Dig Two Graves: An Evan Buckley Crime Thriller by James Harper

Author:James Harper [Harper, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: James Harper Books
Published: 2021-04-27T22:00:00+00:00

8

They went down the fire escape to the parking lot behind the hotel where Liz’s Taurus was parked in the shadows of the hotel’s back wall.

‘Where to?’ she said.

‘It’s a secret. But you’re going to like it.’

In a past life, before he saw the error of his ways, he’d spent a lot of his time doing divorce work. What Guillory’s partner Ryder called snapping dirty pictures. Following cheating husbands and wives to sleazy hotels and catching them in the act. So, he was well-acquainted with all of the no-tell motels that offered anonymity and rooms by the hour. He directed her to one of them now, stopping on the way to get something to eat and drink in the room.

She smiled as they pulled into the parking lot.

‘My kind of place.’

With a spring from the worn-out seat sticking into his ass and the sound of an engine on its last legs in his ears, he could believe it. He left her in the car, went to check in. The desk clerk was eating a sandwich when he walked in. He made no attempt to hide it or disguise the fact as Evan walked up, but almost dropped it when Evan explained what he wanted.

‘Two rooms? And for the whole night?’

‘That’s right. And I want them at opposite ends of the motel.’

The clerk grinned at him, picked up his sandwich again, took a big bite.

‘Sounds like you’ve brought your wife.’

Evan laughed with him, tried to ignore the specks of half-chewed sandwich that landed on his shirt. He pulled out a big wad of cash. The clerk stopped mid-chew, stared at it like it was something tastier to eat. Evan leaned in closer.

‘The thing is, we’ll only be using one room. You won’t even have to clean the other one. I’ll give you a hundred bucks to tell anyone who asks that we’re in the empty one. All you have to do is keep it empty.’

He put two fifty-dollar bills on the counter.

The clerk thought about it. Evan watched his mind turning over. A hundred bucks in cash for an empty room that wouldn’t need cleaning. The cash would be in the clerk’s pocket before he was out the door. The rest of the game had to be played first, of course. The clerk made his opening gambit.

‘Hmm.’

Evan didn’t say anything.

‘That sounds like there’s definitely gonna be somebody asking.’

Evan glanced quickly behind at the car idling outside, flicked his head at it.

‘Maybe her husband. But he’s only a little guy.’

The clerk’s face scrunched, a well-practiced gesture that Evan guessed was followed by a sharp intake of breath through his teeth if he had a harder sell on his hands.

‘I don’t know. It sounds dangerous to me. Her husband might have a gun.’

Evan laid another two fifties on the counter.

‘And we just had the doors painted. If somebody kicks it in . . .’

Evan didn’t mention that the doors hadn’t been painted since the place was built, same as the rest of the dump.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.