Certain Prey

stick too close behind or you’ll spot them . . . and by the time they sneak in, you’re in one of five hundred rooms.”
    “They’ll go through five hundred rooms if they have to, if it gives them a professional killer,” Carmel said.
    “Which is why I’m trying not to touch anything hard, except the TV remote control, the on and off faucets in the bathroom, and a few things like that. I’ll wipe them before I leave.”
    “What about the credit card?”
    “Good card, fake name,” Rinker said.
    “So what’s going on? I was worried when you didn’t call back, I thought they’d picked you up.”
    “You tell me what’s going on. Why’d you call?” Rinker asked.
    “This Davenport guy, the cop. Remember?”
    Rinker nodded.
    “He took some pictures over to show the little girl who saw us. I was in the photo spread.”
    “Ah, jeez. Why?”
    “I don’t know. I’ve got a contact in the police department, and nobody knows what’s going on. But apparently, the kid failed to identify me. Nothing came out of it.”
    “But why would they take your picture over in the first place?”
    “That’s the question,” Carmel said. R INKER HAD a room on the seventh floor. Inside, Rinker opened the mini-bar, took out two cans of Special Export. “I got glasses,” she said.
    “Can’s fine,” Carmel said, popping the top. “I really didn’t expect you to come all the way back from . . . wherever. I just wanted to talk.”
    “Yeah, well, I got a little problem of my own,” Rinker said. She sat on the bed and Carmel pulled the chair out from the tiny desk and sat down. “The day before you called me, I got another call, at the answering service. A guy who was supposedly trying to get in touch with Tennex. But when the receptionist asked if he wanted to leave a message, he said no. Then, two days later, the cops showed up. That’s all I know—cops were asking questions. I don’t have any easy way to find out more.”
    “Huh.” Carmel thought about it for a minute, then took a cell phone out of her purse, and her address book. She checked a number, as Rinker watched, and punched it in. “Calling my guy,” Carmel said to Rinker. Then, into the phone: “This is Carmel. Anything else happen?” She listened for a moment, then said, “I stopped by to see Davenport a couple of times. He’s never in . . . Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Well, I’ll probably stop and see him tomorrow, then. Okay. And listen, I’ll send along another envelope. Keep your eyes and ears open; this thing is starting to scare me. I’m afraid they’re setting me up on something. Uh-huh. Well, you know Davenport. Uh-huh. Talk to you tomorrow.”
    “What’d he say?” Rinker asked.
    “He said Davenport was out of town, and the rumor was, he was at the FBI headquarters. In Washington.”
    “Shit.” Rinker said it sharply, expelling breath. “What’s going on? They’re onto you and me? How could that happen?”
    “I called you once from my apartment,” Carmel said. “This last time, I called from a pay phone, but I did call Tennex that one time, the first time, about Rolo, from my apartment. If they’re looking at my long-distance billing, if they’re checking everything . . .”
    “Even if they were, how did they pick out Tennex? It’s a goddamn messenger service.”
    “Maybe they picked on it because they couldn’t find anything behind it. Maybe just luck. What does Tennex mean? Would that mean something to somebody?”
    “No. When we were setting this up, we were talking in the kitchen of this guy’s restaurant down in St. Louis, and we were wondering what to call the company, and I saw this name on this air filter thing he had there. Tennex. It sounded like something, so I said, ‘How about Tennex?’ ”
    “So that’s not it.”
    “I don’t see how,” Rinker said.
    “All right. So we’ve got to do some prospecting.”
    “Very carefully.”
    “Very. And there’s something else,” Carmel said. “If it looks like I’m in trouble, why wouldn’t you just shoot me and walk away? I mean, that’s something we ought to talk about.”
    “Well, I sorta think of you like . . . well, almost a friend,” Rinker said. “I mean, we’ve done some stuff together, and we get along, and we’re probably going to Mexico together, pick up some guys. So . . . I could ask you the same thing.”
    “I don’t know how to find you,” Carmel said. “So I couldn’t, even if I wanted to. Which I don’t.”
    “If you need some