I stumble out of the room, my legs so wobbly I can barely walk.
True to Cruise’s prediction, the door to the room next door is propped open, and I can hear Sheila asking if there are any requests for the upcoming schedule.
I pat my hair into place and hurry downstairs to see Mr. Adrian Bancroft.
Adrian is pacing back and forth. He looks like he hasn’t slept since I last saw him, there are shadows under his eyes, and his thinning hair is sticking up like he just ran his hands through it.
The oil painting of an old woman in rocking chair has been removed from the wall, revealing an open safe.
On the metal shelf is a stack of twenty dollar bills.
Adrian grabs it, and waves it at me.
“Where’s the rest of the money?”
“What money?”
“My dad always keeps a few thousand in here.”
“That’s news to me. Your dad didn’t say anything to me about money, at all.”
“Well you have to know that the hotel occasionally makes a profit, that there’s surplus cash that has to be locked up,” Adrian sneers. “This is where dad keeps it.”
“Then I guess that’s the surplus,” I say calmly, indicating the stack of twenties.
“This is less than five hundred dollars.” Adrian’s voice is starting to shake. “This is petty cash.”
“Take it,” a voice says, and that’s when I notice that we aren’t alone. “Petty cash is better than nothing.”
An oily looking guy sits in the corner, his hair slicked back and his ill-fitting suit hanging from bony shoulders.
“It isn’t going to be enough,” Adrian wails.
“You can use it as a down payment. It’ll keep you out of hot water for a couple of days,” the guy mutters. He’s speaking from behind a toothpick that he transfers from one side of his mouth to the other. Adrian Bancroft is nearly frantic as he searches for money, but his friend seems unnaturally calm. He’s even smiling to himself a little.
This situation makes me very uncomfortable, and on top of that, I’d rather be in bed with Cruise than most anywhere on earth, particularly here with these two.
“Why don’t you call your dad and ask him where the money is?” I ask.
Adrian turns on me, and I can tell he’s been drinking, possibly doing drugs. His eyes are red and he looks border-line unhinged.
“Call my dad?” His voice goes high. “Call my dad? And tell him what, that I went gambling this week and lost twenty grand?”
I feel faint at his mention of losing twenty thousand dollars.
His friend laughs.
“Twenty grand,” he repeats, like it’s the punch line of a joke. “And we didn’t even get a free room. Next time we need to go to Vegas—”
“Shut up,” Adrian snaps. “I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for you.”
“Like you haven’t lost ten grand a weekend since Christmas?” his friend sneers.
“Look, I can’t help you,” I tell Adrian. “I don’t know where the money is, and even if I did, I wouldn’t give it to you for the purpose of gambling.”
“For the purpose of gambling,” his friend mocks me. “How about to keep your boss’s son from getting his fingers cut off?”
My light-headed feeling intensifies.
“That doesn’t happen in real life,” I say, though I don’t sound like I really mean it.
“Oh, it doesn’t? Show her some of those pictures on your phone, Adrian.”
Adrian puts his hand over the phone in his pocket, like I’m going to grab it in order to see the pictures.
“That’s private,” he says.
“You don’t have to show her the video where you piss yourself because you were so scared—”
“Shut up!” Adrian screams, coming completely unhinged. “Of course I was scared. You should be too, except you were gambling with my money—”
The door swings open. Cruise stands, framed by the doorway. In the face of Adrian’s panic, he seems calm, but I see the tension in his shoulders.
“What’s going on here?” he asks.
“Get the hell out, Cruise,” Adrian says. “You have no business in this office.”
“Don’t I?” Cruise’s voice is low and dangerous. “Don’t I, Adrian? Or do I have all the business in this office? How much money did you lose this time?”
“Twenty grand,” the friend wheezes, laughing.
Cruise shoots him a contemptuous look. “And you’re still trying to get it from the safe?”
“There was money here last week,” Adrian insists. “That’s why I gambled so much. My cards are all maxed out, so I did it on credit. I checked the day after dad left. There were stacks of money in here, and now it’s all gone.” Adrian turns on me, quick as a snake. “Has he been in here? Have you let him in here?”
It takes me a moment to realize that he means Cruise.
“No. No one has been in here.”
“What about you?” the sleazy friend asks. He reaches out and grabs my wrist. “You been in here? Mr. Bancroft give you the combination to the safe and not tell anyone?”
“Of course not.”
“What do you think, Adrian?”