Mercy (Atlee Pine #4)(64)

“That’s not why she wanted it,” said Pine.

“What do you mean?” Wanda added, her voice now laced with panic. “Wait, can she track Desiree down from just her phone number?”

“Yes,” said Pine, who had a sick feeling that that was exactly what Mercy was going to do and might already have done. In fact, Pine could have gotten that information faster through paying to access an internet search database than waiting for the Bureau to provide it. She wouldn’t make that mistake again. “There are ways on the internet to get a physical address from a phone number.”

“My God. Then she might already be wherever Desiree is, if it’s not too far away from Huntsville.”

Pine was almost in a trance. Her heart soared because as of this morning her sister was alive. But if she was going to try to get to Desiree? Her throat was so dry she had trouble talking. She put a hand against the wall to steady herself because her legs seemed to have lost their ability to support her. A simple question occurred to her. “What . . . what did she look like?”

“Tall, even taller than you. And very strong looking. But she was always that way. And her beautiful hair was all gone. She had cut it so close to her scalp, oh, it was sad. She looked like she was—”

“—in the military,” said Pine, suddenly remembering something.

“Yes, exactly, now I’d also wanted to let you know that some other people were here asking questions and—”

Pine heard but really didn’t register these words. She dropped her phone on the bed and rushed from the room. She banged off the walls in the hall and didn’t even bother with the elevator. She took the stairs, leaping three steps at a time. She hit the main floor, burst through the door, shoved two attendants and one guest out of the way, and sprinted through the lobby on her way to the hotel’s gym.

Please, please, please. Mother of God please.

One needed a hotel key card to access the gym. Pine didn’t bother to use hers, she simply kicked the door open. She looked frantically around and her hopes plummeted. The only person there was an elderly man reading an iPad on a recumbent exercise bike. He had nearly fallen off it when she forced the door open. Pine ran over to him and described Mercy to him.

He shook his head. “No, ma’am. The place was empty when I got here and nobody came in after.” He looked at the broken door. “Except for you.”

Pine raced to the front desk, where she flashed her shield and asked about the room number for a guest with the first name Eloise.

“We don’t give out—” the clerk, a young man, began.

“This shield says otherwise,” barked Pine. “Do it!”

The intimidated clerk quickly checked the computer. “Yes. An Eloise Cain. She checked in today and is staying for one night only. Paid with a credit card.”

Eloise—the same name she gave Wanda. It has to be her.

“What’s her room number?” she said frantically.

“I can’t—”

Pine grabbed his arm and jerked him toward her. “Tell me the fucking room number or you’re under arrest!”

“Four-oh-four.”

“Now give me a key to that room.”

“I can’t do that. I need to talk to a supervi—”

Pine shouted, “I don’t have time to argue. This is a life-or-death situation.”

The man paled, grabbed a blank key, charged it, and handed it to Pine.

“Do you know what kind of car she was driving?”

“No. We don’t have valets. Just self-park. And I must say this is highly unusual.”

“You’re damn right it is,” snapped Pine as she sprinted toward the elevator.





CHAPTER





43


PINE RAN INTO BLUM IN THE LOBBY.

“I was going to take a walk before bed, what’s happened?” she said, noting her boss’s excited features.

She followed along as Pine quickly filled her in on Mercy’s likely being at the hotel, and also about Special Agent Drew McAllister’s arriving the next morning to question her.

“You really think that was your sister in the gym here? I mean, what a coincidence.”

“The description Wanda gave me fit the woman I saw in the gym to a T. And how many six-foot-tall Eloises are out there?”

They reached room 404. Pine drew a long breath and knocked on the door. Her hand was trembling. They heard nothing from inside. She knocked again.

Pine leaned toward the door. “Mer-Eloise Cain? It’s . . . ” A suddenly stumped Pine thought frantically for something to say.

Blum called out, “It’s your sister, Atlee Pine.”

Pine stared wide-eyed at Blum for a moment before thanking her with a weak smile. But there was still no sound from within.

Pine put the key card in the reader and swung the door open. They moved inside, and Pine turned the lights on.

“Mercy? It’s Atlee. Mercy! It’s your sister, Lee.”

The bed was still made. They could find nothing that wasn’t supposed to be in the room. A dirty towel and washcloth lay on the bathroom floor.

Pine said, “The front desk clerk said she checked in today and was only staying one night.”

“I would say that she might have just gone out, but there’s no suitcase or anything else of hers in here. Do you think she could have already left? But surely if she checked out the clerk would have told you.”