“I’m looking for my wife, Marlene Bell. Is there any chance of you being able to tell me whether she’s here?”
The desk attendant stared at the frazzled man for a long moment, blew a bubble of gum, and popped it. “She checked out last night.”
“Do you know where she went?”
“Why the heck would I know? It’s not like we were best friends or anything. She was a guest here.”
The man rested his elbows on the counter and cradled his face in his hands. “You don’t understand—it’s very important that I find her. She’s unstable, confused, and she could be endangering herself or others.”
“Sorry, pal. I have no clue where she went. She just checked out and hailed a cab.”
The man’s head snapped up and his face softened with relief. “A cab?”
“Yeah.”
“If she took a cab, that improves my chances of being able to find her.” He dashed out the door and flagged down a cab, fingering the handgun in his pocket. He slid into the back seat and pulled a picture of Marlene Bell out of his other pocket.
“Where to, buddy?”
The man pressed Marlene’s picture against the partition. “Do you recognize this woman?”
The cabbie turned and eyeballed the picture. “Yeah, I remember her. What a nut!”
“Hey, that nut is my wife. I need you to take me wherever you dropped her off.”
“Sure. Sorry, man.”
The man sat back, his lips pressed together in a grim line as the cabbie sped past what seemed to be hundreds of city blocks before pulling to a stop in front of an abandoned church. The man’s lip curled and he tossed a one hundred dollar bill to the cabbie. “Don’t bother to wait.”
