Inmate 1577

37

“Be right there,” Vail called to Dixon. She grabbed a couple tissues from the bathroom vanity, wrapped up the note, and slipped it into her jacket pocket.

When she pulled open the door, Dixon was standing there, her blonde hair disheveled and concern evident in fisted hands that were wrapped around her SIG Sauer handgun. She glanced around and behind Vail, into the room.

“Everything okay?”

Vail stepped aside. “It’s clear. He’s-he’s gone. Key’s on the desk.”

Dixon squinted at Vail, then moved into the room. Convinced all was okay, she holstered her sidearm, then walked over to the far end of the room and placed both hands on her hips. “Jesus Christ. He was in our room.”

“Yeah, Roxx, I know that.”

“That’s it?” she said, her eyes scanning the room. “Nothing else-just a key?”

The key and an incriminating note that relates to information he somehow got about my past. “What do you think it means?” Vail asked, skirting Dixon’s question. She hated lying to her friend. Omission of information was as much of a lie as answering her with a fictional response. But it didn’t feel quite as dirty.

“I think it’s pretty goddamn obvious, don’t you?” Dixon looked around the room, moving things aside with her shoe. “Did you call Rex Jackson? What did Burden say?”

Vail jutted her chin back. Shit. I’ve totally blown this. Where the fuck is my head? I know where it is. Where it was.

“No, I-I didn’t,” she stammered. She pulled out her BlackBerry and started punching numbers. “It kind of rattled me. I wasn’t thinking.”

“It took me fifteen minutes to get here. You just sat here the whole time? What the hell were you doing?”

“I don’t know, Roxx. I- It-” Burden answered. “Yeah, Burden, listen. I’ve got a situation here.” A situation? She mentally slapped herself. “I got back to my room, and I found-there’s a brass key on the desk. Just like the ones we found before.”

“In your hotel room? The scumbag was in your room?”

“That’s what I’m saying. He- It’s all clear. Roxxann’s here now. You want to get Jackson over here? Dust the place?”

“I’ll call him. Meantime, get out of there, wait in the hall.”

“Yeah. Right.” Of course. What the hell’s wrong with me?

Vail hung up and shoved the phone in her pocket. “He wants us to-”

“Get out of here. What you should’ve done,” she said, walking toward the door. “Get your head screwed on, Karen. I’ve never seen you like this.”

That makes two of us.