~
Brit and Quarles met Officers Wolowitz and Edwards in front of the hotel. Within a few minutes, Brit had updated them on the case. While Quarles talked to Wolowitz, Brit walked to the hotel room with Edwards.
“Why hasn’t Adams assigned someone to her?” Edwards asked following him as she pushed a lock of dark hair back behind her ear.
Brit tensed. “I asked, but with the cop killings going down, he couldn’t see doing it.”
“Well, let this guy get to Miss McKay and Adams will wish he’d seen it differently.”
“He won’t get to her.” Brit poked his head into the hotel room where he and Cali had stayed for the last couple of days.
“We don’t know if anything was taken,” Edwards said.
Brit stepped inside. A few of the dresser drawers had been yanked out. Cali’s suitcase had been emptied and her clothes lay strewn around. Was the jerk still looking for the bracelet or was it Cali he wanted? For just a second, Brit considered letting it leak out that the police had the bracelet. The acid in his stomach started to churn when he recalled again how close he’d come to leaving her here.
“Do you think the guy stole something?” Edwards followed him inside.
Brit picked up the suitcase and set it on the bed. “I’ll have Miss McKay go through her things. If anything’s missing, I’ll call you.”
“So you know for sure that she’s safe?” Edwards asked.
“Yeah.” He picked up a pair of Cali’s panties the asshole had obviously handled. Frowning, Brit tossed them in the trash.
Edwards looked at the discarded undies, then back at him. “No luck finding the pickup.”
“The guy’s slippery. We get anything more from the clerk?”
“No, but he was pretty upset then. We might want to have another go at him.”
“I’ll do it.” Brit turned to leave.
“You two an item?” Edwards’ question sounded more female-related than cop.
Brit looked back. “No, but I don’t want anything to happen to her.”
“Because you care?” She laughed. “I saw it the other day. You were too worried.”
The denial lay on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t say it. “Yeah, I care.”
A grin softened the lines of her face. “You know, my partner was right. He said you were an okay guy.”
“Don’t believe it. I can be a jerk.” As Brit headed to the office, he considered how he had left Cali at the restaurant. He wondered if she was going to be pissed.
Two men sat behind the counter. The man holding a bag of frozen butter beans to his eye was the same one Brit had confronted earlier. Both men’s heads bobbed up when Brit cleared his throat. “I need to talk to you.” He pointed to the victim.
The clerk removed the frozen veggies. “Not sure I feel much like talking.” He was going to have one fine shiner. However, the man had faired a lot better than any of Stan’s other victims. Why?
“This guy kills most of his victims,” Brit said. “He could come back to finish the job because you may be an important witness to this case. Of course, if you don’t want to help us find him…”
The man’s shoulders snapped back. “Whatcha want to know?”
They walked to the office in the back and sat down at a table. Brit asked the basic questions. The answers reconfirmed what Brit already knew. Humphrey had come looking for Cali. “Did you see a vehicle?”
“No. But I really got a good view of the front of his knuckles,” the clerk said sarcastically.
Brit leaned against a table. “Who did you tell that Cali McKay was staying here?”
“Tell? I didn’t tell anyone.”
“Did you change the paperwork like I told you?”
“I deleted her name from the records, and canceled her charge, just like you asked and put the charges on your card. Hell, you stood there and watched me do it. Remember?”
“What did this guy say when he first came in? Did he act as if he knew she was here or was he just asking?”
“He knew she was here. He demanded I give him her room number. I said she wasn’t staying here. He called me a liar. No, he called me a ‘fucking liar’.”
“He didn’t say how he knew she was here?”
“We didn’t sit down for tea and conversation.”
Brit frowned. “Then what happened?”
“When I denied the chick was here the second time, he got ugly.”
“How ugly? Did he threaten you with a gun or knife?”
“No, his fists were pretty convincing.”
“But you gave him the room number and the key so he could beat up on a woman?”
To the clerk’s credit, his eyes widened with concern. “I thought the female officer said she wasn’t there.”
“She wasn’t. But you didn’t know that then, did you?”