The Key

28

Gabriel glanced at the iPhone, the display bright in the dimness of the bar. He was in the mezzanine of the Sahnesi, the former theatre and opera house built for the European aristocracy who started arriving in Ruin en masse in the eighteenth century after it became a destination on the Grand Tour. These days it was a popular cinema and bar complex, and it had free Wi-Fi, which was the reason Gabriel had come here.

He pressed the browser icon on the screen and tapped HOSPITAL RUIN into the search window. Ajda had bought the phone from a secondhand tech store in the Lost Quarter specializing in all the stuff boosted from tourists. It had been expensive, but it came with a SIM card that could not be traced and gave him all the processing power of a laptop. The search came back with a phone number for the main reception which he dialled.

‘Davlat Hastenesi Hospital.’

‘Yes, I have some flowers to send to a couple of patients and am trying to find their room numbers.’

‘Do you have the names?’

‘The first is Mrs Kathryn Mann, the second, Liv Adamsen.’

He heard the tapping of fingers on a keyboard. ‘Mrs Mann is being kept in room 410 in the secure psychiatric building. Miss Adamsen is in room 406 of the same building — no, wait a second. Actually Miss Adamsen was discharged today.’

‘When?’

‘It doesn’t say. Only that her room is now vacant.’

‘Did she have any visitors?’

There was a pause. ‘What has this got to do with delivering flowers?’

‘They have already been sent. I’m just checking to see if they got to her before she left.’

More tapping.

‘The only thing on the system is a police visit this afternoon.’

‘Thank you.’

Gabriel hung up, his mind racing with the implications of this new information. He switched back to the browser and typed RUIN POLICE FORCE into the search window. There was a hot-linked phone number under the first entry. He tapped it and returned the phone to his ear.

‘Ruin Police Division.’

‘Hello, could you please put me through to Inspector Arkadian in Homicide.’

‘Inspector Arkadian is on leave at present.’

‘Then could you patch me through to his mobile phone?’

‘I’m afraid I can’t do that, sir. Is there another member of the Homicide team who could help you?’

‘No. I need to speak to Inspector Arkadian specifically. It’s extremely urgent.’ He cast around for anything that would give him some leverage. ‘Tell him Gabriel Mann wants to talk. I escaped from police custody earlier today and I want to give myself up — but I’m only prepared to do it to him, and only if he calls me back within the next five minutes.’