Satan's Pony by Robin Hathaway

Author:Robin Hathaway
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2012-03-08T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

I checked my watch. Only 11:30. Plenty of time before office hours to poke around and ask a few questions. I decided to tackle Marie. Motel staff often heard and saw things that other people missed, primarily because the guests often treated them as if they were furniture. While I was searching for her, my cell phone rang. Tom’s lawyer friend wanted to meet with us in his office at 4:30. Since my office hours weren’t over until 4:00, this would be cutting it close. I told him I might be a few minutes late.

“Hi, Doc.” Marie rattled by trundling her supply cart at breakneck speed.

“Hey, wait!” I caught up with her. “Do you have a minute?”

“Sure.” Marie was always happy to stop working.

I looked up and down the hall and lowered my voice. “I’m trying to find out if anyone saw anything suspicious the day Sunny died.”

“You working on that biker’s murder?”

Marie knew I’d helped break the immigrant scam. “Sort of. Unofficially.”

“Be careful, Doc. Those bikers are tough.”

I nodded impatiently

“I did hear one funny thing today,” she said. “That guy with the red beard—”

“Jingles.”

“Was talking to the bruiser with the tattoos—”

“They all have tattoos.”

“This one has more!”

“Hammerhead.”

“I was running the vacuum, and when I stopped I overheard Red Beard say something about a poison pie.”

“What?”

“Yeah. He said, ‘I think pie poisoned him.’ Do you think he got a bad slice at the diner?” She looked quizzical.

Not pie but Pi? I translated. “Maybe,” I said. “Anything else?”

“No. As soon as they noticed the vacuum was off, they shut up and beat it.”

“Thanks, Marie. Any luck getting in there?” I nodded at the door of the odd couple’s room next to mine.

She shook her head in disgust.

“Don’t they ever come out?”

“I think they do, but they’re too lazy to take the Do Not Disturb sign off the door.”

“Have you tried knocking?”

Her eyes widened. “Once I did, and they were inside. The wife cursed me out something terrible!”

I smiled. “Better let it go. Besides, what do you care if they want to live like pigs?”

“Because when they leave, I have to clean their pigsty,” she said sulkily.

I patted her arm.

So Jingles was spreading the rumor that Pi had done Sunny in. Bastard. I let myself into my room. A glance in the mirror told me I looked just as bad as I felt—as if I hadn’t eaten or slept for two days! I wonder why. I kicked off my shoes and, at the risk of wrinkling my one professional pantsuit, stretched out full-length on the futon and closed my eyes. Who should I talk to next?

The bikers. My lids snapped open. Of course. Why am I so dense? I didn’t believe that any of them had done Sunny in, but they might have seen or heard something useful. I dragged myself off the futon, shoved my feet back in my shoes, and set out again.

As I opened my door, Honey and Hammerhead sauntered by, talking earnestly.

“Have a minute?” I stopped them.

“Sure, Doc.

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