“That could take days, and we don’t have days.”
“Hmm.”
Lindsey rose from her chair and stepped toward the counter. “Are you coming?”
Ignatowski slowly rose from his chair again, grunting.
“Just let me do the talking,” she suggested.
“I’ll follow your lead,” Ignatowski replied.
“Excuse me, miss.” Lindsey waved to the woman. “Excuse me,” she repeated when the woman gave her a quick look.
“Good afternoon. Can I help you?”
“Maybe. Are you Andrea Rafaela Cabrera, proprietor of this hotel?”
The woman took a small step back, as she squinted, tilting her head. “Who wants to know?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. My name is Lindsey Wilson, and this is Ralph Ignatowski. We work for the United States government, and we would like to ask you some questions.”
“For the United States?” Andrea asked surprised.
“This is a U.S.-operated hotel, isn’t it? And you, yourself, have a dual citizenship of both the U.S. and of Peru, haven’t you?”
“What’s this about?” she asked, creasing her forehead.
“Do you have a moment to sit down with us?” Lindsey asked.
“Quite honestly, I don’t,” the woman replied.
“This will only take a minute.” Ignatowski pointed to a table behind them in the corner. “If you please,” he sounded demanding. Reluctantly, the woman walked from behind the counter and followed them to the table. Ignatowski pointed to a chair, and they all sat down.
“What’s this all about?” Andrea asked.
“Your boss is Eldin Mulder?” Lindsey asked.
“Mr. Mulder owns the hotel,” she replied. “He’s rarely here. I manage things around here.”
“You’re the only manager?” Lindsey continued.
“I’m the proprietor and director. I have a handful of floor managers working for me. Now, would you mind telling me what this is all about?”
“In a moment,” Ignatowski said in his best bossy voice.
“When was the last time you saw Mr. Mulder?”
Andrea thought for a moment. She lifted her head and sighed. “He was here, briefly, about a week ago.”
“And his assistant?” Ignatowski took over. “Miss Coleman?”
Andrea shifted her bottom back tight into her seat and put her hands on her knees. “Amie?”
“Have you seen her?” Lindsey asked again.
“I believe she was with him.”
“You believe, or are you sure?” Ignatowski asked, demanding.
Andrea frowned. “I’m sure. Look, I don’t know what this is all about, but I don’t like your tone of voice. Now, if you don’t tell me what this is all about, I will get back to my work.”
“That’s all right, Miss Cabrera, you answered all our questions,” Lindsey said. “Thank you very much. I trust we can contact you again should we develop any new questions?”
Andrea rose from her chair. “You can always try.”
“What was that?” Ignatowski asked as Andrea disappeared behind the counter again. “She’s clearly hiding something.”
“She doesn’t know Amie’s been kidnapped,” Lindsey said.
“What do you mean?”
“She said Amie was with Mulder a week ago. According to Mulder, she was kidnapped before that. How could she have been here then?”
“Maybe she’s got the dates wrong?” Ignatowski suggested.
“Maybe, but she seemed pretty sure when I asked again. Or maybe Mulder forgot to tell her about the kidnapping, and indeed she was here a week ago.”
Ignatowski cocked his head. “All right, I think. So, what do we do now?”
“If I get you onto the hotel’s wi-fi, you think you can get into the guest list?”
“If it’s not the guest wi-fi, but the hotel’s business wireless, yes, I think I can.”
Lindsey smiled. “The SSID is ‘FinchBayP’ and the password is ‘Iguana underscore thirty-two, with a capital I.”
Ignatowski smiled back, taking his laptop from his briefcase. “Wow. How did you do it?”
“Iggy, you must know by now that I have special skills.”
Ignatowski nodded slowly.
“That, and I noticed a paper stuck to the side of the cash register saying wi-fi week thirty-two.”
“But it isn’t anywhere near week thirty-two now,” Ignatowski replied, setting up his laptop.
“Just try it,” Lindsey said as Ignatowski typed.
