“I’ll check in later.”
“Okay.”
Quinn took a few steps toward the front door, then stopped and looked back in the direction of the bathroom. Liz still hadn’t come out.
He started to open his mouth, then paused, and turned back to the front door. “Call me if there’s a problem.”
He pulled the door open and left.
“WHERE ARE YOU?” ORLANDO ASKED.
“I just got off the subway,” Quinn said into his phone. “I should be back to you in five.”
“All right. I’ll prop the door open. But knock once before you walk in.”
Quinn was instantly alert. “What’s going on?”
“You’ll see when you get here.”
He hesitated, then said, “Orlando. How are things?” It was their code phrase. If she didn’t answer correctly, he’d know she was not in control of her situation.
“Things are things,” she said.
The I’m-okay response. He relaxed.
“But …” She stopped. “Just hurry up.”
Quinn made it to the Silvain Hotel in two minutes and all but ran up the stairs to his room. The door was propped open by the deadbolt.
He knocked once.
“Come on in,” Orlando said.
The first thing he saw as he pushed the door open was Orlando standing in front of the television. She’d been armed only with a hairbrush when he’d left her, but now she was holding a gun in each hand, and was facing the bed.
“Welcome to the party,” she said.
Quinn engaged the deadbolt on the door, then walked the rest of the way into the room.
There were two other people present. A middle-aged man with dark hair was sitting on the bed, leaning against the headboard. And in the chair squeezed between the left side of the bed and the far wall sat a woman. But not just any woman.
Neither was tied up, but with Orlando covering each of them with a gun, they weren’t going anywhere.
“Okay,” Quinn said. “This is interesting.”
“You think?” Orlando handed him one of the guns. “They showed up not long after I got here with Annabel.”
“Where is she?”
“In the bathroom.”
Quinn glanced at the closed bathroom door.
“She’s not using it,” Orlando said. “She’s tied up.”
Quinn looked back at the bed. “So they knew you were here.”
“They were watching the room. I caught a glimpse of the guy when we arrived. He made me a little suspicious, so I slipped my hose camera under the door for a look. I saw him peeking out of the stairwell every so often. He was definitely interested in us, so I decided to see if he wanted to come for a visit. The woman was a bonus.”
“What have they told you?”
“Not much. And once I got their guns …”
“Remind me to ask you how you did that later.”
“… they pretty much stopped talking.”
“I would have thought the opposite.”
“Me too,” she said. “The guy’s Mikhail. And the woman’s—”
“Petra,” Quinn said.
The Russian woman’s mouth all but dropped open in surprise.
“What did she say before she shut up?” he asked.
“Pretty much the same thing she told you at the park. That she’s been looking for you. That she wants to talk to you. Blah, blah, blah. That was it, though.”
“Okay, Petra,” Quinn said, taking a step toward the woman. “Why is it we keep running into each other?”
