Aaron and Adrian had wandered away, so I said my goodbyes to Trey and Bruce and headed for the exit. I had a bunch of errands to run this afternoon, but I might be able to squeeze in some research on the ke’tain before Finch and I went to the hospital this evening. It was a lot quieter there at night, and there was less of a chance of someone walking into the room and seeing him.
“James, wait.”
I stopped at the sound of Levi Solomon’s raspy voice and turned to watch the obese man lumber toward me. He was sweating and panting by the time he reached me, and I wondered how he hadn’t keeled over from a heart attack.
He waved his phone. “I know you’re probably running off to get a head start on the ke’tain job, but a level Two came in that needs to be handled as soon as possible and with some delicacy. I think you’d be perfect for it.”
“What kind of level Two?” I asked.
“A banti.”
“Oh.” My pulse leapt. I’d never seen a banti in real life, and it was on my list of jobs I wanted to do. Levi knew that, which was why he wore a devious little smile.
“Why would a banti job require delicacy?” I asked him.
He coughed wetly. “It’s at the Ralston, and they don’t exactly like bounty hunters hanging around. But you –”
“– don’t look like a bounty hunter,” I finished for him.
“Exactly.”
I sighed, mentally ticking off the errands I could postpone until tomorrow. “I’ll do it.”
“I thought so. I’ll email you the details as soon as I get to my office.”
* * *
“Thanks for helping me out on this,” I said to Violet as we entered the lobby of the Ralston two hours later.
“Are you kidding? I’m psyched to help you on an actual job.” She bounced on her toes as she looked around the elegantly-furnished white marble lobby. “Do you think we’ll see someone famous?”
“Maybe.” I smirked and immediately sobered when I remembered seeing Lukas here on my first visit to the hotel. He was the absolute last person I wanted to run into.
We approached the front desk, and I recognized the receptionist I’d talked to when I’d come looking for my parents. He hadn’t been too happy to assist me then, and he looked down his nose at me now.
“May I help you?” he asked in a haughty tone that suggested he’d rather do anything but.
I held up my ID. “Agency business. I was told to ask for the manager.”
His nose wrinkled as if he smelled something bad. “Ah, yes. One minute.”
He called someone, and I looked at Violet, who was taking in the grandeur around us. Her family was well off, but even their lifestyle was modest compared to this. The massive chandelier in the lobby was rumored to have cost more than one hundred thousand dollars, and I’d read there was an even bigger one in the ballroom.
“Jesse James?”
I turned to find a woman in her early thirties with short brown hair and wearing a dark blue suit walking toward us.
“Yes.”
“I’m Marjorie Cooke, the day manager.” Her steps slowed, and she frowned when her eyes took in my black jeans, boots, and the short gray peacoat I’d borrowed from Mom’s closet. “You’re the bounty hunter?”
I smiled and held out my hand. “Yes.”
She shook my hand and looked past me at Violet. “And you?”
“I’m her apprentice.”
The manager gave a bemused nod as if she wasn’t quite sure what to make of us. “Please, come into the office.”
We followed her to the manager’s office. Once we’d shut the door, she sat behind the desk and invited us to take seats.
I spoke first. “I wasn’t given much information other than that you have a banti problem. What can you tell us about it?”
“It started two days ago that we know of. Some of the human guests were overheard complaining about having strange dreams. Last night, a family staying on the fifth floor reported an attack on their fourteen-year-old daughter. The father swears he saw a banti on her bed. They checked out immediately after the incident.”
Violet shuddered, and I barely hid my own revulsion. Banti would go after any sleeping human, but they loved tormenting teenagers the most. As if puberty wasn’t bad enough, we had to worry about some pint-sized Freddy Krueger wannabe giving us nightmares.
Marjorie clasped her hands on the desk. “The owner wants this taken care of as quickly and quietly as possible. We were assured you would be discreet.”
She didn’t need to tell us why the owner wanted this kept under wraps. Hotels used special wards to keep banti out, and the wards had to be redone every year. It looked like someone had dropped the ball on keeping theirs updated. The Ralston would lose their five-star rating and a lot of high-profile guests if word got out that they had a banti problem.
“We’re the soul of discretion,” Violet piped in.
I stood. “If you could give us access to the room where the incident occurred, we’ll get to work.”
The manager got up and took a card key from the desk. “It’s room 5017. I’ll show you to the stairs.”
“Can’t we use the elevator?” Violet asked as we left the office.
“We’d prefer that you were seen by as few guests as possible.” Marjorie led us down a hallway to a smaller, but no less elegant, lobby at the rear of the building where a huge, muscled security guard was stationed. I knew without asking that this was the entrance used by celebrities who didn’t want to deal with the paparazzi out front.
She handed the card key to me. “Call the front desk and let them know when you’re done. You can give Amos the key and leave by this exit.”
She turned to go back the way we’d come, and I headed for the door to the stairs on the right side of the lobby. Violet followed me, not speaking until we were alone in the stairwell.
“Do you always get treated like that when you go out on a job?”
“Like what?”
She huffed behind me. “Like you’re some dirty little secret.”
A laugh slipped from me at her indignation. “Most people are happy to see us, but it makes sense for the staff here to want to keep us out of sight.”
We emerged on the fifth floor and located 5017. I unlocked the door and pushed it open, and we gawked at the lavish suite before us. The main living area was decorated in warm cream and blue with velvet couches, white marble tables, and delicate crystal lamps I was afraid to touch. The room boasted its own glittering chandelier, and the drapes were drawn on large windows, giving us a wide view of the buildings lining the other side of the street.
I entered the suite, taking a moment to wipe my feet on the entry rug before stepping onto the polished wood floor. Setting down my duffle bag, I went to check out the bedrooms on either end of the main room. The rooms were identically furnished except for a king bed in one and a queen bed in the other.
“This must be the room the girl slept in,” I said as I ran a hand over the soft white duvet covering the queen bed.
Violet flopped down on the bed with a dreamy sigh. “I can’t wait to be famous and stay in places like this.”
I smiled at her unwavering conviction that she would make it in Hollywood someday.