Page 2 of Guarding the Shadows
“True … and Deakon appeared a lot more subdued this evening after Jude tore him down about how he put all of them at risk by breaking security protocol last night,” I conceded.
Bodhi’s communication interrupted the conversation. “ETA five minutes.”
“Copy that,” I replied. “I’ll cover Greg, you do Korry and Deakon, since Greg’s the least predictable tonight.”
“Copy that,” Mikey replied as we pulled up outside the Four Seasons Hotel in Seattle.
“Go. Go. Go,” Bodhi barked into our headsets. Instantly, Mikey and I opened our car doors, climbed out and jogged along both sides of their van. I guarded the driver’s side from the road as Bodhi and Mikey helped the band file out one by one onto the walkway. The second Jude and Levi were out of the transport and began walking, Bodhi immediately took off behind them, his head scanning left to right as they approached the hotel entrance. Next came Korry then Deakon. Once Greg came into view, Mikey moved in front of them, and I immediately ran to take up my position behind them.
It was a risky transfer, in that the band were entering the hotel through the front lobby this time. However, as the transfers between locations for the band had been rehearsed and carried out many times before, everything went off smoothly.
Bernadette had done her homework, visiting the hotel ahead of time, and furnishing Bodhi with a layout of the main lobby, where the elevators were, and the location of the floor. She had also acquired three master keys for the floor doors for each of us, as well as individual room keys for each of our guys.
Fortunately, at that late hour there were very few patrons around, so we were able to cross the main lobby to the bank of elevators without any disruptions. Bodhi must have called ahead because two bell boys stood waiting with two elevator doors open, ready to transport everyone upstairs.
Once our charges were safe inside the first elevator car, Mikey and I jumped in the second one to check the floor before our guys entered. Using the master key, we swept through each room, the hallways and stairwells. Once done, I saw that the elevator had reached the floor and gave three sharp knocks on the metal doors.
At my signal Bodhi opened the elevator doors and Jude gave me a nod. “Thanks, Raff,” he mumbled before he strode down the hallway in front of me. “Any particular side?” he asked, gesturing left and right in front of him.
“To the left. Those rooms have a nice view of Elliot Bay,” I replied, hitting the key against the automated lock.
Jude heard the click as it unlocked and pushed open the door. “Very nice,” he agreed as he took in the night-time lights on the bay. “Thanks again, dude,” he muttered before he strode further into his room. As the doors had spring-back hinges the door closed behind him.
My head turned automatically when I heard an elevator and saw Beth and Bernadette arrive. Bodhi was standing withLevi and although I couldn’t hear them, I watched their short exchange before Bodhi opened a room door for Levi and led him inside.
“Am I in the room at the end?” Greg asked, distracting me from the two women who had begun to walk toward me. Greg hitched his thumb over his shoulder toward the last door on the left.
“Yeah, we figured if you were the furthest away from the elevators and stairwell, you’d have a job sneaking past all of us,” I replied, not even trying to make a joke of his previous escapades.
Greg had been known to go walkabout and had a special talent for getting himself into trouble. Not in a criminal way, but he was prone to acting impulsively. He also drank like a fish, and most times he had been thoughtless around the subject of cause and effect.
“You can rest easy tonight. No midnight jaunts for me this evening. Five gigs, three radio interviews and that live TV appearance we just did have just about wiped me out,” Greg confessed in his pleasant Irish accent, then yawned.
“Suits me,” I grinned. If Greg was exhausted, which he had rarely admitted to in the past, then there’d be no demands from him or the rest of the band for the night. Even Deakon had been yawning when he’d gotten out of the elevator.
Still, although I believed Greg was telling the truth, I went into the room with him and emptied the alcohol content from his hotel room wet bar, leaving him three small beers, three cans of soda, a bottle of water, some peanuts and an assortment of chocolate bars.
Like I said, I believed Greg’s intentions in that moment were good, but I’d previously been on the receiving end of his stupidly mindless impulsiveness. Although, when he didn’t protest as Ileft laden with alcoholic goodies, I believed the odds were in my favor that he’d be staying in that night.
“Locked and loaded,” Mikey said as he closed the door on Deakon’s room … his term for all the guys safely home. “There’ll be no more rock ‘n’ roll from these guys tonight.”
The band’s ‘tell’ they’d reached their limits for social contact was that there had been no conversation whatsoever on the way back from their TV appearance.
“They’re all worn out from their efforts this week. They’ve been up early every day, had multiple transfers, short flights and performances in their three plus weeks on the road,” I agreed with Mikey.
Where we’d all usually had some downtime on the tour bus, on this tour the distances between appearances had been too far apart, and that quality relaxation time was what had been missing.
“They’ve had no rest at all. Three weeks and three days since they had any real quality time to themselves,” Mikey pointed out.
“Donnie should be more mindful about the scheduling for these guys. My bet is they’ll all be snoring before midnight,” Bodhi agreed, as he caught up with us in the corridor.
“Good, because I think I’ll be joining them on that,” I replied. “Don’t just stand there, you need your rest too,” I prompted Bernadette and Beth, since all the guys were behind bedroom doors. “We’ve only got about ten hours left until we need to do it all again.”
We all turned and went our separate ways toward our rooms. While I unlocked my door and took one last glance down the hall, I saw Beth hesitate at her door, turn to look directly down the hall at me and smile. “Night, Raff,” she murmured.
“Night, Beth,” I replied, oddly pleased that she had waited to say that to me and flashed her a small smile in return.
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