No Fear!

“It’s me, Jeremy. Let me in.”

“Christ, Paul. What the hell?” He opened the door and watched the man brush by him before he could tell him to go away. He marched into Jeremy’s kitchen, looking for the coffee. “Paul, what are you doing? Looks like you’ve already drank a whole pot. What do you want?”

Paul stopped his search to glare at Jeremy. “Things are just not working out the way we planned.” He looked inside the cupboard. “I know they stock this place, where’s the coffee?”

“Look, Man. I’ve slept two hours if that. Could this wait for a while, like lunch maybe?”

“Here it is, good.” Paul began brewing their breakfast. “The body came in yesterday, and I haven’t heard his name once. These people are either stupid or the wallet is somewhere at the bottom of the sea. Why do you think that is, Jeremy? The hotel is supposed to be empty by now, but no sir, it’s as full as it ever was. If they knew the body was a Templetons guest, things would be different. His identity was the key for this to work.” He stopped pacing and leaned over the counter, glaring at Jeremy. “Why don’t they know it’s Pablo? I should have let those people stay in la la Lucas last night. That would cause an investigation and hurt her reputation.”

Jeremy joined him in the kitchen and pulled out two cups, filling them with the hot brew. “If you want cream or sugar, get it yourself.” He took a sip from his cup. “You did the right thing with them. We’d have to be gone by now to avoid the officials if our Lucas people hadn’t made it. And as for scaring her guests, there were a lot of people that did leave. We knew it would take time with scheduled planes. They came back, but lots of them should be gone by the end of the day.” He found a chair and sat in thought. “Paul, we knew we’d need to be flexible, we always knew that we might have to help this along. Here’s what you need to do. Go tell your cult that it was Pablo. Fear is the best way to control people, and we can prove that today. When this story gets out, the madness around here will be extreme. If it gets back to Gloria that you were the one that told them, all you have to do is say that one of her guests told you. Then we leak the story to the papers in the states. This is going to work just as we planned, maybe better.” He looked at Paul with coolness in his eyes, “And if it doesn’t give us what we want, there is something else besides this hotel that means everything to her. In fact, maybe even more.” There was a moment of silence before he said it.

“Emma. Our selfish Gloria actually loves someone beside herself.”

Paul felt sick hearing her name. “It was hard enough with Pablo, Jeremy. But Emma? No, not after getting to know her. We need something different.”

“Since when did you get soft? What’s happening to the vengeance in you? Remember what these people have done to us, Paul.”