‘So what?’
‘It’s a brand-new hotel down in the city,’ Wheels explained. ‘The cheapest rooms are four hundred a night and the suites are nearer to two grand. That card you’re holding is a duplicate of the hotel manager’s key. It lets you into every single room.’
‘Cool,’ James said, glancing at his watch. ‘But won’t everyone be in their rooms at this time of night?’
‘Absolutely,’ Wheels smiled. ‘That’s the whole point.’
26. CONCIERGE
The traffic was light but it still took an hour to drive from Bedfordshire to the Ambassador Hotel, built amidst the office towers in the City of London.
‘Just be confident,’ Wheels said, as they headed towards the revolving doors with baseball caps pulled over their heads. ‘Place like this is gonna have security cameras everywhere, so move fast and keep your head pointing towards your feet.’
A blast of warm air hit the pair as they passed into the lobby. An elderly couple stood around a mound of designer luggage waiting for a car to pick them up. The gent wore a Rolex and the lady had diamonds the size of marbles over her wrinkled fingers.
‘You can smell the money in this joint,’ Wheels said happily as they waited for the lift.
The reception was at ground level, but most of the tower block was office space and the hotel rooms didn’t start until the 33rd floor. Wheels pressed the button marked Suites 38, but the light wouldn’t come on and the doors stayed open.
James felt edgy as a hotel employee in a black suit walked towards them. ‘Can I help you gentlemen?’ he asked.
‘I need the thirty-eighth floor,’ Wheels said.
The employee nodded. ‘May I see your room key?’
Wheels handed the plastic card over and the hotel employee pushed it into a slot above the lift buttons.
‘There you go, sir.’
‘Ahh,’ Wheels said innocently. ‘I didn’t realise. The bell boy must have done that when we went up with our luggage earlier.’
‘Not a problem sir,’ the employee replied politely. ‘I hope you have a relaxing night.’
The high-speed lift made James queasy as it belted up to the thirty-eighth floor. He felt a bit scared as he saw the Glock bulging beneath the waistband of Wheels’ jeans. His own gun was back in his room at the Zoo.
They stepped out of the lift and Wheels handed James disposable gloves as they moved briskly over deep carpet. It was more than ten paces between each door, meaning the suites behind them had to be huge. But Wheels had an even grander ambition and kept going until they came to some double doors at the end of the hallway. The brass plaque on the door said Room 38020: Winston Churchill Suite.
‘Rich scum, here I come,’ Wheels chanted, as he pushed the plastic card inside the lock. It took a couple of seconds for the mechanism to work and Wheels ripped the gun out of his waistband as he stormed into the huge suite. But the bed was pristine and there was no sign of any luggage or personal items spread about.
‘Empty room,’ James said.
Wheels swore under his breath as he tucked the gun back inside his jeans and almost trod on James’ foot as spun around. ‘Look where you’re going, kid.’
James didn’t fuss over getting blamed as Wheels stepped back into the hallway and slotted the key card into the door of the nearest suite. This time he pushed the door and got hit by green light from a TV screen. As James stepped in, he noticed a woman standing in the bathroom wearing only knickers and a woolly mammoth on the bed in polka-dot boxers.
‘Where are you going, honey?’ the man asked, in an American accent; clearly thinking that the sound of the door was caused by his wife leaving. But he knew something was wrong when she screamed.
‘Get on the bed,’ Wheels ordered, as he pointed the gun in the woman’s face. ‘Now.’
‘Keep cool, boys,’ the man said, raising both hands in surrender as Wheels bundled the woman across the bed. ‘We don’t want any trouble.’
‘Nor do we,’ Wheels said as he opened up a large mirrored door and spotted the small electronic safe in the bottom of the wardrobe. ‘What’s the code?’ he demanded.
As Wheels unlocked the safe and retrieved a laptop and the lady’s diamond necklace, James walked around to the bedside table where he found a mobile phone, a wallet and the keys to a Lexus. James flipped the wallet open and showed Wheels the rack of bank cards inside.
‘He’s loaded,’