Falling Awake(33)
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

“I went out to dinner and turned off my phone.”

“So that was it. Tried to call you every fifteen minutes from about seven o’clock on until ten or so. I started to wonder if maybe I had the wrong number. Finally gave up and came over here to get something to eat before trying again. Man, am I glad to hear your voice.”

“Are you all right?”

“I’m swell now that I’ve finally got ahold of you.”

“You’re not driving, are you?”

He snorted. “That’s the Isabel we all knew back at the center. Just can’t help worrying about folks and handing out the good advice, can you? Relax, like I said, the bar is right across the street from the motel. I walked over. I’m not driving so I won’t run down any of the fine, upstanding citizens of Roxanna Beach on my way back to the room.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Came to see you.” This time the see came out shee. “Got a little present for you.” He lowered his voice. “But I’m afraid I gotta charge you for it. Sorry about that. If I could afford to give it to you for free, I’d do it. Believe me. You’re a real sweetheart, Isabel.”

“I’m changing my ways,” she warned.

“Nah. You couldn’t do that.”

“Gavin, try to stay on topic here. Why did you come all this way to see me and why are you calling at such a late hour?”

The music swelled into a driving crescendo, blotting out some of Gavin’s words.

“. . . on my way to Vegas. Problem is, I owe some people there some money. My new blackjack system didn’t work quite the way I thought it would last time I was in town.”

“I can hardly hear you.”

“. . . like I was saying, I’ve tweaked the program a bit and I’m pretty sure it will fly this time. But I gotta pay off my old gambling debts before they’ll let me back into any of the big games, see?”

“No. I don’t. What do your gambling debts have to do with me?”

“I need to raise some cash,” Gavin said loudly. “That’s why I’m calling you. I’ve got something to sell that I think you might find valuable. You’re my only hope, ’cause I sure don’t know anyone else who wants this information.”

“What information?”

“Contact numbers for old man Belvedere’s three special anonymous clients.” Gavin was almost shouting now.

“Are you serious?”

“Serious as a heart attack. Figured since you were the one who did most of the work for those accounts, you might want to get in touch and tell ’em you’re, like, you know, freelance now.”

“Wait, did you say that there were three anonymous clients?”

“Yep.”

“I only worked for two clients. I never knew there was a third.”

“Neither did I and I thought I knew all of the old man’s secrets. What happened was, right after he tossed you out on your ear, Randolph Belvedere told me to destroy all the files on his old man’s office computer. Took me a while to get to it on account of the bastard was giving orders like crazy for the first few days after he took over. I had to, like, prioritize, you know?”

“Go on,” she said.

“Also, I was sort of busy fine-tuning my blackjack system. So I kind of put Dr. B.’s computer aside. I mean, what was the rush, huh? The guy’s dead. Anyhow, I finally got around to taking a look at the files he had stored on his hard drive a couple of days ago. For kicks I went through them. They were all password-protected so it took me a while.”

“What did you find?”

“Most of them were just research notes about his extreme dream theories. But one of those files had a different password. A real tricky code. Made me curious, you know?”

“That’s where you found the e-mail addresses for the three clients?”

“You got it. The old man had a few secrets he kept from you and me both. I tried tracing the three but they’re all locked and scrambled a dozen different ways. Whoever they are, those three clients don’t want anyone tracking them down. Looks like real expert work. Maybe if I had time I could untangle them but maybe not. Thing is, they aren’t much good to me, anyway. What would I do with those clients? Also, I’m sort of in a hurry to try out the new version of my system in Vegas. So I decided to see if you were interested in the addresses.”

“Let me get this straight. You want to sell those e-mail addresses to me?”

“I’m real sorry about that part, Isabel. Honest. But I need the cash, see, and I just don’t know anyone else who might pay a few bucks for these addresses.” His voice vibrated with tension. “Are they worth anything at all to you?”

“I’m afraid I’m having a cash flow problem myself at the moment, Gavin. My bank account is hovering around zero and my credit cards are maxed out.”

“Even a few hundred bucks would help,” Gavin assured her. “I could go to one of the little casinos way off the Strip where they don’t know me and turn it into a stake that I could use to get into a big game.”

“I could come up with maybe two hundred bucks cash.”

“Oh, shit. Is that all? I’m pretty desperate, Isabel.”

She tried to think. “I know one of those three clients personally. He might be interested in talking to you.”

“Hey, if he’s still big on keeping secrets, maybe I could do a deal with him, you know?”

“What kind of a deal?”

“Gotta think here. Maybe he’d like to know who the other two clients are or something. Or maybe he’d be willing to pay me not to sell his address to the other two.”

“No offense, Gavin, but that sounds a lot like blackmail.”

“Nah, it’s just business.”

It was not exactly business as usual, she thought, and Ellis probably wasn’t going to like it. But she had a hunch that he would want to discuss the situation with Gavin.

“Okay, I’ll call him and then call you back,” she said. “Where are you staying?”

“Motel out on the old highway. The Breakers. I’m in number eight. I’m heading back there now. Give me a call after you talk to your client and we’ll make arrangements. I’d better give you my cell phone number because I doubt if the manager’s office is still open to handle calls. The place is sort of a dive, you know? Got a pen?”