"Some criminal types, to hear her tell it, frequent the place," he said as he looked to the side.
Becky gave a sudden start of fright as she recognized the desk clerk in the hotel where they were staying. He was sitting with a group of men at a back table, which was probably why she hadn't noticed him before. During their few brief encounters, she had thought him pleasant enough, but now she found herself wondering about him.
"My Lord! That's the desk clerk at our hotel!" Becky laughed nervously and turned back to her husband.
"He seems nice enough," her husband raised his second gin and tonic to his lips. "As a matter of fact, he's treated us rather royally since we arrived here."
Becky tried to recall their few contacts with the red-haired man, but it was virtually impossible since only Jack had talked with him when they had checked in yesterday. She had stood to the side with her mind totally wrapped up in the fact that she was checking into a hotel with a man, now her husband, for the first time. Later that evening – when they had finally returned from their conversation with the German and his gorgeous-looking wife in this same cafe – he had escorted them back up to their room. But once again her mind had been absorbed in what would happen in the next few hours of their first night together.
"I don't think he's too much of a desperado," Jack went on. "That Swedish woman says that he used to be involved in an agency that provided tourists with illegal guides. He charged them for a tour around Palma with local boys who didn't know much of anything. Now it's suspected he's involved in the illicit drug traffic. According to her, the police investigate him a lot, but can't pin anything on him… I don't know. I'm not going to worry about it. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with his work at our hotel."
"Do you think we should tell the hotel?" Becky frowned.
"On the basis of what that woman said? No, honey, she's probably just a gossip. Let's forget about it," he reached across the table and squeezed her hand.