Cross Country

time over there? You sound like you have a cold, too.”
    I touched my sore and broken nose. “Yeah, I guess I’m a little stuffed up. I’ll live. I’m actually staying at one of the best hotels in town.”
    “Alex, is that you?” Nana was on the extension now, and more than a little peeved, I could tell. “Where have you been for three days? That’s unacceptable behavior to me.”
    “I’m sorry, Nana. It’s been a lot harder getting a line out than I thought,” I said and then started asking a lot of questions to avoid any more of my not quite lies.
    Jannie told me about the fruit flies in her science experiment and about some new neighbors on Fifth Street. Nana was worried that the boiler noise in the basement was the same one that had cost nine hundred dollars the last time. Then Ali got on to tell me that he could find Nigeria on the map and that the capital was Lagos, and he knew what the population was — more than one hundred thirty-five million.
    Then Nana said she was going to put Bree on.
    “She’s there?” I was a little surprised. Bree had planned on moving back to her apartment while I was away.
    “Someone’s got to watch over us around here,” Nana said pointedly. “Besides, she’s one of us now. Bree is family.”

Chapter 48
    I LIKED WHAT Nana had just said and also the sound of Bree’s voice when she got on the line. I heard a door close and knew we were being given some privacy.
    “
Finally,
” I said.
    “I know. Nana’s tough, isn’t she? But she can be sweet too.”
    I laughed. “She’s pulling punches because you’re there. She’s manipulating you already.”
    “Speaking of which, don’t bullshit me now, Alex. Where have you been for the past three days?”
    “
Detective
Stone, is that you?” I said. “I guess you missed me?”
    “Of course I did. But I asked a serious question. I’ve been worried sick for three days. We all have,
especially
Nana.”
    “Okay, here’s what happened, and it’s part of the case. It has to be. I was arrested at the airport.”
    “
Arrested?
” Bree said it in a whisper that registered new concern. “By who? At the airport? On what possible grounds?”
    “On the grounds that due process is a relative concept around the world, I guess. I was in a holding cell for two and a half days. They never charged me with anything.”
    Her voice slipped a little — more Bree and less Detective Stone. “How bad was it?”
    “Scale of ten, I’d give it a fifteen, but I’m mostly okay now. I’m at the Superior Hotel. Of course, that’s just a name. There’s nothing superior about this joint.”
    I looked out the window, where dark thunderheads were rolling in over the gulf. The pool area, ten stories down, was starting to clear out. It was hard to believe I’d woken up in Kirikiri just that morning.
    “Listen, Alex, I don’t know if you want to hear this right now, but we had another multiple last night. Another family was slaughtered over in Petway. This time, the parents were Sudanese nationals.”
    I sat down on the bed. “Same MO as the first two?” I asked.
    “Yeah. Large knives, possibly machetes, extreme malice. Just ugly for the sake of ugly, cruel for the sake of cruel. Whether or not your boy and his gang were here, I’ll bet his people were involved.”
    “Apparently the murderer is called the Tiger. So I’m playing Catch a Tiger. He could have ordered a hit from anywhere.”
    “That’s right. Or he could be back in Washington, Alex. You could be over there, while he’s
here
.”
    Before I could respond, there was a sudden flash from outside and a huge smack of thunder overhead. The lights in the room flickered, then went out, taking the phone with them.
    “Bree?” I said. “Bree, are you there?”
    But the line was dead.
Shit
. I hadn’t even told Bree how much I missed her.
    I’d seen candles and at least one propane generator in the lobby, so I guess they were used to this kind of thing at the Superior. I lay back on my bed and closed my eyes, figuring I’d go down and check things out if the power didn’t come back on soon.
    Meanwhile, what was the upshot of the new murders in DC? And what did they mean for me?
    Was the killer I was chasing — the Tiger — still here in Nigeria?
    Or had I come all this way . . . just to get my nose broken?

Chapter 49
    MY PHONE WAS ringing.
    And ringing.
    I finally blinked awake, starting to come out of a deep comalike sleep. The clock flashed
12:00, 12:00,