Page 32 of His Impossible Heir

Several of his guards chuckled and the hand disappeared. Somehow, Amanda was able to maintain a straight face until the elevator doors opened. Then she stepped out and looked around with a disdainful glance, scouting out the hallway. The double look was mostly for any other security cameras that might be around, but it was also to determine if anyone else was in the hallways.

“This isn’t the hallway I stayed in last time,” she muttered, still trying not to move her lips.

Daniesh stepped up beside her, showing her a tablet. It only showed a bunch of puppies tumbling in the snow, but he pointed to the middle of the screen as if it were the most important piece of information.

“You were several floors higher, where the suites are located. Mr. Burrows, or Henry Sullivan, since that was the name he checked into the hotel with, was on this floor.”

The group moved down the hallway slightly, then suddenly, Tito stepped up and slapped the keycard on what seemed to be a random doorway. “Invite all of us in,” he grumbled, holding the door open.

Amanda lifted her hand, calling back the other guards, who had meandered further down the hallway. “We need a meeting!” she called out imperiously, and twirled her hand in the air before pointing towards the open door.

Once in the room, where they were safe from the pervasive cameras, the guards immediately spread out, expertly searching the room from top to bottom.

“What in the world?!” Amanda gasped, walking over to the suitcase that was lying open on the bed. “This is filled with my books! Every single one of them!”

Daniesh rushed over, handing her a pair of surgical gloves. “Don’t touchanythinguntil you’ve put these on. We don’t want your fingerprints to be found in here. Since they think you’re guilty, the police still haven’t gotten around to searching this hotel room. They are still investigating you as the only suspect and consider the case closed.”

“Idiots!” she grumbled, then pulled on the gloves, silently thanking Tito for the wig. Fingerprints were easy enough to detect, but she knew enough about forensic evidence to know that hair strands were even better than fingerprints. She started to ask why they hadn’t investigated anyone else, or even attempted to locate evidence in the dead man’s hotel room, but decided she didn’t care. Not anymore.

Carefully, she followed the others’ lead and started methodically going through the man’s belongings. There wasn’t much, but at the bottom of the man’s laptop case, Daniesh found a secret compartment. “Tito!” he called out, gesturing for the other man to come look.

Five passports emerged, one each from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, and Switzerland.

“Didn’t your friends say that they knew of three identities for this guy?” Amanda asked, everyone silent while they stared down at the newest evidence.

“Yeah,” Tito replied. “Let me photograph these and then we should finish the search quickly and get out of here.” He looked around at everyone. “Be sure to put everything back exactly where you found it.”

Everyone nodded dutifully. Obviously, they’d done this sort of thing before. She wasn’t sure if that was comforting or alarming.

A little of each, she decided and shoved the books back into the suitcase.

“Take those with you though,” Tito called out.

Amanda froze, looking over her shoulder at the man. “Take the books?”

“Yes,” he replied with a firm nod. “They imply that the man was obsessed with you. No need to add fuel to the Paris police’s theory that you are involved.”

“Good point,” she agreed, tucking the books under her arm. “But…how are we going to carry all of these out?” she asked. There were four of them. The fifth book that she’d released was the one that the police had found with the body days before.

“We’ll each take one of the books and walk out the back of the hotel. We’ll be seen, but it won’t be too obvious.”

“Excellent plan,” she replied and stacked the books, then fluffed the clothes so that the suitcase didn’t look suspiciously empty.

“What about this, sir?” one of the other guards called out, bringing over the man’s toiletries case. “There are five bullets here and two syringes.”

Tito’s jaw clenched and he sighed. “Normally, I’d take one of those syringes and get it tested. But really, we need the police to find it.”

“Why not take one?”

Tito considered that, but before he could answer, Daniesh raised the question that had also just occurred to Amanda.

“Did the guy have a third syringe on him when he snuck into your room?”

Amanda’s mouth went dry at the possibilities.

She turned to Tito. “Take one of them!” she hissed. “If that man was trying to drug me, and the only thing that stopped him was someone murdering him, then I deserve to know!”

Everyone looked a bit grimmer after that. Tito nodded curtly and pocketed one of the syringes out of the toiletries case. “Everyone do one last quick search of the room, but change areas. Double check everything since we can’t vacuum up forensic evidence or dust for fingerprints.”

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