Forty-Four Box Set, Books 1-10 (44) (151 page)

But that didn’t mean I was heading over to the Lone Pine Motel by myself. It was one of those seedy places along the main drag in the south part of town that made the news on a regular basis for everything from prostitution to drug deals gone wrong to in-room cockfighting.

Ty didn’t pick up, so I tried David.

“Yay, Abby Craig! You know I love playing detective. It’ll be like old times.”

“Good,” I said. “I’ll be home in five. Be ready. Oh, and can we take your car? He’s seen the Jeep.”

“You got it.”

Twenty minutes later we were rumbling down Third Street, Daft Punk thumping from the stereo.

“Turn here,” I said.

“Let’s go dancing after this. What do you say?”

His entire body, including his arms, was bouncing along to the music. I wasn’t sure how he managed to stay in his lane.

“I say that I need you to focus, David Norton.” I turned off the music and pointed to a spot across the street that would give us a decent view of the motel. “Park there.”

He pouted and cut the engine and I took a long look at the single-level structure.

“I didn’t even know they had places like this here,” he said after a while.

“Seems like every town’s got at least one.”

David’s eyes got big.

“Okay! Working girl alert! Nine o’clock.”

I looked over to my left and saw a teenager wearing short shorts with a fur jacket draped over her shoulders, walking slowly down the street in front of the motel.

“That’s so sad, Abby Craig. And I’m not even talking about her crimes against fashion.” He shook his head. “Okay, so what’s the plan?”

“Modine says he’s in Room 15. That’s it there. The lights are on. See it?”

David reached behind him and then brought some binoculars up to his face. I was impressed.

“Yeah, I see it. It looks like he’s watching TV, the way the light is glowing and moving on the curtains.”

Two men in dark hoodies with backpacks walked through the parking lot and stopped. They talked briefly, exchanged something, and then scurried away like rats into the darkness.

“So you just going up and knocking on his door?”

“No,” I said. “I’m going to see if I can get his name in the office. Wish me luck.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“No, I need you here. Take his picture if he comes out, and warn me if you see him heading my way.”

“I’m your man, Abby Craig,” he said, pulling out his phone.

I started to get out, but stopped.

“Oh, give me all your money.”

He looked at me.

“What? I have to pay to be your man? This place is really rubbing off on you.”

“Come on, I’ll pay you back.”

David reached in his pocket and handed me some bills.

“Be careful,” he said as I stepped out onto the sidewalk.

I took a deep breath and crossed the street.

“Here goes nothing,” I whispered to the night.

CHAPTER 43

A guy in his 50s in bad need of a haircut and even worse need of a bath sat behind the counter, watching a television hidden from view. When I walked in he turned his head and looked at me through thick, dirty glasses.

“How many hours you need, sweetie?” he said, talking to my chest.

“I’m not here for a room. I’m looking for information.”

“The
libarry’s
down the stree—”

His eyes got extra big when I pulled out a twenty.

“All I need is a name.”

“Name will run you double.”

“Twenty now and twenty when I get the name.”

He took the bill.

“Who we looking at?”

“The guy in Room 15,” I said.

He nodded and gave me a slow up and down once over before getting off his little stool.

“Be just be a minute, doll,” he said, heading toward a doorway behind the counter.

His body odor stayed behind and kept me company.
American Idol
was playing. I took small breaths and didn’t touch anything, hoping I wouldn’t catch something.

I stood there waiting, wishing he’d hurry up. Where did he go anyway? I glanced around, but there was nothing to look at except cheap paneling nailed to the wall and a couple of dusty plastic plants on the counter.

I suddenly saw some movement out of the corner of my eye.

Someone was coming toward the office.

It was just a silhouette, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. I could drop my head and walk right past him but that seemed reckless. Instead I jumped behind the counter and ducked down low, hoping that if the clerk came back he would be capable of putting it together and not give me away.

