‘But my photographer—’
‘Just come alone.’
‘OK,’ I said reluctantly. ‘I’d better get back out there.’
‘Be careful,’ he cautioned. ‘The bartender will talk if he sees anything suspicious. Don’t give him reason.’
It probably wasn’t a great time to tell him that the bartender had been tipped off to look out for Australian tourists and had possibly already called Grady, so I slipped out of the room and returned to the front bar. Nick was pacing up and down, looking agitated. His face was red. I tried to signal to him to keep his reaction to a minimum, but it was too late.
‘What took you so long? What were you doing in there?’
‘Relax, honey.’ I tried to make my voice sound bright. ‘I wasn’t feeling well. I think I need to go back to the hotel and lie down for a while.’
I snuck a look at the bartender, but he didn’t appear to be listening. Nick turned without a word, flung the door open and set off up the street. I followed.
‘You shouldn’t have gone off at me like that,’ I said once we’d reached the main road. ‘You drew attention to us.’
He gave me an accusing look. ‘What do you expect? You disappeared for twenty minutes! You think that didn’t attract attention?’
‘If you’d shut up for more than five seconds I could actually tell you what I was doing. I found an office down the hallway, so I had a look to see if I could find any clues.’
‘Well? Did you?’
I hesitated. I didn’t know why, but something was stopping me from telling him about the ominous message I’d recorded. ‘I found Ford.’ I fixed my gaze on the footpath, guilty for the half-truth.
‘Are you serious?’ Nick stopped and grasped my arm so I had no choice but to look up into his face. His smile was so genuine that my insides went all melty and warm. ‘That’s fantastic! What’d he say?’
‘It wasn’t the right time or place. He’s going to tell me everything tonight.’
‘I knew you could get him to talk! So when are we meeting him?’
The guilt speared into me. He believed in me. He was the only one who believed in me, and now I was going to have to cut him out of the action at the crucial moment.
‘Actually, there’s no we,’ I said. ‘He asked me to come alone.’
‘Bullshit.’ Nick let go of my arm instantly. ‘You’re not going on your own. And you’re not taking my camera.’
‘I don’t want your camera. We won’t need photos yet, and I can’t risk scaring him off. I need him to feel safe talking to me.’
He stared at me, his eyes blazing. ‘I’ve helped you all along the way, and now you don’t need me anymore, is that it?’
‘No, that’s not it!’ I exclaimed. ‘He’s only just started to trust me. I can’t betray him because you feel left out.’ He set off up the footpath again, and I had to trot to catch up. ‘He’ll get us a photo op. Tonight is just about getting the background. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have a concrete plan.’
He didn’t answer.
‘Come on, Nick, don’t be such a grumpy bastard. I promise I’ll come and tell you all about it when I’m done.’
But he just walked faster and I fell back, watching his strides grow longer as he drew away from me.
As soon as I was back in my room, I listened to the message again. The hair on my arms stood on end and my heart pounded at the sound of Grady’s voice. I shivered involuntarily.
We’ll have to get rid of him.
Perhaps Grady had murdered Angus. Perhaps he’d led Chris here to get him out of the way.
A horrible thought popped into my head: if I hadn’t been snooping around in the office, Chris might have found that message himself. It would’ve given him a warning, a chance to escape. But I’d robbed him of that chance. By keeping the information from him, I’d put him in more danger than he was already in. He could be suffering the same fate as Angus right now, and I’d made it happen.
I had to go back there now, find Chris and warn him.
There was a sudden pounding on my door. I almost jumped out of my skin. What if Grady had found me? What if he was going to try to remove me from the picture?
‘Burrowes!’ bellowed a familiar voice. ‘You in there?’
My shoulders slumped in relief. ‘Coming.’
I stuffed the voice recorder in my bag and opened the door to Nick.
‘Hey, I’m sorry about before—’ He stopped when he saw my face. ‘Are you OK? You look kind of spooked.’
I managed to force a smile despite my skittering heart. ‘I’m fine. I just dozed off for a few minutes and you scared me. What’s up?’
‘I wanted to apologise for earlier. I was a dick.’
A faint ripple of surprise filtered through my anxiety. This apologetic, self-deprecating Nick was coming out with greater frequency every day. The part of me that wasn’t freaking out about the Ford problem wanted to gloat, just a little bit. But I couldn’t afford to indulge in more banter right now. I had to get him out of here so I could get back to Le Chat Masqué.
‘Don’t mention it. I’ll let you know how I go.’
He hovered in the doorway, but I didn’t invite him in. For an uncomfortable moment we performed a dance of sorts where he tried to get into the room and I kept stepping in his way, then he grasped my arms to hold me still, walked in and closed the door. His eyes gleamed with amusement, but my throat was tight. I resisted the urge to push him aside and run.
‘Anyway,’ he said, ‘I was just wondering if you wanted to grab a quick dinner before you go to meet Ford?’
I hesitated. I wanted to tell him the truth. I really wanted to tell him, just so I didn’t
