Paradise Burns by J. P. Sumner Read Free Book Online Page A

elevator and headed down the
corridor toward my room.
    There was no sign of life anywhere. Was
too late in the day for the maids to still be clearing out the rooms of the
people who left earlier on this morning. I imagined most rooms on the floor
would be empty now, although I walked past one door and you could hear two
people having sex quite loudly. The woman was putting too much effort into the
vocals, and was clearly faking it, but judging by the occasional grunt you
could hear from the guy, I don’t think he cared all that much.
    I smiled and walked on, until I came
level with my door on the left: Room 1523. I took a deep breath, calming myself
for what lay ahead, and pressed the keycard against the lock pad. It beeped
once, and I heard the lock slide back inside the door. I turned the handle and
opened the door.

 
    TEN
     
    I entered my hotel
room, placed my briefcase on the bed, removed my tie and rolled my shirt
sleeves up. After all these years, I still get a buzz of adrenaline when I’m on
a job. It’s weird, I know, but I love what I do. In a non-psychopathic kind of
way.
    I didn’t pay much attention to hotel
room itself. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. I just walked over to
the TV, turned it on and found the music channels. VH1 was showing a classic
rock Top 100 show, and Thin Lizzy was halfway through “ The Boys Are Back In
Town ”. I turned the volume up, smiled, and went over to the bed and opened
my briefcase.
    I placed my bluetooth headset on my ear
and dialed Josh. He answered as I was singing.
    ‘The jukebox in the corner blasting out
my favorite song... The nights are gettin’ warmer it, won’t be long...’
    To his credit, he responded immediately.
    ‘Won’t be long ‘til summer comes... Now
that the boys are here again...’
    All together now.
    ‘The boys are back in town, the boys are
back in town!’
    We laughed.
    Nothing ruins a job more than tension
and hesitation. Best thing to do is relax, clear your head and just do it. Not
procedurally, but instinctively. Let your hands and your mind and your eyes
just do what they know they need to. Go with the flow, as the saying goes.
    ‘I see preparations are going well,’
Josh said, still laughing.
    ‘As always,’ I replied. ‘Jackson’s
directly above me now. Is everything in place with the hotel?’
    ‘Sure is. If you ring room service in
four minutes, their afternoon shift will have started, and the guy who brings
you your food should be roughly your height and build.’
    ‘Excellent. And the drill?’
    ‘Should be under your bed, near the
window.’
    ‘Josh, for all of your annoying habits,
you are an absolute genius. How do you do it?’
    ‘C’mon, Adrian, you know a magician
never reveals how he does his tricks.’
    ‘Yeah, well, I’m not paying a magician,
I’m paying you. Take the compliment and spill.’
    ‘Well, you know the guy on the front
desk?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘You’re also paying him.’
    ‘Am I?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘Do I pay a lot of people that I don’t
know about?’
    ‘Now that would be telling,’ he said, with
a knowing smile that I could feel down the phone.
    ‘I think I need to hire an independent
accountant - you seem to be spending my fortune on all sorts.’
    ‘Adrian, if I was going to screw you out
of any money, I’d have done it and gone a long time ago.’
    ‘Very true. Right, I’m gonna go do my
thing. Ring you when it’s done.’
    ‘Take it easy big guy.’
    I hung up and used the room phone to
ring down to the front desk and order some room service. Then I moved round the
bed, got on my knees and looked underneath it. Sure enough, there was small,
industrial drill. The drill bit in the end was a quarter inch wide and close to
a foot and a half long. I picked it up and pressed the trigger to check it
worked. It did, and it was surprisingly quiet, which was perfect. I got up and
moved a chair against the wall nearest the windows and drilled a hole right
through the