Chapter 6

"Why would somebody want our marriage license?" asked Laura.

"Maybe the thief doesn't want our marriage license. Maybe my deportation out of the US is the objective." He answered her.

"And our ID's? Maybe yours if that would be the case. But why steal mine?"

"Everything was together in my pocket."

"Let's call Estelle Becker. We should assure her a copy from the original will be on the way on Monday morning. We will have to ask for another one to the Minister. And I would like to ask Miss Becker some questions. Give me her personal card, please."

He looked for it but couldn't find it in the suit hanging on the closet. He stared at her trying to remember where he had placed it.

"Don't tell me you left it at home…You brought half your wardrobe and forgot one of the most important item to carry?"

"Come on Laura. I have it with me. Just give me a minute. It must be somewhere over here….Oh! Here it is, just where it was supposed to be." He found the card among some one hundred bills and other stuff he'd hidden in a secure spot in a sudden hurry before leaving the room.

"Your choice to have something secure in a hotel room is under the wastebasket?"

"Funny how the last place you'd look is always where you'll find what you've been looking for. Believe me, Laura. Nobody looking for something important through a hotel room will search under the wastebasket. They will search in the wastebasket, not under it."

"What other important stuff are you hiding there?" she asked incredulously.

"By all means, Laura…You are a detective, are you?"He raised his eyebrows, trying to give her a clue…

"Never mind…" she said rolling her eyes and lifting the headphone to start her phone call.

Laura assured Estelle Becker she will have their marriage license copy on her desk on Monday morning. But that wasn't the only thing she talked with the INS agent. "When you brought the notification for Mr. Steele yesterday, you mentioned the case started a week ago. Can you tell me what got it started?"Asked Laura.

"I see. Thank you, Miss Becker." She hung up the phone and turned towards Mr. Steele. "It is my fault. All this mess is my fault."

"What are you talking about, Laura?"

She sat on the bed feeling really upset, putting her head between her hands… "Remember when I pushed you to accept that case Detective Jarvis asked you to work in while I was busy with the Rydell case?"

"Yes…"

"Well, it seems that your name in that file traveled through different departments at the police station, and someone found a gap in your passport information, fact that sent the file directly to the INS. We should have never accepted Detective Jarvis suggestion…"

"Come on, Laura. It's our job! We have to be ready to help the Police Department if they ask for it. We can't refuse."

"I know, but I should have managed the case with more care."

"You weren't able to do that, Laura." He kneeled beside her and took her face in his hands. "It wasn't our case. It was Detective Jarvis' one. We didn't fill any records about it at the agency. Everything was in the Police files they provided us."

Noticing his words were accurate and trying to compose herself, she raised her eyes to him exhaling a heavy breath.

"Better?" he asked.

"We have no time to worry about past mistakes. Let's try to find our thief Mr. Steele."

"Should I call room service to bring us something to enjoy for lunch before duty calls? We skipped our dinner last night, fact followed for our absent breakfast…I'm starving Laura."

"We did have dinner on the plane, remember Mr. Steele?"

"Certainly birds food Miss Holt. I need something stronger."

"Miss Holt?"

"Ah, I think I'm slipping, love. Must be the abstinence…." he told her while trying a smile.

"Abstinence?"

"Another slip…" he told her.

She walked a step towards him and stood dangerously close to his body. "Try not to slip with those words very often, Mr. Steele or I would be tempted to slip into our previous schedule…You would find the real meaning of the word abstinence in a hardly suffering way." She finished her words tipping her fingers against his chin.

He stood in front of her motionless, rehearsing a cautious smile, not sure if any word would be useful enough to survive the moment.

"Call room service, Mr. Steele…" she told him not being able to resist smiling anymore.

The food arrived in their room as fast as it was expected, after the succulent tip Mr. Steele promised once his order was complete. Just when the smell got off the covered dishes, Laura noticed herself starving just like her dearest husband. She pulled a chair beside him, and they attacked the menu with such enthusiasm that duty was genuinely forgotten for some time. After the second cup of coffee was over they put themselves back to work about their situation.

"Let's make a revision about the facts." Detective Holt said, trying to go back to her usual routines.

"We took a case. We have to find Gordon Johnson in San Francisco. Our first source to meet is Joseph Addison. Just when we were leaving the office, Estelle Becker appeared with the news. We changed our flight tickets to San Francisco for some new ones to Las Vegas. We arrived here pretty late and came directly to the hotel from the airport. Mildred is totally out of our new schedule. We came to our room and change clothes. We got married at the Endless Chapel and left the place with our marriage license in your pocket. We came back to the hotel and arrived without stopping anywhere directly to our room. Some chilled champagne was waiting for us. We took off our wedding clothes. You opened the bottle and filled two goblets. We made a toast and sipped the champagne. Feeling a bit tired, you refilled our glasses, and we lay down on the bed, drinking the last of the champagne. We woke up the next morning in a different hotel room, our wrists tied to the bed's headboard. When we finally escaped from our prison, we returned to our room, and found everything in place but our marriage license…"

"Our marriage license and my tuxedo jacket. We don't have to leave anything out." He added.

"You are correct, our marriage license and your tuxedo jacket. You called the front desk, and the clerk told you the champagne weren't any wedding attention sent by the hotel."

They stood looking to nowhere for a while, trying to figure out something.

"We should investigate the reservation name on the room we were kidnapped," said Mr. Steele.

"But we will not be successful if we ask it to the front desk. Client's privacy, remember?" answered Laura.

"We might try to send something to the room's occupants, and once the man at the front desk gets distracted, we can try to find the room's guest name," said Mr. Steele.

"I think this might work," Said Laura. "Let's get ready."