Harry ran back to the Bronco and found the waiter sitting up nursing his head. He looked groggy but unhurt. ‘Lie still,’ Harry told him. ‘An ambulance will be here shortly.’ He ran back inside the hotel corridor to where the drunk was lying motionless against the wall. His breathing was faint and rapid, and he needed urgent medical attention. Pendry appeared and swore softly.
‘I’ll call it in,’ said Harry, and went into his room to use the phone. As he dialled and spoke to the 911 operator, he saw the connecting door to the next room was open. The wood around the lock was splintered and raw where it had been kicked in.
Pendry joined him after making the wounded man as comfortable as possible. ‘Damn,’ the Ranger muttered, eyeing the broken door. ‘He bust through from the next room?’
Harry nodded, remembering the sounds the killer had made pretending to be another guest. He was clever. Very clever. ‘I told you he was good,’ he said, and replaced the phone, paraphrasing an old military saying. ‘Let’s hope he isn’t lucky, too.’
Kassim pounded the wheel in frustration as he joined the expressway, earning an angry bray of air horns from a tanker driver as he came close to clipping one of its giant chrome fenders. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be, he thought savagely. He had the advantage. . he should have been able to finish off the Englishman!
He pressed his foot to the floor, aware that he only had minutes to get clear of the area before the police saturated the roads with men and vehicles. Traffic was lighter now, but if he managed to put a few miles between himself and the hotel, he might just get outside any net thrown up to entrap him.
He felt for the rucksack on the back seat of the car. He had to get cleaned up. He might have traces of blood on him from when he’d stabbed the drunk. Another mistake; he should have left him alone. But he’d reacted without thinking, aiming for the throat but hitting the man’s chest instead, the knife blade glancing off bone.
After two miles, Kassim’s breathing returned to normal and he began to feel calmer. He slowed down. Now would not be a good time to be stopped for speeding. It was time to think. Time to decide on the next move.
Time to do the unexpected.
‘What is it with you?’ Rik murmured thirty minutes later, after knocking on Harry’s door. ‘I go out drinking and you’re the one who has all the fun.’ He had arrived back to find a police cordon around the hotel and the surrounding darkness lit by the lights of emergency vehicles. Harry was being interviewed by a police detective, who seemed satisfied that the attack had been a random room invasion by an opportunist thief. The drunken guest and the waiter had both been taken to the nearest emergency unit for treatment. Pendry had gone to see Gail, who would have heard the news of the fracas and be worried enough to come out. Having her wandering around while the attacker was still out there was not something they wanted to contemplate.
Harry looked at Rik. He had a flush to his face and seemed edgy. Something had happened. ‘What is it?’
‘Nothing, why?’
Harry waited, eyebrows raised, until Rik relented and told him about the four men. ‘It was nothing. Just a bunch of guys trying it on.’
Harry held out his hand. ‘You’d better give me the gun. I’m on a military flight to LA, so I can get them checked through. We’ll meet up there.’
Rik handed over the Ruger and spare magazine. ‘Did you get a look at him?’
Harry shook his head. ‘Not really. Taller than average, slim. . we already know he can move fast. But I didn’t see his face; he’d taken out the light in the corridor. When will you get anything on Bikovsky?’
‘Ripper said a couple of hours.’
‘Ripper? What’s his real name — Malcolm?’
‘Very funny. They use tag names to protect themselves. I’m sure he’ll come through.’
‘It would be nice if he did before I set off for LA. I don’t want to trek all the way over there for nothing.’
‘But you’ll go, anyway.’
‘I have to. Bikovsky’s likely to be the next one on the list.’
TWENTY-FIVE
Harry dropped his bag by the reception desk and waited to check out. He was booked on a military flight to the Los Angeles Air Force Base at El Segundo at nine thirty, courtesy of the UN. Deane was pulling strings to move him around with the minimum of fuss and paperwork, and other than having to check in the Rugers to a secure box, he was going to face minimum questioning.
He’d told Rik to make his own arrangements about getting to LA on a commercial flight. The more they were in the same area, the more risk there was of someone making a connection. He didn’t think it likely that the killer had someone watching his back, but he didn’t want to take the chance.
He was surprised to see Carl Pendry stride through the hotel’s main entrance, dwarfing the slim shape of Gail Tranter alongside him. The Ranger was stuffing his military ID into his pocket after being checked through the police cordon outside.
With the coming of daylight, several crime scene investigators and forensics personnel were now quartering the car park for clues, and questioning guests about the previous night, while coloured tape fluttered in the morning breeze, shutting off all non-essential access to the area. So far, though, they had turned up nothing substantial.
Gail was the first to speak, her eyes flashing spiritedly at Harry.
‘He won’t tell me anything,’ she said, nodding at Pendry. ‘I know something bad happened out at the training grounds — and here last night with two men being attacked. The whole town’s talking about it, what with the helicopters coming and going, and the state and city cops on every route through here. They’re saying a trainee got killed. . is that right?’
Harry studied her for a moment. She was evidently smart and the bond between her and Pendry was close. It would be fair to tell her what was happening, but he wondered if she would react well to hearing that her boyfriend was a target for a killer. He glanced at Pendry, who was impassive and brooding, annoyed by the senseless loss of one of his charges and their failure to catch the man responsible.
‘Carl can tell you as much as we know,’ he said. ‘After that, he should find you somewhere on the base to stay for a few days. Somewhere safe.’
Gail shot a keen look between the two men. ‘Why? Is he in danger?’
‘Possibly. But if you take precautions you’ll be fine. And I can do my job a lot easier. Carl?’ He looked meaningfully at the Ranger and stuck out his hand, drawing him to one side. ‘I’m off to see if I can find Bikovsky. Get Gail away from here and keep your head down. He failed this time but he might try again. Don’t give him Gail as leverage.’
The Ranger nodded. ‘Sure thing. But say — any chance I can help? I’d sure like to nail this sonofabitch, and I’m sure I could get a release after what happened to Lloyd.’
‘Sorry. He’ll spot me eventually; with us together he’d do it even quicker.’
Pendry nodded ruefully, desperate to do something to redress the balance. ‘OK. Let me know how it goes, though, huh?’ Then he stopped, looking awkward. ‘I thought about a couple of things last night. Could be important.’
‘Like what?’
‘One was the Marine, Carvalho. You thought he was one of the compound guards who went to Pristina, right?’
‘So?’
‘He wasn’t. I remembered he was sick that night and switched with another guy — a Brit. Carvalho knew he’d be no good in a fight, so the Brit agreed to go instead. I don’t think they told anyone in the rush to get out, so it wouldn’t have been official — at least, not until later when the rosters were checked.’
Harry tried to recall the British soldier, but he’d had his hands full that night and the compound guard had been out on patrol. Then he remembered something from Deane’s briefing: the man had been one of two British soldiers, a member of the Royal Military Police. He had since died of natural causes.