a streetside garbage can, Taylor dumped all their trash into it, and they kept walking.

  They ended up at the same hotel they had been to before. It opened for them as soon as they reached the top step. Nobody said a word as they walked in. King once again was at the piano. He looked up and smiled. “You want to come and play the piano with me?”

  As if understanding her role, Elizabeth smiled. “I’d love to.”

  At the piano she sat down beside him. He played a set of scales. She matched her finger movements to his, and together they ran the scales, laughing.

  Taylor watched, but Nelson stared. She seemed so natural and comfortable in King’s presence that it blew Nelson away. Nothing seemed to faze her. Whether that was good or bad, he didn’t know. They waited until the recital was over.