Page 47 of Be Very Quiet

“Will do.” He pinned Luca with a gaze so intense, he would’ve shuddered if he’d been intimidated by the man. “Keep her safe.”

Luca parroted his words back to him. “Will do.”

Once Rutger left, Luca said, “Audria and I need to go to a task force meeting in an hour. Christian, you stay here with Liliana. Audria and I will check Speke’s place out before we head to the police station.”

“Be careful,” Liliana said as they left.

Audria drove and five minutes later turned into the parking lot of a chain hotel. “He’s in room 402.”

They entered through a side door that was supposed to require a key, but someone had propped it open with a rock.

“Makes you feel safe, doesn’t it?” Luca deadpanned.

They took the elevator to the fourth floor. Luca knocked on the door, but no one answered.

“Wait here,” Audria said and then disappeared around a corner. She returned, waving a key card. “I swiped it from a housekeeping cart, so we have to hurry.”

Luca was impressed. Technically, they were breaking the law, and anything they found wouldn’t be admissible in a court of law. It was only a problem if he’d still had his old job. He donned a pair of gloves and slid the card into the slot. When the green light flashed, he turned the handle. They both grabbed their weapons.

“Speke? You here?”

No one answered, so they slipped inside. The room was a wreck, with the sheets, pillows, and comforter strewn off the bed. Empty pizza boxes were stacked beside an overflowing trash can filled with beer bottles. Towels littered the floor. Despite the carnage, it was evident that the room was utterly devoid of personal items.

Audria had come to the same conclusion. “He’s checked out.”

“Let’s talk to the front desk clerk.”

As they left, a member of the maintenance staff was searching through the housekeeping cart. “Where did I put that key?” the woman mumbled to herself.

Audria stealthily tossed it to the floor. “Excuse me.”

The woman looked up. “Can I help you? Do you need anything for your room? More towels?”

“No, I saw you searching for something. Is that what you’re looking for?” She pointed to the card beneath the wheel of the cart.

The woman let out a relieved sigh and bent down to pick it up. “Oh, thank the heavens. It is. I must’ve dropped it and not realized it. Thank you.”

“No problem.”

Luca was waiting for her down the hallway with an amused smile. “Nice. And to think you used to uphold federal rules and regulations.”

“Hey, where do you think I learned my spy-like ways?”

They reached the registration desk. A young man with curly black hair was handing a receipt to a family of three. When they left, he smiled at them. “Welcome. Do you have a reservation?”

Luca detected a hint of a Jamaican accent. “No, Cosi,” he read from the nametag, “I need to ask you a couple of questions.” He flashed his COBRA Securities identification.

“How can I help you, Mr. Russo?”

“A man was renting a room with a short-term lease, but I can’t contact him. Can you tell me if Douglas Speke is still registered?”

Cosi looked hesitant. “I’m not supposed to give out client information.”

“Would it help to know I was an FBI agent?”

Cosi’s eyes widened at Audria’s statement. “Yes. I don’t want to interfere with official government business.”

Luca gave Audria the side-eye. They were skirting the edge of the law. He didn’t mind bending the truth when necessary, but it was hard to remove the cop he used to be from the situation. However, she’d phrased it correctly. She had been an agent. Gray area. All good.

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