“Or something like a cop. Don’t they have security at the Transylvania? I thought I remembered seeing some.”
“Of course they do. But they might contract the security out, like most of the big houses.” He snapped his fingers. “Which would explain why he didn’t turn up on the employee rolls.”
“I need to get over there immediately.” I turned to O’Bannon and looked him square in the eyes. “With your permission.”
He barely hesitated a second. “Consider yourself back on the case.”
“Good. I’ll stay in touch.”
“You won’t have to. I’m coming with you.” He pulled out his desk drawer and tossed something onto his desk. A gun. My gun. “I think you may need this.”
“I don’t know. If you’re not-”
He pressed it into my hand. “I insist.”
“We need to blanket the hotel,” Patrick said. “Make sure he doesn’t slip out before we identify him. How much time do we have till this Day of Ascension?”
I checked my watch. “Only a few hours.”
“Hours? Then the Day of Ascension-”
“When else?” I led the way to the door. “Today. Halloween. At the witching hour.”
35
“You think this place will be ready in time, Ernie?” Martin asked.
He was calm and confident. “I don’t see why not. The grand opening isn’t until midnight.”
“But there’s so much still to do.” Both pairs of eyes scanned the ballroom. The façade of the Notre Dame cathedral was largely in place, but some of the surrounding decorations were in pieces on the floor, waiting to be assembled. Exposed scaffolding occupied a corner of the room. “I hear the hunchback is still experimenting with his makeup. And what’s with these bells?” He gestured toward the huge six-foot bells that were being hoisted into place at the front of the cathedral. “Those mothers are huge. And heavy. Why would the hotel lay out so much for bells?”
“You can’t do The Hunchback of Notre Dame without bells.”
“Hey, I been meaning to ask-what were you doing in the ventilation shafts last night?”
He stiffened. “Last night?”
“Yeah. I saw you crawling out of that shaft over at the north end of the casino. I didn’t even know that was big enough to get into. What were you up to?”
“One of the patrons reported smelling smoke. I didn’t detect it myself, but I thought it best to be certain.”
“Huh. Well, they never covered that when I came on. Maybe you can show me how to get in there later tonight.”
He touched the syringe in his pocket. He could take this man out if necessary. Quickly and quietly. “Tonight would not be a good day, what with all the work going on. Perhaps after the Halloween celebration.”
“Good point. Okay.”
His hand relaxed. Just as well. Another dead security officer would draw more attention to the hotel-and he had directed too much attention here already. “If you’ll excuse me, I, uh, need to check on something in the storeroom.”
“You’ve been spending a lot of time in there lately.” Martin chuckled. “You got a naked girl up there?”
He smiled. “Yeah. Four of them.”
He left the ballroom and headed for the elevator bank. There was still much to be done, so many arrangements to finalize. Everything had to be right, just perfect. But soon he would be able to cordon off the ballroom so he could finish his preparations. Rachel would not participate willingly, but the other three would, and they would help him with her. He had put so much time and effort into this, not just with the offerings, but everything. Obtaining the C4 on the Vegas black market. His unbroken brown study of radio signals and electronics and incendiary agents. Everything that was required.
The hotel had spent thousands advertising this event, generating publicity for the grand reopening of this ballroom. But they would be celebrating ever so much more than those dullards imagined.
This celebration would be a cataclysmic event. An apocalypse for some, an ascension for others. The end of days.
“No, it can’t wait until tomorrow!”
I pounded my fists together for emphasis. I wasn’t trying to threaten the man-well, actually, I was, wasn’t I? If I couldn’t convince him of the urgency of the situation one way, I was prepared to try another.
“But today is a very special day,” Bloomfeld insisted.
“You don’t know the half of it.”
“All our resources are taxed to the limit.” This guy had annoyed me when I was investigating the first crime scene and he hadn’t grown on me any in the interim. He was probably perfect for micromanaging the organizational details of a hotel but he was useless to me. “Our hotel is booked to capacity. Our Halloween celebration is generally considered the best anywhere. Thousands of people come to the Transylvania from all over the world.”
Patrick stepped between us. “I don’t give a damn about your tourists getting their ghost and ghoul fix. Four girls have been kidnapped.”
“My staff is already being pulled six ways at once,” Bloomfeld continued.
I shot him the harshest look I could muster. “I’m chasing a serial killer here, a killer who-unless he’s stopped-is going to try something very bad tonight, probably at midnight, which is less than three hours away. I think that’s a little-”
This was where Bloomfeld did his best to pretend he had a backbone. “I have a responsibility to my guests. They expect a party that-”
“I’ll cancel the damn party if you don’t cooperate with me! I’ll shut the whole hotel down.”
He froze, his face more horrific than any of their gargoyles. “You can’t do that.”
“I can and I will. I won’t let another girl die because you were too busy entertaining to help. Now you can deal with me, and we can go through your security contractor’s employment records, or I can shut the whole joint down. What’s it going to be?”
As if he had a choice. I held all the cards. And I had to admit-it felt good to be effective again, to be back on top of my game. Or getting that way.
Bloomfeld started gathering the records.
“Great technique,” Patrick said quietly. “Where’d you study, Nazi Germany?”
I suppose I should’ve been more respectful to Bloomfeld, since we were in his office in his hotel. Well, next week, I’d send him a Hallmark. Right now, I had a job to do. And some lives to save.
By eleven P.M., I had winnowed it down to five names. Five possibles who fit most of the criteria. The women were eliminated, of course. All the men of the wrong age group. Everyone who was physically too large to be Edgar. I classified them by economic group, by educational background, by family relationships. Anyone who listed a parent as a Person To Contact in an Emergency was eliminated. And in the end, I had five names.
One of them was Edgar. I was certain of it. But which one?
I peered at the pictures, the files, everything that was known about them. Darcy hunched over my shoulder. I had seen this man, damn it. I had talked to him. I should be able to pick him out of a photo lineup. Shouldn’t I?
Three of them were private security, where we had focused this search, but I was also considering a part-time tennis instructor and an actor who worked in the evening Spookapalooza show playing Edgar Allan Poe. I phoned Madeline and told her to run Net checks on all of them-to learn as much as she could as quickly as possible. I instructed Bloomfeld to round up all the suspects. And I let my mind do what it did best. From here on out, I knew finding Edgar would not be a matter of logic or analysis. Intuition had to take over. My instincts had to tell me which of these men kidnapped Rachel. And how to get her back.
The more I dwelt on it, the more I gravitated toward the three security officers. The tennis dude wore a uniform of sorts, but was it a uniform that instilled trust? Would Annabel, the MIT student, have given him the time of day? Judging from his photograph, he was a cute guy, not much older than she was. But somehow, I just didn’t believe it.