The Bellhop Only Stalks Once by Cat Hickey

Author:Cat Hickey [Hickey, Cat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: darkstroke / Crooked Cat
Published: 2020-08-02T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Mateo glanced away from the road for a moment to look at Chloe. “Remember, we don’t know what these people are capable of. We’re just going to take a look, but as soon as it starts looking dangerous, we bail.”

They’d bounced along the narrow dirt lane leading out from the resort to the main drag quietly, each immersed in their own thoughts. They’d remained silent as they drove through Tamarindo. The streets were crowded with tourists, none of whom seemed to understand the concept of a crosswalk, and so it had taken a quarter of an hour just to make their way through the tiny town.

Now they were on the main highway that led to Liberia and, further, on to the mountains. Really, the highway was just a two-lane road, but the cars drove along it at incredible speed and played fast and loose with the idea of staying on the right side of the road.

Chickens, cows, and horses had free range along the roadside, but the animals had more sense than the tourists and didn’t venture out into the middle of the road like the people in Tamarindo had.

Mateo drove, like everyone else, way too fast for the size of the road, but he maneuvered the car with such confidence that Chloe didn’t feel too nervous.

At least until she thought about the prospect of spying on a bellhop-stealing cult of human sacrificers, that is.

“Do you really think these people are…I mean, they can’t possibly be doing human sacrifices up there, right? Somebody would have noticed.” She stiffened as a car coming the other way came barreling straight at them in their lane, intent on passing a slower car in its own lane, but Mateo simply edged closer to the shoulder and the car passed by without mishap.

“We’ve noticed all the bellhops going missing.”

“Yeah, but would they have kidnapped them all at once? Wouldn’t you think they’d have been doing it for a while? And spreading it out? As in, not all the bellhops at once?”

“Spread out the kidnappings, you mean? Maybe. Probably. Or maybe they’ve just ramped up, taken the next step, decided to go all-in.”

“It just seems pretty far-fetched to me.” Chloe saw Mateo’s eyebrows shoot up and hurried to explain. “Not that I’m doubting your abuela. I’m sure these people are complete nutjobs. I was just thinking that there are, what, fourteen bellhops missing? Isn’t that kind of an, um, excessive amount of people to murder at once?”

Mateo snorted. “Yeah, one or two murders would be far more reasonable.”

Chloe playfully smacked his arm. “You know what I mean. I’m just thinking it might be something simpler. Like maybe these cult people are just into drugs. Or maybe it’s not a cult at all, maybe they’re just being weirdos on their own up in the mountains, and the bellhops are being kidnapped by drug dealers. From San Jose, maybe.”

She looked at Mateo out of the corner of her eye to see his reaction, to see if he connected what she was saying with what Kaia suspected about Juan.

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