Page 61 of Trust No One

So it was back to business. “Yeah,” she said. She glanced at him. “There’ll be a rental facility at the airport. Is that what you’re thinking?”

He shook his head. “Hell, no. Too busy. Too many people. I liked that storefront location where we got this car. It was quick, easy and painless. Let’s go back there.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Mel said.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened on their floor. They each went into their own room, Dev putting his finger to his lips to remind Mel not to say anything.

The wand was in his room, so he swept the space carefully, checking everything. When he got to the bathroom, the scanner dinged as he passed it over his kit bag.

Tightening his grip on the wand for a moment, he set it on the counter and carefully removed everything from his bag. In one corner he found a tiny bug that would have been easy to miss. If he hadn’t looked closely, it would have appeared to be a ball of lint.

He used a pair of tweezers he kept in the bag to pull it out. Setting in on the counter, he studied it from every angle. It was cleverly constructed with a tiny net of woven fibers covering the metallic microphone of the device.

He stared at it for a long moment, then picked up the bug with the tweezers and put it in the drawer beneath the sink. Slid it all the way to the back of the drawer, so it wouldn’t be easily noticed.

Then he finished scanning the bathroom and the sleeping area. Nothing else alerted. But someone had been in his room this morning, because the bug hadn’t been there when they’d gotten back from The Anchor last night.

He padded to the connecting door, opened his side and tapped lightly on Mel’s door. She opened it, her mouth open ready to say something, but he clamped his fingers over her mouth. Shook his head. Mouthed ‘no talking’ then pulled her into his room. Took her into the bathroom and showed her the device.

She frowned at it for a long moment, then looked over at him. Anger flashed in her eyes, and her hands fisted.

He put his hands over hers. Nodded. Then grabbed the wand and led her to her bedroom.

They found another bug in Mel’s suitcase, tucked into one of the pockets. It was identical to the one he’d found in his kit bag. Dev used his tweezers to pluck it out of the suitcase pocket, then set it carefully on the desk.

They both scanned the room, looking for a place to leave it. Finally, Dev picked the bug up with the tweezers and put it on the high shelf in the closet. He looked at Mel, and she nodded.

They checked all their tells – Mel’s brush, left at a specific angle on the bathroom counter, on the floor, but none of them had been disturbed. Then they packed their bags as quietly as possible, made sure nothing was missing, since someone had been in their rooms earlier, then stepped into the hall with their suitcases and their computer bags. Once more, Mel started to speak, but he shook his head. Slid his hand over her mouth again, trying not to notice how soft her lips were against his palm.

They were silent in the elevator. Silent as they walked out the back door. Silent as they loaded the suitcases into the trunk.

Then Dev pulled out the scanner and opened the car doors. Starting with the trunk and engine compartment, he scanned the whole car. When he got to the back seat, the scanner dinged.

Inside the pocket on the back of the driver’s seat, he found another bug.

Tearing off a piece of the duct tape Dev always kept in his car, they taped the bug to the bottom of the hood of the car.

After replacing the scanner in his suitcase, he slid into the driver’s seat. Mel climbed into the passenger’s seat and closed the door. She turned to him and said, “What the hell, Dev? That asshole bugged our car and our rooms!”

Chapter 21

“Yeah, and the desk clerk knew something was up,” Mel said immediately. “Did you notice how he wouldn’t look directly at us? He was sweating and nervous, and he dropped my credit card.”

“Yeah, I saw that. Bastard.” Dev wrapped his hand around Mel’s, squeezing tightly. Mel allowed herself to cling to him for a few moments, then she eased her hand away.

“The good news is, it took Kingsley this long to figure out where we’re staying,” he said, studying her with his intense blue eyes. “I’ll take that as a win. It means we were damn careful. Smart about what we did.” He grinned. “Must have driven Kingsley bat-shit crazy that he couldn’t find us immediately.”

“But how did those bugs get in our rooms? We both had Do Not Disturb signs on our doors. No one from the hotel should have gone into our rooms.”

“Money talks,” Dev said. “And someone clearly listened.”

“Let’s not leave yet,” Mel said, turning to grab her computer bag from the rear seat. “I’m gonna try and hack into the hotel’s system and take a look at the security cameras in our hallway.”

She opened her computer and typed furiously. She felt Dev’s eyes on her, but her complete focus was her computer. The hotel security. After about ten minutes, she was in. The first thing she did was pull up security camera shots from the third floor.

Dev leaned over to watch with her. “There’s the housekeeper,” she murmured as the woman rolled her heavy cart past their doors. She stopped at the next door in the hall, pulled out a key card and entered the room.

“So we know it wasn’t the housekeeper,” Dev said.

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