'Twenty minutes.'
'All right, listen. We desperately need to find him. His brother has taken our money and disappeared. Call the locals there in Mobile. Tell them who you are, and that an escaped murderer is on the loose in town. They've probably got Ray McDeere's name and picture stuck to the walls. His mother lives in Panama City Beach, so alert every local between there and Mobile. I'm sending in our troops.'
'Okay. I'm sorry, sir. We weren't told to trail' him forever.'
'We'll discuss it later.'
At ten, Mitch called the Perdido Beach Hilton for the second time. He asked for Rachel James. No arrival. He asked for Lee Stevens. One moment, she said. Mitch sat on the floor and waited intently. The line to the room was ringing. After a dozen rings, someone picked up.
'Yeah.' It was quick.
'Lee?' Mitch asked.
A pause. 'Yeah.'
'This is Mitch. Congratulations.'
Ray fell on the bed and closed his eyes. 'It was so easy, Mitch. How'd you do it?'
'I'll tell you when we have time. Right now, there are a bunch of folks trying to kill me. And Abby. We're on the run.
'Who, Mitch?'
'It would take ten hours to tell the first chapter. We'll do it later. Write this number down. 615- 889-4380.'
'That's not Memphis.'
'No, it's Nashville. I'm in an apartment that's serving as mission control. Memorize that number. If I'm not here, the phone will be answered by a girl named Tammy.'
'Tammy?'
'It's a long story. Just do as I say. Sometime tonight, Abby will check in there under the name of Rachel James. She'll be in a rented car.'
'She's coming here!'
'Just listen, Ray. The cannibals are chasing us, but we're a step ahead of them.'
'Ahead of who?'
'The Mafia. And the FBI.'
'Is that all?'
'Probably. Now listen to me. There is a slight chance Abby is being followed. You've got to find her, watch her and make damned sure no one is behind her.'
'And if they are?'
'Call me, and we'll talk about it.'
'No problem.'
'Don't use the phone except to call this number. And we can't talk much.'
'I've got a bunch of questions, little brother.'
'And I've got the answers, but not now. Take care of my wife and call me when she gets there.'
'Will do. And, Mitch, thanks.'
'Adios.'
An hour later Abby turned off Highway 182 onto the winding driveway to the Hilton. She parked the four- door
Two minutes later, a yellow cab from Mobile stopped under the veranda, behind the shuttle vans. Ray watched the cab. A woman was in the back seat leaning forward and talking to the driver. They waited a minute. She pulled money from her purse and paid him. She got out and waited until the cab drove away. The woman was a blonde, and that was the first thing he noticed. Very shapely, with tight black corduroy pants. And black sunglasses, which seemed odd to him because it was pushing midnight. She walked suspiciously to the front doors, waited a minute, then went in. He watched her carefully. He moved toward the lobby.
The blonde approached the only clerk behind the registration desk. 'A single room, please,' he heard her say.
The clerk slid a registration form across the counter. The blonde wrote her name and asked, 'That lady who just checked in before me, what's her name? I think she's an old friend.'
The clerk nipped through the registration cards. 'Rachel James.'
'Yeah, that's her. Where's she from?'
'It's a Memphis address,' the clerk said.
'What's her room number? I'd like to say hello.'
'I can't give room numbers,' the clerk said.
The blonde quickly pulled two twenties from her purse and slid them across the counter. 'I just want to say hello.'
The clerk took the money. 'Room 622.'
The woman paid in cash. 'Where are the phones?'
'Around the corner,' the clerk said. Ray slid around the corner and found four pay phones. He grabbed a middle one and began talking to himself.
The blonde took a phone on the end and turned her back to him. She spoke softly. He could hear only pieces.
'… checked in … Room 622… Mobile… some help … I can't … an hour?… yes… hurry…'
She hung up, and he talked louder into his dead phone.
Ten minutes later, there was a knock at the door. The blonde jumped from the bed, grabbed her .45 and stuck it in the corduroys under the shirt. She ignored the safety chain and cracked the door.
It burst open and knocked her against the wall. Ray lunged at her, grabbed the gun and pinned her to the floor. With her face in the carpet, he stuck the barrel of the .45 in her ear. 'If you make a sound, I'll kill you!'
She stopped struggling and closed her eyes. No response.
'Who are you?' Ray demanded. He pushed the barrel deeper into her ear. Again, no response.
'Not a move, not a sound. Okay? I'd love to blow your head off.'
He relaxed, still sitting on her back, and ripped open her flight bag. He dumped its contents on the floor and found a pair of clean tennis socks. 'Open your mouth,' he demanded.
She did not move. The barrel returned to her ear, and she slowly opened her mouth. Ray crammed the socks in between her teeth, then tightly blindfolded her with the silk nightshirt. He bound her feet and hands with panty hose, then ripped the bedsheets into long strips. The woman did not move. When he finished the binding and gagging, she resembled a mummy. He slid her under the bed.
The purse contained six hundred dollars in cash and a wallet with an Illinois driver's license. Karen Adair from Chicago. Date of birth: March 4, 1962. He took the wallet and gun.
The phone rang at 1 A.M., and Mitch was not asleep. He was in bank records up to his waist. Fascinating bank records. Highly incriminating.
'Hello,' he answered cautiously.
'Is this mission control?' The voice was in the vicinity of a loud jukebox.