I heard the little bells on the door and hunkered farther down. The carpet beneath me was sticky with things I didn’t want to even begin imagining. A moment later I saw those biker boots reflected in the window. It was him.

He began pacing.

The time ticked by slowly, sweat pooling above my lip. And then I heard the little bells again and the door slam shut. I gave it another few seconds before standing up and moving to the other side of the counter. Just then, the clerk came back.

“Someone come in?”

“No, I just stepped out for some air.”

He put a notebook on the counter.

“You a private dick?” he said. “You don’t look like no private dick.”

I stared at him even though it hurt my eyes.

“Just having a little fun. Okay, here’s the name.”

He opened the register to the page and pointed. 

“Room 15,” he said, a creepy grin lighting up his face. “Paid in cash through the end of the month.”

He covered the name with his fingers and held out his other hand.

I pulled out two tens and set them on the counter. He grabbed them and put them up under his nose. His smile grew wider.

I read the name that was scrawled in the book.

John Doe.

“Any more questions?” he said, slipping the cash in his pocket.

CHAPTER 44

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” I said, throwing myself into the passenger’s seat. “Go. Go!”

David fired up the engine and hit the accelerator, sending the muscle car peeling down the street before making a rolling left turn
.

My heart was drumming like a wind-up toy monkey on meth as he cut up a few more blocks and then got back on Third.

“Did you get what you needed?” he said. “Did you get his name?”

I was too mad to answer. Mad at David and mad at myself. I had blown a ton of adrenaline with nothing to show for it. Plus I was out $40.

“Ground Control to Abby Craig. Come in, Abby Craig. Your circuit’s dead.”

“Don’t go Bowie on me, Norton. I’m not in the mood. And thanks so much for your keen observational skills,
Detective
.”

His face turned into a giant question mark.

“What are you talking about?”

It was my own fault. There were just too many distractions. His phone. The stereo. The night. I should have sent him in. Or just gone there alone.

“What do you mean, what am I talking about? You were supposed to have my back. He walked right into the office and I never heard a peep from you. Tell me at least that you got his damn photo.”

My voice was shaking from the rage.

“Photo? No, I didn’t get his photo. And you want to know why? For the same reason I didn’t call you. He never left his room. I watched that room the whole time you were gone and no one came out.”

He pulled into the Albertson’s lot, parked, and shook his head slowly.

“I’m sorry you feel like I let you down,” he said. “But I didn’t. I had your ungrateful little back the whole time.”

I could tell from his energy and the hurt in his voice that he was telling the truth. My anger left me like air leaking out of a party balloon and it was soon replaced by guilt.

He put the car in drive.

“Where are we going?”

“You’re buying me a drink, is where we’re going,” he said. “I’ll line them up and knock them down and you drive us home. This boy needs to drown his sorrows. You really hurt my feelings, Abby Craig.”

“I’m sorry, David. But I… No, no buts. I’m sorry, period. I was wrong to doubt you like that. What I don’t understand is if he never left the room, how is it that he walked into the office?”

“Oh, my God,” David said. “What happened?”

“I saw him first and hid behind the counter. I never got a look at his face, but it was him. Same boots, same darkness. The clerk was in the back when it happened.”

“He didn’t see you? Mr. Tattooed Love Boy, I mean.”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “He was only there a minute. He didn’t even ring the bell.”

“What did he even want then?”

“I have no idea. Unless… he saw me go into the office, and then wanted me to know that he knew what I was up to.”

We stopped at a light and watched a couple cross the street.

“Well, off the top of my head, seems like your smoking ghost must have gotten the room number wrong,” David said.

“Yeah, that’s a pretty good conclusion.”

We rumbled through the downtown area. It was quiet, with only a few cars around.

“Hey, I’m sorry I yelled at you,” I said.

“Apology accepted. I’ve already moved on.”

We turned down Minnesota and parked near the front of the Oxford Hotel. It didn’t surprise me. David was all about the bar here. It was his new favorite hangout, with its funky, urban-chic lounge and international bartenders sporting exotic accents.

