Read Online Home Invasion by William W. Johnstone - Free Book Online

balconies from the corner of the building and matched it up with the floor plan he had studied. “Room 627.”
    “Very good.” Parker finished his drink. “What’s he doing up there?”
    Ford threw his head back and laughed as if his fellow agent had said something funny. That gave him a chance to look directly at the man who had ventured nervously out onto the balcony. The target was small, almost boyish looking with a mop of blond hair.
    “Just looking around, as far as I can tell. Watching these nubile young lovelies parade around the pool.”
    Parker ran a thumbnail along his jawline as he frowned. “So they knew he was in Corpus Christi and even knew what hotel he was staying at, but they couldn’t find out his room number?”
    “They wanted to leave
something
for us to do,” Ford drawled. “You know, so we’ll feel like we’re earning our wages.”
    “I feel like it every time the weather turns cold and those busted ribs of mine start aching.” Parker shook his head. “Something’s not right here, Fargo.”
    “Something’s always not right in this business. If everything was right, they wouldn’t need us, now would they?”
    “I suppose not.” Parker stood up. “There’s no point in wasting time. We might as well get started on this babysitting job.”
    Ford finished his drink and got to his feet as well. “Farewell, ladies,” he said to the girls around the pool, quietly enough so that none of them heard him.
    The two men strolled into the hotel, went to the bank of elevators, and Parker pushed the button. A family with several kids in tow came up behind them. As the bell rang to signal that the elevator was there, Ford glanced over his shoulder and stepped aside, motioning for the family to go ahead.
    “We’ll get the next one,” he said.
    “What did you do that for?” Parker asked when the door had slid closed.
    “I didn’t like the looks of that little boy. He looked like a farter to me. We didn’t want to be trapped in there with him for six floors.”
    “You’re always looking out for our safety, aren’t you, Fargo?”
    “Of course. It’s my job.”
    As a matter of fact, Ford had saved Parker’s life a couple of times in Pakistan. Neither of them was going to mention that, though. Like Ford said, it was just part of the job.
    They took the next elevator and got out at the sixth floor. Signs on the wall told them that Rooms 620 to 640 were to their right. They turned in that direction. The fourth door on the right would be 627.
    They had almost reached it when they heard the crash and the cry of pain from inside the room.

C HAPTER 11
    Ford’s right hand went behind his back and plucked the gun from its concealed holster. At the same time, his left grasped the door handle and tried to twist it.
    Locked. The handle didn’t budge.
    The door had one of those card key locks. Parker had his gun out by now, too, and as he leveled it at the lock, he said, “Step back.”
    “That won’t work,” Ford said as another yelp came from inside the room, followed by what sounded like a chair being overturned. “You’ll just wind up with a smashed lock and a door that still won’t open.”
    Parker glanced at him. “How do you know that?”
    “Those guys on TV proved it. You know, the goofy one and the one with the beret.”
    “Then what do we do?”
    Somebody inside the room screamed, “Help!”
    Ford glanced both ways along the corridor. “You take 625, I’ll take 629. See if anybody will open up.”
    They went opposite directions along the hall. Ford pounded on the door of 629 while Parker did the same on 625. “Police!” Ford yelled. “Emergency!”
    The first part was a lie. The second part certainly wasn’t.
    Nobody answered his knock, but Parker shouted, “Fargo! Down here!”
    Moving fast for such a big man, Ford reached the open door of 625 in a couple of leaps. Parker was already in the room, heading for the sliding glass door that opened onto the balcony. Ford