Garret's Gambit by Dale Mayer (book club books .TXT) 📗

just know she hasn’t responded to any communication from me, and she’s obviously not here, nor has she been here in a while.”

He nodded. “Definitely something suspicious is going on.” He did a thorough search of the hotel room and then looked at the suitcase and said, “I need to check that over.”

“Go for it,” she said. “She’s hardly here to argue.”

“And yet somehow I hear her voice screaming at me in the background.”

She laughed at that. “It’s funny, the things we remember.”

“Not really,” he said. “The only thing I remember is the betrayal.”

“Because that’s where you were hurt the most,” she said, with a nod. He looked at her and frowned. “No, I’m not psychoanalyzing you,” she said, with a wave of her hand. “But it makes sense when you think about it.”

“And what if I don’t want to think about it?” he said. “Your sister is not somebody I ever really want to think about.”

“And yet this doesn’t give us much chance to do anything other than think about her.”

He shrugged. “Potentially,” he said, unwilling to buckle.

She smiled and said, “You have to gamble sometimes.”

“I’m not a gambler.”

“I know,” she said, “but sometimes you have to take people on faith. You have to take a gamble on them.”

“Can’t say I’ll do that again. I did that with your sister. The only way to deal with her is with an attack plan and placing the opening gambit.”

She winced at that. “Not everybody is my sister,” she said, with asperity.

“Maybe not, but, once I found out that there were people like your sister,” he said, “you can bet that I pulled back on the trust factor.”

“Got it,” she said, “and again, not everybody is my sister.”

“No, but enough are out there,” he said, “that I really don’t want to have anything to do with her, or him for that matter, ever again.”

She groaned. “You’ll have to get over that,” she snapped.

“And why is that?” he asked.

“Because that attitude won’t serve you very well for long.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s served me quite well so far.”

“You’re just bitter.”

“Maybe so, “he said, “but that’s life.”

“It’s only life if you don’t want to change.”

He shot her hard look. “Did you have a reason for this crazy conversation?”

“No, I just thought it would be important to share it with you,” she said, with a shrug. “Did you see anything, in my sister’s stuff?”

“No,” he said. “Nothing’s here. Her purse is gone. There’s nothing personal—no paperwork, no wallet, nothing like that.”

“Makes sense,” she said.

“How does it make sense?”

“She’d take her purse, if she made a fast run out of here,” she said. “Then obviously something could be going on.”

“Maybe, but it’s also possible that she was kidnapped from this room, and they snatched her purse too. Or she was out shopping and was taken off the street.” He looked up and frowned, adding, “Because I found no car keys, no hotel keys either.”

“Oh.” She looked around and said, “No, you’re right. But then those would be in her purse, right?”

“Potentially.”

*

Garret pulled out his phone and called Jonas. “You want to help? Check video feeds of people leaving around the hotel. Amy’s purse isn’t here. I found no hotel key to get in and out. If she’s been snatched outside, there should be video of it somewhere.”

“Will do.” And, with that, he hung up.

“That was fast,” she said.

“No need to prolong it. Either somebody can find her face out there on the cameras or not.”

“Do you think it’s possible that she was snatched outside?”

“That makes the most sense to me, yes. Inside, they have to find a way to get her out of here. Outside, she’s already there and could quickly be moved into a vehicle. But unless somebody is actually looking for something like that, nobody’ll go through those hours on a camera feed to find it.”

“How can they even do that anyway?”

“Facial recognition software,” he said. “Even then, it’s hit or miss. Takes a lot of time, so you need a lot of computer power to spare to do it.”

“You have somebody to do that?”

“I just tagged MI6,” he said. “She’s gone missing on their watch, after all.”

“Well, they were hardly watching her,” she murmured.

“Don’t you worry,” he said. “If they’ve been watching for my brother, they’ve been watching for her.”

“Shit,” she said. “Is there a chance that this whole thing is a government-run deal?”

He stopped, looked at her, and said, “Better not be. You haven’t seen me angry, but, if I find out Jonas’s involved in this—”

“The only reason for that would be … what?”

“Oh, if they are looking for my brother and have no way to find him.”

“But wouldn’t they contact you about that?”

“Well, guess who picked us up at the airport? You saw him yourself.”

“That still doesn’t make any sense.”

“They work in mysterious ways,” he murmured. “The only reason they’d be interested in my brother is if they think he has something to do with something else.” He pulled out his phone, called Jonas, and said, “Did you take her?”

On the other end, Jonas squawked, “What?”

“Did you take Amy? Hoping that she’d lead you to my brother maybe?”

“No,” Jonas said, his tone forceful and believable. “We didn’t take her.”

“Good thing,” he said. “You know I’d have your heart, if you did.”

“Thanks so much for the trust,” Jonas snapped.

“Just checking.” He hung up his phone, then turned and looked at her. “Nope, they don’t have her.”

“And you trust him?”

“Remember that part about not trusting anybody?”

“But you trust your team?”

“Give it a rest, will you?” he said, suddenly tired. “I trust those I trust, but, once that trust is broken, it’s hard to get it back.”

“Good point,” she murmured, as they walked toward the door. “Anything else to be looked at in here?”

“No,” he said. Just then a knock came on the door. He watched, as she froze instantly. He lifted his finger to his lips, walked to the door to the adjoining hotel room, and motioned for her to come toward him.