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?“Oh dear,” Jon reported. “I must have fallen on it when you pulled me in the door.”
?I stared at the pipe in his hand, my mind racing.
?He took the stem, pushed it back into the shank, and it seemed to hold.
?“What were those wires?” I yanked the pipe from him. “Pipe cleaners?”
?“I have no idea,” Jon said.
?“So your plan was to break in here and switch your pipe with Mark’s?” I turned the pipe over in my hand.
?“Originally, I waited until Mark was signing books at the booth, then I used the spare key to get into his room—”
?“That’s right,” Mark exclaimed, “there was a c
opy of all the participants’ room keys at the welcome desk!”
?“I used it to go up and search your room.”
?I knew that at this point, Mark had left the pipe in the podium. “And of course the pipe wasn’t there.”
?“I found that out. But I saw Mark’s house keys laying out. I guess I panicked. I took the keys with me and had them duplicated at a locksmith around the corner from the hotel.”
?“I remember, you ran late when it came time to relieve me at the signing booth,” Mark revealed.
?“That’s right. I had to get your keys back in your room,” he explained.
?“But why did you come here last night?” I demanded.
?“I was sure the pipe had to be here,” Jon said. “And if I could find it, it might give me something to bargain with.”
?“Bargain with whom?”
?“The killer, of course,” Jon babbled and turned to Mark. “If he was willing to kill Randall and Candy for that information, it must be important to him.”
?“Pretty pointless now.” I leaned back in my chair. “The pipe was stolen.”
?“What?” Jon gulped, shocked.
?Mark piped up. “A street mugger knocked us over and took it.”
?Jon looked from Mark to me and back again. “I don’t believe you.”
?I stood and walked into the bedroom. I could still hear Jon as he said to Mark, “You’re lying, right?”
?“What do you think?” came Mark’s baritone.
?I grabbed the sheets of paper from the laser printer and returned to the dining area. “But not all is lost. We found a flash drive in that pipe.”
?“A flash drive?” Jon exclaimed. “Oh, that’s clever!”
?“The data was encoded,” I told him, “but I have a friend who cracked the code.” I put the pages down in front of Jon. “Are these the reports you were promised?”
?Jon looked at the documents, then moved his right hand to his inner jacket pocket.
?In a quick move, with reflexes that surprised him, I grabbed Jon’s arm and twisted it up and away as he yelped in pain.
?“What are you reaching for?” I screamed as I used leverage to keep Jon at a disadvantage.
