Blue Hotel by Chad Taylor

Author:Chad Taylor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brio Books
Published: 2022-07-25T04:48:28+00:00

27

The banging on the front door got me out of bed. Constable McFadden was as bright as the morning. He looked like one of those clever policemen who’d be in plainclothes soon. He’d brought me my newspaper from the letter box. As he handed it to me he clocked the bruises on my wrists.

‘Hurt yourself there.’ He chuckled. It was a principle of effective questioning to ask an important question as if it wasn’t.

‘Yes.’

‘How’d that happen?’ It was also important to be concise.

‘I don’t recall.’

‘Looks like the cuffs were too tight.’

‘Do you put them on tight?’

‘I don’t, no.’ But my comeback had him on the backfoot. ‘You probably heard about the fire.’

This was puzzling. The pet store was old news. ‘I did,’ I said.

‘You visited the premises.’

‘I was looking for a pet.’

That puzzled him. ‘Do you keep pets?’

‘No. That’s why I thought it might be nice to have one.’

‘Did you find a pet?’

‘Turns out, it’s illegal.’

‘It is?’

‘That’s what the MAF man said.’

The constable’s face was clouding. ‘The MAF man?’

‘At the pet store. The lizards are an illegal species.’

Relief washed over him. McFadden was still the clever one after all. He referred me to the morning paper. The blaze at the Mint Audio building on Great North Road was front page. The body of Cherry Fraser had been identified. Nothing about any other victims. I inhaled deeply, calming myself. McFadden watched me closely as I read it, then as I turned to page two, then page three. I flicked to the crossword. The constable hooked his finger on the top of the page and pulled it down so he could look me in the eye.

‘Perhaps we should sit down, Mr Moody.’

He followed me as I limped to the kitchen. McFadden’s colleague was standing at the back door in case I made a sprint for freedom. I took the fly screen off the hook to let him in.

The second constable was around McFadden’s age but more deferential. He stood leaning against the sink counter with his notebook in hand. I sat at the table and put my leg up on a chair. McFadden positioned his chair so I had to turn to see him. One questioner facing the subject while the other took notes: this was also good technique.

McFadden returned to the subject of the fire. ‘Tell me what happened on Great North Road.’

‘Why?’

He remained quiet. So did I. I was sitting more comfortably. McFadden broke first.

‘We found your business cards outside the building,’ he said.

‘I give those out to people.’

‘There were dozens of them scattered across the road. How did they get there?’

‘I dropped them.’ It was an honest answer.

‘What were you doing when you dropped them?’

‘I don’t know. If I’d noticed at the time that I’d dropped them, I would have picked them up.’

‘Do you know Cherry Fraser?’

‘I read about her in the paper.’

‘Did you meet with her before you read about her in the paper?’

‘We spoke briefly.’

‘Tell me what you spoke about.’

‘She wasn’t making much sense.’

‘Did you avail yourself of her services?’

‘Definitely not.

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