Chapter 4: Front Desk

I left work at five and took the bus to the glass building where Jared sold software licenses.

The lobby had a marble front desk and a screen on the wall that played the company's logo.

A receptionist looked up at me.

"I'm here for Jared Lockett," I said. "Tell him it's about Tokyo."

She picked up the phone.

I waited with my laptop bag on my shoulder and my phone in my hand, and I watched the elevator doors.

Jared came out at ten past five.

He had his jacket over his arm and a smile on his face, the one he used for clients.

It fell off when he saw me.

"Carys. What are you doing here?"

"Come over here."

"I'm leaving. I'm busy."

"It will take one minute."

He crossed the lobby slowly and stood a foot away from me, so close that I could smell his cologne.

"If this is about the video, I told you, I didn't post it."

"It isn't about the video."

I turned my phone so he could see the email.

"The Shinjuku hotel wrote to me today," I said. "They cancelled two of my three rooms."

"Okay?"

"The third room was transferred on the fourteenth to Joss Merrin. One king bed. Two guests. Six nights."

I read it out loud, in a voice that carried across the marble.

Two men by the elevators stopped talking.

The receptionist stopped typing.

"It says my card is still paying for it," I said. "Who is the second guest, Jared?"

He opened his mouth.

"Don't," I said. "Don't say Caleb. I know where Caleb sleeps. He has his own room."

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