Dangerous Consequences by Claire Booth

Author:Claire Booth [Booth, Claire]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House
Published: 2021-12-23T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-ONE

A young man paying upfront in cash had checked into the Quickstopper RV Park and Motel. That matched the alert Sam put out five days ago.

‘Kinda scruffy looking,’ the motel manager said over the phone. ‘But had enough cash to pay for a whole week. That’s hard to turn down these days.’

‘So you didn’t ask for ID?’

‘He said he lost his wallet. Was working on getting everything replaced.’

‘You didn’t press it?’

‘Did I mention the cash?’

His tone implied that Sam was lucky he’d bothered to report it at all. Which was true, Sam thought as he pulled up to the place a half hour later. It didn’t look like it could afford to turn away any customers, no matter how scruffy or ID-less. It was on the verge. A nudge in one direction and it could be a well-maintained little RV-park/motel combo. A nudge in the other, and it would become … problematic.

The manager, a big man with a beard to match, watched from the front office window as Sam parked and walked to Room 4. He rapped on the door, crisp and official. No response. He waved across the gravel parking lot at the manager. The guy shook his head. Sam groaned. He didn’t have time for this. He gestured again, less a wave and more a stiff point. Big beard came out slowly, his Crocs crunching on the rock as he walked over.

‘How long has he paid for?

‘Two more nights. So yeah, I’m not letting you in until he overstays.’

Sam knew that. He’d need a warrant if he wanted in sooner than that. He knocked again. This time, he roused someone. Next door.

‘Nobody’s there.’ The woman propped herself against the doorjamb of Room 3 and wiped the crust out of her eyes. ‘So it’d be great if you stopped the damn pounding.’

It was three in the afternoon. Sam didn’t even try to be sympathetic. ‘Did you see him?’

She shrugged the shoulder not connected to the doorjamb. He pulled out his phone and opened his cache of photos. ‘Is this the guy?’

Another shrug. ‘Couldn’t say. Maybe?’

He pivoted and stuck his phone in the bearded man’s face. ‘You got a good look. Is this him?’

The guy squinted. ‘It could be.’

Sam took a step back so he could look at both of these crack observers at the same time. He wasn’t showing them a blurry surveillance photo, for Christ’s sake. It was a professional publicity shot. Every angle of Cooper’s generically handsome face in perfect focus.

‘I told you he was scruffy looking,’ the manager said. ‘Half-assed beard and hair down past his collar. Sunglasses.’

Sam lowered his phone, cursing at himself. The whole search for this jerk had been one step forward, two steps back. And nobody was helping. The Chief and Sheila were off God-knew-where and Ted had hit his hourly max for the pay period and so was off for two days. These two didn’t know all that. And they didn’t care. They just cared about how some young snot-nosed beanpole of a deputy was treating them.

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