“Doesn’t matter. Darwin was right about her.”
“In what way?”
“She’s robbing you.”
“No shit?”
He chuckled. “After you guys left I used the key you put in the planter, got your suitcase like we planned. I took it down the hall to my room—I’m in three twenty-six by the way—and when I came out I saw two guys enter your room.”
“With a key?”
He nodded.
“Must have worked a deal with the girl at the front desk.”
“Bellman,” Quinn said.
“You sure?”
“Positive. I went back to the lobby and waited for them. They got off the elevator and went straight to the bell desk and had a loud argument with the bellman. There was enough arm waving for me to spot a prison tat on one of the guys trying to rob you.”
We were quiet a moment.
“You sure Alison’s in on it?” I said.
“Otherwise, why would the bellman think you had something in the suitcase worth stealing?”
“So she flirts me into a dinner date, calls the bellman, he calls the thugs.”
“That’s my guess,” Quinn said.
“Seems pretty risky for an auditor.”
“Auditors look at other people’s money all day long,” Quinn said.
“Good point.”
“Be interesting to see how she plays it tonight,” he said, “when she finds out the robbery was a bust.”
“You think she won’t be able to let it go?”
“Exactly what I’m thinking.”
“So you think the plan will work?”
Augustus Quinn nodded. “Only I think we’ll catch convicts instead of terrorists.”
“Maybe the convicts and terrorists are connected.”
“One way to find out.”
“I better get back,” I said. “Make sure you beat us back to the hotel.”
“Give me a five-minute head start,” he said.
Chapter 29
Back in the restaurant Alison seemed frantic.
“Thank God you’re okay!” she said. “I was so worried about you!”
I had to admit, she was a natural con artist. But I also had to agree with Quinn: the true test would come later that night, when she had to cobble together a Plan B. At the time I was thinking if she could pull it off convincingly, I’d probably offer her a job when this whole thing was over.
“Did you see him?” she said.
