Evil in All Its Disguises

by Hilary Davidson

  “You make it sound ridiculous,” Apolinar argued. “It was a serious situation. That man could have killed her.”

  I yawned. “What time is it?”

  “Seven-thirty,” Gavin snapped.

  My mental calculations were slow, but they creaked along. “I’ve been unconscious for an hour and a half?”

  “You’ve been awake for the past half hour.” Gavin’s voice was cold. “Don’t you remember?”

  “Not really.”

  “You told us about the attack,” Apolinar said. “But you weren’t able to identify the man. You—”

  “Thank you, Apolinar,” Gavin cut him off. “You may go now.”

  “But sir—”

  “I told you to get out.”

  Apolinar exited without another word, pulling the door closed behind him.

  Gavin hovered over me. “Now it’s just you and me, Lily.” He spoke slowly, as if savoring every word. His stony expression unnerved me. It wasn’t so much the flat hardness of his eyes that did it; it was his rapid breathing. He couldn’t hide his excitement anymore.

  I started to sit up, but Gavin put his hands on my shoulders and pushed me back. It wasn’t painful, but there was enough force behind it to keep me from trying that again. The last thing I wanted was Gavin touching me, and that realization made me determined not to retreat into the deliciously drowsy ether. I had to force myself to stay awake.

  He knelt next to the sofa, putting his face so close to mine that I could see the fine lines around his eyes, and the deeper, unforgiving ones around his mouth. “What I don’t understand is how Martin got a man inside my organization,” Gavin said. “I run a very, very tight ship. I keep a close watch on everyone. I learned that from Martin, you know. He’s very jovial, when people meet him, but he’s deeply suspicious.”

  “What does Martin have to do with any of this?” I understood every word Gavin said, but I couldn’t make sense of them. Part of me wanted to blame the muscle relaxant, but enough of it had worn off that my brain could focus. Gavin’s preoccupation with Martin, and his paranoia, made him seem mentally unbalanced.

  Gavin’s eyes traveled over my face, as if trying to determine the odds that I was as baffled as I seemed. “Martin has everything to do with it.” He stared at me for a while, as if hoping for some telltale sign. I felt like a butterfly pinned under glass. Every instinct I had screamed at me to run away, but I didn’t believe that the drug still ping-ponging through my system was going to let me make a speedy getaway.

  Finally, Gavin got to his feet and shuffled to a console against one wall. He poured himself a glass of some colorless liqueur with bits of gold drifting in it, downed it, and poured another. “Would you like a drink, Lily?”

  “No, thank you.”

  He held up his glass. “Goldwasser from Gdańsk. Not to your taste, is it? You’re a champagne girl, through and through.” He smiled. “I’d be happy to have someone bring a bottle up.”

  “No!” My reaction was as virulent as if he’d offered me cyanide. Belatedly, I added, “Thank you, Gavin.”

  “Such lovely manners. It was always clear why Martin loved to show you off.”

  “Why do you keep talking about Martin?”

  “Do you have any idea what it’s like to work for Martin?” Gavin asked, coming back to hover over me. “He thinks he owns people. There’s no privacy, no respect or regard. You’re nothing but a puppet who exists to do his bidding, and he’ll mock you while you’re doing it. He keeps chipping away at you until you’re hollow inside.” Gavin raised his glass at me. “Aha. I can see from your expression that you know precisely what I mean.”

  “I can imagine he wouldn’t be easy to work for,” I allowed. I didn’t agree with Gavin’s assessment, partly because I’d seen Martin’s largesse toward his employees. It came out in the form of gifts and bonuses over Christmas and New Year’s, but there was more to it. I remembered one Pantheon employee adopting a baby girl from China with his partner, and Martin giving the man a paid six-month paternity leave. There was no doubt in my mind that Martin would be demanding and exacting, but he showed his appreciation for people, too.

  “Robo-Rex.” Gavin gave me a tense imitation of a smile. “I know that’s his nickname for me. You know it, too, Lily. Anyone who has had any dealings with Pantheon knows exactly what kind of abuse Martin dishes out to those who work for him. He gets inside you like a cancer. Even when he’s not in the room, I can hear him mocking me.”

