Authors: J. Fields Jr.
Antonio frowned.
“Our guests would be very interested in knowing what type of photos, if any, he has managed to get.”
“I’m sure they would, but he has rights.
If he won’t hand over the key, we can make him empty all his pockets.
If the camera comes out with everything else, we can make him leave the room.
What he doesn’t see can’t be proven, you get my drift?”
Mark and Antonio exchanged a look.
Mark nodded.
“Since he hasn’t broken any laws, mind if we handle this?”
Both detectives shrugged.
Mark took the one of the two antacids and a swallow of water.
“You wanna be good cop or bad cop?”
Antonio opened the door to the interrogation room.
“Your choice.”
“I’ll be both,” said Mark, following him in.
Ang Wang sat in the stark room in one of six chairs.
On the table in front of him was a wireless recording device, a stack of notepads, a coffee mug of pens, and a folded Engineering uniform shirt.
On top of the shirt was a hotel master key.
Ang’s jacket had been zipped back up, the collar of a white t-shirt showing.
“Can I go now?”
Mark took the shirt and the master key and said, “Shut up.”
Both Mark and Antonio exited the room and closed the door.
Mark placed the Engineering uniform shirt and key on one of the desks, and picked up the final antacid and the bottled water.
“Saved you one,” he said, holding them out to Antonio.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Antonio and Mark exited the elevator onto the hotel floor.
Antonio asked, “How long can they hold Ang Wang in the interrogation room?”
Mark yawned.
“Maybe fifteen minutes.
He could always call a lawyer.”
“Was his cell phone taken from him?”
“No.
We couldn’t even hold his laptop.
All personal property.”
“How are you holding up?”
“I could use an energy drink.
Or a shot of adrenalin.
You got a key to this door?”
Antonio removed a small key ring from his pocket and selected one for the attic door.
“Show me where you found his things.”
They searched the nearby armoires, drawers and beneath the cushions of furniture within reach of where Ang Wang had set-up his hiding spot.
“No camera,” said Mark.
“And no memory card for a camera,” said Antonio.
“Let’s walk the route he took to hide in the mattress cage.”
They searched quickly but thoroughly.
Together they removed most of the mattresses from the cage and scanned the dusty floor within as well.
Mark used his necktie to wipe sweat from his forehead.
“Mind if I take a nap on one of these mattresses?”
Antonio brushed dust from his tuxedo jacket.
“Let’s check any air vents that might be within easy reach.”
Antonio withdrew a silver penlight from his inner jacket pocket, and Mark took out a keychain with a flashlight attached.
They worked their way around the walls of the storage room, stepping over insulated pipes and ducking beneath steel girders angled floor to ceiling.
“All the vents are too high up.
I don’t see him climbing up there when there’s so many places to hide a camera down here.”
Mark scanned his light over a small green metal door.
“Oh.”
Antonio shone his own light on the door.
“I believe you mean,
ah-ha.
”
Within five minutes they were back inside.
Mark held the climbing harness.
“This guy is crazy.”
Antonio said, “The top floor guest rooms of the Sachem Suite both have balconies with sliding glass doors.
When you first encountered Ang Wang in the attic, what was his mood?”
“Before he put eyes on me, he looked like he’d just won the lottery.”
Antonio withdrew his BlackBerry.
He dialed the number of an individual he knew in Information Services.
After a few rings, it went to voicemail.
Mark said, “It’s late.”
“He’ll answer,” said Antonio.
“He is the only one on staff that can resolve major problems.
He is never, technically, off duty.”
“Must suck to be smart.
Try him again.”
Antonio had already redialed.
A groggy voice answered.
“What’s broken?”
“Nothing.
I want to break something.”
Antonio paused.
“Are you fully awake?”
“Do I have to be?
What’s going on, Antonio?”
“I want to shut off the Internet access for the entire building.
I need to have this accomplished with all haste.”
“Now I’m awake.
Who’s authorizing this?”
Antonio hesitated, but it was nearly imperceptible.
“Liz Fiore, the Executive Assistant to the Casino President.”
“I know who she is.
I have to make a call to the company that provides the service.”
