The Babylon Thing
Page 5
16
Lunenburg County
Seventy minutes later, minutes filled with incessant flirting from Leo, she brought the car to a rough, sudden halt outside the Cavalier Hotel, causing a few other drivers to honk their horns at her. She stuck her head out the sunroof and bellowed at them: “Yes, I do own this road, and a little side-street in Copenhagen, too!” She sat back down. “Guy must be taking road rage at college or something. Look, I’ll give you an hour to get in, get ready, food, whatever, then I’ll be back and you can decide where you wanna go first. I recommend the candlelit dinners at a little restaurant down -“
“Oak Island will be fine,” Jacky interrupted. Not irritated; her attitude was not in-yer-face enough to cause discomfort, and he did find her a little amusing.
“Well, that is why you’re here. Good plot. Glad I thought of it. Jump out then. Uno hour.”
Jacky climbed out and waved Leo away. She threw the BMW into the traffic with a lackadaisical vigour that evoked a few more honking horns. Leo’s head came out the sunroof with another typical joke: “My sister is in labour!”
Jacky entered the hotel with his single bag of belongings. There was already a room booked for him, as promised. He took the key, stuck it in a lock on a door two floors up and threw it on the dressing table inside.
His mobile rang. The ring tone was a simple beep-beep. His own had a current chart hit as the theme, but it was not this fact that told him it was Marcellus’ phone ringing; he figured the Irishman boring enough to not bother playing with the gadget’s features, that was all. Default settings all the way.
“Leo informs me you arrived safely. And that you wish to visit the Pit immediately. That’s good. Is there anything you need just yet?”
Jacky thought. “No. I just want to have a look at the place first. Then I’ll read up on its history. For the rest of this day I’ll probably be doing nothing except researching the Pit and this island.”
“As you wish.”
“This display says number withheld, and there are no entries in the phonebook. How -“
“I’ll always be calling you. And I’ll do so later. Goodbye.”
He hung up. Frustrated, Jacky changed the ring tone. Then he got undressed and stepped into the shower.