He shrugged. “Well no, now that you mention it, you don’t. But you don’t look like a John Rain, either.”
“That’s not the point. My real name could be Winters, it still wouldn’t matter. We just don’t want to provoke any questions, or make anything look out of order.”
“I know, I know, just keeping you on your toes is all. You sure no one on the staff would recognize this guy?”
I shook my head. “I wouldn’t worry about that. I don’t think he was the kind of guy who wanted to be noticed, or who would have done anything that would get him noticed.” I might have added, unlike someone we know, but that would have been counterproductive.
I glanced at my watch. It was past midnight. I wanted to get this over with and be out of here.
“Look, they won’t ask for ID,” I said. “The fact that you’re calling from the room is all the security they’ll think they need.”
“Sounds like you’ve done this before, partner.”
“And even if they ask for ID, you tell them everything is in the safe.”
“Yeah, and after that?”
I struggled not to get exasperated. Working alone definitely had a few advantages.
“You improvise,” I said. “Weren’t you a Marine?”
He looked at me. “Hell, yes, son.” He started to pick up the phone.
“Wait, wait. Get out of your clothes first. Put on one of the hotel robes. Turn on the shower as though you’re about to get in it, or better yet as though you’ve got a guest in there-it’ll make them want to leave faster.”
He grinned. “Ordinarily, partner, seeing me half-naked makes people want to stick around.”
“You can call Tiara when we’re done.”
His grin turned into a frown.
“You want to make it look like you own the room,” I told him. “This is your room, they’re here to help you, but at your invitation, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, I got it. What, have they got a master PIN or something?”
I nodded. “It’s what they use if a guest forgets his personal PIN, or dies in the room, or whatever. Theoretically, only the manager knows it.”
“Okay, then.”
“And whoever they send up, don’t let him look inside the safe. He probably won’t, he’ll probably be discreet, but be ready and don’t give him a chance. Winters might have a gun in there, who knows, and we don’t want that kind of attention.”
“Yeah, good point.”
“One more thing. Ask him if he can tell you what PIN you used. Usually the safes are configured so that the person using the master can view the last twelve PINs that have been input.”
“But if we’ve already got the safe open…”
“We’ll still want to close it up using the same PIN. If someone checks later, we don’t want it to look like someone else was in here and got in the safe.”
“You’re a thorough man, Mr. Rain. I like that about you.” He started to undress. I walked into the bathroom, turned on the shower, and got him a robe.
Once he was changed, I handed him the phone and pressed the button for the front desk. He explained the problem, said yes twice, thanked them, and hung up.
“Okay,” he said, “they’re on their way up to open Mr. Winters’s safe.”
“Your safe.”
He frowned. “Look, man, I ain’t stupid, all right? I understand.”
“Listen, Dox, I don’t tell you how to snipe because you’re the best at it and I’ve got nothing to teach you there. But on these things, I’m telling you, you have to get in the right mindset or little signs will come to the surface and give you away.”
He flushed slightly. “All right, all right. I don’t mean to be sensitive. Just get off that Tiara stuff, all right?”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry, I can’t do that.”
For a second, his frown started to deepen. Then he laughed.
“Yeah, I guess I’m just asking too much there,” he said.
“Give me your gloves,” I said. “And try to touch as little as possible while they’re off.”
He removed the gloves and handed them to me.
I held out my hand. “You’re a good man, Mr. Winters.”
He smiled and we shook.
“Oh, and the knives. I’ll clean them up in the bathroom while you take care of the safe.”
He pulled the knives out of his pants and handed them to me. I went into the bathroom and locked the door behind me.
It took only a few minutes to take care of the knives. I disassembled them and used the alcohol first. Quick scrub with the toothbrush. Soapy water. Rinse. Repeat with bleach. I did my hands when I was done, then turned off the sink, put on a fresh pair of gloves, wiped everything down, and reassembled the knives.
The door chimed. I heard Dox walk over to open it.
“Thanks for coming up,” I heard him say. “I was just about to jump in the shower and uh, I wouldn’t have been able to relax in there worrying about forgetting the combination to the safe and all.”
I rolled my eyes. Dox was as deadly a sniper as I’ve ever known, but we’d have to work on smoothing out some of the rough edges.
I heard them move past my position. There was a bit of muffled conversation. Then they were on their way back to the door. Dox said, “Thank you again, thank you,” and I heard the door close.
A moment later he opened the bathroom door. “You can come out now,” he said.
“Any problems?”
“Nope. I think the robe helped, like you said. You know, you’re pretty good at this stuff, actually. Hey, maybe we should raid the minibar. This is the opportunity of a lifetime.”
“Was he able to give you the PIN Winters used?”
He nodded. “Eight-eight-seven-one.”
“Good. Nice work. What did you touch?”
“Just three things. The door handle, the bathroom door handle, and the safe.”
“Okay,” I said, handing him a fresh pair of gloves. “The alcohol and bleach are in the bathroom. Wash your hands with one, rinse, then use the other. You had Winters’s blood on you, too. Then put the gloves on. I’ll wipe down the places you touched.”
I grabbed a hand towel and took care of the surfaces he had mentioned, then joined him in the bathroom and did the sink when he was finished there. He pulled on the gloves again and I put the supplies, including the hand towel, into the bag in which we’d brought them. I set the bag down in front of the door so it would be impossible to forget.
We walked over to the safe, which was now open. There were three items inside. A wallet. A passport. And a Treo 650 smart-phone.
Dox pulled on his clothes while I checked the items. First, the passport. It was U.S.-issued, and indeed for Mitchell William Winters. Then the wallet, which contained credit cards and an Indonesian driver’s license with a Jakarta address, also for Mr. Winters. In the billfold, there were Indonesian rupiah, U.S. dollars, Thai baht, and Hong Kong dollars.
Back to the passport. Mr. Winters was quite the traveler. He had stamps from all over the world, most recently Thailand, of course.
The Treo was what I was most looking forward to. I picked it up and turned it on. The screen lit up, asking for a password.
Dox said, “Shit.”
I considered for a moment, then keyed in eight-eight-seven-one.
The screen changed to the home menu. We were in.
“Hot damn, nice going, man!” Dox said, clapping me on the back. “Shame on old Mr. Winters, using the same password in different places.”
I looked at him and raised my eyebrows. “Do you use different passwords for all your different devices?” I asked.
“Well, uh…”
“No one does. In the never-ending battle between security and convenience, convenience always wins.”
“I guess that’s true.”
I smiled. “Of course, now you know better. Remember: security is like a chain. It’s only as strong as its weakest link.”
We started going through the Treo-contacts, appointments, memos. There was a lot in the device.