Prey by James Carol

Author:James Carol [Carol, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, Mystery, Thrillers & Suspense, Crime, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Thrillers
ISBN: 9780571322329
Amazon: B00RKWAY1Q
Publisher: Faber & Faber Crime
Published: 2015-02-23T16:00:00+00:00

32

Mendoza dinged the bell on the reception desk and stepped back. The man who appeared from the back room was the same sixty-something man who’d checked them in last night. Once again, he was wearing chinos and a white button-down shirt. The clothes were freshly pressed and clean on. Winter could smell the laundry detergent.

‘Good morning. I trust you slept well. How can I help?’

‘What’s your name?’ asked Winter.

‘Jerry. Jerry Barnes.’

‘Are you the owner?’

‘I am. Well, the co-owner. I run this place with my wife.’ He looked suspiciously at Winter.

Mendoza showed her badge and Barnes’s face turned white. ‘It’s okay,’ she added quickly. ‘You haven’t done anything wrong.’

His eyes followed the badge all the way back to Mendoza’s pocket. ‘Obviously I’ll help in any way I can.’

‘Someone broke into my room last night. We’re trying to work out how they got in. Do you have any cameras?’

‘No we don’t, sorry. There’s no need. There’s very little crime in Hartwood.’ Concern suddenly filled his face. ‘Someone broke into your room? Did they take anything?’

‘No they didn’t.’

‘Are you okay?’

‘I’m fine.’

‘Did you see them?’

Mendoza and Winter shared a look. This was a tangent they didn’t need. ‘Mr Barnes,’ she said, ‘we’re trying to ascertain how this person got into my colleague’s room. I take it you’ve got spare keys for all the rooms.’

He nodded. ‘We do.’

‘Can you show us where you keep them?’

‘Certainly.’

He waved them around the counter and led them through to the small back room that he used as an office. It was no bigger than a broom closet. It might well have been a broom closet once upon a time. The desk was the same length as the wall it was pushed up against. There was an outdated monitor on top and a tower hidden away beneath.

On the wall to the right there was a varnished wooden board containing the room keys. Most of the hooks held two keys. The only exceptions were the hooks assigned to the Presidential Suite and Mendoza’s room. Winter crouched down to examine the door lock. It was another deadbolt, as sturdy and substantial as the one on his room. In most situations it would be an effective deterrent. There was one definite exception, though.

‘Do you ever lock this door?’ he asked.

Barnes shook his head. ‘No. We’ve never felt the need to.’

‘Well that explains how she got into my room. She sneaked in here and stole the key.’

‘I am so sorry,’ Barnes said to him. ‘If I’d thought something like this might happen, of course I would have kept it locked.’

Mendoza pushed her way past them and took a closer look at the hook containing the spare key for the Presidential Suite.

‘Have you got any envelopes?’ she asked Barnes. ‘Some latex gloves would be good too.’

‘Let me go and see what I can find.’

Winter watched him go, then turned back to Mendoza. ‘I don’t hold out much hope of you getting a decent print off that key. How many people do you think have handled it?’

‘Even so, we still need to check it out.

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