Managed to take my mind off the election long enough to get some writing done. Cleared 7K! If you’ve been following along, you will notice I changed Leon’s last name. While Leon Hart was cool, I think it was a little too cutesy, and someone who likes to disappear would probably pick something a little more inconspicuous. So, he is now Leon Smith. Other than that, things are still proceeding according to my new beat sheet. No other surprises just yet.
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“I want you to go through this room, see if you can see anything I might have missed. I want to go have a conversation with the motel clerk.”
Ernie looked crestfallen again at my words, but he merely nodded. It was obvious that Ernie did not see me as suspicious, because I imagine he would have insisted on staying right by my side. “Divide and conquer, right?” he said, grinning.
“Right.” I walked out of the room and back down the stairs until I reached the main entrance. An overflowing trash can stood outside the glass double doors, and some of the litter had made its way to the ground around the trash can. One of the doors had a crack that crossed from the top to the bottom, with the point of origin being a bullet hole around head height. I remember getting the call for that one. Some guy was not happy with services received and shot at his “companion” for the evening. Thankfully, he was drunk, and a lousy shot. No one was hurt, no damage done, other than the motel door. One good thing did come from it. The girl who got shot at decided she was done with that life. Last I checked, she moved back home to Nebraska. So, all in all, a small victory.
I opened the non-damaged door and stepped into the lobby of the motel. Lobby was actually too gracious a word for the cubicle I was in. I’d seen closets larger than this room. There were no adornments on the wall, just bare rust-brown walls, except where the paint was peeling one could see the original pale yellow. Neither color was inviting. But then, people did not come here for the atmosphere. In front of me was a counter with a window covered in Plexiglass. The only openings were the speaker vents and a small drawer at the bottom where the clerk could hand you your room keys. The only source of light was a naked incandescent bulb in the center of the ceiling, matched by a twin on the clerk’s side.
There was no one visible, so I did what the sign pasted on the glass suggested. I rang the bell for service.
“Be right there!” a deep voice bellowed from off to the right. Within seconds, a large man waddled through a curtain and plopped himself in front of the window.
This man was immense. Easily three hundred fifty, four hundred pounds. His stringy hair reminded me of a mop that was in its last days, and his salt-and-pepper beard, which looked like it hadn’t ever seen a comb, reached down to his massive chest.
Once he settled in to the chair that was doing much more work than any chair had a right to, he finally looked up at me. Immediately, his dark eyes flashed fear and guilt at the sight of my uniform. “Hey, man,” he said, throwing his paws up in defense, “I don’t want no trouble.”
“And I don’t want to give you any, friend,” I said. “I only wanted to ask you about the girl who was murdered.”
He put his hands down and relaxed a tick. “I told the other officers everything.”
“I’m sure you did. Unfortunately, I was not able to be here for that, so I would appreciate it if you could run things by me again.”
“Sure sure sure. I can do that. Not much to tell, though. Girl comes in, pays cash for a room, housekeeping finds her in the morning.”
“Did you see who the girl came with?”
“Nah, man, dude stayed in the car outside the whole time.”
“What time did she show up?”
“Right after nine p.m. I remember cause the Bachelorette just finished and I was getting ready to make myself a sandwich when the bell rang. I came up here, she handed me cash, I handed her a key. Not much more to say.”
“Do you have any video cameras outside that may have recorded the man?”
At this, he let out a shrill cackle. “Dude, people come here because we have no cameras. Wouldn’t be much of a no-tell motel if we keep evidence.” Then, realizing he was probably saying too much, he sobered up and said in a softer voice, “That’s all I can tell you. That’s all I could tell them. I wish I could be more help.”
“Thank you. I appreciate your time.” I turned to go, then turned back to face him. “Oh, there’s one more question I have. Were you here seven years ago?”
Color drained from his face. This was a man I would have loved to play poker with. “Yes, yeah, I was here. Why do you ask?”
I walked back to the window. “Because seven years ago, there was a similar murder. Do you remember that?”
“I do, I do, that poor girl. But they caught that guy, didn’t they?”
I nodded. They caught a guy, and at the time I figured that had been an isolated incident and nothing to do with Jack. Now, I had a feeling the two were connected.
“Wait a sec,” the clerk tapped his temple with his finger. “That’s weird. I just realized. That girl seven years ago was killed in the same room. Crazy coincidence, huh?”
I wasn’t a believer in coincidence. Now I knew for sure. That had been Jack, and this murder was done at the same scene in order to let me know it had been him. “Yeah, crazy, indeed.” I turned once again to go. “If you can remember anything else that you think might help,” I called behind me, “just ask for Officer Leon Smith. Thanks for your time again.”
I made my way back up the stairs again. Two murders in the same room. Seven years apart. That was the thing that I didn’t understand. What happened during those seven years? What changed to bring Jack back out of hiding after all that time? More questions.
I found Ernie in the bathroom, staring at the pictures.