Fugitive Nights (1992) by Wambaugh Joseph

Author:Wambaugh, Joseph [Wambaugh, Joseph]
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2010-12-23T23:20:54.875000+00:00

Chapter 13

The penultimate mote! on their list was several cuts above The Cactus View Motel. It was just off Date Palm Drive, in a more recently developed part of Cathedral City. On the way there, Nelson Hareem finally found a country song with which Lynn Cutter could identify. It was Patty Loveless singing "The Night's Too Long."

Nelson said to him, "This one's about a waitress in Beaumont, Lynn."

"I used to date a waitress from Beaumont!" Lynn said. "I've dated a waitress from every town around here, come to think of it. That might be what killed my sex life, all that greasy food and caffeine."

Nelson was disappointed when he saw the Blue Moon Motel. It had a sign done in pencil-thin pink neon, and the building was peach, pseudo Southwest, with faux-adobe walls, a flat roof, and even two imported saguaro cactus sentinels on each side of the driveway. It was too trendy for a terrorist, Nelson thought.

This time there was a pair of young men at reception. One of them, a big guy with a small head and a fifties flattop, looked at Lynn Cutter's I. D. and said, "How can I help?"

And before Lynn had completed two sentences, the young guy said, "I think that man was here. I remember the hat and mustache and the red flight bag. He was in room D, Tuesday night.

"What's his name?" Nelson blurted, and Lynn said, "Easy, Nelson."

The clerk looked through his register. "Mister Ibanez, Francisco V. Residence address is . . . let's see . . . Las Palmas . . . de . . . Gran Canaria, wherever that is."

"I know exactly where that is!" Nelson said to Lynn. "I been studying the atlas! The Canary Islands! A Spanish possession across from the Sahara!"

Nelson was so excited he barely listened when Lynn wrote down the scanty register information, complaining to the young man that the guest had failed to fill in the automobile data.

The young guy apologized saying, "The man was in a big hurry and said he'd fill it in later. We always try to get that information."

"Yeah, yeah, okay," Lynn said. "Why'd he only stay one night? Any problem?"

"That I can help you with. Said he was attending some kind of seminar or conference. Only staying one night with us because there was a problem with the hotel he'd booked. His room wasn't available till Wednesday."

"Which hotel?"

"He didn't say."

Lynn said, "There's dozens a seminars and conventions this time a year. Did he look like a businessman, a professional man? What?"

"Tell the truth, I didn't pay much attention. The phone was ringing like mad and I was trying to train my assistant. I just remember the mustache and the red bag. He blew his horn for service when he first drove up, like he thought we did curb service. Never took off his hat so I don't know if he was bald or not."

"And it was a baseball cap, right?"

The young man paused, thought about it, and said, "I can't say for sure if it was a baseball cap.

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