“It works.”
“I figured it would.” Lindsey sounded proud. “When was the last time you saw a public place change their wi-fi password every week?”
“Okay, let’s see what we have here.” Ignatowski worked his laptop.
“You do that while I get us something to drink. Iced tea?”
“Yes, please.” Ignatowski didn’t look up from the screen.
For the next five minutes, Ignatowski typed and swiped the touch screen.
Lindsey returned and handed Ignatowski his drink. “Any luck, Iggy?” she asked.
“Luck has nothing to do with it.” He grinned. “The hotel now has a new employee called Robert Langdon.”
“Who’s Robert Langdon?”
Ignatowski's eyes pierced Lindsey’s. “You don’t... you never heard of...? Amazing.” He shook his head. “It’s a fictional character in one of my favorite series of books who.... Ah, never mind. Anyway, Langdon has a fake account as a desk manager that I control.”
“So, we can look at everything?”
“Everything a desk manager can see and do, we can see and do.” Ignatowski turned the screen to Lindsey.
“Great. Can you pop up the guest list?” Ignatowski turned the screen back and worked the keyboard.
“Sure. Here you are.” He turned the screen back to her.
“Do you mind?” She put the computer in her lap. “Aha. Okay, yes.”
“Anything interesting?” Ignatowski asked, rubbing his temples.
“I think so.” She pointed to the screen. “You see over here, a hotel floor plan, and here, the guest list. You notice anything peculiar?”
Ignatowski scrutinized the screen. “There are no visitors, not one on the top floor of the east wing?”
“Exactly.” Lindsey raised a thumb. “And from what I read in the past weeks’ logs, there hasn’t been anyone in there all that time.”
“Maybe they are remodeling?”
“You think so?” Lindsey pointed through the window at her right.
“That’s the east wing?”
“According to this floor plan, it is,” Lindsey confirmed.
Through the lobby windows, the fourth and top floor of the east wing was plainly visible. Although many of the curtains on the wing were closed, a deck chair on the balcony of one of the rooms was clearly occupied.
“There’s not much going on,” Lindsey remarked, “but it’s also not unoccupied.”
Ignatowski bobbed his head. “I see what you mean. What do you want to do?”
“You wanna come and check it out?” She rose from her chair, handed him the laptop and walked to the elevator at the back of the lobby.
“Awesome.” He quickly tucked the laptop back into the briefcase and followed her. “This is going way too easy,” he mumbled.
“What’s that?” Lindsey glanced back.
“Nothing. What could go wrong?” he joked.
As they neared the elevator, the doors opened and two young women dressed in bathing suits and flip flops, complete with a towel over their shoulders, exited.
“Afternoon, ladies,” Ignatowski said, greeting the women.
Without replying, the women passed them.
Lindsey put her hand on his shoulder, entering the elevator. “You’ll get over it.”
“Ha ha.” Ignatowski pushed the button for the fourth floor.
The elevator took them up, and when the doors opened, Lindsey stepped out without looking
and gasped as she almost bumped into a cleaning cart that blocked the exit.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” said a young woman dressed in white overalls. She immediately pulled the cart away. “Are you okay?” she asked as she tossed some dirty sheets into a bin on the cart.
“Yeah, sure, thank you. It just startled me. No problem.”
Opposite the elevator, a sign read “400-424 West,” with an arrow pointing right. The sign below showed an arrow pointing ahead of them that read “425-451 North” and a third one read, “476-501 South,” with a curved arrow pointing back behind the elevator.
“No East?” Ignatowski asked.
“Obviously not.” Lindsey walked up to the signs on the wall. She gently ran her fingers over the wall below the signs.
“I see it too,” Ignatowski agreed. “Something’s been removed.”
Both of them simultaneously turned their heads to the left. A short corridor ended at a set of large dark brown doors. They approached them, and Ignatowski first pushed, and then pulled, the left door and then the right, before shaking his head.
