Page 19 of Their Haunted Hearts
Discarded clothes were draped over a straight-backed chair. Kane picked up a white T-shirt with stains down the front, dumped over a pile of underwear. On a bedside table scarred with cigarette burns sat a plastic lamp with a tilted shade and a half-empty water bottle. He glanced at Jenna. “I’ll take a look around. Her bag is on the table. Maybe she left some clue behind?”
“Okay, but leave the door open.” Jenna wrinkled her nose. “I can’t breathe in here.”
The room was tiny. The closet held a few clothes. Shirts, sweaters, pairs of jeans hung over coat hangers. A pair of well-worn boots had been set neatly beside the bed on the threadbare, filthy orange and brown shag carpet. A cold breeze brushed Kane’s face when he opened the bathroom door. The small window had been propped open using a coat hanger. Wet clothes hung on the shower rail. It was like stepping back in time. The avocado-colored vanity matched the shower cubicle in every way, including the dripping taps and rust stains. The toilet seat was sunflower yellow and scarred from many years of use. It was as if Bunny had just walked out. A makeup bag spilled its contents over the top of the vanity, beside a hairbrush, a can of hairspray, and a toothbrush and toothpaste.
He pulled out his phone, took photographs and retraced his steps. Jenna was doing the same as she removed items from the bag and spread them over the small table. He pulled evidence bags from his pocket, labeled them, and collected the things in the bathroom, and then moved through the room until he had everything packed. He dumped them on the bed and went to Jenna’s side. “Find anything?”
“Yeah, she has a tablet and an unused burner phone still in its packaging.” Jenna pointed to the table. “There’s a bus ticket, along with a timetable.” She stood back to show him the clothes she’d stacked in piles. “There’s a paperback romance novel, a few bills hidden in a pair of socks, and this.” She held up a small silver key. “She stashed something, somewhere. There are hardly enough clothes here to survive. It’s as if she left in a hurry. The clothes wouldn’t see her through winter. What or who was she running from?”
Eighteen
After repacking the bag, Jenna placed all the other items into evidence bags. She followed Kane back to the Beast and dropped the evidence bags inside. While Kane got Duke settled in the back seat, Jenna went into the office and dropped the key on the front desk. The man dashed out from the back room and stared at her. She met his gaze. “We have collected all of Ms. Watkins’ things and don’t need to return.” She narrowed her gaze. “How long has she been here and when was she paid up to?”
“She’s been here three weeks and she’s paid up to Friday. She pays when she gets paid.” He took a step back. “We don’t give refunds.” He pointed to a greasy notice behind him. “Says here plain and clear.”
Jenna rolled her eyes. “Did she sound like she planned to stay longer?”
“I’m not sure.” The man swallowed. “She got a call from the Stanton Forest B and B today offering her a room.” He indicated to the numbered cubbyholes behind him. “See, I left the message for her but I haven’t seen her. She didn’t have a vehicle and walked to the Triple Z Bar and back.” He gave her a long look. “She arrives here after midnight and I leave the key for her in the breakfast hatch.” He shuffled his feet. “The key wasn’t in the box this morning, so I went down to her room and it was still in the breakfast hatch, so I brought it back here.”
Jenna stared at him. “Didn’t it occur to you that something might have happened to her on the walk back here at midnight?”
“Look, Sheriff, I run a business and what the clients do is their concern.” He lifted his double chin. “I’m not her pa and what she does or where she spends her nights is none of my concern.”
Wanting to get away from the motel as soon as possible, Jenna dropped a card on the counter. “If anyone calls you about her, apart from the B and B, get their details and call me right away. Understand. Right away.”
“Yeah, sure.” The man looked relieved.
Jenna hurried from the office, stripping off her gloves as she walked and dumping them in the garbage. She climbed into the Beast. “Let’s get out of here. We’ll drop the tablet to Wolfe and see if he can crack it. He’ll call on Kalo to assist if he can’t. Then I need to take a shower and burn these clothes.”
“They’ll be fine in the wash.” Kane chuckled. “I’ll make sure they don’t contaminate the boys.”
Giving him a long look, Jenna shook her head. “I’ll drop them into the washing machine at the office. They’ll be dry before we leave.” She sighed. “Spray the Beast when we leave too. Just to be sure.”
“Okay, okay.” Kane pulled into the medical examiner’s parking lot. “Wait here. I’ll give Wolfe the laptop.” He grinned at her. “I don’t want to spread germs in the morgue.” He grabbed the evidence bag from the back seat and slid from the vehicle.
Jenna’s phone chimed. It was Rio. “Did you find anything?”
“Nope, not even a candy wrapper. No footprints.” Rio crunched through gravel. “We’re heading back to my truck now. Did you get any more info on the second victim?”
Leaning back in her seat, Jenna stared through the glass doors into the pristine white-tiled hallway in the morgue, watching Kane disappear into Wolfe’s office. “Yeah, we have a laptop and her belongings. She was traveling light. I figure she packed in a hurry and came here without any type of a plan in mind. The manager at the Triple Z Bar confirmed that she worked there but she gave her address as the Black Rock Falls Motel. We also found a key. It looks like the kind that is used in the airport lockers, or maybe at the bus station.”
“So, you figure there’s something more to her than meets the eye?” Rio sounded interested. A door slammed and an engine roared into life. “A mystery within a mystery, huh? We’ll meet you at the office. I can’t wait to see what else you found.”
Sighing and checking her watch, Jenna nodded. “Yeah, but it’s too late to hunt down the lock to this key. It could be in another county. We’ll look at the list of names the bartender gave me.”
“Fine by me.” Rio cleared his throat. “Our ETA is five minutes. See you there.” He disconnected.
Jenna made a few notes to put her deputies to work the following morning. She would attend the autopsy and they could hunt down and question the suspects. Four men had interacted with Bunny hours before she died. She needed a timeline and to make sure she had all the potential players lined up. Deep in thought when Kane returned, she ran the possible timeline through her mind. Kane remained silent, lost in his own thoughts as they drove the short distance to the parking lot outside her office. When the truck stopped, she turned to him. “What did Wolfe say?”
“He’ll try to open the laptop, and if not, he’ll call Kalo to crack it, like we figured.” Kane climbed out of the vehicle and collected the evidence bags from the truck.
Jenna unclipped Duke’s harness from the back seat and lifted him down. The dog gave her a lick on the cheek and she rubbed his ears. He shook all over, from his big floppy ears to the tip of his tail, stretched and yawned, and then smiled his big doggy smile at her. She laughed, recognizing the signs. “Ah, it must be time for your dinner? Yes, we are late this afternoon. Don’t worry, we have plenty of food for you in my office.” She used the retinal scanner and walked inside the back door and then stood to one side, holding open the door for Kane, laden with evidence bags and a backpack.
She took some of the bags from him and they headed through the office, waved to Maggie, and stopped at Rio’s desk. “Give me fifteen minutes and I’ll bring you up to date. We need to change. I smell like an ashtray. We’ll use the conference room.”
“Not a problem.” Rio stood. “I’ll put on a pot of coffee while we wait.”
“I’ll check the server in case Wolfe has updated the first victim’s files.” Rowley looked out from around his cubicle.
