by J. D. Sloane
Nolan flinched and then reached out and grabbed her arm, his mild hazel eyes filling with sudden urgency.
“He doesn’t love you,” Nolan said, his voice flat and clipped. “He didn’t love her and he doesn’t love you. No matter what he’s told you. He’s using you, Alicia. He uses everyone.”
Alicia looked up at him, the simple certainty in his voice twisting her heart so oddly that she laughed, shaking her head.
“Oh, wow. Sorry, Nolan. Wrong girl. I’m just doing my job here. And since you want to make that as difficult as possible for me, I’m going to go.”
“She was doing her job, too,” he said, dropping her arm as his brow furrowed with a flash of pain. “People forget that, you know? When they talk about her. They didn’t know her before. How sweet she was. How brave and kind. All they saw was what was left of her. The things he let her keep. Brooke was gone long before he ever killed her, Alicia. And it began the moment she walked into his cell and decided she could save him.”
Alicia felt her fingers tremble and then balled them into a fist as Nolan watched her, the rage-laced pity in his face hitting her like a slap.
“I’m not her, Nolan,” she said, enunciating each word carefully as she turned on her heel. “You should remember that. The only person you’re saving by keeping that footage a secret is yourself.”
“You may be right, Miss Gale. But think about what I said anyway. And at least you can’t say that no one ever warned you.”
Alicia stepped out of the front door of Nolan’s house and then walked down the steps without looking back, her throat knotting painfully as she heard the wind chimes whisper behind her.
Alicia drew a quick breath as she pulled back into the Knight’s Court parking lot and craned her neck towards the front office, the mellow interior lights illuminating the front desk in a long arc of light. She relaxed slightly as she noticed that there seemed to be only one girl on duty, a dead ringer for the attendant that had been working the first day she came and glanced at her watch as she pulled into a space near the back. She pulled out her phone, taking a quick shot of one of the security cameras on the second floor and then followed the open terrace style landing down six doors before snapping another one.
11 o’clock and one lone fan on duty. That should make things easier. And still not a terrible place to spend the night. If someone didn’t have any other choice.
Alicia took a couple of shots of the cameras above the office and then followed their line of vision all the way out to the street, snapping a handful of pics before dropping her camera. Across the parking lot there was a prim, newer looking black fence that ran from the entrance all the way around the property, another crisp, cheerful note in an otherwise straightforward chain motel.
Here goes nothing, she thought, swiping her long nails below her lipstick line as she cracked open the door. Let’s hope Chatty Cathy up there still wants to talk. And knows more about that night than her manager wants her to.
Alicia felt the wind ruffle her hair along her jacket as she walked across the parking lot, picking up the pace as the girl behind the front desk disappeared into a room at the end of the foyer. She looked for her as her boots hit the sidewalk and tried to shake off the strange twinge of foreboding Hall’s words had given her, her bright, round eyes rolling back towards Ronan’s old apartment building almost of their own volition.
You’re the first blond one I’ve seen. That guy definitely has a type.
Don’t let yourself get played Alicia, that’s all I’m saying.
I’m sure you will get an excellent interview out of White. If, that is, what he’s intending to do.
“Wouldn’t talk to you, huh?”
Alicia’s brow furrowed as someone spoke from the shadows and stopped short of the double doors as a young dark-haired boy met her eyes with light amusement and shifted his boot against the wall. Alicia considered him carefully for a moment, her eyes snapping up and down his frame and stepped closer as he raised his brows in her direction and then tipped a finger at her, his sharp handsome face lighting up with a sardonic smile.
“Alicia Gale, right? From Channel Six. You used to do the weather.”
Alicia nodded and placed him as the boy who had nodded to her the first time she visited Hall and tucked her hair behind one ear as she stepped away from the doorway, joining him in the shadows without breaking eye contact.
“That’s right. Channel Six. And you are…”
The boy held his hand against his chest as if flattered and Alicia tilted her head at him, unable to tell if he was making fun of her or not.
“I’m Emilio. I do the security here. Well, the cameras anyway.”
Alicia cocked her head at him, thinking about what Matt had said about trusting people who seemed a little too eager to talk. The boy was probably no more than twenty and looked younger. Worse than that though was the fact that she couldn’t get a decent read on him, something which bothered her more than she cared to admit.
“Oh? Really?”
Emilio cocked his head back at her, and then smiled, reaching into his back pocket.
“Oh I get it,” he said, his voice light and teasing. “You don’t think Mexicans know computers, right?”
“No, you just look a little young, that’s all.”
Emilio shrugged and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, tipping his brow at her as he lit up.
“Yeah. So do you. You were smart to come back at night. Mr. Hall was pretty lit up when you left the other day.”
Alicia looked at him a moment longer and then gave him something close to an honest smile as she glanced towards the front door, instinctively dropping her voice.
“I’m not sure your boss wants you talking to me.”
“Yeah, well. Free country and all that. You looking into those White murders from a year ago?”
“You know something about that?”