The man exhaled loudly.
“Antonio, to do this fast, it’s gonna be a shitstorm.
I can’t kill the Internet without killing the cable feed to every TV in the casino, including the hotel tower.
Restaurants, player’s lounges, bars, Twilight nightclub, even the flat screen TVs we got around for people to watch while they’re waiting for their bus.
I gotta cut the cord on everything, it’s all tied in together and it would take too long to figure it out from home with some overnight tech on the phone.”
“Do it,” said Antonio.
“Three minutes,” said the man on the other end of the line, and hung-up.
Mark stared at him.
“You just used Liz Fiore’s name to kill all the Internet in the casino.”
“And the cable feed as well, in the entire complex.”
Antonio straightened his tie using a dusty full length mirror.
“If Ang Wang did in fact get a picture of
Brandon
and his…mystery guest, in a compromising position, he could email it across the world before we were able to retrieve the image from his camera.”
“I’ll make sure I wear my good suit to your funeral.
The one with pinstripes.”
Chap
t
er Twenty-Eight
“What the
fuck
are we doing here?”
Ang Wang sniffed the air.
“Smells like dead fish.”
“We are above the showcase tank behind the front desk of the hotel lobby,” explained Antonio.
“The equipment on the wall is used by divers to clean the faux coral and rocks within the tank, as well as the plexiglass front, and remove fish that are ill or deceased.
The refrigeration units over there hold squid and silverfish for feeding.
These machines are mechanical and biological filtration units.
Behind you, beneath the wire screen, is the tank itself, holding ten thousand gallons of water and approximately thirty different varieties of fish.”
“Thanks for the tour,” said Ang Wang.
“Now I’m leaving.”
“Shut up,” said Mark.
“You’re being detained until the local police come and arrest you for climbing a privately owned building without a permit.”
“That’s all you guys have on me?
I’ll pay a fine and be gone in ten minutes.
Can I wait in the bar?”
Antonio took a step closer to Ang Wang.
He held out his hand, palm up.
“Please hand over your digital camera, Mr. Wang.”
Ang looked down at the hand.
“You gotta be kidding me.”
Mark took a step closer as well.
“He ain’t kidding.”
Ang shuffled backwards, the heels of his feet bumping into the ledge that surrounded the top of the tank.
“What is this?
You guys can’t muscle me into giving you my personal property.
Where’s the cops?
They’ll tell you
both
that I don’t have to hand over
anything
.”
Antonio lowered his hand.
“You are correct.
You do not.
Mark?”
Mark walked around the tank and turned the hand-crank that caused the screen over the water to lift.
He was whistling
Anchors Aweigh.
Ang looked over his shoulder at the water.
He looked at Mark.
He looked at Antonio.
“You wouldn’t do it.”
Antonio clasped his hands behind his back.
“You could simply allow me to see your camera.
I promise to give it back as soon as I’m finished with it.”
“Listen,” said Ang.
“Water doesn’t do shit to memory cards.
I’ve dropped them into the toilet before.
Dry em out, good as new.”
Mark said, “Well, at least we know he’s got his camera on him somewhere.”
“And that he has questionable bathroom habits,” said Antonio.
“Can you swim, Mr. Wang?”
Ang’s eyes darted wildly back and forth.
“First one of you guys who come over here, I’m grabbing you and taking you with me.”
“Good point.”
Mark removed a long aluminum pole from the wall rack with a net on the end.
“I’ll use this.”
“I know you’re fulla shit.
You’d never push me in there with the shark.”
“We would not,” agreed Antonio.
“Luckily the shark has been removed.”
Ang side-stepped along the edge of the tank.
“Didn’t you hear me?
Water
doesn’t hurt memory cards
you fucking morons!”
“You’re correct,” said Antonio.
“But I believe you’ll find that salt water is much more corrosive.”
Mark jabbed the net into Ang Wang’s stomach.
“Now hold your breath…”
Ang Wang shouted, “HELP!”
He grabbed the aluminum pole and yanked, attempting to wrench it from Mark’s grasp.
Mark immediately let go of the pole and Ang toppled backwards.