Or make one.
“Well, we’ll check with the senator first. He might have some ideas. He usually does. You want to know something weird? I think he’s actually going to be glad to see you. It’s been a long time. What have you been up to?”
He didn’t know, then. About the judo, about her being a cop. They hadn’t kept tabs since she’d left Llewellyn. They’d look at her as just a slightly older version of that scared, helpless little girl.
That was her play. Maybe her only play. To foster that impression. Make them underestimate her. An instructor had once told her that when you recognize someone is dangerous, it automatically makes him less dangerous.
But the opposite was also true.
“So, Livia, this is what you’re going to do. First, I want you to slowly lower that bag to the floor. And just by the way? If you think I’d be afraid to shoot you because of the noise, you’d be wrong. The Orient has the thickest walls in Bangkok. You could set off a fucking suitcase nuke in one of these rooms, and no one would even be disturbed in his slumber. On top of which, for security, the senator always takes both adjacent rooms and the one below. We clear on that?”
She did as he said. She still had the Boker, but she didn’t think he would be stupid enough not to search her. His tactics so far had been sound.
She heard him pick up the bag. “What do we have in here? Oh, pepper spray. Well, that would have hurt. And I guess you were going to hit me with this Kuboton after that? What, did you take some kind of self-defense class? What is this? What are you trying to do?”
She said nothing.
“And what’s this? Some sort of cell phone tracker?”
The modified Gossamer. Again she said nothing.
“How’d you get hold of something like this?”
“I bought it.”
“Where?”
“Here. In Bangkok.”
“How’d you get the senator’s cell phone number?”
“Private detective.”
“That’s a pretty good private detective. What’s his name?”
He had the interrogation instincts of a cop. Time to change the dynamic. “I’m not saying anything else,” she said. “Not until you tell me what happened to my sister.”
“Is that was this is about? After all these years, that?”
“Where is she?”
“That’s up to the senator. Maybe if you’re good, really good, he’ll tell you.”
“Why don’t you tell me?”
“Well, now, that kind of decision is above my pay grade. We’ll talk to him, though. I told you, I have a feeling he’s going to be happy to see you. But first, I want you to put your palms against the wall next to that interior door. At about, oh, say, tit level. Then I want you to step back and spread your legs until your elbows and knees are straight and your weight is on those palms. You with me? I’m going to pat you down. Make sure whatever you brought with you was limited to your purse.”
She recognized the commands. She’d patted down countless suspects from the same position precisely because it made sudden aggressive action so difficult. She’d been hoping he would take her so lightly that he’d be sloppy, but no, so far he was being careful.
She did as he said.
“More, Livia. Feet farther apart. And farther from the wall.”
Again, she complied. On the other side of the door, she heard . . . was that a scream? Something high and plaintive, like a child in pain. It was so muffled she wasn’t sure.
She heard Redcroft move up close. Felt his hand along her back—his left, she thought. Not that it mattered which. She sensed his gun hand was well retracted, and regardless, a disarm from this position was damn near impossible.
He ran his hand up her left side, then her right. He stepped in close, between her legs, his crotch against her ass.
“You don’t have anything in there, do you, Livia?” He rubbed himself against her. “I don’t have to search you in there, do I?”
Positioning himself between her legs was his first deviation from sound tactics. He was underestimating her. Not enough to create the opportunity she needed. But it was encouraging. She reminded herself to project fear. Helplessness.
He reached around and felt her breasts. “Oooh, these are nice. Grew a little since the last time we saw each other, didn’t they? And oh, what do we have here?”