Page 12 of One for the Road

Levi and Cherish burst through the doors a second later, a sharply-dressed man in a suit trailing behind them. “This is Mr. Hassan, the hotel manager,” Levi said. “He says he doesn’t know of any employees at the hotel who have obvious tattoos, on their hands or anywhere else.”

“Not front-facing staff, anyway. It’s against our policy,” Mr. Hassan explained. “A few of our staff do have tattoos. But they are obliged to keep them covered when they are at work.”

“What about other employees?” Cal asked. “Maids, janitors, maintenance, kitchen staff?”

“Anyone who has contact with our guests would be subjected to that policy. But yes, possibly kitchen staff or some physical plant and maintenance workers could have more visible tattoos.”

“You must have security cameras here,” Moose broke in. “We need access. Need to see footage of all the entrances and exits for the last hour at least.”

“I’m afraid I can’t—“

“Look,” Grey barked, cutting him off. “I don’t think you understand.” He took a step closer, so Hassan could see the six inches of height Grey had on him. “We’re getting access to your camera footage. Now.”

Hassan blanched. “I—“

“You won’t like what happens if we don’t. You also need to secure all entrances and exits right the fuck now,” Grey growled. “No one gets in or out.” When Hassan didn’t immediately react, Grey shouted “Now!”

Hassan jumped, then with shaking hands pulled a small coms device from his pocket and started talking into it. When he disconnected, Grey spoke again. “Now you’re gonna get access to the security cam footage for my men Moose and Patch here.”

This time, Hassan did as he was told with no argument. He called another number, spoke briefly, and ended the call. “Someone from Security will be here in a few moments to take your men to view the footage from our security cameras.”

“All right,” Grey nodded. “Now, you call all the heads of all the departments in this hotel and tell them to meet us in the lobby ASAP.”

As Hassan moved off to make the calls, Grey turned to Zoe. “Zo, what did the tattoo on this guy’s hand look like?”

She blinked. “It was, like, a crab. Realistic, and kind of creepy-looking. I remember wondering what it meant. Like maybe Cancer was his zodiac sign or something.”

Beside me, Cal sucked in a breath.

“Holy shit,” he said. “You mean like this?” He reached for a cheap ballpoint and a pad with the hotel logo on it that were lying on a table, and quickly scribbled out a design, then showed it to Zoe.

“Yes! That’s it!” Zoe cried. “Exactly like that. But how do you know?”

Cal turned to Grey. “Schipper.”

Oh, shit,” Frankenstein murmured.

“Who?” I asked, confused.

“Richie Schipper,” Grey growled. “A prospect we had a few years back.”

“We used to joke that he had crabs,” Cal interjected. “Him and his buddy… shit, what was his name?”

“Dog,” Frankenstein supplied. “That was what we called him, anyway. Guy’s name was Something Dogson.”

“Shit, I remember, yeah,” Grey said. ”Those two barely made it to prospect before we tossed them out for some shit or other.”

“For disrespect.” Frank’s lip curls. “Schipper kept talkin’ back and asking questions when we’d ask him to do shit. I remember because I hadn’t been patched too long before they came around. Pissed me right the fuck off.”

“Yeah. That, and not knowing the difference between club girls and old ladies,” Cal muttered. “If I remember right, Schipper tried flirting with Andi once. She kicked his balls up into his throat for it.”

“Fucking hell,” Grey bit out. “Okay. Let’s work on the assumption it’s him. We gotta move. Spread out.” He sent a few of the men down to monitor the parking garage exits, the service elevators, and the loading dock. “Time is everything here. Cherish, Eva, you stay here with the kids. Make sure they’re calm. If you can get any more info out of Lincoln or any of the others, call Levi or me. Cal, Trig, and Seton, you come with me.”

We rushed to the elevator. On the way down, Grey called Moose and put him on speaker. “Find anything on the hotel cams?”

“Not yet.”

“Ask the security guys if they know anyone on staff with a crab tattoo on his hand.”