The elevator arrived on the sixth floor and they stepped out.
They walked slowly to their doors, weighing the pros and cons of going with the Tanka captain.
“Where’s the hall porter?” Marissa asked as they neared their doors. She’d grown accustomed to the man’s miraculous appearance every time they arrived on the floor.
“That is strange,” Tristan said. He looked up and down the hall for signs of the man. Then he spotted the sign hanging from the knob of his door.
“What the hell? Why is there a Do Not Disturb sign on my door?”
“Something’s wrong,” she said.
Tristan backed away from his door.
“You’re right,” he ssaid.
Turning, he walked back toward the elevator. Marissa followed him, looking nervously over her shoulder.
They went inside the hall porter’s empty cubicle. In the corner they saw a hot plate with a teakettle on it. The kettle was red hot, the water having long since boiled away.
“Something is definitely wrong,” Tristan said. Going back to the elevator, he picked up the house phone and asked for security.
Two minutes later the elevator opened and two security men stepped out. One was a muscular Chinese, the other a beefy Englishman.
The security men remembered Marissa and Tristan from the episode in the lobby the day before. With Marissa and Tristan standing to the side, they used their passkey to open Tristan’s door.
The room was quiet except for the sound of water running in the bathtub. The connecting door to room 604 was ajar. The bed was stripped. A maid’s cleaning cart was pushed to the side.
The Chinese man entered first, then the Englishman. Marissa and Tristan remained on the threshold. The Chinese security man headed for the bathroom while his partner glanced into 604.
“George!” the Chinese man called urgently. George quickly joined his partner at the bathroom door. Both their faces blanched. Then the Englishman turned to Marissa and Tristan, motioning for them to stay where they were. He explained that there had been a death.
Clearly shaken, the two security men left the bathroom and went into 604. Marissa and Tristan exchanged an uneasy glance.
“My God!” the Englishman said.
In a moment, both security men appeared back in 606. The Englishman went to the phone at the desk. After covering the handle of the-receiver with a cloth, he called the manager and told him that there had been two murders: a cleaning woman and apparently a hotel guest.
Meanwhile, the Chinese security man approached Marissa and Tristan.
“I’m afraid we have two bodies in here,” he said.
“Please, do not touch anything. We don’t recognize the man in the other room.” Addressing Tristan he said, “Perhaps, sir, you might have a look and see if it is someone you know.”
Tristan started forward, but Marissa stopped him by pulling at his arm.
“I’m a doctor,” she said to the security man.
“I think I should look as well.”
The security man shrugged.
“As you like, madam.”
With the security man in the lead, Marissa and Tristan walked into 604.
When Marissa looked down at the body, she gave out a little cry. Her hand went to her mouth in horror. The victim was lying on his back, staring open-eyed at the ceiling. There were two holes in his forehead. On the carpet behind his head was a pool of blood in the form of a dark halo.
“It’s Robert!” Marissa gasped.
“It’s my husband-Robert!”
Tristan took Marissa in his arms and pulled her away from the grisly sight.
Then they heard a knocking from the closet.
The Chinese security man called to the Englishman. He bounded into the room. The Chinese man pointed at the closet.
They heard the knocking again. Both men went to the door; the key was in the lock. With one standing to the side, the other unlocked the door and yanked it open. Inside they discovered the cowering hall porter.
After some encouragement, the security men managed to coax the porter out into the room. Once he understood that he was safe, he began speaking rapidly in Chinese.
When the porter finally fell silent, the Chinese security guard turned to the other.