lip between her teeth, then continued checking files. Her concentration sharpened as she pulled up more information.
“You have to swear that you’ll never tell anyone you got this from me.”
“Yes, yes! Please, do you have something?”
Lucy jotted information on a slip of paper.
“Your son is here.”
Emma’s hands flew to her face. Her body started shaking.
“Here? Oh, God! Where? Do you have him?”
“No, he’s not here at the center.”
“Where? Who has him? Tell me!”
“Listen carefully. Two people, their names are Valmir and Elena Leeka, are traveling on Albanian passports or U.S passports. Tyler is identified as their son Alek on an Albanian passport. They will say that they adopted him through an international agency and are staying here on vacation.”
“How do you know all this? What’s going on?”
“Just listen. I’ve just learned that they’re supposed to leave for New York City today, at any moment. They are registered here, at the resort in Main Sail Tower A, Room 1658.” Lucy thrust the paper with the information into Emma’s hand. “You have to swear not to say how you found out.”
“Yes. Room 1658, Main Sail Tower A.”
“Go before it’s too late.”
“Thank you.”
“It could be dangerous. Don’t go alone.”
“God bless you, thank you!”
“Wait! Wait, there’s something else!” Lucy snatched the tiny blue memory card from her desk and handed it to Emma. “Don’t lose this.”
“What is it?”
“Information. Don’t say where you got it, just look at it later. It’ll help explain everything.”
Emma stared at the memory card, then jammed it into her bag.
“One more thing.”
Emma waited.
“I had no part in this.”
“Thank you for helping me.”
Emma hurried from the center. Once outside, she began running across the courtyard when she spotted Gannon heading in her direction.
“Jack!” Emma held up the slip of paper like it was a winning lottery ticket. “He’s here. Tyler’s here!”
“What? How did you find out?”
Emma updated him as they hurried through the complex, following the direction signs to Main Sail Tower A. They found a private corner in the busy lobby to come up with a strategy. To confirm if the Leekas and Tyler were in the room and to gauge what they might be facing, Gannon would knock on the door alone in case the couple had Emma’s picture. If they were there, then Gannon and Emma would summon police.
“What do we do if they’re not there?” Emma asked as they stepped into the elevator.
“I’ve got a plan,” Gannon said.
On the sixteenth floor, Emma stayed down the hall out of sight while Gannon knocked at room 1658. He tried for thirty seconds. He placed his ear to the door but heard nothing, then signaled to Emma.
“Follow my lead on this,” he said as they walked down the hall and around a corner until they found a chambermaid’s cart parked outside a room.
“Excuse us,” Gannon said.
An older slender Bahamian woman emerged from the bathroom wearing rubber gloves.
“I am so sorry to trouble you but we just stepped out of our room and realized we left our room keys and camera inside.”
The woman eyed them both.
“We’re running a little late—we don’t have time to go to the desk in the main lobby. Is there a chance you could let us in?” Gannon reached for his wallet and produced an American twenty-dollar bill.
The woman sighed and waved off the money.
“This happens all the time, which room?”
“Thank you. This way.” Emma pointed and started ahead of them, smiling at Gannon, then checking the woman’s tag, “Oh, thank you, Matilda.”
“No need to thank me. All the time people are forgettin’ this and forgettin’ that.”
Matilda inserted her plastic keycard in the key slot, a small light winked green, the locks clicked and she cracked the door a few inches for Gannon.
“Please, Matilda, we insist.” He pushed the twenty in her hand.
“Well, with all my grandchildren I have to get a birthday present every other week. Thank you.” She smiled and returned to her work humming.
Gannon allowed her to get a safe distance away before they entered.
Nothing prepared them for what was waiting.
Blood.
The room was drenched in blood.
On the ceiling, walls, curtains, the floor, the lamps, the mirror, the furniture and the bed, where two meaty mounds rested on the blood-soaked sheets. It was as if something had exploded, leaving two sets of adult arms and legs reaching out from the visceral matter.
Emma’s groan morphed into a stifled scream.
She cupped one hand over her mouth and searched the room, bathroom and closet.
“Tyler!”
There was no sign of her son.
She began rummaging through the documents on the desk.
Gannon