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caller to do.
The room was a suite and a large one with plush furnishings and gilt accessories.  A bottle of champagne cooled in a silver ice bucket. Strawberry, mango, and kiwi from an abundant fruit basket scented the air.  It was precisely the kind of accommodation Richard would have booked for himself.  If she’d made the arrangements, she would have reserved a simple room for Richard, like one she’d book for herself.   
“Why that look?”  Burke asked.
Eve removed her gaze from the long hall that led to the bedroom and looked to Burke.  “Just that this room is so typically Richard.”  She shrugged. “When he checked into a hotel, he always chose the best room available.”  She didn’t add that he would have spared no expense if the business was paying.  He had no concern for where the business stood financially.  How many times had she gone head to head with him over expenses he charged to their partnership? 
She shook off those irrelevant thoughts and directed her attention where it needed to be.  “Is it possible the meeting at the cottage is a dupe and that this is the real meeting?  That Richard and the buyer made a plan you don’t know about?  Could your Intel be off?”
“No.”
Burke’s firm tone left no doubt that he trusted his information.  Eve accepted his word on that.  She glanced at her watch.  “It’s been ten minutes.”
Burke sat on the arm of the chesterfield.  “Yeah.”  
Eve walked to a floor -to -ceiling window.  The day had cleared.  There wasn’t a cloud visible now. Sunlight streamed in, bathing the room in its warm glow. The suite overlooked an enclosed garden. Flowers and shrubs were in full bloom. The view was breathtaking, but Eve was not in a frame of mind to appreciate it.  She turned away to pace the room.  Sixty minutes went by. She was wearing grooves in the rug, she thought. 
Another hour later, she stopped in front of Burke.  “He should have been here by now.” 
Burke nodded.  “I think we can say whoever sent the message isn’t coming.”
Burke took out his phone and called Lanski.  Eve tuned out Burke’s voice as he told Lanski the meeting was a bust.  Disappointment weighed on her. 
“. . . a set up,” Burke said, then ended the call.
His last words had caught her attention. “What did you mean a set up - set up for what?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. Someone just played with us, Doctor.  I’d like to know why.”
She met his pointed stare.  “Are you insinuating something?”
“Not insinuating.  Asking outright. Did you set up this little diversion?”
“Why would I do that?”
“As a signal to the buyer that your plan has gone south?”
“A signal . . .”  Eve shook her head. “How could I have set this up?”  She spread her arms wide.  “I was with you when you got the cell phone text.  I couldn’t have sent that. I want this guy found more than you do.  It’s my life on the line if we don’t.”
“It’s your life on the line if we do find him.  Once we have the buyer, we’ll have you.  You won’t be able to deny your involvement.”
“I have nothing to deny.”
They left the room and rode the elevator to the lobby in a stony silence.  When the doors opened, Eve stepped out ahead of Burke.
“Eve!”
Allie stood at the door to the conference room, shoulders raised, gaze intent, frantically waving to her.  Abernathy’s lecture was over.  Only a handful of people still lingered in the lobby and Eve crossed the room quickly to Allie.
“Eve, my dear,” Allie said.  “I’d almost despaired of seeing you again today.”
Allie clutched her hand and Eve’s fears for herself dimmed for the moment in the face of his distress.  “What is it Allie? Are you all right?”
“Yes. Yes.”  He shook his head.  A slight smile trembled on his thin lips.  “Forgive me, my dear. Forgive my theatrics.  You left in such a hurry that you forgot your handbag beneath the chair you’d been