Promissory Payback by Laurel Dewey

Author:Laurel Dewey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Story Plant, The
Published: 2011-06-21T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

“Anything interesting on those security videos?” Jane asked one of the techies back at DH.

“Nothing so far. It’s like watching a test pattern,” he lazily replied. “I have video of Handel leaving and coming home but that’s it for action.”

Jane hated depending upon someone else to do follow-up. They usually never had the same interest or keen eye she possessed. “I want to check the tapes out later myself,” she stated, picking up the phone.

“How many hours you want cued up?”

Jane dialed. “Every last fucking minute.” She connected with the head desk at the Budget Inn where Joe Harvey spent the night. It was instantly clear to Jane that the voice on the other end was that of a brain-dead seat warmer who didn’t have a clue. When she asked the guy if he recalled seeing Joe Harvey, he spent most of the time saying, “Ummm” and “Uhhh.” The most she could get out of the Mensa reject was that “his computer showed” that Harvey checked in at 9:35 PM. Factoring the one-hour time difference between California and Colorado, that would make it 10:35 PM MST. Even with the flight delay, Harvey should have checked in at least two hours before that. Jane asked to talk to a manager, hoping to get a better bead on the situation. After an interminable time on hold listening to Barry Manilow sing, “I Write The Songs,” an older-sounding woman with a bad cough came on the line.

“Yeah, I remember him,” the woman said, expelling part of her lung. She described Joe to a T.

“Did he seem agitated?”

“Nah. If anything, he was quite relaxed. Real easy goin’ kinda guy. Said he’d been across the street at the Airport Lounge gettin’ some food and doin’ some readin’ and he lost track of the time. That’s why he was late checkin’ in. Said he was out here on business overnight and was glad to find a hotel so close to the airport. He complimented me on our lobby. Nice guy.”

Lots of volunteered information there. Lots of it. The same way Joe offered so much “chatter” info to Jane about his plane being late due to baggage issues. It’s not that a person can’t shoot the shit with a woman behind the counter of a budget hotel. That wasn’t the point. The point was understanding the type of person who would naturally do that, and Joe Harvey, in Jane’s mind, was not that type. People who are out to save the world have a single-minded purpose that prevents them from wasting their time or breath on chitchat that is not driven to their specific goals. They are far too focused on their self-important objectives. And referring to Joe as “relaxed”? Well, again, the intensity that colored him during Jane’s interaction with him was not likely to be transformed into “relaxed,” especially after a delayed flight and a nocturnal arrival walking to a budget hotel. No, if anything, irritation would be the key word.

It had to be an act, Jane deduced.

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