3:18 p.m.
After I’d grabbed a pair of latex gloves from the car, I led Tessa into the hotel.
She watched me slip the gloves into my pocket. “What are those for?”
“Examining stuff.”
“Wow. Never would have guessed.” Her sarcasm felt friendly and familiar, but under her words I could tell there was something deeply troubling her.
“Stick with me long enough and you’ll learn all kinds of cool things.”
She was quiet.
“You all right?” I said.
“Yeah.”
We stepped into the expansive atrium. “So you’ll be okay hanging out here for a few minutes?”
She nodded as she glanced at the hanging gardens, waterfall, and streams, and I realized I’d never brought her to this hotel before. She was obviously impressed.
“I just need to see if I can slide a few pieces of the puzzle together,” I said. “I won’t be long.”
She didn’t reply or complain, and I almost wished she would have argued with me; at least then I would have known she was feeling okay.
“So we’re cool? You’re sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah.”
As she took a seat, I suggested she might want to touch base with her friends in Denver, give Pandora or Jessie a call.
That seemed agreeable to her; she pulled out her computer and clicked to her video chat program.
I was turning toward the front desk when she said, “Do you think she’s dead?”
When I faced her again, I saw that her eyes were on a WXTN News cameraman filming a reporter who was interviewing Mr. Lees, the hotel manager. They stood at the other end of the atrium.
“Do you mean-”
“The congressman’s daughter.”
Careful, Pat.
“I don’t think we should jump to conclusions,” I said. “Stay here and wait for me, okay? Just give me maybe fifteen or twenty minutes. Then we’ll take off.” I thought for a second. “And I’ll get you home.”
She was repositioning herself so that her back was to the news crew. “Okay.”
I wanted to see if the former NSA analyst Marianne Keye-Wallace and her “facial, audio, video” recognition computer system would be able to help me find a connection between the would-be assassin at this hotel six years ago and the killers who brought Mollie Fischer here yesterday.
Leaving Tessa behind, I walked toward the hallway that led to the control center.