Chapter 59

He walked to the bar and set the basket down. The trick was to act as if he was doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing and that would make others think he belonged. That in turn would make them ignore him and Nick would become invisible to them. Sticking to the wall, Nick made his way around the perimeter of the room until he was close enough to see what he needed to see.

What he saw was confirmation only; his nose had told him much of what he needed to know the second he was in the billiards parlor. The stench of a decaying human body filled the room. There were a half dozen or so people standing off to one side, talking among themselves. Nick recognized the uniforms of several of the higher-ranking bridge officers, someone wearing a white smock whom he took to be a doctor, and four others he couldn’t identify.