Erick

by Dale Mayer

  When Honey returned from dinner, she was still high on life and the talk she’d had with several of the other doctors. This was what she lived for. This was her passion. And to be here at the cutting edge of some of this technology, … wow, just wow. Even if it wouldn’t be available in the US for years, maybe decades, it was just so phenomenal to see it all happening. It was a wonderful age to be a dentist. A wonderful time of life to see these kinds of changes. The animated conversation had risen as the discussion had intensified. It had been exhilarating and electrifying. And, if she’d found David’s arm around the back of her chair a couple times, she put it down to everyone being so into the intelligent conversation.

  Stem cell technology would completely evolve the industry.

  And she couldn’t wait.

  She’d stayed with the group to have a couple drinks, refusing David’s request for a more private cocktail after the group left, citing fatigue as an excuse. But now she was just plain tired, her mind still buzzing with all she’d learned, but she figured, after a hot shower and a restful sleep in her hotel bed, she’d be ready to go the next day.

  As she walked to the elevator, several of her group came with her. She was the first one to get off on the fourth floor. Waving good-night, she said, “Have a great evening, you guys.” She turned to the right and headed toward her room.

  She was only one door away from the elevator. The hall was completely empty, which was how it had been almost every time. Except for the appearance of the gunman. Instantly all her senses of well-being fell away as she remembered what she’d seen and where. She pulled out her room key as a tall man with high cheekbones and massive shoulders walked past her. She narrowed her gaze at him suspiciously. Nordic-looking, but more Mediterranean in coloring with his dark hair and a beard. She didn’t recognize him, but there was something about him.

  He turned, caught her frowning and smiled. “Nice to meet you, ma’am.”

  She shook her head. “Are you American too?”

  He stopped and shoved his hand in his pockets. “I’m a lot of things. But originally from Norway. Are other Americans here?”

  “Yes. Some men are staying down at the far end of this hall, and a bunch of people from my conference are from the US.”

  “Whereabouts are you from?”

  She shrugged, knowing she probably shouldn’t have a personal conversation with him. But it seemed harmless when he wouldn’t know who she was. “New Mexico.”

  He nodded. “I live there too now.”

  And then she knew. She studied him for a long moment and understood. “You are here with Erick, aren’t you?”

  One eyebrow shot up. He turned to face her and in a low voice asked, “Erick?”

  She brushed away his tone. “Erick. He’s here with two other men. I’m the one who saw the gunman earlier today.”

  “I understand.” He narrowed his eyes. “You are the one who hit his ’69 Mustang.” She winced, and he laughed. He held out his hand to shake hers. “My name is Laszlo.”

  The name suited him, but she also noted he didn’t offer a second name. Then she could hardly blame him. She shook his hand. “I’m Honey.”

  “Nice,” he said in a noncommittal tone. He glanced around. “Have you seen anybody on this floor?”

  “No, and I completely forgot about them until I got off the elevator,” she said.

  “Good. Keep forgetting about it,” he said with a smile. He gave her hand back and kept walking down the hall. He went all the way to the end to stare out the window, like she had earlier. When he turned and looked at her, she was still standing there. He gave a wave; she waved back, unlocked her hotel room door and stepped inside.

  And came face-to-face with the gunman. She let out a startled squeak and went to step back out again.

  He called out, “Get in here right now.”

  She shoved her arm out of doorway and shook it frantically.

  But then the gunmen clicked the trigger and said, “Now.”

  She stepped farther inside. He closed the door, locking it. She walked one step forward and stared at him. “What do you want?” She was proud of the fact her voice barely trembled.

  But he wasn’t happy about it. He sneered at her. “Trying to be brave, are you? Well, nobody’s going to help you now.”

  “What do you want?” Her mind was reaching for an answer, but the only thing she could do was blame Erick. And she knew that would not get her anywhere. “I don’t have any money, but you’re welcome to what I have.”

