Crime for the Books by Kate Young

Author:Kate Young
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crooked Lane

Chapter Twenty-Four

The following day, I stood at the front desk of Holiday Inn across town. Today was October 22, the Friday referred to in the announcement, and I’d decided I couldn’t wait another second for Dean to call me back. I’d left him several messages, and after no callback when he’d seemed so eager to chat me up before, I feared that perhaps Rosa’s suspicions were warranted.

“Thanks so much for doing this for me,” I told Joel.

Joel tapped away on the keyboard, pausing to pick up his reading glasses and perch them on the end of his nose. “It’s not a problem. You know I’m always glad to help.” More typing. “Hmm. I don’t have a guest registered with the name Dean Willis. Are you sure he said he was staying here?”

I fiddled with the piece of paper Dean had given me. “That’s what he told me. See, he wrote it down here.”

Joel’s thin lips turned up in a wicked smile, and he gave my hand a slap. “Lyla Moody, did you have a tryst with an out-of-towner?”

I felt a flush come into my cheeks. “No. It isn’t anything like that. I just need to find him. Maybe you’ve seen him around the hotel. He’s about six and a half feet tall, broad shouldered, with dark-blond hair and deep-blue eyes.”

Joel laughed wickedly. “Uh-huh. Not a tryst, my patootie. You’re hunting that man down.” He leaned closer. “Must have been unforgettable.”

“Joel.” I shook my head but couldn’t help the smile that creased my lips. Even though I hadn’t taken Dean up on his offer to go out, he had traipsed across my mind a time or two before my conversation with Rosa. Therapy for a wounded heart.

“If he’s staying here under an alias, I haven’t seen him. And honey, the man you’re describing would draw interest. We don’t get a lot of those type of men staying at this hotel.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

Joel’s expression lost its playful edge, and he stood up straighter. “Yes, sir, what can I do for you?”

“Checking out,” the man behind me said.

“Thanks, Joel.” I gave him a wave good-bye.

Rosa lit up my phone the second I left the hotel, as if she were tracking me. I got right to it. “Either he isn’t staying there or he’s staying under a different name. Joel hasn’t seen him around.”

“I knew something didn’t sound right about that guy. Can you come by the station and sit down with our sketch artist?”

“What are you going to do, put an APB out on a guy because he handed me a flyer?” I took a left onto the highway.

“No. I just want to know who I’m looking for. I need some idea to work with.” She sounded stressed to the max.

“Calm down. I’m going to try Dean’s number again. Last time it just went to a generic voice mail. We need to talk anyway. Let’s sit down when I get there. I won’t be long, but I need to scope out every possibility first—especially that cemetery mentioned on the flyer.

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