For Old Crime's Sake (Chase Charley Mystery Book 1) (15 page)

We drove around the block a couple times. Courtney claimed it was because she couldn’t find a good parking space, but she passed up a couple good ones, so I knew that wasn’t the real reason.

The real reason was that she felt the same as I did. I was worried that we would get into another dangerous situation. After all, visiting someone you knew was involved in criminal activity was a dangerous thing to do. Dangerfield would probably be mad that I had come here before he’d had a chance. I wasn’t going to tell him though, so maybe he would never find out.

We pulled into a parking space. She cut the engine and tapped her fingers against the steering wheel. “I guess we should go inside now, huh?” She stared at the building.

“Yeah, I guess we should,” I said, as I stared at the building too.

I forced myself to open the car door and after a couple seconds she did the same. “Everything will be fine,” I said.

She nodded and offered a tiny smile.

The parking lot was full of cars and bright lights glowed from the windows of the building. We walked across the parking lot. I scanned the area for suspicious activity, but everything looked normal. That didn’t mean that someone couldn’t jump out and grab us.

We hurried across the parking lot and to the front door of the hotel. We waited for a couple to pass and then pushed on the large doors of the hotel. Cold air blasted us in the face when we walked inside.

The registration desk was on the left. “We should ignore them,” I said. “Just walk by and don’t look over at them.”

“Just because we walk fast that doesn’t mean that we are invisible,” she said.

“No, but we don’t want to parade across and yell out at them either,” I said.

“Okay, I will try not to act suspicious,” she said.

I knew she would draw extra attention to us. Not on purpose, but the harder she tried, the more suspicious she looked.

Now that we were in the hallway and away from the desk, I didn’t know what our next move would be. I knew that we had to get into Keith Howard’s room. I couldn’t just go up and knock on the door either, or could I?

If Keith thought we worked there, then he would give us access to the room. Now I would just have to think of a way to do that. We could dress up in maids’ uniforms. That would get us into the room. No one would suspect anything about the hotel staff coming into the room.

“I have an idea, but you will probably think it’s stupid.”

“Well, tell me what it is, maybe I won’t.”

She stared at me and then said, “What if we dress up as staff?” Courtney said. “They’ll think we work there and will let us into the room.”

“You know, there is a reason why we are best friends. I was just thinking the same thing.”

A big smile spread across her face. “Great minds think alike,” she said.

I hoped that I could keep the promise and not get us into trouble tonight.

“There is an employee area over there.”

“I think they will know we don’t belong there.”

I motioned for her to follow me. “There’s probably not even anyone in there.” I reached the door and motioned again for her to come over.

She looked over her shoulder, and then reluctantly joined me at the door. I grabbed the knob and twisted. The door was unlocked. I thought she was hoping that it wouldn’t be. I eased the door open and peeked inside.

I slipped into a dress and then pulled on some shoes. The shoes were a little too big and the dress a little tight, but it would have to work. Courtney’s dress fit perfectly and the shoes too. That was the price I paid for being only five foot two.

“How do I look?” she asked.

“Fabulous,” I said. “What about me?”

She scrunched her face. “No comment.”

Luckily we weren’t in a fashion show because I would be kicked off stage. I smoothed out the apron on my dress.

“Well, I guess we should go out there now.”

We slipped out into the hallway and I prayed no one stopped us. She pushed the cart out into the hallway.

“I don’t think I can push this thing. It’s too heavy.”

I grabbed it by the handle and gave it a shove.

“You are freakishly strong, do you know that?”

I shrugged. “A hidden talent, I guess.”

I pushed the cart down the hallway and over to the elevator. I pushed the button for the third floor and we waited for the elevator.

Once off the elevator, we turned to the right and went to the door halfway down the hall. I stopped the car just shy of the door. I let out a deep breath and walked over in front of the door.

“Okay, this is it.” I raised my hand to knock, but then paused. “Are you sure we have the right room?”

She nodded. “That was the room you told me earlier.”

I nodded. “Okay then, it must be right.”

So why was I stalling? I was just as worried as she was, but I needed to hide that from her. I knocked on the door and waited to hear movement from inside the room. After a couple seconds, I heard someone walk up to the door on the other side.

The door opened and Keith Howard looked us up and down. “Good-looking room service.”

He wasn’t getting any room service if he kept looking at us that way.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“We came to clean the bathroom,” I said. It was the best thing I could come up with on short notice.

He stepped to the side. “I need towels.”

Courtney looked at me and shrugged. I grabbed towels from the cart and then we inched inside the room. My heart thumped wildly in my chest. Being in this man’s room made me nervous, but I’d made it this far, there was no turning back now. He lounged on the bed as Courtney and I rushed into the bathroom. I locked the door behind us. 

