Hot Revenge Box Set 4

Klempner

Damn phone…

What’s wrong with the fucking thing?

I tap in again. Nothing happens.

I’m several floors up, heading back for my hotel room. The signal should be strong up here.

I inspect the screen…

Yes… plenty of signal…

Better contact Dakho… Get him to supply a new one…

A more reliable model this time…

Arriving at my room door…

… A brief shufti along the corridor…

… I’m alone. A quick inspection that my slicked-on hair is still in place…

… It is… a faint dark line against the white paint, which peels away, then drops to the floor as I slide the card into the lock and push the door open…

I toss the useless phone onto my bed then start to shrug off my jacket…

… and in mid-movement, I stall.

My spine prickles and without meaning to, I’m standing stock-still, Glock in hand, staring around the apartment.

What’s wrong?

Working on automatic, my hand follows my eye, weapon aimed, but…

I don’t see anything.

Nothing has moved.

Nothing has changed.

petals on a vase of lilies

carpet still lies in vacuumed stripes, with

Really?

I press my foot down by one of the

up on the table, alongside my breakfast

my feet silently, I cross the floor, turn the handle of the bedroom door. With

beside the pillows, a pair of bath-towels folded, for some inexplicable reason, into the

do they do

a side-table, the usual tea and coffee kit, biscuits, a small

the other, at arm’s length, I flick open first one wardrobe door, then the

while shirts garishly printed with pineapples and palm trees

Only one place left…

drawn to the door of the

ear cocked… gun at the ready…

no more than the mixed warbles and screeches of birds, the hiss of cicadas, splashing

out, I kick the door and it bangs open, bouncing

there’s nothing more alarming than a tidemark around the bath where I’ve washed away the sweat of the day and the maid has been lax in her

my alarms

What triggered it?

mouth tastes metallic and my heart

Calm down…

Breathe…

Think…

What happened?

was barely in

Outside then…

Something in the corridor…

I dart a look outside. The