  The gunman waved the gun around. “I don’t give a shit about any money you got. I’ve got way more. I want to know where your friend is.”

  She frowned. “What friend?” But she knew inside, somehow this guy had seen her with Erick and thought they were friends.

  “The Americans. The boyfriend. Spoke with them at lunch.”

  Her mouth dropped open as she tried to make it look like she was totally surprised. “A man came over and talked to me. But he’s hardly a friend.”

  The gunman studied her for a long time. Then he said, “What do you know about him?”

  “I hit his ’69 Mustang a year ago,” she confessed. “I thought he was going to kill me back then.”

  The gunman stared at her in shock, and then he started to laugh. A great big rippling laugh.

  She wished she could see his face, but it was completely hidden under a black ski mask. She swallowed hard. “So I really don’t know anything about him except that he’s staying here at the hotel with his friends.”

  “You’re lying,” he said calmly. “How many friends?”

  “Two men,” she said. “At least that’s all I saw. And I’m not lying,” she ended with spirit.

  “If you don’t know him yet, you want to get to know him. Body language doesn’t lie.” He nodded. “Well, if you want to stay alive, you won’t tell them anything about this.”

  She stepped out of the way in case he wanted to walk to the door. “I didn’t see anything.”

  Just as he came to her side, as if to go out the door, there was a knock, and she gasped.

  He held his hand up to his mouth and whispered, “Quiet.”

  She nodded.

  He swung his gun arm hard and smacked her on the side of the head. She collapsed with a cry. And the room started to waver. She heard a rush of feet to the window, and more banging on the door. Suddenly the door was open.

  She gazed up at Laszlo, the huge mountain of a man. “It was the gunman. He was inside my room.”

  Laszlo jumped over her and raced to the small balcony. She dragged herself to sit on the edge of the bed, her hand to her head. When her fingers came away sticky with blood, she groaned. “Damn it, Erick. Even when you’re not here, you’re causing me trouble.” She made her way slowly to the double French doors. A light breeze blew the curtains in.

  She watched Laszlo who was now two balconies over. He turned to look at her, his face grim. He mouthed, I lost him, and proceeded to make his way back to her.

  She watched in amazement as he crossed a six-foot distance between balconies, making it look unbelievably easy. She glanced down to see a man running across the street. She pointed as Laszlo landed beside her.

  “Yeah, he’s too far for me to get to now,” he said, turning to look at her. “Did he say anything?”

  She quickly relayed the little bit she remembered. “He wanted to know about Erick. And how many men he was here with. When I told him that I had crashed into his Mustang, he laughed.” She stared at him. “Why would he laugh?”

  Laszlo let out his breath slowly. “Either he knew about Erick and his Mustang and liked the idea of Erick’s car getting crunched, or he just thought it was funny that you crashed into the guy’s car. At this point there’s no way to know. I have a question for you though. Did the guy have an accent? Did he speak like he was a local? Did you recognize his voice, his physique, anything about him?”

  She shook her head. “He had a ski mask over his head. I c
ouldn’t see anything except the look in his eyes. And it was like nobody was home. Until I talked about crashing into the Mustang, and then there was this light, as if he thought that was the best thing ever.”

  Laszlo studied her for a long moment and then nudged her back inside. She didn’t want to go—she wanted to address how he had managed to leap from balcony to balcony. “How is it you could cross that distance?”

  He shrugged. “I’m used to it. Brick outcroppings are alongside the wall between the balconies. I can grab them and swing over. Obviously the intruder knew about them too. Most people wouldn’t. They’d look at that distance and say, hell no. It’s just past the point of being doable.”

  That made her feel slightly better. She sat down at the edge of the bed, her hands shaky. “Why are you here?”

  He stared at her in confusion.

  She tried again. “Like, why are you at the hotel? And thank you, by the way, for noticing I was in trouble.”

  “When your hand came out in the hallway, waving wildly, it was obvious something wasn’t right. I wish I’d gotten here before he shut the door. I could’ve caught him then.”