“What do we do now? I don’t want to clean the toilet,” she whispered.

I frowned. “We’re not really cleaning anything.” I looked around the small space. “Besides, it’s not even dirty in here. He must have just checked in.”

“It’s a good thing because I have no idea how to fold those towels that way,” she said.

Courtney was right, I probably couldn’t fold the towels that way either. Not that this guy would be worried about the way that his towels were folded. The longer we pretended to clean bathroom.

I pressed my ear up to the door so that I could hear the conversation. “I wish I could hear more than just what he was saying. I should learn how to bug a conversation,” I said.

“I’m sure that will be next on your list of things to do to break the law,” she said.

I pressed my ear against the door again, but the room was silent. What was he doing now? That was when I heard him say goodbye to the person on the other end of the line.

“What is he talking about?” she asked.

“I can’t make out everything, but it has something to do with drugs,” I said.

“Well, that was kind of what we expected, right?” she said.

“Yes, I suppose so, but now we have that confirmed. There has to be more to this. I intend to find out too.”

“I have no doubt that you will try,” she whispered.

The conversation ended and the door opened and shut.

“I think he left the room,” I whispered.

“What do we do now?” she asked.

“We should have a look around the room,” I said.

Her expression dropped and she said, “I don’t want to get killed tonight. Just remember that.”

“Got it. I will not let you get killed tonight,” I said.

“I will hold you to that claim,” she said.

We eased out of the bathroom. “We have to hurry and check out everything.”

“What do we look for?” she asked.

“I have no idea, but I think we’ll know it when we see it.”

“Okay, so look around a criminal’s room for something that looks suspicious, check. As far as I am concerned everything is suspicious.”

“Just see what you can find. I will look over there while you look around here.”

“Oh, look. I found his phone.” She picked it up from the nightstand.

I rushed over to her and she handed me the phone. “No offense, but I don’t want my fingerprints on anything in this room.”

“I’ve got news for you, our prints are already all around this room.”

She grabbed a towel and began wiping down the doorknob to the bathroom. I pushed the button on the phone and it lit up.

I hung up right away and placed the phone back on the nightstand. My face probably showed my shock.

“What happened?” she asked.

“That was the cop. Phillip West. It was the number for his desk at the police station.”

“You’re kidding. So maybe Doug and Russ were right after all.”

I paused for a moment. “Something seems off about this though. There is more to the story. We will have to look into who Keith Howard is.”

“Why is he staying at this hotel?” she asked.

The door opened and Keith entered. He stared right at us. His face turned red and he moved forward in a flash. My mind barely had a chance to register what was happening. I had better register it quick though, because this guy was not happy. He looked like he wanted to rip us into. I wouldn’t give him that chance if I could help it.

“What are you doing? Are you trying to steal something?” He shoved the door all the way open and it banged loudly against the wall.

I grabbed Courtney’s hand and flew toward the door. He reached out to grab us, but I skirted around and he just missed grabbing my arm. I shoved my cousin out the door and I followed right behind her. We raced down the hallway toward the stairs. There was no time to take the elevator. I would probably collapse on my way down the stairs. I glanced back and saw that he was running after us. We were in real trouble now.

Courtney and I made it down to the lobby in record time. My legs would punish me for this exercise later.

We garnered a few strange stares as we ran out of the building, but at least we escaped. The fact that I managed to snap a photo of the man on my way out the door was nothing short of amazing. Now we just needed to find out who he was.

Of course I had his name, but that didn’t tell me much. Finding out about him wouldn’t be an easy task. Where did we even begin? I contemplated this while Courtney and I drove away from the hotel.

“How do we find out who he is?” I asked.

Courtney tapped her fingers against the steering wheel. “That is a tough question. Let me think about that for a few seconds.”

A few seconds? It would probably take me days to think of something. I hoped she really did manage to do it within seconds.

“Any ideas yet?” I shifted in my seat.

Courtney reached over and turned down the radio as if that would make her hear or focus better. “Okay, I have an idea now. I know this guy who can help us.”

“It never turns out well when you start a sentence with ‘I know this guy.’”

She waved her hand, dismissing my comment. “Anyway, he knows a lot of shady characters.”

“Seriously, Courtney, I don’t think I like the idea that you are friends with someone who is friends with a lot of shady characters.”

“Well, I’m not friends with him, per se. I just know him. He owns a bar where a lot of these people hang out.”

“How will this help us?” I asked.

“We should go there and show him the picture you snapped of that Keith guy.”

I sighed. “I guess it’s worth a shot, although I don’t know how I feel about going to such a dangerous place.”

She shook her head. “We just broke into a criminal’s hotel room. And pretended to clean his bathroom.”