  “You truly despise him, don’t you?”

  Gavin sat on the sofa, his hip touching my waist. He leaned forward so that we were almost nose to nose. “Don’t you hate him, Lily? You would if you ever opened your eyes. You know how much he hated your sister, don’t you?”

  That rattled me. “Yes.”

  “He wanted to pay her off so she would get out of your life, but he also said she was a parasite who’d never leave you alone. He talked, many times, about making her go away.” His eyes slid over my face, taking my reaction in. The friction between Martin and Claudia had been painful to navigate, partly because neither of them was ever completely honest with me. Each had plotted against the other, neither one ever thinking about the position that put me in. Did Martin’s hatred of Claudia burn so hot that he’d confided in his lapdog? Or was Gavin just clever enough to realize it was a wound in my heart that was easy to open up? Gavin’s more clever than Martin, whispered that voice in my head. He’s more subtle. He’s used to working around Martin to get what he wants. Be careful.

  “Did Martin tell you that himself?”

  “No,” Gavin admitted. “I’m just a useful idiot to him, not a confidant. But what I’m saying is true. If you doubt it, look into a man named Gregory Robinson. Martin hired him to take care of the Claudia problem.”

  I didn’t have to feign my horrified reaction; I knew who Robinson was. I’d encountered him while searching for my sister. “Martin’s done some terrible things, hasn’t he?” I whispered.

  “Martin is an evil man. He’s going to suffer for all that he’s done.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Nothing at all.” Gavin stared at me. “I am truly sorry about what happened to your sister, you know. In pace requiescat.”

  I turned my head around to stare at the back of the sofa, so Gavin couldn’t see my expression. All in pace requiescat meant was rest in peace, but Gavin’s phrasing jolted me and made a memory twitch deep in the back of my brain. What was it? I didn’t want him to see that it bothered me, so I touched my face as if brushing tears away. “It’s still so hard for me to talk about her,” I whispered.

  If I’d hoped an emotional reaction would put him off, I’d miscalculated. The next thing I knew, Gavin was stroking my hair.

  “You can always talk to me, Lily. I think we could become very close, couldn’t we?”

  There was something especially chilling about Gavin when he was pretending to be romantic. He was like a creature who had seen human beings interact and wanted to copy the gestures, even though the sentiments eluded him. Gavin had lured me down to Acapulco not because of love or even lust; there was no raw desire emanating from him. He wanted to sleep with me because I had been Martin’s. Gavin wanted everything Martin had ever had.

  “Did you like the necklace, Lily? I thought it perfect for you, with your dark hair and fair skin. I know how you do love jewelry.”

  I wondered what he’d said to Skye when he’d given her the same necklace.

  “I don’t know what to say.” My voice was slightly breathless—it still felt as if a gorilla was testing his strength on my ribcage—but that wasn’t a negative in this case. If anything, it helped me sound as if I were overwhelmed with emotion, or at least, a sentiment that wasn’t revulsion.

  “You don’t have to say anything, Lily.” Gavin loomed over me and I knew he wanted to kiss me. I coughed and kept talking.

  “Gavin, I’m so flattered. I never would have imagined…”

  He lifted my h
and and kissed it. The gesture was something Martin had done, many times, and I’d always loved it. But with Gavin, I wanted to rush to the nearest bathroom and scrub my hands. It was one thing to play along with his delusions with words, but my body had other ideas. I flinched.

  “Poor Lily. You’re not a very good actress, are you?” Gavin dropped my hand. For a moment, I thought he was going to hit me, but instead he stood and smoothed out the creases in his trousers. “Don’t worry.” His voice was alarmingly casual. “Everything will be resolved soon, I promise.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “You want to leave the Hotel Cerón, don’t you?” He gave me that awkward hint of a smile. “Then just do exactly what I tell you to do.”

  CHAPTER 37

  “Let me take you upstairs, lily,” Gavin said. “Do you think you can walk, or shall I carry you?”

