“So early?” asked the maid.

“Early bird catches the worm.”

The maid nodded shyly. She got out on the fourth floor. When the doors closed and the elevator continued up to the last floor, Alicia pulled out the bunch of keys from her handbag and looked for the golden one Leandro had given her two years earlier. “It’s a master key. It opens all the rooms of the hotel. Including mine. Make good use of it. Never enter a place if you don’t know what awaits you.”

* * *

The service elevator opened onto a small hidden passage next to the cleaners’ cupboards and laundry rooms. Alicia hurried down the passage to the door that led into the main corridor, which went around the entire floor. She opened it cautiously. Leandro’s suite was on one of the corners hanging over Plaza de Neptuno. She stepped into the corridor and walked toward the suite. On the way she passed a guest who was returning to his room, probably after having had his breakfast. He smiled politely. Alicia smiled back. When she rounded the bend in the corridor, she saw the door to Leandro’s suite. There were no bodyguards posted outside the entrance. Leandro hated that type of display; he’d always advocated discretion and an absence of melodrama. But Alicia knew that at least two of his men must be nearby, either in a neighboring room or going through the hotel, at that very moment. She reckoned she had, at best, five to ten minutes.

Pausing in front of the door to the suite, she looked right and left, then quietly put the key in the lock and turned it gently. The door opened, and Alicia slipped inside. She locked the door behind her and stood there for a few seconds, leaning her back against it. A small entrance hall led to a corridor at the end of which was the oval room, set beneath the dome of one of the towers. Leandro had been living there as far back as she could remember. She crept toward the room, her hand resting on the weapon in her belt. The room was in semidarkness. The door to the suite’s bedroom was ajar, projecting a shaft of light. Alicia heard water running and a whistling she knew well. She walked across the oval room to the door and opened it wide. At the far end was the bed, empty and unmade. To the left was the bathroom door, which was open, letting out a delicate vapor scented with soap. Alicia stopped in the doorway.

His back to her, Leandro was shaving meticulously in front of the mirror. He wore a scarlet bathrobe and matching slippers. The bath, full of steaming water, waited on one side. A radio murmured a tune that Leandro was whistling. Alicia met his eyes in the mirror, and he smiled warmly, without a hint of surprise.

“I’ve been expecting you for days. You will have noticed that I told the boys to get out of the way.”