“Hey, Honey Bunny,” Doyle said into his cell phone.
“How’s everything at the hospital?”
“Settled down,” said Amanda. “I haven’t seen Eva anywhere. Then again, I haven’t left the room much. I’m scared if I leave William alone for even a minute, something will happen, and I’ll be responsible.”
“You don’t need to think like that. But thank you for watching over him. Really,” said Doyle.
“What are you doing right now?” she asked.
“Driving back to the hotel. I had no idea it’d gotten so late. I’m going to get a couple hours of sleep. If Eva’s decided to flee, it won’t matter too much. I just talked to Officer Daniels, and he’s sending out an APB. Hopefully someone will find her.”
“If she hasn’t fled completely, I have a pretty good idea of where she’ll show up tomorrow,” said Amanda.
“Oh, yeah?”
“It seems Eva was in such a hurry, she forgot to unplug her cell phone that was charging on the nurse’s table.”
Doyle laughed. “Really? What info were you able to get from it?”
“Nothing too substantial. The calls in and out were minimal, and only a few texts were still in her inbox. But the text of interest was just sent a few hours ago by Winthrop. He plans on resuming filming tomorrow morning, with whatever cast and crew they have available.”
“Was the text sent specifically to Eva?”
“I can’t really tell. The way it’s worded, I assume it was sent to everyone involved with the film, not just her.”
“Hmm,” said Doyle. “Well, it’s good to know. But still—do you really think she’d show up on set, just to get arrested?”
“Possibly,” said Amanda. “If she’s on a serious crime spree, maybe she really wants to go down in a blaze of glory.”
“Could be,” said Doyle. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
“I guess,” she said.
“Are you going to be okay there tonight? You know—without me?”
“Well, I do have another brilliant, attractive detective in the room with me, so I’ll probably be okay.”
“He’s unconscious, right?” asked Doyle.
“Yeah, he is,” she said.
“Good,” said Doyle.
“I doubt I’ll be able to sleep, but that’s probably for the best. I’d rather remain vigilant,” Amanda said. “In fact, I looked out the door here, and a couple cops just came in. I’ll have them do a thorough search of the hospital, just in case Eva’s hiding out somewhere here and planning another attempt at William’s life.”
“Good idea,” said Doyle. “If you have any trouble at all, call me.”
“I will,” she said. “All right, I should go. I want talk to these guys. Besides, I don’t have very good reception in here. I’m getting a lot of static on this end.”
“Okay, that’s fine. Hey, Amanda?”
“Yes, Doyle?”
Doyle hesitated. He’d wanted to say something for a while now, and with how dangerous things had gotten, it seemed like now was the appropriate time. Still, he was suddenly, awfully nervous.
Here goes nothing, he thought.
“I love you,” he said.
“What was that?” she said. “Sorry, you’re breaking up.”
“Olive juice,” he said. “I had a martini and got olive juice all over me.
It was really weird. I gotta go.”
“Doyle?” he heard Amanda say again as he hung up.
“Dammit,” Doyle said, and pulled into the hotel parking lot. That was not how he’d intended the conversation to go.
Now that he was off the phone and sitting in the dark lot, he realized how quiet it was. Doyle looked at his watch. It was nearly three o’clock in the morning. As he got out of his car, every sound he made seemed to echo.
He thought of Eva Wong, who attempted to kill William not once but twice, and now it was looking like she even killed Wilde over a romance gone sour. A murderer on the loose. She probably thought she’d successfully killed William. Who would she go after next? Obviously it would be Doyle. After all, he was the other lead detective on the case.
Doyle bit his lip.
He tip-toed the few yards across the parking lot, all the while looking over his shoulder for any signs of movement. Once he got to the hotel door, he opened it quickly and leaped inside.
Doyle was relieved to find that there was no gun pointing at him when he got inside, nor a knife to his neck or throat. As Officer Daniels had so kindly pointed out, Doyle was a pussy. He knew it to be true, but didn’t care. Now that he had someone he loved in his life, he felt as though he had something to lose. He had to be careful.
As he crawled into his empty bed, in his empty room, he thought of Amanda and longed to be with her.
But he knew what had to happen first. Tomorrow, he was quite certain, was going to be a very important day.