tore the plastic curtain back, and opened his mouth to scream.
Spector locked eyes before the desk clerk could get anything out. He pushed him to the point of death, then stopped. Spector caught him by the collar as he slumped over.
He leaned the man against the bathroom wall and emptied his victim's pockets. He took the keys and wallet, and ignored the rest. This guy probably knew just about everything there was to know about the hotel. If Spector could get him to tell the truth, he might find out a few things.
Spector bent down. He steadied the man with one hand and slapped him with the other. When he started to come around, when Spector was sure he could feel it, he popped the guy really hard a few times.
The man opened his eyes. Spector put a hand over the pudgy mouth. "Quiet. If you call for help. If you answer my questions in anything but a whisper. If you don't answer my questions. I'll kill you. You understand?"
The man nodded. Spector slowly took his hand away. "Who are you?",
"My name's." He took a breath. "Hastings."
Spector checked the wallet. "So far, so good. What are you doing in here?"
Hastings stared wide-eyed around the room, he seemed to be looking through Spector for a way out. "Uh, the government people told us to be on the lookout for anyone we thought was suspicious. I just had a feeling about you."
"I don't much appreciate that," he checked the first name on the driver's license, "Maurice."
Hastings wiped his mouth. "You're not who you say you are. Not Baird. You're an ace."
Spector nodded. "You know, with your deductive skills and your gift for hunches you'd make a damn good P. I."
The man gave a half-smile, trying to acknowledge the compliment in spite of his fear. "Thanks."
Spector waited a few moments, then added. "I hate P.I.s." He was enjoying the hell out of this. He'd almost forgotten about this jerkoff, and now he had the fat bastard on a horn.
"Oh, god, please, don't kill me. I'll do anything." Hastings was shaking. He wiped his mouth again.
"Oh, I'm not going to kill you. Not if you give me what I want," Spector lied, trying to think of the best place to hide the body. "We'll start with an easy question. Where's the nearest unoccupied room on this floor?"
"We're full up. I swear."
Spector clucked his tongue. "Don't bullshit me. I know there's always a few left vacant for contingencies. You know what I'm going to do if you keep lying to me? I can make you do an airwalk from the tenth floor down to the lobby. The fall will only take a few seconds. Make quite a mess, though. Maybe I should just put you in the shower and liquefy you. Down the drain you go. No muss, no fuss."
"No, please." Hastings clasped his hands together. "I think 1019 is open. Just don't kill me. I'm sorry I bothered you. I can do whatever you need. Give the Secret Service some bad leads. Really."
Spector pulled a card out of Hastings' wallet. "This is your passkey?"
He chewed his lip for a second before replying. "Yes." Spector leaned in close to Hastings and stared into his eyes. "You're not lying to me now?"
"No. May God strike me ... It's the truth, I swear."
"Right. Get into the shower." Spector pulled back the curtain. "Do it now."
Hastings hustled his overweight body inside. "But why?" Spector locked eyes again, and made it count this time. Hastings collapsed onto the tile. His body twitched and then was still. "That's why." He slowly closed the curtain. "Nobody fucks with me and gets away with it." It wasn't the best place to put a corpse, but as usual he'd had to improvise.
Spector checked himself in the mirror one more time. Now he had a crooked jaw to match his crooked smile. Maybe, when it was all over, he could buy a crooked house in the Bahamas. But not until Hartmann was done with. Then, he could worry about vacation time.
1:00 P.M.
"You weenie." There was a furious glare from Tachyon's violet eyes as he stalked by, medical bag in hand. Behind him, reporters were clustered three deep around Barnett, who had of course passed the blood test without registering the taint of any black rain from Satan.
"Oh, shut up," mumbled Jack, from deep in the heart of another Bloody Mary.
Tachyon spun on his heel, marched back, stood in front of Jack, his pointed chin