Flirting with Danger - Bev Hardy (my miracle luna book free read .txt) 📗

Jackson. Over to you Bates; see if you can find out where her room is, but be discrete for now," Charlotte warned. Bates got out of the car and turned at the open car door to speak to her. 
"What about you? She could spot you here," he pointed out. 
She wrinkled her nose. "It's unlikely, besides," she reached across the dashboard to pick up a pair of sunglasses, "I'll wear these." 
"You're a master of disguise Charlotte," Bates teased, closing the car door and heading towards the hotel entrance. 
While Bates was inside the hotel, Charlotte checked on the camera equipment and took some time to examine the front of the building. They would have a fairly good view of both the entrance and the windows of the hotel rooms... at the front of the hotel anyway. She just hoped that Jackson was staying in one of those front rooms. 
When Bates returned however, she was to be disappointed. 
He had entered the reception area and assessed the front desk while waiting to speak to the receptionist. Seeing his chance to take a look at the register, he had sent the woman on an errand into the back room to look for a spare iron, before reaching over the desk to take a quick note of Jackson's room number. After a swift scan of the key pegs, he had also noted that Jackson's key was unfortunately missing; they wouldn't have a chance to search her room as she was obviously still in it. Bates had then familiarized himself with the layout of the hotel rooms and the location of the one in which Jackson was staying, before returning to Charlotte. 
"She's in the room but it's not this side. There's a car park around the back; we should get a good view from there," he informed her. 
The car park was however, not that big and only had two cars in it at that point. This would leave them extremely exposed and suspicious looking if they were to sit in the car for any length of time. 
"Hmm, any ideas?" Charlotte asked Bates. 
"Leave the surveillance to me," he suggested. "At least then if I'm spotted, they won't know who I am." 
"Not a chance," she replied, scanning the back windows of the building and the surrounding area. She had to get started on this today at least. They needed to figure out Jackson's comings and goings, and hopefully find out who she was collaborating with. Okay, what would Luke do? She had to think outside the box. Then she spotted inspiration and, while in one respect her mind was working overtime to bring her plan to fruition, another part of her brain was telling herself that she was out of her mind. The former won; she abruptly got out of the car. 
"Stay here; I'll be back shortly. I've had an idea," she said to Bates. 
"Do you think that's wise?" he asked, watching as she rushed across the car park and disappeared around the front of the hotel. "Guess so," he concluded wryly. 
It was nearly another twenty minutes before Charlotte returned and slipped back into the driver's seat a little sheepishly. 
"What have you done?" Bates asked, watching her. 
She took in a deep breath. "Well, put it this way, I think we won't be alone in this car park for long." 
Charlotte was right; within the next half an hour, cars began filling up the spaces in the car park. An hour later, and the whole car park was practically full with cars conveniently concealing their presence. 
"How did you do it?" Bates asked, intrigued. 
Charlotte just smiled at him mysteriously. 
The curtains in Jackson's room had been drawn now since Charlotte and Bates had arrived a few hours ago. 
"What on earth is she doing in there?" Charlotte said with frustration. 
"Do you think she knows we're here?" Bates asked. 
"I doubt it. There's been no evidence of movement at all coming from that room," she answered. 
"Maybe she had a late night last night and is still sleeping," he suggested. 
Charlotte checked her watch. It seemed very late for her to still be in bed. "Or maybe she's keeping a low profile for some reason." 
It was over another hour before they finally saw the curtains move. The car park had become so packed with cars that, when more arrived and found there were no free spaces, there was chaos as they tried to turn around in the confined space of the entrance. This led ultimately to a shouting match between two drivers. The curtains opened and, to their delight, it was a man who glanced out of the window angrily. Charlotte grabbed the camera and took a series of shots. 
"Did you get any good pictures?" Bates asked. 
"Yes," she replied excitedly. "All we need now is a positive ID of a Borelli. Let's get these back to the office," she said, beginning the tedious task of untangling themselves from the barricade of cars. 
As they left the car park and joined the main road, Bates noticed a sign stuck to a wall. On it was written, in bold black marker pen, 
"FREE PARKING, THIS WAY."  Imprint

Publication Date: 07-16-2014

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