Shit!
Maybe I can catch her in the parking lot!
"Muchas gracias," he said, and then hurriedly went back through the entrance foyer and left through the door leading to the valet parking entrance.
If she used valet parking, she might still be waiting. Betsy was nowhere in sight.
Shit!
Jack trotted into the parking lot and looked around.
He didn't see the Bus anywhere at first, and then he did, in the back of the lot. The interior lights were on, which meant she'd just gotten to the car.
He took off at a dead run for the Bus.
I don't have any idea what she's doing with the door open, but it means I probably can get there before she drives off.
"Sweetheart, I'm sorry!" he called when he got to the Bus.
Where the hell is she?
There was no room to get to the driver's door, and when he got to the passenger side, he saw that it wasn't open, just not fully closed. That explained the interior lights being on.
Where the hell is she?
He slid the sliding door open enough so that he could slam it shut. He saw the purse on the seat.
"Oh, Jesus H. Christ!" he said softly.
He took his cellular from his shirt pocket and pushed an autodial button.
Answer the fucking phone, Alex!
"Alex Darby."
"Alex, I think you'd better come back here. Come to the rear of the parking lot."
Darby heard the tone of Masterson's voice.
"Jesus, what's up?"
"The Bus is here. The door was half open. Betsy's purse is on the backseat. No Betsy. I don't like the looks of this."
"On my way, Jack." "Hand
me the microphone and turn the speaker up," Alex Darby said to his driver. "And then head back to the Kansas. Fast."
"Si, senor," the driver said, and took the shortwave radio microphone from where it lay on the passenger seat and handed it to Darby. The shortwave net provided encrypted voice communication.
Allegedly, the encryption was unbreakable. Very few people believed this.
Alex keyed the mic. "Darby to Lowery."
Almost instantly, the speaker came to life. "Yeah, Alex. What's up?"
"I just had a call from Jack Masterson. Something very unusual is going on at the Kansas on Aven-"
"In San Isidro?" Lowery cut him off. "That Kansas?"