“That’s a reporter thing, right? Answering a question with a question?”
Alicia bit her lip to keep her smile from widening and stepped up onto the sidewalk as Emilio swung his pack in her direction.
“Thanks, no. Trying to quit.”
“These things will kill you, that’s true.”
Alicia watched Emilio put his pack away and then nodded towards the building across the street.
“You weren’t running security here when it happened, I take it.”
“No, no. I was just a teenager then. I used to come around and clean the rooms sometimes after school. Twenty bucks a pop. The old manager he was a pretty good guy, never gave me much trouble. Let me watch movies in the rooms for free sometimes.”
“What kind of movies?”
Emilio laughed and cocked his eyebrow at her again, the expression making him look older than he was.
“Exactly the kind you think, Miss Gale. This isn’t exactly a five-star resort we’re running here.”
Alicia’s mouth turned down and she rubbed the nicotine patch on her arm without thinking about it as the smoke from Emilio’s cigarette drifted in her direction.
“So you wouldn’t know about the cameras back then.”
“Hmm. I might know a little. But I’m not sure it’ll do you any good.”
“And why is that?”
“Because the only camera that was working up here that night was the one in the lobby. And the police took that footage the first thing.”
“What about the two over the doors? The one at the gate?”
Emilio shook his head and took a quick drag off his cigarette.
“Those two pieces of shit haven’t worked since before I got here. And the one at the gate is new. I insisted on it.”
“Still. There are at least twenty cameras in that courtyard. One of them must’ve caught something. He said that the old footage was in archives somewhere. I take it that means some kind of a storage unit?”
“Depends what you’re looking to find.”
“The truth, Emilio. It’s always the truth. I’m trying to find out what happened that night. Not what the police say happened, but what actually happened. And if your manager is trying to hide something, well then that makes me curious. So how about you tell me what you know about those archives or you stop jerking me around. I don’t have time to dole out anyone’s fifteen minutes of fame today.”
Emilio eyes widened and then he laughed softly, shaking his head as he shot a quick look towards the office.
“Man, you are a lot nicer on the news.”
“Do you know where they’re at or not?”
“Why? You gonna break in?”
Alicia blinked at him, pressing her lips together without speaking and Emilio’s face became serious again, his eyes suddenly sweeping over her with something like appraisal.
“So you are serious. I was beginning to wonder. First, I have to ask, and you know that I have to.”
“What?”
“Are you a cop?”
“No, of course not.”
“And Ronan White. Do you work for him?”
Alicia paused and then shook her head, as she took a step closer.
“No, I don’t. I’m just trying to get the real story here.”
“Good,” Emilio said, taking a drag off his cigarette. “That worried me more than the cop thing, to be honest. The staff up front wasn’t around back then. They’re scared, but they’re just scared of a story. Aside from Hall, none of them saw what actually happened that day. But I did. I was here the day Ronan White’s girlfriend disappeared and he decided to pay us a little visit.”
“What happened? Did you see it?”
Emilio held up his hands over his head as if holding up a blanket and gave her a grim smile.
“Only from the room. And believe me, that was close enough. Luckily he wasn’t here for me. But the manager, security…”
Emilio shook his head as if shaking off a shudder.
“I heard. He told me this story about some man in a suit, carrying a black case. It would’ve looked like a small suitcase. Did you see anything like that? Anything at all?”
“No, I didn’t. But that’s what Hall said. He said that White kept talking about some photographer. And he wouldn’t shut up about it. Right up until he killed them, one by one. I’m pretty sure that the only reason Hall made it out alive is because he ran. And the guy who chased him stabbed him until he thought he was dead.”
Alicia let out a ragged sigh and nodded, a strange chill of recognition running up the length of her spine. She thought of Ronan’s wide dark eyes spinning down at her, something desperate and uncaged stirring just along the edge of his polite mask and met Emilio’s eyes again, trying to control her expression.
“I read his statement. It was- horrible. Really. But what I don’t understand is why White would fixate on this place like that. There are other businesses up and down this street. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
Emilio shrugged and glanced away, muttering under his breath as he took another drag off his cigarette and then stamped it out on the wall behind him.
“What?”
“Unless he thinks they knew something,” Emilio said louder, rolling his dark eyes back towards her with a look that was not quite impatience. “There’s always that.”
Alicia cocked her head at him, and then put her hands in her pockets, giving him a sudden level stare.
“Do you think they knew something?”
“On the record or off?”
“Whatever you like.”
“On the record, I’d say that White snapped. Killed his girlfriend, the office staff, the whole bit. Off the record?”
Emilio tipped his chin towards the far end of the building, the rooms at street level almost directly adjacent to the first floor of Ronan’s one time apartment.
“I’d say that those cameras at the end of the building were always working. And that the feed went directly to a private server. A server we don’t own.”
Alicia turned her head, and Emilio grimaced as he glanced away quickly.
“Ah, Christ, don’t look,” he said. “What is this? Your first day on the job?”
