Late Checkout by Alan Orloff

Author:Alan Orloff [Alan Orloff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Level Best Books
Published: 2024-10-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

When I woke up the next morning, I debated texting Lia. Obviously upset, but I didn’t have a good read on exactly how upset she was. After a short review of the pros and cons, I decided the cons outweighed the pros by a significant margin. I hoped she would calm down with time and realize I really did care about her and her career and that I was in a tough situation with Finn. He was my blood, and that ran thick. For my part, I vowed to find a better way to balance my loyalty to Finn with my loyalty to Lia. And to be a much, much better communicator.

Next, I debated following up with Finn. After we’d come back from the Clamshell Motor Lodge yesterday afternoon, he retreated to his room. That had become his modus operandi, and while, at first, he kept claiming he wasn’t feeling well, he’d dropped that pretense. I imagined he was getting caught up on his network daytime TV shows or watching cat videos on the internet. Our motel didn’t offer cable, and I didn’t think Finn had the money to sign up for any streaming services. But who knew? Finn was full of surprises, most of them unpleasant.

What would I say, anyway? The killers were still after him. He still wouldn’t go to the police, and from his perspective, I could see why. Undoubtedly, they’d ask him a bunch of questions, and his story about delivering pizza would hold up about as well as a dollar-store umbrella in a hurricane. Finn genuinely cared about Thorpe, and there was no way he was going to—potentially—destroy Thorpe’s career by outing him. As I’ve always believed, Finn was an extremely loyal guy. And I loved him like a brother, despite all the shenanigans he brought with him.

Before I could decide my course of action, my phone buzzed with a text from Cesar.

Come to the office now, please.

I was about to respond, but it was just as easy to walk across the parking lot to see what he wanted.

When I got there, Aunt Vera popped out of a chair. “So nice to see you, Mess.” She enveloped me in a hug that was fifty percent her, fifty percent perfume. I’d be smelling like I just walked through Macy’s for a week. Over her shoulder, I noticed Cesar at the counter, pretending to be enthralled by something on his computer. He glanced at me, and I winked back. After waiting an appropriate amount of time, I extricated myself from the embrace.

“Nice to see you, too.” I glanced around, waiting for Uncle Phil to come springing out of the shadows, scowling and snarling. No sign of him. “What, uh, what are you doing here?” The last time she came by the Inn, I was probably in high school.

“I think you know why I’m here.”

I thought I did, actually. I wondered why she hadn’t been by sooner, in fact. “I’m glad you came. I’m sure Finn will be very, very happy to see you.

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