Everybody Wanted Room 623 by Cecil Murphey

Author:Cecil Murphey [Murphey, Cecil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781942356035
Publisher: TKA Distribution
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Twelve

As soon as Burton and I completed the circle around the small lake, we decided to join Ollie. We had gotten within ten feet of the room when a man came from the direction of the desk. He stopped at the door of the suite the inn had given us and knocked.

Burton stepped up and introduced himself and me. Before he had a chance to tell us who he was, Ollie opened the door. “Come in, come in,” he said.

We entered the room, and all three of us turned to the stranger.

“I had a message on my cell that Detective Oliver Viktor wanted to see me. My name is Scott Bell-James.”

Although he was probably about five seven, I estimated his weight to be in excess of three hundred pounds. His tan suit pants strained to encompass his enormous thighs. The buttons on his shirt met, but there was no possibility he could button his chocolate brown blazer. He wore a tie of yellow polka dots on a field of rich russet, which clashed with his blazer and emphasized the extraordinary circumference of his neck. His face was extremely round, and his almost-auburn eyes glinted with intelligence. In spite of his great size—or perhaps because of it—he was compulsively neat. His clothes were immaculate. His hands were pink and his nails manicured and neatly trimmed. He looked as if he had just come from the barber, with not a single strand of graying-brown hair out of place. He carried a briefcase that he clutched tightly.

Ollie approached him silently and appraised him for several seconds in a way that probably would have intimidated most people. “Yes, Mr. Bell-James. I’m Oliver Viktor.” He pointed to a chair and asked the man to sit. “It’s really quite a small thing, sir.” Ollie sounded as if he were trying to imitate Peter Falk as Columbo.

“Certainly, Mr. Viktor. Just how may I help?”

“You are booked in room 621?”

“That is correct.”

“You asked for 623 first?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Why did you want 623?”

“Is there a crime against requesting a particular room?”

“Oh no, sir, of course not,” Ollie said quietly. He scratched the back of his head. “It is a bit unusual, but not illegal.” Ollie’s hands were no longer shaking, and he seemed calmer than he had been since we first met.

“But why did you want 623? Why didn’t you ask for, say, 519?”

The man stared at Ollie for what seemed like a long time. He blinked a couple of times. “That information is not quite correct. I did not ask for 623.”

“Well then, the information I have contradicts that, and this whole thing seems confusing to me,” Ollie said.

“No, I might as well tell you. I asked about 623—but that was only to verify that Stefan Lauber had that room.” He took several deep sighs as if he felt relieved to explain. “If the room had been vacant, then I would have known he wasn’t there. I knew he had been there the week before. You see, I, uh, hired a private investigator to locate him for me.

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