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Joe clapped his hands slowly three times as they veered toward the bank of elevators. “I’m in awe. I can’t imagine your father, or anyone else, doing it better.”
She snorted. “My father would have Mr. Tang thinking it was his idea and thanking him for the pleasure of serving him.”
“You weren’t too far off the mark.” Joe thumbed the call button for the elevator. He ushered her in first when the doors opened. “Do all the employees have pictures of your family taped to their computer screens or something? They’re all supposed to recognize you?”
“I wouldn’t put it past my father to require that, but I don’t care.” She tugged on his sleeve. “You believe that, right? I don’t care about that stuff.”
“If you did, you wouldn’t be running off to war-torn countries like Syria.”
Hailey let out a little puff of breath. “My brother, on the other hand.”
“Likes the perks, does he?”
“Revels in them. At first he just reveled in the money—drugs, booze, parties, women. Then when he realized that I had fallen out of favor with Dad, he began to clean up his act to suck up to him. Now he’s his lapdog.”
“How did you fall out of favor with your father?”
“Oh, this and that.” She flicked her fingers.
Joe quirked one eyebrow. “So, your brother’s in line to take over the family’s holdings now?”
“Some, not all. Our father still doesn’t trust him.”
“Like he still trusts you.”
“Sort of.”
The elevator pinged and settled on the seventh floor. The thick carpet swallowed their footsteps as they made their way along the hallway to Marten’s room.
When they reached his door, Hailey stuck the card in the slot and slid it out again. The green lights signaled entry, and Joe pushed open the door.
Entering the dark room on tiptoes, Hailey crossed her arms over her chest. She whispered, “Marten?”
Joe stabbed at the light switch on the wall by the door, and two lamps lit up the recesses of the big room.
Hailey scanned the area, nodding toward a suitcase in the corner. “His stuff. No wonder he didn’t bring anything to Joost’s place. He had it all here.”
“Except for the key.”
A chill skittered down her spine and Hailey made a half turn toward the door. “Lock it.”
Joe flipped the latch at the top of the door to block entry from the outside.
Hailey pulled Marten’s key from her purse. “Could it be a luggage lock?”
“I think it’s too big, but give it a try.” Joe made a move before she could and crossed the room to hoist Marten’s single suitcase onto the king-size bed. He grabbed the zipper and pulled it across. “His bag isn’t locked and doesn’t even have a lock on it.”
Hailey squeezed past him and flicked on the lights over the bed. “Maybe whatever this key unlocks is inside the suitcase.”
“Maybe.” Joe plunged his hands inside the suitcase, burying them in Marten’s clothes.
Hailey reached past him and grabbed a fistful of shirts. “I don’t think we have to worry about disturbing his things.”
They pawed through the contents of Marten’s suitcase, spreading shirts and pants across the bed.
Joe patted the outside pockets of the bag. “We’re probably not going to find anything in his clothes.”
Hailey let Joe search the zippered side pockets while she surveyed the room, hands on her hips. “Where’s his laptop? I’m pretty sure Marten never went anywhere without it.”
“Is there a safe?”
Hailey crossed to the cabinet beneath the TV. “It’s in here.”
Crouching in front of the cabinet, she threw open the doors. The safe gaped open, completely empty. “That’s weird. Nothing in the safe—no passport, no money, no laptop.”
Joe knelt beside her with socks clutched in his hands. “Nothing in those side pockets, either, except these.”
“Bathroom?” She bumped Joe’s solid shoulder with her own.
He rose to his feet, extending a hand for her. She took it and he helped her to her feet. He didn’t let go as he led her to the bathroom—and she didn’t want him to.
