Claire bundled up her bathrobe and took two steps back. It couldn't possibly be Andrew at the door. She watched the shadow of feet shuffle back and forth and with belated courage took a slightly longer look through the peep hole.
It wasn't Andrew. It could have been him but 30 years younger and taller.
She quickly ran back into the bathroom and yelled: "Who is it?" No answer.
Claire sprinted as quietly as she could back to the bed and her awaiting "go bag" and placed the gun in the pocket of her bathrobe, then with some presence of mind she put her shoes on, walked to the door, made sure the privacy latch was on and put her foot down squarely so the door would only be able to open a few inches.
"Room service?" she said as she opened the door.
"Mademoiselle Newton. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Hendrick Booten, Andrew's son. I wish we could have met under better circumstances as my father had only the utmost respect for you."
Claire was at a loss. Hendrick's brown hair had a slight curl to it, his dark gray Armani suit was immaculate. His shoes seemed to have just come from polishing. For the eccentric shabby sheik that his father had been, it was obvious that Hendrick had grown up with money and knew how to keep up appearances.
"I see you are not dressed for receiving guests. May I give you some time to freshen up? I understand your flight was long but we have urgent matters to discuss. May I invite you downstairs to the bar in, say twenty minutes? Would that be enough time?"
She realized she was staring. "Twenty? Certainly. I will meet you downstairs."
"Very good. Tot ziens"
He turned and strode down the hallway. She closed the door and ran back to the eReader to look up as much as she could about Hendrick for the next fifteen minutes. Only child, never married. CFO of an entity that ran a number of non-profit hospitals around the world but seemingly to focus on locations in the bottom 10 GDP countries.
On paper he seemed to good to be true and the fact that his smile could melt a glacier certainly didn't hurt. She didn't trust him for a second.
No comments:
Post a Comment