“Are you saying that your old manager, the one that White killed, helped him run security on his place?”
“What I’m saying, Miss Gale, is that you better make sure that this story is worth it. And then you should invest in some kind of home security system. And by that, I mean a gun. Because this guy you’re following up on? He isn’t the forgiving kind. And just calling him crazy doesn’t even begin to cover it.”
Alicia nodded and tried not to glance around.
“I understand. I do. Like I said, I’m just looking for the truth here.”
“Well, I don’t know about the truth, but those “archives” he was talking about? Room 361.”
“He keeps them on the property? Why would he do that? Wouldn’t your corporate office wonder why he wasn’t renting the room?”
Emilio smirked and gave her a quick, dismissive wave.
“Corporate office, that’s funny. No, this motel is what you call a private enterprise. And I’d guess that the reason our fearless leader doesn’t put all his important paperwork into storage like any other normal businessman is because he’s too damn cheap to pay the bill. Plus, it’s not like we’re full for the season or anything, right? One room more or less isn’t really gonna make a difference.”
“So, there’s a way in. Has to be right?”
“Easy, easy. Our manager isn’t nearly as dumb as he looks. He keeps the master key on him, at all times. But that’s not even the hard problem. He wasn’t lying when he said that a lot of these security cameras are for looks only. Like I said before, he’s cheap as hell. But those cameras? The ones in that particular room? Believe me when I say that they work just fine.”
Alicia did a quick calculation in her mind, trying to put together how much money she could put together quickly.
“I could give you twelve hundred dollars. Five hundred now and the rest when I verify that the footage…”
Emilio laughed around his cigarette and then tapped the ashes off onto the ground.
“Five hundred dollars? Is that all you have in your bank account? Wow. I’m doing better than you are. And twelve hundred is an insult, by the way. Just in case you were wondering.”
Alicia looked up at him, her eyes drawn to the empty parking lot around them as one lone couple got out of a rusted minivan and headed for the front desk. She bit her lip, glancing at the vacant rooms above them with growing alarm and then blushed as Emilio shook his head slightly, tapping his wedding ring with one hand as he tipped her a wink.
“Getting colder. I’m a married man, Miss Gale. A happily married man.”
Alicia’s eyes narrowed as he took another drag of his cigarette, obviously enjoying her embarrassment.
“What do you want, then?”
“Well, the thing about being the only security guy when a robbery goes down is that someone has to take the fall. Even in a shithole place like this.”
“So?”
“So,” Emilio said shrugging. “A man takes a fall like that he might like to know that he has a comfortable place to land. That’s all, see? Nothing too terrible. Just a pleasant exchange of goods and information between friends.”
Alicia smiled slightly.
“You want to work for the station.”
Emilio raised his brows and then watched another car circle the parking lot listlessly before turning around and exiting the way it had entered.
“These are uncertain times, Miss Gale,” Emilio said, taking one last puff of his cigarette before stamping it out on the wall behind him. “A man without a job isn’t worth much in this city. And I hear Channel Six has an excellent benefits program.”
Chapter Six
“I hate to ask sir, but you’re going to have to walk back through.”
Jack Nolan shrugged and
strode through the metal detector again, shaking his head as it blared foul. He raised his brows as the prison guard walked around the desk and held his arms out with a sigh as the older man raised his wand with an expression of apology.
“Is that thing always this touchy?”
“The old one wasn’t,” the guard said, passing the wand down his back slowly as Nolan glanced around the waiting room. “But this one has been nothing but problems. Goes off for no reason. Even when there’s no one around. The wands work better. If you don’t mind holding up the entire line for hours.”
Nolan glanced around the white tiled room with the too bright fluorescent lights and cringed inwardly at the idea of spending more than a few minutes in that hollow-eyed crowd.
Those who think a life of crime is a swell idea should be sentenced to come sit in this room for a while, he thought. Filled to the brim with all the broken lives their shortcuts and addictions will buy.
The guard passed the wand over Nolan’s front jacket pocket and then paused as it beeped twice, tilting his head at him as Nolan fished into his pocket. He pulled out his metal contact case and then held it up as he raised his eyebrows and gave him a little smile.
“Right. Sorry. I forgot I had it.”
The guard dropped his wand immediately, his eyes rolling towards the long line of people standing behind him and handed him his keys back as he shoved the visitor’s log back over the countertop.
“No problem, Mr. Nolan. You can go on through. Just follow the signs to the back.”
Nolan glanced at the other metal detector as a woman slipped off her shoes on the opposite side on the desk while her toddler howled bloody murder.
“You replaced both of them?” He said, tucking his keys back into his pocket as he scrawled his name across the bottom of the log. “You have some kind of a problem down here?”
The guard glanced over his shoulder and then tipped his chin towards one of the men behind him as he stepped to the side and lowered his voice.
“More like a preemptive strike. The warden had the new ones installed because we’ve been getting a lot of contraband through here. Last week, we confiscated a sawed down file from someone. Baked into a birthday cake.”