  “I’ll walk.” The muscle relaxant had mostly worn off, leaving me oddly refreshed. My body, from the neck down, felt like it had been on vacation, while my head was ready to explode from the tension.

  In the lobby, I found myself staring through the glass doors to the outside world. I was desperate to get out of the Hotel Cerón’s twisted orbit. I had to escape its sickly sweet smells and suspicious staff and ever-present atmosphere of doom.

  “How lovely it would be to escape right now,” Gavin said, as if he were reading my mind.

  “What?”

  “Isn’t that what’s going through your head at this moment, Lily?”

  “I was thinking about Skye. I can’t believe she’s dead.”

  “Really? I certainly can. The wonder is that no one killed her before this. I thought about it on several occasions.”

  I stared at him in mute horror.

  “Don’t be a hypocrite, Lily,” he chided. “Don’t tell me you didn’t want to kill her when you found out she and Martin had been an item.”

  He put his hand on my back, but I flinched again.

  “You’re determined to be difficult, aren’t you?” Gavin looked me over while a muscle twitched at his jaw. “Very well. Shall I summon your friend Apolinar to take you up to your room?”

  “All right,” I agreed. Anything was better than fending off Gavin’s clumsy attempts at seduction.

  Gavin spoke to the clerk, and Apolinar appeared in the lobby a minute later.

  “Take her upstairs,” Gavin instructed. “Make sure she’s comfortable and has whatever she wants. But keep in mind, you’re accountable for her. If she gets away, I’ll know it was you who helped her.”

  Apolinar looked affronted. “I’d never—”

  “Just do as you’re told,” Gavin said. He walked away.

  Apolinar didn’t speak to me in the elevator. “Do you know who attacked me?” I asked as we got off on the fifth floor.

  “No. How would I?” His voice was steady but he kept his face forward, glancing at me only out of the corners of his eyes.

  “Funny, how the man got into the hotel, and then out again, isn’t it?”

  “We will find him. He can’t get away.”

  “Not without help,” I added.

  Apolinar opened the door of my suite with his own key card, which didn’t make me feel reassured about my safety. I followed him inside. “Why did you let him get away?”

  Apolinar’s face was serious. “He had the opportunity to run because I grabbed you to keep you from collapsing. I thought you were badly hurt. That’s how he got away.”

  “Oh.” I took a breath. “Didn’t anyone try to stop him while he ran out? The bellman wouldn’t let me get past the door.”

  “There are other ways out of the hotel.”

  “Such as?”

  He shook his head. “Gavin isn’t about to let you leave. He has moved heaven and earth to bring you here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He is a very bitter man,” Apolinar answered.

  “Gavin’s obsessed with Martin Sklar. I think he slept with Skye because Martin took her out. I know his only interest in me is because of the relationship I had with his boss.”

  “We have a saying in Mexico. Árbol que crece torcido jamás su tronco endereza. Do you understand?”

  “A tree that grows bent never straightens out.”

  Apolinar nodded “That’s about right.”

  “Meaning?”

  He looked around, as if someone might overhear. “Gavin’s father, his birth father, I mean, used to beat him. He beat Gavin’s mother, too, and that’s why she fled from him, but she left Gavin behind. Then his father died, and Gavin came to live with his mother and her new husband in Mexico. Mr. Alvarez was a very caring man, you know. I worked for him for many years. Gavin thinks his stepfather was cold, but Mr. Alvarez did everything to educate him, and he spoiled Gavin in some ways. But Mr. Alvarez had his own young son, Tomás, and he doted on him.”

  “You’re saying that Gavin is still fighting old battles with his father and stepfather through Martin?”

  “Mr. Alvarez believed in Freud. He thought Gavin searched for a dominating father figure. It is a love-hate relationship, and it obsesses him. Mr. Alvarez used to say, ‘Perhaps, when I am dead, Gavin will finally be free.’ But he is not. If anything, he is worse.”

  “When did Mr. Alvarez die?”