“Hey, isn’t this place kind of pricey?” I said.

“I said I accepted your apology, Abby Craig. But you’re not getting off that easy.”

We walked through the revolving door and headed over to the elevator. I pushed the down triangle.

“I seriously want you to know that I would never put you in danger like that. And besides, I’m a very good detective. Probably better than most real ones. Didn’t you read my reviews? I’m awesome.”

“I know, I know,” I whispered. “I just got… scared.”

We stepped inside, went down to the bar in the basement.

“Hey, maybe your ghost has that disease,” he said. “What is it? Dystopia?”

I looked at him and shook my head.

“Like in
The Hunger Games
?”

“No, silly. I mean that thing where people mix up numbers and letters.”

“Dyslexia?”

“Yeah, that’s it. Maybe he has that and he goofed up the room number. Maybe he meant that the killer was in Room 51 instead of Room 15.”

“Maybe. But I’m not sure that place has 51 rooms. And, by the way, dyslexia isn’t a disease. I think it’s more like a condition.”

“Whatever. How do you know so much about it anyway?”

“They thought I had that after my accident when I wasn’t doing so well in school. They did some tests, but that wasn’t the problem.”

“What was the problem?”

“Drowning, I guess. Dead brain cells maybe.”

“Speaking of drowning,” he said after he gave the bartender his order. “I’m worried about you, Abby Craig.”

“You mean because I’m chasing a killer?”

“Yeah, that’s part of it. But, well, I kind of hate to say this but you know a good detective has to consider all the angles.”

“Yeah. And?”

“It’s just that you’ve been under a lot of stress lately. School and work and ghosts. Really, I didn’t see anybody out there tonight. Not leaving the room. Not walking into the office. The whole place was dead.”

I played with a napkin.

“You’re saying I’m losing it?”

David didn’t answer, looking away and taking a big slurp of his Sidecar instead.

CHAPTER 45

Ty and I were watching the Winter Olympics closing ceremony.

“Man, the time just flew by. I can’t believe two weeks came and went that fast. I wish we had had more time to watch it,” he said. “Especially the snowboarding events.”

“Well, at least we got to see the snowboard cross,” I said. “That was epic.”

The ceremony dragged on and on and I thought about doing some reading for class, but I couldn’t. My mind was fried. I just sat there staring at the screen, sometimes through it.

At some point near the end a giant mechanical bear came out onto the ice and blew out the Olympic flame. Then he shed a giant tear.

I suddenly felt my eyes start to water. A stupid fake 200-foot-tall crying bear had put me over the edge.

“What’s the matter?” Ty said as I ran to the bathroom.

I looked in the mirror and shook my head.

CHAPTER 46

I sat there staring at the
B/B-
circled at the top of my test. The first grade was for the written, the second for the hands-on part of the final. Considering everything, it wasn’t too bad. Actually, I was feeling pretty good about it. It had been a long time since I was a straight A student. Another lifetime, really.

I could hear Chef Dubois in the background. She was giving her last lecture. While she spoke, my mind wandered from how hard the class had been to how much I had learned to the fact that I had somehow survived. All through my thoughts, I heard her talk about what it took to be successful, about the sacrifices and the choices she had made, including not having a family.

“I have been doing this for nearly 25 years and still I try to learn something new every day. For those of you who are serious, you will find that this career will consume you. If that is the case, that your true passion is found in the kitchen, then I would say, let it consume you. Let it take you to the levels that most will not attain. That love will fuel your drive for the required time commitment. If you are to achieve excellence, you must be of a singular mind. There is no other way.

“I wish you all the very best in whatever you choose to do in your lives,” she said, taking off her pointy glasses and folding them in her hands. “
Bonne chance!
”

There was clapping and even a little cheering, which seemed to make her uncomfortable.

“That is too much,” she said. “
Merci
. Now, it is time to announce the students who I am inviting to join me in Napa this summer.”