Chapter 103 Section VI

With the midday sun beating down on the ground, Decker pulled his rented gray Buick Skylark out of the Avis Rent-A-Car parking lot next to the Albuquerque airport.He drove along the curve in front of the four-story parking garage, glanced at the huge metal statue of two racehorses silhouetted on the lawn in front of the airport, and remembered the first time he saw the statue more than a year ago scenario.He was about to leave for Santa Fe from here, and he was full of doubts.It was the longest time he'd been away from Santa Fe since then, and now that he's preparing to go back, his feelings are more complicated.

He turned another corner onto a wide boulevard separated by grass for entering and exiting the airport, and headed toward a 14-story building of glass and stucco on the right.It was the Good Western Hotel, with the Sandia mountains silhouetted against the hotel building. "Somewhere in that hotel, Renata or a friend of hers was staring at a seeker receiver, waiting for the needle to move and tell them my Cherokee was out of the garage. Someone was bound to run Get out and hop in a car that's in an easy drive-out spot in the hotel parking lot. My car will be followed as it passes the hotel. The man in the car must have a cell phone, and he'll tell the team There are others in my family, and no doubt some of those people have already set up a surveillance point in Santa Fe. My follower took it for granted that the conversation on the mobile phone would be overheard by someone who was not relevant, and followed me all the way to Santa Fe. Every once in a while, they'll have a coded call. As soon as I'm where I'm going, they'll move fast to get me. There's no reason for them to wait. After all, I won't have time to get defensive .Swift action is their best tactic. If I have money, they don't have to torture me to tell me where the money is hidden. But they will torture me anyway, for the fun of it. Or not Said Renata was coming to torture me. I don't know where she wants to start first - my eyeballs or my throat. Probably the eyeballs because if she starts at my throat she can't hear my screams The cry was satisfied. I'm sure she really wanted to crush my throat first in order to get revenge for what I did to her."

Beth sat in the back seat with her injured leg stretched forward.Esperanza sat in the front passenger seat.They looked at Decker as if his tense narrative reflected in his demeanor. "You put it too vividly," said Beth. "What made you so sure about the homing device and the Best Western Hotel?" Esperanza asked. "Because if it were me, I would do that," Decker said. "Why not the Airport Hotel or the Grange Hotel, or a motel farther from here?" "Those are big enough to draw attention to. Whoever is looking at the receiver of the seeker doesn't want to draw attention."

"If you're so sure, I can have the police in Albuquerque go and check the rooms at the Best Western Hotel." "Without a search warrant? Can the police not disclose their purpose? Whoever is watching the receiver, there will be a watch outside the hotel to see if the police are coming. Renata and her friends will disappear without a trace without a trace, and I'd lose my prime time waiting for them to take the bait." "You worry me," Beth said. "Why?" Decker turned off Airport Boulevard toward Gibson, approaching the ramp onto Interstate 25.

"You've changed. It sounds like you welcome the challenge, like you enjoy doing it." "Maybe I'm starting to regress." "what?" "If you and I are going to survive, I have to go back to being who I was. I have no other choice. I have to go back to who I was before — who I was before Santa Fe. That's why McKittrick chose me to be you Neighbors, aren't they?" Decker asked. "That's why you moved next door to me, because I used to be that kind of person."