Page 88 of Nightshade

“That room is reserved starting tomorrow,” Gilbert said. “For the weekend.”

“So it’s empty now?” Stilwell said. “I’d like to take a look at it.”

“Why would that be necessary?”

“Because this is a murder investigation, Gilbert, and I need to see the room.”

“You mean she’s dead? Leigh-Anne Moss is dead?”

“Yes. Murdered. So can you give me a key to the room, please?”

Gilbert turned around, reached into an old-fashioned rack of cubbyholes, and pulled out an actual key attached to a leather fob with4printed on it. He handed it to Stilwell.

“You can go up the stairs,” he said.

“Thank you,” Stilwell said.

Stilwell took the stairs up to a short hallway with doors on both sides. Suite 4 was at the end on the left. Inside was a small sitting room with a fireplace and an open door to a bedroom on the left. Stilwell imagined that it had at one time been the master bedroom of William Wrigley, the Chicago magnate who had once owned the island and built the mansion as a winter getaway. The Ada was named after his wife, and for a time, Wrigley brought his baseball team, the Chicago Cubs, out to Catalina for spring training. Stilwell knew that baseball greats such as Dizzy Dean, Hack Wilson, Roger Hornsby, and Grover Cleveland Alexander played on the field in Avalon Canyon. Nineteen Hall of Famers in all had trained on the island. Stilwell had learned all of this from Tash, who wasn’t so much a baseball fan as a fan of the island’s history.

Stilwell took a quick look around and then went through the double doors in the sitting room that led to the private balcony. He stepped out and took in the expansive view of the harbor and the iconic Casino below. He could see the Black Marlin Club and the line of mooring buoys in the water behind it. He imagined Leigh-Anne Moss standing in this same spot and looking down at the club. He could only guess what she would have been thinking.

Stilwell’s instincts told him that Moss had booked the room for liaisons with somebody she had met at the club. He guessed that the credit card charges were paid by that person as well. The circles he was making around the case were growing tighter, and the Black Marlin was still at the center. He recalled Leslie Sneed telling him Leigh-Anne had said that targeting men at the club was like shooting fish in a barrel. He was beginning to believe that one of those fish was a shark.

When he returned to the front desk, he asked Gilbert if there were any security cameras that would have images from the dates when Leigh-Anne Moss stayed in the hotel.

“We have only one camera here in the lobby,” Gilbert said.“But it’s on a fourteen-day loop. She hasn’t been a guest here in the past two weeks.”

Stilwell nodded. That would have been too easy.

“Can you check another name on the computer?” he asked. “See if he’s stayed here?”

Gilbert looked very put out by the request but didn’t refuse.

“What’s the name?”

“Daniel Easterbrook.”

Gilbert typed and then frowned.

“I show that he hasn’t stayed here in at least a year,” he said.

“What was the date of that stay?” Stilwell asked.

“He stayed for five days in May last year. The weekend of Cinco de Mayo.”

Stilwell knew that was before Leigh-Anne Moss’s time on the island. But the information did confirm that Easterbrook was familiar with the Mount Ada.

“Did he book the grand suite?” Stilwell asked.

“Actually, no,” Gilbert said. “He took the Windsor room. I don’t suppose you want to see that room too?”

“No, that won’t be necessary.”

“Good.”

The desk clerk seemed relieved. Stilwell put the key down on the counter.

“Thank you for your help, Gilbert,” he said.

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