CLAN

by Harry Shannon

"Did you see them any more that night?"

  "No."

  Case looked deeply into her eyes again. "When did they check out?" He saw something flicker back there, something strange. It was not as strong as that first reaction; nothing he could hang his hat on. Yet.

  A beat or two. "Jennifer, when did they check out?"

  "They didn't."

  "What do you mean?"

  She closed the book and went back behind the desk to put it away. Case had seen people do that sort of thing when they didn't want to be carefully scrutinized while they were telling a lie. With her back to him, she continued. "They paid for a night in advance. I never saw them again, so I guess they left early the next morning."

  Case sighed. "I'm disappointed in you, Jennifer."

  She turned. He saw one hand tremble a bit. "Excuse me?"

  "I didn't think you'd leave that much out."

  She stayed behind the counter, something he also found telling. "I don't know what you're talking about."

  Case got suddenly to his feet. As he'd intended, his size startled her and gave him a small, momentary advantage. "Get me the key to their room," he said. "Take me there and I'll explain." He moved to the counter and leaned on it so that he could keep a close watch on her hands. She went around to the door, reached behind it and came back with the same key he'd already taken. She didn't seem to notice anything out of place.

  "I'll follow you."

  When they stepped outside, Case saw Jake, the young mechanic, working in the storage area. He was up on a ladder, plowing through some boxes that appeared to hold used nuts and bolts. Jake wore a backwards baseball cap, a stained blue wife beater shirt and cutoff jeans. His muscles rippled as he jumped to a thick hanging chain and lowered himself to the ground. He shaded his eyes as they passed.

  "Hey, Jennifer."

  "Hey, Jake."

  "Everything okay?"

  "Everything is fine," Case said, smoothly. "Jennifer is just going to show me a different room. How is the car coming?"

  "Doing everything I can, Mr. Case. Damned FedEx is taking forever. I was hoping to have you out of here by tonight, in fact."

  "Good," Case said, absently. "That's good."

  When he followed Jennifer up onto the porch he felt the young man's eyes burning into his back. Jealousy…or something else?

  They stepped into the already familiar number two. Case noticed that Jennifer immediately opened the curtains so that Jake could see what they were doing. Maybe that made sense for security reasons. Without being too obvious, Case glanced out the window. Jake was working, but now with one eye on the room. Interesting.

  "What do you want to see, Detective?"

  Case kept his voice casual and strolled around the living area. "Do you clean these rooms, Jennifer?"

  "We have a janitor who does that. You've probably seen him around. His name is Saul Hondo."

  "Tall guy with a big jaw, right?"

  "That's him."

  "How often does he come into the rooms?"

  Jennifer shrugged. "Whenever anyone checks out. I don't really supervise him that much, don't have to. He's been working here as long as I've been alive."

  "Does he come into the rooms to dump the trash, make the beds?"

  "No." Jennifer went over to the lamp by the couch and turned it on. It turned her skin yellow. "Haven't you noticed that sign says you're supposed to dump your own trash? Hardly anybody stays longer than a few days. If somebody does, I ask them when they'll be out for a while and he cleans it, but only after a week or so. And even then, just the sink and stuff like that, maybe the crapper if it needs it."

  The crude humor sounded forced and artificial. Case figured Jennifer wanted him to think she felt braver than she did. It was impossible to dislike her, she reminded him too much of his own daughter. Case put hands on hips and pretended to examine the living room. He turned in a full circle so that he could take another look out the window. Jake had vanished. Perhaps he'd finally found the part he was looking for and jogged back to the garage up the street. Or moved closer to listen at the window?

  "Could we take the sheets off the bed, Jennifer?"

  She wordlessly stripped the bed. The mattress was covered with a plastic sheet. The bedding seemed fresh. Case took another look around. "Let's take a look at the bathroom, shall we?"

  Is she tensing up? He followed her into the spotless bathroom. She turned on the light and pulled back the shower curtain. "Are you ever going to tell me what you're looking for, or just make me guess?"

  "Stand back."

