He turned to start back down the hall when the door to suite Atlantis opened and Billy Leven came out. He wore gloves, very dark ones, as he gripped the doorknob to make certain he had closed it properly. He tugged twice and then sauntered down the hall as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Suite Atlantis was the room Amaryllis had prepared for a representative of Egypt who had been coming in that night but was delayed until the next afternoon.
Malichai stared at the closed door. The Levens were up to something. Billy seemed a good old boy, a man who was perpetually cheerful and yet, at the same time, stayed to himself. Tania seemed a sweet woman, but she was having an affair with a woman she acted as if she didn’t know. Tommy? What was he up to?
Malichai waited for Billy to make his way down the stairs and then he followed at a more leisurely pace, not wanting to draw the eye to him. Billy didn’t go straight to his room but followed the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and bacon to the kitchen.
Malichai heard Amaryllis’s laughter before he came up behind the man from North Carolina. He was using all his charm on her. Billy had one hip against the doorjamb as he casually draped himself there to observe Amaryllis putting the last touches on her trays of breakfast casserole.
“You’re going to have to show me how to make that before I head home,” Billy said. “One of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had.”
“It’s Marie’s recipe,” Amaryllis volunteered. She looked past Billy to Malichai. “Hi, honey,” she greeted softly. “Looking for coffee?”
“I’m always looking for coffee,” Malichai said and nodded at Billy as the man moved in order for him to get by. “I see you found my girl and you’re giving me a run for my money this morning with the compliments.”
“All sincere,” Billy said. “You’re a lucky man.”
“I am that,” Malichai agreed, inhaling the aroma of coffee as he took the cup from Amaryllis. “And she makes the best coffee as well.”
“You’re a soldier, Malichai,” Billy said. “What do you think about all this Ideas for Peace nonsense?”
Malichai shrugged noncommittally. “I think nations have tried to talk peace for centuries and it never actually happens, so while I think it’s commendable, do I believe anything will come of it? Unfortunately, no.”
Billy nodded several times, as if Malichai was only confirming what he believed. “Thanks for the coffee, little darlin’,” he said to Amaryllis and went off, whistling off-key down the hall back toward his room.12I think we need to explore the very real possibility that an unknown faction of terrorists may try to bomb the Ideas for Peace conference,” Ezekiel said. “We don’t have a lot of evidence. The police have done a well check on Miss Crystal from the magic shop and spoken with a woman they believe is her from the cruise ship. Her passport and ID have checked out. That’s a dead end for now, until she returns.”
“That doesn’t negate what Anna and Burnell thought they overheard,” Malichai pointed out. “If we just ignore it, and it turns out they were talking about the maximum number of people they could kill, the convention center would be the place to do it.”
“Exactly,” Ezekiel agreed. “I’ve got this nagging feeling. Malichai’s got it. Mordichai’s got it as well. In the past, whenever the three of us had that same feeling, something was very wrong. And we have the hit man going around over a two-year period doing in people all connected to the convention center.”
“How did Miss Crystal pay for her cruise?” Malichai asked.
“She ‘won’ the trip,” Ezekiel said. “She did enter every contest known to man, according to all of her friends, so it is a possibility that she actually won a legit contest.”
Rubin was silent as he studied the board Ezekiel had made. He didn’t have the radar they did, but he was very good at puzzles. Right now, Malichai could see he was moving those names around like chess pieces on a board. They needed new insights, because he was fresh out of them. What would be the reasoning of targeting the peace conference? Malichai had told the truth to Billy when he said he doubted the conference would come up with anything that would change the world and the way it thought. Nations could talk to one another, but in the end, it all seemed to come down to who could gain what.
“Are there any politicians or world leaders of significance going?” Mordichai asked.
Ezekiel shook his head. “They were deliberately not invited. This conference is for the people and it’s all about ideas. Things to contribute to change the way people of various nations think about one another, their customs, religion and governments. Simply put, to shift world opinion in every nation toward tolerance.”