The Templar Secret by Scott Mariani

Author:Scott Mariani [Mariani, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: VV Thriller, Adventure Mystery/Thriller/Suspense
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2024-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 32

The instant he got off the phone with Moody, Ben was racing from his room and thumping on Roberta’s door. After a few moments she answered the door in her underwear, making him instinctively avert his eyes. Her hair was tousled and she looked as if she’d been fast asleep.

‘What’s up?’ she asked, alarmed.

‘Get dressed. We have to leave here right away.’

‘Give me a minute,’ she said, and closed the door in his face. He hovered impatiently outside for less than forty-five seconds before it opened again and she reappeared, fully dressed and ready and saying, ‘Let’s go.’ Roberta Ryder wasn’t one to spend long on hair and makeup, bless her. Ben quickly explained why he needed to hurry back to Quillan.

‘Reminds me of the time you got drunk as a skunk in that village, Saint Jean, after we’d hit a dead end,’ she commented as they headed for the car.

‘That was different,’ he said. ‘And it’s my fault. He’s not himself. I should have seen it and taken better care of him.’

‘There you go again,’ she sighed. ‘Always wanting to take the blame. You don’t change a whole lot, do you?’ But Ben wasn’t listening as he jumped behind the wheel. His face was severe and he didn’t say another word until they reached Quillan. The Alpina screeched to a halt at the kerb outside the Petit Moulin, where Jimmy Moody would have been waiting to greet him if he hadn’t had his hands full upstairs.

‘Christ knows how many speed limits we just busted,’ Roberta said. ‘But here we are still in one piece, and now I’m about to meet the famous Jeff Dekker.’

‘Not at his best,’ Ben warned her. ‘Might want to stay back. This could get a little rough.’

But that at least was one needless concern, because as Moody showed Ben and Roberta into Room 11 a minute later, they found that the litre and a half of vodka Jeff had consumed had finally knocked him out and he was lying semi-comatose on the bed. One look at the wreckage of the room and the bruised, bloodied state of the three men was enough to give Ben a pretty good picture of the spirited resistance his friend had put up, sprained ankle or not.

‘I’m afraid to wake him in case he kicks off again,’ Moody said apologetically. ‘Not that I can blame the poor guy for taking it so badly. We’re all feeling like dogshit after what’s happened.’

‘Leave him to me,’ Ben said. ‘Brew up some coffee.’ When it came, hot and black, he sat on the edge of the bed and gently prodded Jeff awake. ‘Easy, easy,’ he said as his friend reared up with his eyes blazing and fists clenched. Coming to his senses, Jeff softened and fell back with a groan. ‘Fuck, my head! Feels like someone jammed a phosphorus grenade in my skull.’

‘Get this down you,’ Ben said. ‘And then let’s see if we can’t behave ourselves, eh? Honestly, what a state. Your eyes look like two burnt holes in a blanket.

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