Page 44 of Sapphire Sunset

The FBI was raiding Sapphire Cove, their presence like aslick of oil threaded through sun-kissed children and well-dressed vacationers.The guys who’d gone for the front desk knocked hard against the employee door.The minute the door was opened by Gloria Alvarez, the assistant manager, theypushed their way through without further invitation. One of them raised a paperin one hand—a warrant, Logan realized.A goddamn warrant.

“You Logan Murdoch?” the snowy-haired agent asked. They werenose to nose now.

“I am. Everything okay, sir?”

“What’s going to happen right now is you’re going to stayright here with me, and you and I are going to talk a bit, and I’m going to askyou not to get distracted by what’s going on around us.”

“All right, anything I can do to help.” Logan’s mouth feltdry, and his throat even dryer.

“You work in the security department here?” the agent asked.

“That’s correct.”

“You’ve been here five years?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And your direct supervisor is Buddy Haskins?”

“That’s correct.”

“And above him is the general manager, Rodney Harcourt. Isthat also correct?”

Down the nearest guest room corridor, from the direction ofthe nondescript entrance to the back of house management offices, came two federalagents. And between them, in handcuffs, was Buddy Haskins, white as a sheet andstaring at the floor as he walked.

“Woah,” Logan said.

“Yeah, it’s going to be that kind of day, Mr. Murdoch.”

“This is fuckingbullshit,” a familiar, very angryvoice shouted.

Logan watched as a handcuffed Rodney Harcourt was walkedalong the same path through the lobby that Buddy and his accompanying agentshad taken seconds before. When he saw the staring faces waiting for him, Rodneylet out a furious groan and bowed his head, cursing under his breath about how thehotel had a back exit and was all this nonsense really necessary.

“These are the easy questions, Mr. Murdoch. They’re about toget harder, and I’m going to need a place for us to talk other than the lobby.Eyes on me, if you can.”

Summoning his Marine Corps discipline, Logan obeyed. Then hesaw two more agents emerge from the management office, and his discipline collapsed.The agents wore gloves and were carrying a stack of the components that made upthe brains of the hotel’s new and improved security camera system.

And something started to make a very strange and disturbingkind of sense.

8

Every Sunday, Connor took a long walk throughlower Manhattan, no matter the temperature. It was a great excuse to makeregular visits to Hudson River Park so he could close his eyes and pretend hewas back at Sapphire Cove, enjoying cool breezes off the Pacific. It rarelyworked. The river usually smelled like New York’s special blend of car exhaustand kitchen refuse, and there was always an ocean of noisy traffic right at hisback. If the preceding weekend had been packed with hard work, he’d silence hisphone for an hour or two so he could catch his breath.

That’s how he missed fifteen text messages from his motherand twenty from Naser.

A block from home, he clicked on Naser’s first text, aseries of exclamation points followed by a link. A CNN webpage opened, and avideo started to play. Frantic valet parkers at Sapphire Cove advanced towardthe camera, their arms outstretched, their expressions stunned, trying to pushback a tidal wave of reporters. He had to read the blazing chyron at the bottomof the screen several times before it sank in:ORANGE COUNTY RESORT ATCENTER OF BLACKMAIL RING THAT TARGETED CANCER PATIENT, MANY OTHERS.

Then the screen filled with a studio portrait of his unclefrom much younger and more telegenic days, purloined from the hotel’s website.Then it cut to archived footage of what had to be a perp walk. His uncle and thatguy Buddy, who’d actually worked his graduation party long ago, being walkedout of the lobby in handcuffs. Buddy?

What the hell had his uncle been up to with that jerk Buddy?

The present and the past were colliding in ways that threateneda migraine and a martini.

When he answered his mom’s call, he heard a rushing noisethat made it clear his mother was traveling in a car. Fast.

“Mom?”

“Connor?”

---