“Technically, we didn’t break in, we just entered on false pretenses,” I said.

“That makes it so much better.”

“Okay, just drive there.” I waved my hand.

“I’ll have us there in a jiffy,” she said, weaving through traffic.

“Don’t get us killed on the way there,” I said.

We pulled up to the bar and parked. “I hope you’re ready to run if we need to.”

She patted my hand. “Everything will be just fine, don’t worry.”

Courtney and I made it across the street up onto the sidewalk. Cigarette butts and a few beers cans littered the front of the place. Neon signs flashed in the darkened windows advertising various brands of beer. We pushed through the door of Fibber McGee’s Bar. My eyes had to adjust to the dark when we stepped inside. A cloud of cigarette smoke hung in the air. Thank goodness there were only a couple people sitting at the bar.

The middle-aged bartender looked up at us. He watched us for a few moments, but didn’t say anything. Courtney and I took a seat at the bar.

The dark-haired bartender stepped over. “What can I get for you?”

I leaned against the bar as if I’d been there a million times. “I’d like a Diet Coke, please.”

Courtney looked at me and shook her head, and then she said, “I’m here to see Duncan. Is he here today?”

The guy chuckled. “He’s here every day. He’s in the office. I’ll have to call and tell him you are here. I don’t know if he has time to see anyone, but I suspect he will have time for a couple pretty women.”

Courtney flashed her gorgeous smile. “Thanks.”

The bartender walked away toward the back of the bar.

“He forgot to bring my Diet Coke,” I whispered.

Courtney shook her head. “I can’t believe you ordered a Diet Coke.”

“Well, what did you want me to order? A shot of tequila? It’s the middle of the day.”

She gestured across the bar. “Those guys don’t seem to mind.”

I glanced over at the men at the end of the bar. They made eye contact with me at that exact moment. One of them stood up and headed our way. The short bald man wore a yellow and white striped polo shirt with navy blue shorts. His white socks were at varying heights on his legs. He completed the outfit with black rubber-soled shoes.

I averted my eyes. “Uh-oh. Look what you did now.”

“What did I do?” she asked.

“You made me look over there and now he’s coming over here to ask you on a date,” I said out of the side of my mouth.

She snorted. “He’s not watching me. That hunk has his sights set on you.”

The man stumbled over to the stool next to me. The odor of bourbon surrounded him like a bubble. “Hey, there, pretty lady. What are you doing here all alone? Does your husband know you are here?”

I rolled my eyes. No way was I falling for that bait. He just wanted me to say that I didn’t have a husband so that he could ask me to the sock hop on Saturday night. “My husband is home with our twelve children,” I said.

He furrowed his brow and glared at me. Courtney snickered. Lucky for all of us, the bartender returned.

“You can go back to the office to see Duncan.” He motioned toward the back of the building.

I hurried up from the stool. “I’ll tell my husband that you said hello,” I said to the man as I walked away.

He nodded with a confused look on his face. He was so drunk that he wouldn’t even remember talking to me.

We hurried to the back of the building weaving around the pool table. The office door was open, but Courtney knocked on the open door anyway. Duncan looked up at us, and then motioned for us to come in.

“I don’t know if you remember me,” Courtney said as we sat in front of his desk.

While she talked I scanned the room. It was pretty dull, with just a file cabinet on one wall and a few pictures of people in the bar decorating the walls.

“What can I do for you?” he asked.

“I’m not sure if you remember me. I helped your girlfriend with her voodoo problem,” Courtney said.

He leaned back in his chair. “Yes, I remember. Is there a problem?”

“Oh, no, nothing with the voodoo. This is something for me,” she said.

He nodded. “Okay. What is the problem?”

She looked over at me and I pulled the picture out of my purse. Duncan took the picture and studied it for a few seconds. His expression changed and he handed the picture back.

“I don’t know what you want me to tell you,” he said.

“Do you know this man?” she asked.

“I know of him,” Duncan said. “Look, I’d rather not get involved. I don’t know what you want with him, but he’s a mean dude. I’d stay away from him if I were you.” The bar owner cast a glance at me as if I was included in his warning.

“Can you at least tell me why he’s such a bad dude?” Courtney asked. 

“All I know is it has something to do with drugs. There’s been a lot going on lately with another dealer. I think that dealer is Lee Lewis, who was involved with another man who lives on Royal Street.” Duncan’s phone rang and he immediately stopped talking to us and answered the call.

Courtney motioned for us to leave.

We rushed out of the office and across the bar. The bald man at the bar didn’t even attempt to talk to us as we made our way out. I guessed I’d scared him. Anyway, what little information we’d gotten was better than nothing.