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“Yes,” she said. “Are you finished with breakfast? With this wind, you’ll be able to hear what he said better inside.”
“I’m good, thanks,” I said, putting my napkin on the table and standing up in the stiffening breeze. “Let’s go hear it.”
We left the dishes on the table and went inside. Liu crossed to the suite’s bar and retrieved her phone.
As she did, I looked around, seeing through the open bedroom door two of the hotel’s robes lying on the bed.
“It’s a little garbled,” Liu said, returning. “And I didn’t start recording until Thomas turned abusive. But you’ll get the gist of it.”
The book editor pushed a button and there was a static hiss through which a male said, “Suzanne, what the hell are you doing? Are you trying to gut me? Get revenge? Grow up! You lost out after making big money off me for years. Live with it and don’t be a crazy bitch. I’m telling you, I won’t take this lyingdown. If you keep trying to smear me, Suzanne, you’ll pay for it. One way or another, you will pay for it.”
Liu turned it off. “Believe me now?”
Tull had not suggested he’d physically harm her, but the tonewasthreatening. “I do.”
Without warning, the book editor threw her arms around me. “Thank you, Dr. Cross,” she said. “I’ve been so alone, so in my head, I needed someone to believe me, and here you are.”
I was uncomfortable at that point. It got even more creepy when she tried to kiss me.
“Whoa, whoa,” I said, backing up and extricating myself from her arms. “What’s this all about? I’m married. See the ring?”
Liu looked a little angry, then chagrined, and she blushed and turned away. “I don’t know what came over me. I’m so sorry. I … I sometimes misinterpret things, and like I said, I’ve been so lonely and in my head. I honestly don’t know why I did that.”
“I don’t know either, and I think it is time I leave.”
As I turned to go, she said frantically, “You won’t look into what I’ve told you?”
“I didn’t say that, Ms. Liu. Goodbye and don’t call me again. If I need to talk to you, I know how to find you.”
CHAPTER 35
AROUND FOUR THAT AFTERNOON, I climbed off an Amtrak Acela train in New York’s Penn Station and got a cab to the Langham, a five-star hotel on Fifth Avenue not far from Central Park. After showing my FBI and DC Metro credentials to the assistant manager, I was given an electronic key to Bree’s room on the sixth floor.
When I knocked, I heard her yell that she did not want turn-down service this evening. I waited and then knocked again, lowered my voice, and said, “Sorry, ma’am, special delivery for Bree Stone?”
I could hear her footsteps coming; the door was wrenched open on the chain and she glared out and said, “What—”
Then her face brightened, and she shut the door to remove the chain, squealing happily, “What are you doing here, Alex?” She pulled open the door and came into my arms.
I squeezed her back. “I’m on my way to Boston to check on a few things. I figured I’d surprise you and catch the first train up in the morning.”
“Mmm,” she said. “Best idea I’ve heard all day.”
Bree led me into a big room with a large desk that she’d pulled over beside a king-size bed that was covered with piles of manila folders. Her laptop was open and glowing, revealing the picture of a woman I almost recognized.
“Give me a second to get things organized,” she said as she closed the laptop.
“I wasn’t thinking of looking,” I said, taking a seat on the couch.
“I know,” she said. “And I want to be sure everything’s secure.” Bree took the files and her laptop and locked them in the hotel room’s safe, then returned and sat on the bed. “How is Jannie doing the day after?”
“Still on a magic-carpet ride,” I said. “You should see the picture and headline they had in thePost’s sports section.”
“I saw it online. What a great action shot of her.”
“Isn’t it?” I said, unable to control the grin on my face. “And the piece said that more girls will commit to Howard now that Jannie has made her decision.”
“Phenomenal. What’s in Boston?”