  He got down onto the floor and examined the tiles around the tub. He kept one eye on her to see how she was reacting. Jennifer plastered herself to the doorway. She seemed not to know what to do with her hands; her right leg crept up the wall until it was almost level with her left knee.

  "So Hondo cleaned up in here yesterday morning?"

  "Most likely. Whenever he noticed they'd left."

  "He does a good job."

  "Thank you."

  Case switched positions. For a second he was truly intrigued and not acting, because he found another small speck he'd missed before. He studied it. "What's this here?"

  Jennifer stayed where she was. "Who knows?"

  "Come over here and look," Case said. He put some steel in his tone. Jennifer approached, reluctantly and bent over. "There. That little rusty colored spot."

  "Like I said, who knows."

  Case sighed. "What I'm going to do is have Doc Cherry come on over here and scrape a sample. She's going to put it under a microscope for me and a have a look. But I can already tell you what we're going to find." He looked up for dramatic effect. "That's blood. And I'm willing to bet that it's human blood."

  The girl was good. She rolled her eyes. "So what, Mr. Case? Women shave their legs in the tub all the time. So she cut herself, or something."

  He touched her hand, gripped it tight. "I didn't say it was a woman's blood."

  Jennifer looked horrified for a split second and then did her best to recover. "I was just speculating, damn you. Come on, it's a fifty-fifty shot whether it's a man or a woman you're talking about. That doesn't prove anything."

  She was right, of course. It didn't prove anything, not in a manner that would stand up in court. But for the first time Joe Case was absolutely sure Jennifer Fowler knew a lot more about this than she was willing to let on.

  He tried still another bluff. "I'm going to have to arrest you."

  Jennifer laughed. Too loud, too shrill. "For what?"

  "For being an accessory to a first degree murder," Case said. "Now, I'm from California, but I'm pretty sure the law would be about the same here. That means you're as guilty as whoever did this to Bobby and Selma. And in case you didn't know, this state gives you the needle for Murder One."

  "But…"

  "Do you want to tell me what happened?"

  "I… I can't."

  Case got to his feet. He slapped his knees to remove invisible dirt. "Let's go back to the office and call the Sheriff."

  "No," Jennifer said. "Don't do that!" Her voice had an urgency that had been missing until now. "Mr. Case, that's not such a good idea. And I don't mean just for me."

  What? "Jennifer, two people are dead. We have to do something."

  "I know, I know. Let me think."

  "Don't think too long, kid." He'd spoken more kindly than he'd intended. Jennifer cocked her head and gave him a long, penetrating look. "Can I trust you, Mr. Case?"

  "Yes," he answered. "You can."

  "I'm young, and I want to get out of this town and see the world… But these are still my people, you know?"

  "I can understand that."

  "So is there any way I can protect my friends, Mr. Case? Keep them out of trouble?"

  "We'll have to see about that."

  "That's not much to go on."

  "If you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours," Case said. He smiled. "But I'll tell you one thing, kid."

  "Wha
t?"

  "I'm the best deal going."

  Case took her arm and walked her back to the front of the room. She stared up at him childishly wide-eyed. He could feel her anxiety rising fast, so he closed in for the kill.

  "One last thing, Jennifer," he said. He opened the door and motioned her out onto the porch. He kept his voice smooth and even, although staying casual took a major effort. "Do you know what happened to their luggage?"

  And that's when they heard Kelly scream.

  21

  When the hand closed over her mouth, Kelly McCammon froze. Her heart literally stopped beating. She jumped from the shock. With an odd detachment she noted that the flesh tasted of mud, sweat and gasoline. Then her senses returned and she tried to struggle. Someone else caught her hair and pulled it back. A man with a dirty beard and foul breath smiled down at her.

  It was the biker called Lobo. His breath was fetid. One of his front teeth was missing. He licked her cheek and cackled. "Hey, baby! What's up?"

  "Stop messing around, Lobo," another one hissed. "Hombre just said go get the bitch. He didn't say nothing about doin' her first."

