Page 57 of Bulletproof Jack: Hunting Lee Child's Jack Reacher

“Thanks, Todd. I’ll come down tomorrow with everything else, I promise.” She glanced at the room number. Two twelve. “Oh, and my friend is parking the car. I’ll just text him our room number so he doesn’t have to bother you again. You can ignore the bell when he comes in. Get some sleep.”

“Okay. That’d be great,” Todd replied.

“Again, I’m really sorry to bother you. I can’t believe how scattered I am sometimes.”

He yawned. “No problem.”

Kim waved with the back of her hand and felt his sleepy-eyed gaze following her, but she didn’t turn around. When she reached the elevator, she looked again to confirm that Todd had left his post. With luck, he was already snoring on his cot.

She envied him. She’d like to be sleeping right now, too.

Kim pressed the elevator button for the second floor. There was a third floor, but a special card was required to access that one.

She texted the room number to Russell. He sent her a thumbs-up emoji in response. She frowned. He should be here by now. How far did he have to go to park, anyway?

At the second floor, Kim left the elevator and waited until it began the return trip to the lobby.

As she expected, no one else was walking around the halls at this time of night. Aside from the creaks and groans of historic buildings everywhere, the place was quiet.

Room 212 was on the right, near the end of the corridor.

Kim crept forward and stood to one side of the doorway. She gloved up and then held the key card firmly in her left hand.

Mindful of Russell’s warning, she readied her weapon. He wasn’t wrong. Better to be paranoid than dead.

Searching a dark room when an armed person could be inside was a dangerous task. Entry doorways were choke points and they weren’t called fatal funnels for nothing.

In this case, the fatal funnel was on either side of the doorway, as deep as the door was wide and just as high.

The bottom of the fire door snugged tightly to the carpet beneath it. So tight that interior light, should there be any, couldn’t possibly escape.

Which was a good design for fire protection and control, but not great for Kim’s purposes. No way to know whether the room was completely dark or brightly lit. Either way, she’d be vulnerable as soon as she opened the door.

Kim listened for noises inside. She heard nothing, but not everyone snored as loud as her father. The occupants might be light sleepers. They could wake up at the slightest noise.

According to the desk clerk, this was a two-bedroom suite. Both bedrooms could be unoccupied. Which was okay. Or either room could be occupied, which was definitely not okay.

What did Westwood’s killer need with two bedrooms? Accomplices. Simple as that.

It made sense that the skinny man’s posse might be waiting here for his return.

Or maybe he’d planned to bring Westwood back with him and now that they were both dead, both bedrooms of the suite were vacant. Which also made sense.

She glanced at her watch.

Russell should be here by now. Where was he?

Another five minutes passed.

Kim was antsy now. Her gut said she’d been standing there too long. Another guest or the hotel’s CCTV could find her actions odd enough to call the police. Which was, right at the moment, the last thing she wanted.

She needed to move. But where?

Russell knew where she was. Something must have delayed him. He’d be there as soon as he could.

Odds were the room was empty. And if it wasn’t, she’d deal with the situation as it happened.

Kim took a deep breath and swiped the key card. The lock clicked open. She breathed a bit easier.

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