  “Maybe,” she said, suddenly very tired. “Maybe he’d have shot me instead of just hitting me.” She reached a tentative hand to her sore head. “Maybe I should have backed out of the room instead of going inside, like he ordered me to.”

  Laszlo walked to the double glass doors, closed and locked them, then drew the curtains together. “What you need to do is have a good night’s rest.”

  Her jaw dropped as she stared at him. “And how do you suggest I do that?”

  He grinned. “You will because you know I’ll be outside, keeping an eye on you.”

  She raised both hands in frustration. “There’s no way you can keep an eye on me.”

  He nodded. “I will. My room is right across the hallway. I’ll keep my door open.”

  She frowned and walked back to the door, opened it and stepped out into the hall. “I figured you were down close to Erick,” she admitted.

  “No, I wanted to be on the same floor, but at the other end of the hall. It’s much easier to keep an eye on things if you’re not right beside them.”

  “Well, I wish you’d been here earlier. You could have seen how this asshole got into my room.”

  “Good point. He must have gotten hold of your key at some point.”

  She frowned and turned to him. “When I arrived, they couldn’t find one of my keys. There were supposed to be two of them. They only gave me one.”

  He looked at her slowly, crossed his arms and said, “When did you arrive?”

  “I came in on an overnight flight. I was sitting in the lobby when the guys came in.”

  “Did you speak?”

  “Yes, we talked for a few minutes.” She shrugged. “Maybe more than a few minutes.”

  “It’s likely you were seen. At that point, if anybody did a search on his name and found the automobile accident, they would know you were the one who hit him. To have both of you coming to the hotel on the same day, it’s a likely assumption you are together.”

  “Even after I crunched his Mustang?” She smiled. “I figured that was a dead giveaway we wouldn’t want to be anywhere close to each other.”

  “Erick is a good guy. He’d forgive anyone for that.”

  “He sure didn’t look like it when he saw me here.” She laughed and shook her head. “If anything, he was still pissed.”

  Laszlo smirked. “Well, his car is his baby.”

  “Just leave it at baby. I definitely got the impression that vehicle means a lot to him.”

  “It was his grandfather’s. He helped restore it with his grandfather, and his grandfather passed away a couple years after they were done. A lot of memories are tied up in that car.”

  She felt terrible. “Oh, my God. I had no idea.”

  “Of course not. He wouldn’t tell you. Sure, insurance probably did help fix the damage, but that won’t fix all the memories. At least he managed to salvage the vehicle. The insurance company wanted to write it off, and he fought for it.”

  She couldn’t imagine. She didn’t have any grandparents. But had always wished she had. That Erick had that relationship and had done something special with his grandfather, that vehicle would be so damn important to him.

  “At the time I knew it was important. I just didn’t realize why,” she admitted. “I shouldn’t have been driving that day. I was a wreck. But I was just trying to get home. And that’s all I could see.”

  “Why?”

  She gave him a hooded look. “I’d just had a miscarriage. I’d been released that day from the hospital, but I wasn’t in any shape to drive home.”

  “I’m sorry,” Laszlo said quietly. “No friend to drive you home—or the father of the child?”

  She shook her head. “They’d both taken off. Together.”

  Laszlo winced. “Ouch.”

  She gave him a steely look. “Exactly.”

  Their accommodations for the night were much less than the hotel they’d left behind. They had one room, two beds and a cot. But it would do. They would be on watch all night as it was. They had no reason to suspect anybody knew they were here, but that gunman in the first hotel had set all their nerves on edge.

  Erick had been busy sending texts and making phone calls. When he finally got off the phone, it rang again. He stared down to see Laszlo’s number. “Where are you, man?”

  “Parked outside your ladylove’s hotel room,” Laszlo said. “The gunman came to pay a visit.”

