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…

foot, always the best way to see anywhere new. The loose linen suit I’m wearing,

the Glock

… Knife…

… Hat on…

… Sunglasses…

check

English…

… Tourist…

… Harmless…

Time to move…

my thumb, then spit-plaster the hair into place about a foot from the floor, bridging the crack between door and frame. If the

in the book, but if it’s good enough for Sean Connery, it’s good

pockets, I stroll through a pleasant neighbourhood: not

by a tourist information board, making a show of

Visiting Tourist…

at me: the mapping app. Your

but I keep

A scatter of outdoor tables and seating…

door and the half dozen stores following… and then across the road to pause by a series of glass-fronted stores for upmarket clothes, sandals and shoes, swimwear and

corner, making a show of window-shopping for over-priced clothes behind acres of plate glass, the reflection giving

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

lurking point at the corner, I watch for several minutes as the old man serves drinks and snacks at the outdoor seating, waving arms and barking orders at a

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

a likely candidate for

check my notes, then my

I’m in the right

In the back, perhaps?

Or upstairs?

using my hat as a fan to waft air

man trots over, beaming. “Olá senhor. Está muito quente.

… Then bite down on my words: no need to let

minute or so with a glass of beer cold enough to drip

nod vigorously. “Please,

but the second mouthful doesn’t put up much of a fight either. It's tempting to simply enjoy the

Work to do…

down. “Excuse me, where is the

I follow his pointing finger, through a deep

black beans, some crispy-looking brown circles which I take to be squid rings. A plate of ‘somethings’ looks like vine-leaf-wrapped snacks, although I know that around here it’s

I amble

my finger in a circle. When

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… “Olá senhor,” … then

obvious bathroom door. The passage grows cooler all the while towards the rear of the building. At the

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

carrying echoes, one

room, taking up the entire

slatted shutters, dust motes glittering

much used, the fabric fraying on the arms. Ancient linoleum