of quality and alphabet-with the Alexis. I figured I'd end up at the Westin when I hit the bottom of the list, but it turned out I didn't have to go that far. I hit pay dirt in the S 's when I got as far as the Sorrento.
As soon as the phone started ringing in a room, I slammed down the receiver. They were there, in a local hotel, and checked in under their own names-or at least under their most recent aliases. That meant Captain Freeman was right. Had Moise and Avram been crooked, they wouldn't have been nearly that easy to find. Now what?
I sat there for several minutes, pondering my next move. Should I hie myself up to the Sorrento, call from the lobby, invite them down for a drink in the bar? No, that didn't seem wise. After all, although these two men weren't really police officers, I had to believe they were trained professionals. They might take a very dim view of being tracked down in a strange city by a lone local cop who shouldn't have had any idea who they were or what they were up to. And if they decided to get physical about my interfering in their lives, no doubt they would both be fully capable of handling themselves in a crisis.
Once upon a time, I wouldn't have thought twice about waltzing up to the Sorrento all by myself, but age and wisdom and scars all go hand in hand. In this line of work, you either get smarter or you die, so after a few moments of consideration, I looked up Sue Danielson's home number and dialed it.
''lo,' a surly young male voice answered.
'Hello,' I said. 'Is your mother there?'
'I'm on the other line,' Jared Danielson said. 'Could you call back later, after I'm done?'
'No,' I said. 'I can't call back later.'
I have very little patience with the self-appointed gatekeepers of the world, whether they be officially sanctioned receptionist types or simply self-centered teenagers who don't want to relinquish the phone to anyone else, especially to someone so undeserving as a mere bill-paying parent.
'This is business,' I answered abruptly. 'And it's important. I need to speak to your mother right away.'
'Okay,' he said. 'Just a minute.'
It was actually quite a bit more than a minute. It was more than two minutes, but I'll be damned if I was going to give up.
Eventually, Sue's voice came on the phone. 'Hello. Is this call for me?'
'Yes, it's for you, dammit!'
'Beau?'
'Yes. I'm calling from down at the department. Tell Jared the next time he doesn't put me through to you right away, I'm going to come over and personally ream his ass.'
'What a good idea.' Sue laughed. 'I'll pass the word. Now, what's happening?'
'Have you had dinner yet?'
'No. We spent the afternoon painting the kids' bathroom. I told the boys we'd order a pizza later on, but I haven't quite gotten around to that yet. We're still cleaning up.'
'Go ahead and order pizza, but just enough for the boys.'
'What about me?' she objected. 'I'm starved.'
'Put on your glad rags. We have to pay a call on yet another joint, but don't wear your salsa-dancing costume. I don't think the folks who hang out in the Hunt Club at the Sorrento speak salsa dancing. How long will it take for you to meet me there?'
'An hour maybe. I'll have to jump in the shower.'
'I'll see you there, but tell that son of yours for me that this isn't a date, either.'
When Sue hung up, I thumbed through my notebook until I found Michael Morris' telephone number at his parents' home on Mercer Island. A woman answered my ring. When I asked for Michael, I could hear the curiosity in her voice as she handed him the phone.
'Hello, Michael,' I said. 'Detective Beaumont. Are you busy?'
'We were about to sit down to dinner,' he answered. 'I'm not home all that often, and my mother invited friends over.'
'What are the chances of your bailing out?'
'Maybe my mother wouldn't kill me if I told her it was urgent, but why? What's up?'
'I need you to come down to the Sorrento with me to help identify the two men who visited you and Kari up in Bellingham.'
'You've found them?'
'I think so, but I need your help to be sure.'
'How soon do you need me?'
'As soon as possible. Don't go to the hotel. I'm here in my office in the Public Safety Building. Come here first,' I told him. 'There's a guard downstairs. You can't come up to the fifth floor, but he'll call to let me know you're here. We'll ride over to the hotel together.'
'Don't you want me to go get Kari so she could be there, too?'
'No,' I said, 'let's leave Kari out of this for the time being. She might have more of a conflict than you do when it comes to all this.'
'Oh,' Michael Morris said after a moment's thought. 'I see what you mean,' he added. 'I'll be there just as soon as I can.'
Michael and I arrived early, even after swinging by Belltown Terrace so I could put on something a little more appropriate for the rarefied atmosphere of the Sorrento. We commandeered a table in the well-appointed lobby-a table that allowed us an unobstructed view of both the front entrance and the elevator. We drank coffee, watched, and waited until Sue arrived.
Once again, she looked surprisingly good. After I ordered another coffee, one for Sue, I told her so.
She grinned. 'Every woman looks good in a little black dress,' she said. 'But I came prepared.' The matching evening bag that dangled by a string over one shoulder had a peculiar bulge and weight to it. I was glad to see she was carrying.
'Good,' I said while Michael Morris' eyes bulged. I don't think the idea of real guns and real bullets had ever crossed his mind until that very moment.
The plan was simple. Sue and I took our positions-Sue in the wing-backed chair nearest the door that entered the lobby from the stairwell, and I at a point across from both the elevator and the main entrance. Michael's job was twofold. First he was to use the telephone and call to see if either Moise or Avram would answer the phone. If so, Michael was to tell them that he had important information to share with them. Hopefully, using that ruse, he could charm one or the other of the two men into coming down to the lobby for a conference.
That done, Michael was to position himself so he could see as much of the lobby area as possible and give us a prearranged signal as soon as either man appeared in the lobby. From that point on, Michael was ordered to leave everything else to Sue and me.
When Michael went over to use the phone, my heart started beating faster in my chest. The prospect of some kind of physical confrontation always gets the adrenaline flowing. I'm sure Sue was affected the same way. That's a conditioned response with cops-a way of life.
We couldn't hear exactly what Michael was saying while he was on the phone. When he finished the call, he retreated to his assigned chair and slumped down in it while Sue and I kept watch on the lights over the elevator door. Moments after Michael regained the chair, the elevator began rising from the ground floor in answer to a summons. It stopped on Four, and the down arrow came back on.
When the elevator door slid open, only one man stood revealed in the opening-a man of about my age, weight, and height. Glancing warily from side to side, he stepped into the lobby. Michael Morris rubbed his chin-the affirmative signal we'd been looking for.
As the man moved forward, so did I. 'Mr. Steinman,' I said, cutting off his access to the entrance and holding out my I.D. 'I'm Detective J. P. Beaumont with the Seattle Police Department.'
He stopped and glanced toward the door that opened from the stairwell where Sue Danielson-fetching, in her 'little black dress'-was watching for Moise to make a not-unexpected appearance.
There is a tense life-and-death moment in every police officer/citizen contact-even the simplest traffic stop- when everything hangs in the balance. It must be similar to the way a tightrope walker feels suspended above a gasping crowd, frozen in the blinding glare of a spotlight. One misstep, one slight miscalculation, and disaster follows.