  "Then I'll take seconds." Lobo stuck his tongue in her ear. Kelly twisted and tried to kick him in the testicles. He laughed with approval, pawed at her t-shirt and grabbed her breast. Kelly grunted from the pain. He brought his face and terrible breath closer and whispered: "You be nice, we'll be nice."

  She tried to scream anyway.

  "Shut her up!"

  Lobo brought his huge boot down on her shin. The pain was excruciating. Kelly heard an odd snick sound. He raised his hand and she saw that the biker had flipped open a long switchblade knife. He lowered the blade, held it to her throat. That voice in her ear again. "You keep quiet or I'll give you another mouth, right below this one."

  Panicked, Kelly nodded vigorously; the blade bit into her neck with a slick sting. Lobo moved it away from her flesh, but only slightly. She felt a warm wetness where it had cut her. "Chuck, you tie her hands. Make it good."

  Chuck grabbed her hands and Kelly felt him wrapping them tightly with electrical tape, round and over and into a thick knot. Then Chuck covered her mouth and held her still. He kept looking at the motel office, concerned Case would return in time to interrupt. Kelly wanted to bite his stinky fingers but she was too afraid. She waited just a second too long to decide, because suddenly Lobo shifted positions. He stuffed what felt like a golf ball on elastic around her head and into her mouth. Then one of them pulled down a hood to cover her eyes.

  One biker moved to her left side, the other her right. Blind, she was picked up and carried rapidly down the steps and through the dirt. Kelly tried to kick, tried to shriek for help but they simply ignored her and kept walking. She managed to twist and throw one of them off stride. He dropped her; her ankle twisted a bit as she fell. Before she could get back on her feet to run, someone kicked her in the stomach. The air fled her lungs. The gag and hood already made it difficult to breathe, so Kelly began to panic and gasp. She couldn't get any more air.

  One of them laughed at her, flopping around there like a fish on the dock, but they waited until she seemed calmer, thinking she might behave. Then they lifted her, one by the arms and one by the legs, and carried her away. The world was muffled blackness and a thudding pulse. Kelly prayed. She felt certain they meant to rape and kill her.

  "Oh, yeah," the one called Lobo said. "We gonna party tonight, dude."

  They loaded her into a sidecar attached to one of the choppers. The man called Lobo fired up his bike and waited a few yards away. The other man tried to start his motorcycle but the engine wouldn't catch. He roared his frustration, tried again, but the bike wouldn't turn over.

  "Come on, man," Lobo called. "Let's boogie."

  Even with the hood covering her face Kelly could smell the stink of gasoline. The man muttered something obscene and tried again, but too rapidly. He had probably flooded the little engine.

  "Damn it!"

  Suddenly the other motorcycle howled and faded rapidly into the distance as the one called Lobo sped away, leaving them behind. The driver of her vehicle started making small, panicky sounds. Then Kelly felt herself lifted roughly and shoved rudely out of the cart. She landed on her side, thudding down onto the grass. Once again, she was too winded to do much more than scramble to catch her breath. She tried to piece together what was going on by what she could hear. Footsteps, running closer. Swearing.

  The engine started and the one with the sidecar took off. The footsteps stopped. Kelly heard what sounded like a backfire. When it happened again, she realized someone had just fired a weapon. Case? Someone knelt beside her and fumbled to rip off the hood and undo the gag.

  It was Case. Kelly burst into tears at the very sight of him.

  "Easy, easy."

  He rolled her onto her face and used a pocket knife to cut the electrical tape holding her wrists. Her arms fell free. Kelly jumped into his arms and hugged him close; before she could stop herself she kissed him. Case didn't seem to mind. In fact, they were both flustered by the intensity of the exchange. Case looked away first, tucked the .38 back into his jeans. Kelly dusted her pants so he wouldn't see her blushing. That kept her from noticing he was, too.

  "Did you hit one of them?"

  Case shook his head. "I'm not a cop anymore, remember? So I fired in the air. Besides, I didn't think it would help your situation any to get tangled up in another homicide investigation. We may not want to hang around here that long."

  "Good thinking."

  "Did you see their faces?"

  "One. The other guy called him Lobo."