  “Last November. It was a long time coming. Mr. Alvarez had Parkinson’s Disease. He allowed Gavin to take over the business before he passed away. I think he hoped Gavin would be his own man, but instead, Gavin sold the hotels to Pantheon at the first opportunity.” Apolinar shook his head. “Mr. Alvarez wanted him to me able to stand on his own, but he came to see that Gavin can only survive in the shadow of a larger man.”

  “But you said Mr. Alvarez had another son. Why didn’t he take over the business?”

  “Tomás died in a swimming accident some years ago. Gavin was with him. I have never been told the details of what happened. Mr. Alvarez had his heart broken then. He was never the same. His wife—Tomás’s mother, as well as Gavin’s—died of an overdose not long after.”

  “Are you saying that Gavin killed his brother?”

  “Those were not my words,” Apolinar answered. “I worked for Mr. Alvarez, and now I work for Gavin. I do that because Mr. Alvarez asked me to. I could not say no to him. Mr. Alvarez took me out of the slums of Barra Vieja and educated me. He paid for me to go to school. He even sent me to America to learn English. My loyalty is to Mr. Alvarez and to his family. Gavin is all that is left of Mr. Alvarez’s family. So, when Gavin gives me an order, I obey, even if I regret it.” Apolinar took a deep breath. “I am telling you all of this so you will understand. You are a smart woman. Let what I have told you guide your actions. Do not make Gavin give me an order that I would regret.”

  CHAPTER 38

  After apolinar left, I reached for my cell phone and found it was gone. The last time I’d used it had been when Jesse called me, and I’d tossed it back into my bag. I still had the purse, but spilling its contents over the bed only confirmed that the phone wasn’t there anymore. I collapsed on a chair and stared into space, noticing that my carry-on suitcase had been quietly returned to my room and was standing against the wall. That felt like a taunt, reminding me there was no way out. It was already eight o’clock. I’d been at the Hotel Cerón for twenty-four hours, and in that time, Skye had died and I’d discovered I was a prisoner.

  As an afterthought, I picked up the room’s phone, feeling briefly reassured by the dial tone. I wasn’t cut off from the world.

  Sure, but you can be monitored, Claudia’s voice reminded me. The room phone? They can listen in on that. They can keep you from calling outside the hotel. And they will know if you call anyone inside the hotel.

  I returned the receiver to its cradle. The obvious alternative was email, but when I tried it, it told me I needed a code to access the Internet. The system hadn’t been password-protected before; the fact it was now wasn’t a coincidence. I didn’t have a way to contact the outside world.
My claustrophobia usually came to the fore when I was confronted by dark, enclosed spaces. But I could feel my pulse quickening as the old, familiar fear started to fill me.

  I pulled off my dress and slipped into my jeans, T-shirt, and ballerina flats, then added a cardigan for good measure. I examined my neck where my attacker had injected the muscle relaxant; there was no visible wound except some prickly red skin around the puncture. He’d known how to do his job. But what job was that? My paranoia was in full bloom. What had always inhibited its growth was the idea I’d replicate my mother’s mistakes, seeing the darkest possibility inside every shadow and hiding from the world. But everything around me had turned to dust, and suspecting the worst was the only reasonable response I had left.

  I pocketed my passport along with my driver’s license, credit cards and cash. My silver bracelet was on my arm, and I stroked it as if it were both armor and amulet. Putting my keycard into my back pocket—I didn’t want to return to my room, but knew I might have to—I shut the door with the quietest of clicks, then crept past Denny’s, bowing low enough that I wouldn’t be visible through the peephole. Now that’s lunacy, I thought, but Denny was working with Gavin, which meant I couldn’t trust her. Would she help me out of the hotel? Maybe, but it was just as likely she’d turn me over to Gavin. I had no idea where her loyalties really lay, and I didn’t want to put them to the test.

  When I got to Ruby’s room, I rang the bell.

  When she opened the door, she did a double-take. “Are you done packing already?”

  “Packing for what?” I asked, stepping inside without being asked to.

  “For moving hotels, of course. You’re not on the sauce, are ya?”