see light and hear voices. She realized it was Karch asking, "What's going on, Vincent?"
Silently she went past this duct, then backed into it. She then turned and slid herself back in the direction of the bedroom. When she got there she reached down to the vent cover and slid it up the wall and back into its place. She then started backing herself up in the duct.
Karch was rapidly trying to assimilate the situation and figure out what was happening. He then hit upon the only possible explanation.
"She called you, didn't she, Vincent?"
Grimaldi didn't answer, just as he hadn't when Karch had asked him about his so-called plan. Grimaldi just stared with eyes that seemed dark with anger and hatred.
"Look, Vincent, I don't know what she told you, but it's bullshit, okay? She hasn't been here yet and I don't have the money. I'm waiting, Vincent. She's gonna call and I'll get her up here. I'll take the money and she and the kid go out the window. Like I said, synchronicity."
As he said the last word Karch felt an internal falter. He remembered he had let the word slip when Cassidy Black had called. He wondered if that had been enough. Had he given her enough with that simple slip to read his plan and come up with a counter?
"Look, Vincent, please. Tell me what's happening here."
Grimaldi's eyes were scanning the suite.
"What's in the bedroom, Jack?"
"Not what. Who. The kid's in the bedroom."
Grimaldi nodded to the man who had searched Karch and the man went to the bedroom doors. He disappeared inside the room and Karch and Grimaldi just stared at each other while they waited. Romero took two steps to his left. Karch guessed he thought this put him in a better position in case he had to make a move in the room.
"I'm telling you, she's playing you, Vincent," Karch said. "She's play – "
He stopped when he saw the man emerge from the bedroom carrying a black gym bag. Its zipper was open and Karch could see into the bag. He saw the face of Benjamin Franklin. Several times. The bag was filled with bricks of hundred-dollar bills. Karch's mouth dropped open. Cassidy Black, he thought. She had somehow made the switch. He started toward the bedroom door but the man with the gym bag and Romero both raised their weapons and told him to hold where he was.
"There was a girl," he said.
"Sure," said the man with the bag. "There ain't now."
He walked over to Grimaldi and pulled the two handle straps wide, opening the bag and completely exposing several of the plastic-wrapped bricks of cash.
"Vincent, that's not…"
He didn't finish. He didn't know what to say and he could see Grimaldi was intent on the money, not him. Grimaldi put his hand into the bag and laid it flat on one of the bricks as if touching the shoulder of a long-lost friend. He then nodded to the man holding the bag.
"Okay, Martin, close it."
Karch watched the bag being closed and then he looked at the face of the man who held it. Martin? He remembered the videotape. Hidalgo riding the elevator up with his security escort. Martin. Who was supposed to be dead. Martin, whom Grimaldi had asked Karch to bury in the desert.
"Martin?" he said.
He looked from Martin to Grimaldi as it all came to him. It was all a bluff, all part of a more elaborate plan.
"You," he said to Grimaldi. "You staged this whole thing. It was all a setup."
He then looked at Martin, who held the gym bag in his right hand and his weapon in his left. He remembered Hidalgo's body on the bed. The bullet in the right eye, delivered by a gun held in the left.
"And you," he said to Martin. "You're the one who hit Hidalgo."
One side of Martin's mouth turned upward in an approximation of a proud smile.
"It wasn't the girl," Karch said, looking back at Grimaldi. "All she did was take the money you wanted her to take."
When Cassie turned around in the junction she heard intense voices from the sitting room. She didn't wait to listen. She headed toward the main air duct and covered the ground in about ten seconds. She saw the penlight that Jodie was holding and realized the girl was still in the smaller tributary vent and had not moved into the main conduit.
As she got closer she realized why. Jodie had reached a dead end. Metal bars