  "We can press charges later, if you want."

  "No." Kelly looked past his shoulder. The purple-haired motel girl was standing at the edge of the clearing, listening. In fact, she had obviously heard every word, for she looked miffed.

  "Not a cop any more, huh?"

  "I'll explain in a minute, Jennifer."

  "Sure. Better be good."

  Kelly wiped her forehead on her sleeve. "Did you learn anything from her, Joe?"

  Case nodded. He helped Kelly to stand. "We were just getting down to the heavy stuff," he said. He put his arm around her waist and got her moving. "Jennifer, let's go back to your office and finish our discussion. And my friend Kelly is going to join us this time."

  "You're not a cop anymore. Why should I talk to you?"

  "Why? Because I already know enough to put you and your friends away for a long time."

  "Mr. Case," the girl replied, "please listen to me. You guys should just leave Salt Lick now, while you still can."

  Case jabbed a finger her direction. "Jennifer, you are starting to piss me off. You do not want to piss me off." He grabbed her by the back of the neck but she slipped his hold. She was surprisingly strong for such a small woman.

  "All right," she said. "You two come with me and I will tell you what I can. Not a word more than what I feel okay about saying. But then will you promise to get out of town before tonight?"

  What's the harm in lying? "We promise."

  They trudged back to the motel office. Kelly was still a bit wobbly from adrenaline, but suddenly felt it very important that Case not see her as weak. She forced herself to walk briskly, swing her arms. He seemed to both notice and approve. Jennifer Fowler walked ahead of them; gliding along quickly, her arms folded tightly across her chest and her eyes on the dirt. Damn, Case thought, that little country girl works out.

  When they were all inside the office, Jennifer flipped the sign to CLOSED and pulled all the blinds. The room plunged into darkness. Case kept his fingers on the .38 and his body between Kelly and the girl, but she just turned on two table lamps and fetched sodas from her icebox. Jennifer sat in an easy chair; Case and Kelly on the couch.

  Case sipped some soda. "We're waiting."

  Jennifer Fowler had never looked so young, so vulnerable. "Like I said, I can't tell you everything," she said. "I will tell you what I can, and hopefu
lly it'll be enough to help you out. But believe me, either way you need to get the hell out of Salt Lick before it gets real dark."

  "Like I said," Case prodded, "we're waiting."

  "Your friends were here," Jennifer said. "They checked in night before last. The one called Bobby seemed like a horndog, no offense. The woman was really upset and angry about something. I gave them cabin number two, where I took you. They paid in cash for their room."

  "And the luggage?"

  "Two suitcases."

  Kelly couldn't help herself. "Did Selma have a package in her hands?"

  "No."

  Case frowned. He was a bit concerned that Kelly had been too specific, but then figured what the hell. "Are you sure about that, Jennifer? It might be important."

  The girl seemed to concentrate, and then nodded. "Oh! No package, but one of them had a metal briefcase. Remember? The kind with a combination lock on it."

  "Good," Case said. "That's good to know. Go on."

  "They went to their room. I went to bed. After a little while, I thought I heard something outside. It sounded maybe like a big raccoon or a bear going through the trash, so I didn't worry too much about it."

  Case smiled encouragingly. "I'll bet sound carries pretty well up here at night, doesn't it?"

  "Bet your ass it does." The girl went pink. "So after a little while I heard them…you know."

  "Having sex?"

  Kelly made a face. The younger girl didn't notice.

  "Yeah, they did it," Jennifer answered. "She was pretty loud, too. You know what I mean. And then things were quiet again. I went to sleep."

  Case felt himself tensing up. "And then what?"

  "Old Hondo woke me up."

  Case turned to Kelly. "He's the big guy with the thick jaw."

  "The one who cleans up around here."

  "Yeah," Jennifer said. "Hondo has worked for my family for a long time. He practically raised me because my folks were working all the time. He's a good person, damn it."

  "I believe you. Please, go on."

  "Anyway, Hondo was tapping on my window."

  "What time was this?"

  "I don't even think the sun was up yet, so before five."