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glanced at the telephone briefly, checking the caller ID.  Eve leaned over to do the same and saw that the number had been blocked.
“Excuse me,” Burke said to Allie and the others. 
With a pointed look to Eve that she interpreted as a bid to follow him, Burke walked away.  In this, she and Burke were on the same page.  Following him was exactly what Eve intended to do.  
“Sorry, Allie.  Raincheck,” Eve said.
She fell into step with Burke as he wove his way through the men and women milling about the conference room and returned to the hotel lobby.  Burke flipped open the phone but didn’t put it to his ear.  Eve leaned toward him and saw that the caller had sent a text message. The angle of the phone, though, prevented her from reading it.   An instant later Burke closed the phone. 
“Well?”  Eve asked. 
“I’m to check in then proceed to my room. Our caller will meet me there in ten minutes.”
Eve felt excitement course through her.
Burke raised his gaze and his dark eyes settled on her.  “If this is the buyer making contact, I’m wondering why he upped the time of the meeting and changed the location?” 
Eve didn’t care for the suspicion she heard in Burke’s tone.  “I have no answers for those questions and I’m not about to stand here with you and analyze his motives.  As far as I’m concerned if this is the buyer or the accomplice, getting this over with now rather than later would be a good thing.”
Burke did not respond to her comment.  He used his own cell phone and placed a call.  After a brief pause, he said, “Lanski.  Change in plans.”  Burke went on to inform Lanski about the message he’d received then gave the order to mobilize a team of agents.   “Tell our people to hold their positions.  No one moves in without my order.”  Burke ended the call then turned to her.  “Okay, Doctor, let’s go.”
Burke proceeded to the front desk with Eve in tow.  
“I’d like to check in,” he said to the young male clerk.
“Sure thing, sir.” The clerk nodded, and the red and blue tints in his hair glittered in the light from the chandelier overhead.  “Name please.”
“Richard Patterson.”
“Are you with the chemist’s convention, sir?” he asked conversationally.
“Yes.”
The young man tapped the computer keyboard.  “A great line up of speakers this year.”
“Quite good,” Burke agreed.
“Here you are, Dr. Patterson.” The clerk handed Burke a key card.  “Room 1117 just like you asked for.”
Burke signed the register. 
“Enjoy your stay.”
“Thank you.”
Burke and Eve left the desk and the clerk bent his head over a stack of papers.  A woman rushed by them, bearing an armload of towels.
“Did Richard reserve this room in addition to arranging accommodation at the cottage?”  Burke asked.
“I don’t know.  Can your people look into that?”
“I’ll get Lanski on it but since the room isn’t billed until checkout, there’s no way to trace the reservation through a credit card.  I don’t like going into this meeting blind.”
Eve’s stomach tensed.  “We have no choice.  We have to see this through and do as your caller instructed.”
He studied her.  “I have every intention of seeing this through.”
With his hand at her back, Burke steered Eve to the bank of elevators.  The lobby was quiet now.  The chemist’s conference was the big event at the hotel at this time of year and most of the hotel patrons were gathered in the conference room to hear Dr. Abernathy speak.  No doubt Richard’s buyer would have known that and choosing this meeting time when few people would be about had not been a coincidence.
Eve waited outside the room Burke had been assigned while he performed his customary check of the surroundings.
“All clear,” he said a few moments later.
Eve joined him inside.  He hung  a “do not disturb” placard on the exterior door knob, which she figured he’d also been instructed by the