Chapter 38

He seemed older. Wiser, maybe.

He took a deep breath and steadied himself. The hotel manager couldn’t really accuse Xavier of anything. It would be the guy’s word against theirs, anyway. And the knife was gone.

Billy jerked brown paper out of the rusty dispenser and wiped his face. Behind him the door opened, and he glanced up at the mirror to catch a bald man in a brown sweater walking in. He recognized him from the dining room. The man’s eyes paused on Billy’s face in the mirror and then he walked over to the sinks, stopping at the one right next to where Billy stood. He seemed to be waiting for a signal. There was tension in the man’s movements. Some kind of a fever coming off of him. He kept glancing over at Billy expectantly. “Hi,” he said, his hand resting close to Billy’s thigh.

Billy had seen the man staring at him in the dining room. He’d followed him here?