“Oh, I’m aware,” said Fernando, fanning himself with the timeline notes.
“He didn’t sound like any other guest. I was upstairs talking to the bachelor party, so I’d have seen any of them leave. The description doesn’t match any men staying on ground level. Mr. Left and Mr. Right are both too short and too old. She said he walked by the stairs, so I’m guessing he was coming out of Room 5.”
“So, who was he?” asked Fernando.
Sterling laughed, thinking back to David’s chosen alias, Mr. Lime. A reference to an old movie that was filmed in Vienna. Rumor had it that the stars frequented the Orient during shooting.
“The Third Man,” she said.
“Nice one. Vienna’s tourism board would be proud. If you’re right and the Third Man has keys, it’s time to change our locks.”
The electricity buzzed.
“We’ll need a locksmith the Hotel likes. Listen, it’s getting late. I have plans. Let’s stop here. I’ll clean up Room 11 if you call Mr. K about the locks?”
“Oh, you haveplans. So vague, so mysterious. I hope they don’t involve Harry,” said Fernando, crossing his arms.
“They don’t. I promise.”
“Are you meeting Frau Thursday at a nondescript park bench to exchange covert information?”
She rolled her eyes. “She isn’t a spy, you’re so dramatic.Butshe missed her regular appointment last night for the first time since… forever. Like she already knew the Hotel was closed.”
The lights dimmed briefly.
“If she’s not a spy, then what’s in her mystery suitcase?”
“A pair of pearl-encrusted handcuffs, obviously. Butifshe’s a secret agent, which she isn’t, I might know where to find her. I heard a story once about Kleines Café. Could be a lead. I’ll think it over.”
She left Fernando to call Mr. K about a locksmith while she aired out Room 11. Luisa had left her ashtray on the chair beside her coffee cup. Sterling collected the dishes, and carried them down to the kitchen to wash. In her private life, she despised chores, but at work, they calmed her. Spinning the sponge around each delicate coffee cup was meditative. For a moment, it felt like a usual night at the Orient. As if she’d walk out to the lobby and find guests awaiting her warm welcome, or towels needing folding, or champagne seeking an ice bucket.
But everything was changing, even the locks. Before long, they’d have digital key cards like some hideous corporate chain. She cringed at the thought as she scrubbed lipstick stains off Luisa’s cup. When she glanced at the saucer beside the sink, she gasped and stepped back. The cup slipped from her soapy grasp and shattered on the tile. Fernando ran in.
“What happened?”
She pointed at the dishes, her shaky hand still coated with foam. Luisa had left her complimentary chocolate heart on the saucer, removed their usual sugar packets, and replaced them with two sugar cubes printed with the symbol of Nightingale.
— 29 —Neunundzwanzig
Later that evening, Sterling was alone in the bar reading a vintage bodice-ripper novel when the bell rang.
Andreas was waiting outside. He’d trimmed his beard and changed outfits since they’d interviewed the Professor.
“Here for a good time?” she asked, standing in the doorway so he had to brush against her as he entered the lobby. She inhaled his aftershave.
“I’m here to discuss Nightingale,” he said.
Disappointing as it was that this wasn’t a booty call, Sterling was still grateful for company. The empty Hotel was eerie.
“Shall we talk in the bar?” she asked.
“I’d prefer we go to Room 5. Revisiting the scene might jog your memory.”
She tensed. She hadn’t returned since the morning she’d found Hedy.
Sterling made a ceremony of unlocking the 1,001 Nights Suite, like he was a guest. “You won’t find anything new. Your crime scenecleaners went through it, then our maids got everything they missed,” she said.
She hopped over the creaky floorboard onto the Persian rug, and the sinking sensation of the carpet underfoot summoned her memories of that morning. The mutilated strawberry. Hedy’s blood spiraled across marble. Her wide eyes, face frozen in a silent scream. The honed blade of Sterling’s grief stabbed under her ribs, right into her liver.