Lindsey tapped him on the shoulder and nodded to the right side of the door where a small gray box was placed on the wall.
“Electronic access,” he pointed out.
“How good are you with hacking electronic doors?”
Ignatowski took a deep breath. “If you give me a day or two, then maybe. I would need administrator access to the system, and that’s quite a different deal, I’m afraid.”
Lindsey pushed and pulled both doors again. Nothing happened. She turned her back into the door and bounced her weight against one of the doors. Again nothing. “Iggy, help me,” she demanded.
“Sure, why not,” he said and turned and put his back against the door next to hers.
“Three, two, one.” Both now banged their behinds against the doors, nothing still.
“Damn,” Lindsey groaned.
“What do you want to do now?”
After a long moment, Lindsey said, “I have an idea.”
“What is it?”
“Wait here,” she said and took off around the corner, toward the south corridor.
Ignatowski shook his head.
A ping sounded, and the elevator doors began to open. A few steps away from the door, he quickly looked left and right. There was no way he could disappear into one of the corridors in time. When the doors opened entirely, the same two women from the ground floor walked out, laughing loudly. One of them glanced his way.
“Ladies,” he said, feeling that she must have seen him. Nothing.
The women walked into the north corridor.
He shook his head. Invisibility has its advantages.
Lindsey darted around the corner. “Quick,” she said, grabbing his arm and dragging him back to the double doors. She slapped a key card against the box. Both doors opened sluggishly. Lindsey and Ignatowski worked themselves through the half-open doors.
“Close, close,” Lindsey whispered as they tried to force the doors to close more quickly. But they would have to wait for the hydraulic system to close the doors. It felt like minutes before the doors were closed again.
Lindsey sighed.
“How did you get that?”
“Remember the young woman with the cleaning cart?”
“Uh huh,” Ignatowski confirmed.
“Well,” Lindsey held up a roll of toilet paper. “I just might have asked her for an extra roll of toilet paper because of my husband’s... well, you know. And when she took it from the cart, I pickpocketed her access card.”
“Amazing.”
They turned into an empty hallway. Bobbing his head, Ignatowski counted the doors. “Thirteen on the left and twelve on the right.”
“Let’s go door by door,” Lindsey suggested.
“Let’s take the doors on the left first, “Ignatowski suggested. “We know for sure there’s one occupied about halfway.”
“Agreed.” Lindsey knocked on the first door and waited a few seconds. “Nothing.” She pushed the card to the sensor. A click sounded, and she carefully pushed the door open. “Is anyone here?” she called out.
After a second of silence, Ignatowski walked into the narrow corridor. He passed an open door to his left and looked into the empty bathroom. He made his way into the combined living room and bedroom, walked on, and opened the curtain a bit. A balcony. “Empty.” He stepped back and looked around. “No suitcases, toothbrushes or anything.”
“Next.” Lindsey went to the next door.
Ignatowski quickly joined her.
“Here we go.” She knocked a few times. Nothing. Another click and Ignatowski was inside searching. Seconds later, he was back out again, shaking his head.
“And again.” She knocked on the third door, the fourth and fifth, all with the same results. As she went to the next door, they heard a click releasing the hallway’s entry door lock. Lindsey eyed Ignatowski, but before they could move, the door opened a few inches. Indistinguishable voices sounded from the other side of the door. A few seconds later, the door slowly closed again. Lindsey and Ignatowski sighed in relief.
“What was that?” Lindsey asked.
“I’m not sure. All I could make out was something like ‘not necessary’ or something like that. Anyway, let’s move on quickly. I don’t like these close calls.”
”Keep your shirt on.” Lindsey went to the next door and knocked. Waiting, she aimed the keycard at the sensor. Just as she moved her hand toward the sensor, a voice sounded from the room and she abruptly took the card back.
“One moment,” the voice said.
Lindsey and Ignatowski eyed each other. “I thought it was further up the corridor,” Ignatowski said.
