Hot Revenge Box Set 4

My first day in a new city: Sao Paulo.

I tap into the internal phone. “Room service? A pot of coffee, please. Strong, with cream. Orange juice. Toast, fruit salad and yoghurt. Room 313.”

“Sim senhor. Dez minutos.”

“And a newspaper, please. You have the New York Times?”

“Sim senhor. Sem problemas.”

My hotel suite is spacious and comfortable. Not the top of the range. Not the bottom. Upper-middle, where it’s luxurious enough to be comfortable for, what I’m expecting to be, an extended stay, but not where I’ll be watched all the time.

Anything from Hickman?

I check my mobile. It’s brand new, as supplied by Dakho and currently displaying the message ‘Bem Vindo a Brasil’ from the local service provider. As I touch the screen, the message flicks off to be replaced by Your system needs a restart to install updates. Restart now?

The phone has a great spec, the best, but I'll be happier when it's settled down a bit. Irritably, I tap, Yes, then put it to one side to let it run through its interminable updates.

In rather less than the ten minutes promised, my breakfast arrives. From sheer habit, I keep my hand under my jacket where the Glock nestles in its holster, but the boy of perhaps fourteen who enters with the tray doesn’t look like any kind of threat. “Onde, senhor?”

“On the table by the balcony, please.”

I tip the boy and he backs out of the room beaming. “You want things, senhor, you call Rodrigo. Yes, senhor?”

“Thank you, Rodrigo. I will.”

The juice is fresh, the fruit freshly chopped and the coffee strong as requested. I think they must have run an iron over the newspaper.

Excellent…

I settle with my tray, balcony doors open and the relative coolth of the morning wafting in on the breeze. Shaking open the paper, I savour the excellent coffee.

From beyond the door: the low hum of a vacuum cleaner, gradually drawing nearer. Then, a tap on the door. “Senhor? I am the cleaner of the room, please?”

One hand nested under my jacket again, “Entrar.”

A young woman enters, green-overalled, her hair in a scarf, pushing a cart loaded with cloths and sprays. She looks local, with the olive skin, dark hair and eyes of the Hispanic types, although slightly flattened features suggest some native blood mixed in. She’s a sultry-eyed beauty who would be walking a catwalk somewhere if she lived in the First World, or at least anywhere with less inequality. Her options here are more limited.

“I can clean, yes? You want I come back?”

I wave a hand across the room. “No. It’s fine. Do it now.” I’d prefer she did it later. It’s not as if the room needs much. I’ve barely occupied the place. But it’s better to behave normally. And if the suite’s been cleaned already, no-one will have reason to disturb me again.

Setting my newspaper on the tray with the coffee pot, I take the lot out onto the balcony.

The sun and the heat are wonderful. Jumping from one hemisphere to the other, I’ve left behind the freeze and the damp of winter. The summer heat bakes through my bones, dispelling the grinding chill that’s plagued me ever since I set foot inside Jenny’s home. I’d prefer less humidity than Sao Paulo offers, but you can’t have everything, and it beats the penetrating cold of the northern winter hands-down.

Sighing, I stretch out, tipping my face back to bathe in the morning sunshine, revelling in the heat. Inside, the maid hums some crap-pop jingle before being drowned out by the sound of the vacuum cleaner.

Take an hour to relax, then down to work…

*****

Downloading Finchby’s database of invoices, I scour through for the most likely follow-ups for Baxter. After a couple of hours, armed with a shortlist of a dozen likely addresses and my new mobile which seems finally to have run through its downloads, I’m ready to go.

Take a taxi?

No.

Don’t leave a trail…

I get to explore Sao Paulo on foot, always the best way to see anywhere new. The loose linen suit I’m wearing, appropriate to the temperature and humidity, is a roomy fit, so there’s plenty of space for

the Glock into

… Knife…

… Hat on…

… Sunglasses…

check in

English…

… Tourist…

… Harmless…

Time to move…

a hair, I lick my thumb, then spit-plaster the hair into place about a foot from the floor, bridging the crack between door

in a smile. It’s the oldest trick in the book, but if it’s good enough for Sean Connery, it’s

hour’s walk away. Hands in pockets, I stroll through a pleasant neighbourhood: not wealthy, but clean and green, shady with

a tourist information board, making a

Visiting Tourist…

mapping app.

I

A scatter of outdoor

the half dozen stores following… and then across the road to pause by a series of

bar, I hang around on the corner, making a show of window-shopping for over-priced clothes behind acres of

Bar is just the kind of place I enjoy hanging out in in a new environment: a small family-run establishment, off the main tourist tracks but still in a decent area; somewhere the locals will come to eat. The signs and paintwork are shabby but clean. The seating and tables also look well-used. But as I watch, a customer rises and leaves. An old man moves smartly in, snatching a towel from his apron. Sweeping away crumbs, he pumps from a hand-spray then wipes over the top, taking a moment extra to work on some more difficult

old man serves drinks and snacks at the outdoor seating, waving arms and barking orders at a young woman in a black

the time to position it carefully to shade the client. After a few minutes, a woman, looking much the same age as he is, comes

likely candidate

notes, then

in

In the back, perhaps?

Or upstairs?

take a seat, using my hat as a fan to waft air over my

over, beaming. “Olá senhor. Está muito quente. Sim? O que você

open my mouth to reply… Cerveja, por favor. … Then bite down on my words: no need to let anyone know that I understand a good deal of what is being

so with a glass of beer cold enough to drip dew on the table, then gestures at the sunshade. “Você quer

nod vigorously.

mouthful of beer slides down my throat without protest. I’m on my guard, but the second mouthful doesn’t put up much of a fight either. It's tempting to simply enjoy the weather and

Work to do…

wave the old man down. “Excuse me, where is

waves me indoors with a nod and a smile, and I follow his pointing finger, through a deep narrow room, dim against the brilliant daylight outside,

with plates of chopped meat and veg mixed with black beans, some crispy-looking brown circles which I

smiling at me as I amble past. Waving hands over

return the smile, winding my finger in a circle. When I come

a finger to aim me towards a corridor from the back of the room. It takes me past a kitchen where, through the swing doors, the old woman, short and stout, thrusting out arms like wrinkled tree trunks, stirs something in a pot. She glances up…

grows cooler all the while towards the rear of the building. At the end, I’m at

areas of stores and restaurants always are, plain brick and concrete, but both vinyl-tiled steps and white-painted walls are immaculately clean, with none of the dust or stale food

look back to be sure no-one’s watching, then, placing my feet gently against the carrying echoes, one hand resting on the holster inside my jacket, I make my way

single room, taking

between slatted shutters, dust motes

normal furnishings of everyday life: two fat settees, much used, the fabric fraying on the arms.