Free Suspicious (On the Run) by Sara Rosett Page A

her became the thing that annoyed her the most, his stick-in-the-mud lifestyle, marked by caution and carefulness. What she hadn’t understood was that Jack’s past was anything but ordinary. “Maybe I thought that once, but I know deep down, you’re a thrill-seeker. You just hide it well.”
    They’d been walking along the street, and Zoe hadn’t missed that while they were walking and talking, Jack constantly checked the area around them, surveying the crowds. The smile left her face as they reached the Termini. “So, it has to be Harrington’s hotel room?”
    “Have you got a better place to start?”
    Zoe thought for a second. “The Hotel Santa Maria, wasn’t it?”

    ***

    Zoe consulted her Smart Travel Rome guidebook and was relieved to see the Hotel Santa Maria was listed. It was located near the Spanish Steps, so they caught the Metro at the Termini and rode it to the Spagna stop, then took the elevator to the top of the steps, which was not nearly as scenic as climbing the actual steps, but they weren’t sightseeing today. They emerged at the top of the steps near the obelisk and made their way through a cluster of artists displaying their canvases and only paused for a second to take in the view down the steps, then continued on to the Via Sistina, one of the constricted streets of hotels, restaurants, and shops that branched off the piazza. The sun was high and bright in the sky, but with the tall buildings on either side, the street was shady. The Hotel Santa Maria was about halfway down the street with several police cars, including a Carabinieri car, parked in front of its revolving glass door. A couple of business-suited men carrying briefcases chatted on the red carpet outside the hotel.
    Zoe and Jack slowed their pace as they neared the hotel. He looked across the façade of the building. “Okay, four floors. We go inside, act like we know where we’re going and take the stairs or the elevator, if they have one. I’m betting a hotel this posh has an elevator. Once we’re on the floors with the rooms, we stroll, looking for Harrington’s.”
    Zoe eyed the police cars. “You think his room will be obvious.”
    He nodded. “Once we find out where it is, then we figure out how to get in.”
    “It’s a good plan, but I don’t like the idea of traipsing along hallways and accidentally running into the police. Since, you know, we were just running from them.”
    They stopped walking, and Zoe pretended to consult her map. Jack leaned over it, too. “Do you have another idea?”
    “As a matter of fact, I do.” Zoe looked pointedly at two women in maid uniforms leaving the building through a small door cut into another larger door a few feet from the hotel’s main entrance. “I bet they know everything that’s going on in the hotel—where the police are, what they’ve found, and what was going on in the rooms before the police arrived.”
    Huddled close over the map, Jack turned to look at her, his face close to hers. “You’re too good at this, sometimes.”
    “I’ve learned from the best.” She put away the map, and they followed the women to a café down the street where the women bought slices of pizza.
    Zoe nodded to a souvenir store across the street. “I’ll wait here. One person is less memorable than two.”
    “Good idea. Now, all I have to do is drag some Italian out of my memory banks.” He took the map, and Zoe went to browse T-shirts and refrigerator magnets. She watched him enter the café and approach the table, map in hand. He fixed his silver-blue gaze on the women, and even from across the street, Zoe could see him turn on the charm.
    The women seemed eager to help, hands flying as they talked. Zoe smothered a smile. Worried about his Italian. Right. All he had to do was smile and those women were eating out of his hand. Zoe turned her attention back to browsing, stepping aside as a woman entered the store and made for the cash register at the back. The store was