“Maybe there are more occupied rooms than we thought.” Lindsey shrugged while sounds emerged from the other side of the door. As the door opened, a woman in her late thirties, tying up a bathrobe, materialized. From below the towel knotted onto her head, a few strands of red hair emerged.
“Who are you?” the woman asked bluntly.
Lindsey and Ignatowski eyed each other for a second. “Um,” Lindsey uttered. “We’re from Triple-A Hotel Inspection, and we’d like to interview you on your experience here at the French Bay Hotel.”
“Sure,” the woman said. “And is that why you have the name of the hotel wrong?”
Ignatowski tilted his head, staring at the woman.
“What’s going on?” the woman asked.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Ignatowski apologized. “Um, Miss Coleman?”
“Yes?” the woman replied.
Chapter 31 – Darwin Island
For the past forty-five minutes, the helicopter carrying Bishop and De Cremonese flew over the Pacific Ocean, showing nothing but blue horizons. The two had first debated the pros and cons of evolution, then switched to life beyond the stars, and now the two were discussing whether the world as we know it is the product of intelligent design.
“You are a far too intelligent man not to believe in God.” De Cremonese grimaced.
“I always say the exact opposite,” Bishop countered. “That I’m far too intelligent to believe in God, any God for that matter, Father. No offense.”
“None taken, Matthew. I love our discussions. It’s not every day that....” A click followed by a loud hissing noise sounded from the headset.
“Hi, you folks back there. This is your captain Mike speaking. I also enjoyed your discussions. Anyway, if you look at the front of the chopper, you’ll see the landscape changing from blue to gray and green. That is our destination coming up, and in about five minutes, I expect to land. There are some heavy winds over the north of the island, so I’ll drop you off at the south coast. I hope you’ve had a pleasant flight. Please put your trays back in upright positions, fasten your seatbelts and prepare for landing.”
De Cremonese looked in front of him and mimicked putting up his tray where there was nothing.
“In his spare time, captain Mike is probably
a comedian at a local club or hotel,” Bishop remarked. “How do you think Lindsey and Iggy are doing at the hotel?”
“Probably better than we are.” De Cremonese pointed to the rocky landmass that was now just ahead of the helicopter.
“But it is a beautiful sight.” Bishop looked at the rock faces.
Bishop clicked the button on the headset. “Mike, can you please circle the island a bit, so we might see where we need to go?”
“No problem.” Mike turned the helicopter, slowly flying over the white cliffs, bringing them over the small island.
At slow speed, the helicopter moved over the desolated looking island. First, it circled the coastal rim, and then Mike took it over the rocky landmass in three straight passes. Bishop and De Cremonese, both equipped with binoculars, scoured the land, the rocks, and the shrubs, continually moving the binoculars to and from their eyes.
“Nothing?” De Cremonese asked after the third pass.
“Nothing,” Bishop confirmed.
“Okay, thank you. Please take us down,” Bishop asked Mike through the headset.
“You would think we had a great view from up here, should there be something out of the ordinary down there,” De Cremonese remarked.
“Unless it’s very well hidden,” Bishop replied.
Mike took the helicopter back to the rim of the island until he stopped and hovered some one hundred feet inland. He skillfully descended the chopper until, without any noticeable bump, it hit the rocky ground and stopped. “And here we are,” he spoke through the headset, while the whirring of the rotors gradually subsided. “For the love of God, I don’t know what you think you’re going to find here, but you paid good American dollars, so it’s all yours. Please take off your seatbelts and headsets and meet me outside.”
Mike jumped out and opened the sliding door, letting Bishop and De Cremonese out. When they were out, he pulled out a small ramp from under their seats. “Could you please help me?” he asked as he jumped in and untied the motorcycles in the back. Bishop and De Cremonese— each on a side—supported the bikes coming down, and within a minute, the operation was finished.
“You’re good to go,” Mike said. “I’ll be here waiting. You have my sat phone number, so you know how to reach me.”
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