The Innocent: A Suspense Thriller by Harlan Coben

Author:Harlan Coben [Coben, Harlan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2005-04-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 30

LOREN MUSE TOOK the Frontage Road exit off Route 78 and pulled into the Howard Johnson’s lot. A car was double-parked by the front entrance.

She hit the brake.

That car, a Lexus, had been in the MVD lot less than an hour ago.

This could not be a coincidence.

She maneuvered her vehicle by the front door and snapped her gun onto her belt. The shield was already there. The handcuffs dangled off her back. She hurried toward the car. No one inside. The keys were still in the ignition. The door was unlocked.

Loren opened the Lexus’s door.

Was this a legal search? She thought it might be. The keys were in plain view in the ignition. The car was unlocked. She was helping out here. That had to make it legit somehow, right?

She pulled her sleeves up over her hands, forming makeshift mittens so she wouldn’t leave fingerprints. She dropped open the glove compartment and tried to paw through the paperwork. It didn’t take long. It was a company car, belonging to MVD. But the paperwork from the Midas Muffler dealer showed that it had been brought in by someone named Cingle Shaker.

Loren knew the name. The guys in the county office discussed her with a tad too much zeal. Said she had a body that could knock a movie rating from PG to R.

So what was her connection to Hunter?

Loren took the car keys with her—no sense in giving Ms. Shaker a chance to run off without them having a little chat. She headed inside and approached the desk. The man behind it was breathing in uneven gulps.

“You guys are back?” he asked.

“Back?”

Not her best line of interrogation, but it was a start.

“The other cops left, what, an hour ago maybe. With the ambulance.”

“What other cops?’

“You’re not with them?”

She approached him. “What’s your name?”

“Ernie.”

“Ernie, why don’t you tell me what happened here?”

“It’s like I told the other guys.”

“Now tell me.”

Ernie sighed dramatically. “Okay, fine, it’s like this. First this guy comes dashing into the hotel.”

“When?” Loren interrupted.

“What?”

“What time was this?”

“I don’t know. Two hours ago maybe. Don’t you know all this?”

“Go on.”

“So this guy, he goes into the elevator. He goes up. Couple minutes later, this big chick comes flying in and runs over to the elevator.” He coughed into his fist. “So, you know, I call out to her. Ask her if everything is okay. You know, doing my job and all.”

“Did you ask the guy if everything was okay?”

“What? No.”

“But you asked the”—Loren made quote marks with her fingers—“big chick?”

“Hold up a sec. She wasn’t big really. She was tall. I don’t want you to think she was fat or anything. Give you the wrong idea. She wasn’t. Not fat at all. Just the opposite. Like a chick in one of those Amazon movies, you know?”

“Yeah, Ernie, I think I got the picture.” Sounded like Cingle Shaker. “So you asked Miss Amazon if everything was okay?”

“Right, yeah, like that. And this girl, this tall girl, she pulls a gun on me—a gun!—and tells me to call the cops.

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