  Erick’s heart froze. “What?” He said it so harshly that Cade and Talon bounced off the bed to stand beside him, listening in on the call. He held it out so they could hear as Laszlo explained what had happened. “The guy laughed that my Mustang got crunched?”

  It was hardly a funny matter, at least for him. His friends knew how important that car was to him. Of course someone who didn’t like him would likely laugh at his misfortune. That lent credence to the idea that the gunman might know him. “She didn’t recognize who it was? Nationality? Nothing?”

  “He had a full head mask on, black gloves, black long sleeve T-shirt.”

  “Hot clothing for the area.”

  “I don’t think he was bothered about the temperature. He was more concerned about pumping her for information.”

  “Sure, but obviously she’ll tell us what she saw. So why would he take that chance and leave her alive?”

  “Unless he wanted you to know,” Laszlo said. “I can tell you one thing. I was a surprise for him. I didn’t tell her this, but, when I went over the balcony after him, he took one look at me, and there was almost a squeak out of him. I’ve never seen anybody move that fast. I couldn’t catch him. It’s like he was a bloody monkey. On the last balcony, he had an escape route planned as he jumped to a balcony below and then down several more. By the time I reached the last balcony, he was long gone. When I returned to Honey’s room, she was standing on the balcony, watching me. She pointed out a guy in black running on the streets below. No way I could catch him.”

  “What about a camera security system in the hotel?”

  “I haven’t talked to the manager yet. What’s the point? Either the cameras will pick up somebody who’s got a full-face mask on or somebody who’s facing the elevator, not the cameras. He’s a pro. He avoided the cameras catching his photo.”

  “And a pro is a whole different ball game.”

  “No, it’s the same old game,” Talon said tiredly beside him. “Killers are killers, whether they do it for the love of their country, or they do it for their private paycheck.”

  Erick knew Talon was bitter and tired, and that’s when his attitude came across the most. “I’d like to think the times I had to kill that I had a good reason for it.”

  “The best,” Cade said. “Usually because somebody was trying to kill us first.”

  There wasn’t much anyone could say about that. Erick ended the call with L
aszlo, relieved at least their friend was sticking close to Honey. Yet the thought of the two together made his stomach clench. Laszlo was single, good looking, a big monster of a man. Looked to be right up Honey’s alley. Erick should be happy for them. But, for some reason, he wasn’t. He had to admit he shared a connection with Honey. If he just got out of this mess alive …

  He turned to glance at the men. “I need food. What about you guys?”

  They nodded. As they turned to walk out, Cade stopped. “I think somebody should stay here with the weapons.” He returned to his spot on the bed by the window. “Just bring me back something.”

  Erick nodded and stepped out. It was a small village. He thought a local restaurant was close by. Which, in this case, probably meant family cooking.

  When they walked outside, darkness had settled. One eatery was still open. They walked inside, sat down and ordered the local fare: skewers, rice, beans, and, if he was lucky, some vegetables. He was good with that. When the food came, it was hot and tasty. They were obviously not locals, and only one other table was occupied.

  The owner came over to see how they were doing. They said they were good, and the food was excellent, and Erick invited him to sit down and visit. The man wanted to know what they were doing here. With a glance at Talon, he decided it was as good a place as any to start asking questions. He needed to find out what was happening in this area. He kept his voice light. “I was here two years ago. Involved in a bad accident. I came back to take another look. I know there won’t be any answers, but sometimes just seeing the place can help.”

  The man’s grasp of English was excellent. “I don’t know of any accidents in the last few years. What kind of vehicle were you driving?”

  Talon said, “We were in the military back then.”

  Instantly the man’s face closed down. Slowly he said, “There was a bad accident a few years ago. It was a bad time.”

  Erick nodded. “Our vehicle drove over an antitank land mine.”

  The man winced. “You are lucky to be alive.”

  “One of our unit didn’t make it.” Erick paused. “I was hoping to find the spot, so I could sit there and make peace with my life and the loss of my friend,” Erick explained as he continued to eat, his gaze on the man’s face.