Authors: Maddie Cochere
As I walked back to my office, I thought of the unintended consequences of Gilbert’s actions. Betsy Ann had worked things out with her husband, Robert had quit using drugs, and Jackie gave up
stealing
. There was something a bit fascinating about
it all
to me.
I sat down at my desk, unlocked the drawer, and started fishing in my purse for my cell phone. The battery was almost dead, but not quite. I punched Darby’s speed dial number. It went straight to voice mail, so I hung up. He was probably having a good time with Nate. I hated to do it, but I had to go
through with the plan
forming in my mind. I punched Mick’s speed dial number.
It rang about four times. He never let the phone ring
more than twice
when I called. I could only assume he was still upset
with me
. “Hello,” he
answered
warily.
“Mick. Can I ask you for a favor?” I jumped right to it. I didn’t want to have small talk or discus
s the events of last night
yet.
He paused before answering
,
then simply said, “Sure.”
I looked at my watch. It was nearly 5:30. I stretched the truth a bit, and said, “I just finished working. I need a ride back to the hotel, and I’d like to stop and see Anna Torres for a minute on the way. She’s the widow of a man who worked here. Would you
mind coming to pick me up? A
sk Dad for the keys to the car.”
I cou
ldn’t gauge his emotions
by his voice
and his curt answers. He simply said,
“I’ll be there shortly
,” and he hung up.
I gathered
my things and went out to apologize
to the driver, telling him
his services wouldn’t be needed this evening. A short time later, Mick arrived in a Buick Regal.
“What happened to Dad’s car?” I asked as I slid into the passenger seat. I didn’t even know how to start a conversation with him, so I asked about the car.
“I didn’t need his car,” he said. “I rented this one at the airport last night. I thought we might want our own transportation for the weekend.”
Just hearing the words
last night
set me a
on edge. “I don’t know if you heard about it,” I said, “but one of the janitors at Slimmers was murdered recently.” He didn’t respond. “I want to stop by and see his wife, Anna, for a few minutes. She needs help with something, and I want to help her.”
“Ok, but aren’t we supposed to have dinner with your parents?” he asked.
“Not until 8:00
,
and this won’t take long,” I told him.
“Show me the way,” he said. His voice was still expressionless.
Anna opened the door right away when I knocked
,
and
she
said, “Susan. It’s nice to see you.” She looked quizzically at Mick, and I’m sure she wondered why I had another man with me. She stepped back and said, “Come in.”
“Anna, this is my fiance, Mick. Mick, this is Anna Torres.” They exchanged pleasantries, and I asked her, “How are you getting along today? Is there anything I can do for you?” I wasn’t proud of what I was about to do, but I really did care about her, and if there was anything she needed at
the moment, I wanted to help
.”
“I’m fine, Susan, really I am. It was a quiet day.” She looked at me with a
knowing look of something
we shared. I nodded. “Would you like some tea and cookies?” she offered.
I
looked at
Mick and said, “Anna makes some of the best cookies I’ve ever eaten.” I turned back to her and said, “We can’t tonight; we’re meeting my parents for dinner in a little bit. But Anna, I’ve been thinking about th
e
motel key. Let Mick and I go look at the room for you. We’ll see if the key even works in the door anymore. If it does, we’ll take a quick look around and let you know what we find. If there are a
ny personal effects of Gilbert’s
, you can make arrangements to get th
em. This will be something
you ca
n then put to rest in your mind
. If the key no longer works, th
e
n it was nothing
,
and you’ll be able to throw it away.”
Anna only thought about it for a few seconds and said, “That’s a good idea. It’s bothered me since I found it, and you and Mick go look. Thank you.” She went to get the key,
and
Mick was shooting
sideways
looks at me
,
insinuating
what are you doing now?
She handed the key to me, and I told her, “Anna, if it’s important, I’ll call you tonight. But it’s probably nothing, so I’ll more than likely stop by to see you after work tomorrow. Would that be ok?”
“Yes,” she said as she
reached to give me a hug. It seemed awkward for her. I gave her a genuinely big hug back.
In the car again, Mick asked, “What was that all about?”
I
took a quick look
at him
,
but didn’t sense any anger. He seemed more curious than anything. I gave him
directions
to
the motel
, and then filled him in. “Gilbert Torres was a
n
unpleasant man
,” I said
.
“
He
was
even
abusive toward Anna at times. No one liked him, and no one was surprised when he was murdered. There were
only
a few people at the funeral, and Darby and I were two of them.” I instantly bit my lip in regret. I hadn’t wanted to mention Darby at all. I didn’t want to get Mick riled up again. He didn’t say anything, but another glance his way showed a clenched jaw.
I pushed on with my story
and said
,
“The police searched their
house
but didn’t find anything
that
would lead them to b
elieve
the murder was anything other than a random act of violence. Later
,
Anna found
the
motel key hidden in Gilbert’s things, and it bothered her. She wondered if he had been having an affair, or if it meant something else. I wanted to offer to put it to rest for her. She doesn’t need to carry that around in the back of her
mind
for the rest of her life.”
Mick shook his head slightly, and I could tell
he thought it was a dumb idea. I didn’t care
. I needed to get back into the
hotel room, and I wanted to do it with the key and with Anna’s permission. I wasn’t going to get caught and go to jail for breaking and entering.
The motel was south of the city. When we
arrived
, I had Mick park in the lot just below Room 236. I marched up the stairs like I owned the place and shoved the key in
the lock. It went right in. Inside, I
turned on the lights and told Mick, “We have to move
fast
. We’re looking for anything from Slimmers and especially a picture of Carlton Waltham.” I was already starting to dig through pictures on the bed.
“Susan?” His voice was a little high, but I didn’t want to get into a fight with him now.
“Mick, please trust me,” I told him. “I’ve already been in here, and I know what’s in this room. Gilbert was extorting people for money.” I
checked
under the bed and saw the boxes of money were still there. Dudley hadn’t taken them. “Carlton Waltham was one of the men I saw when I opened the door during the magic act. He is a bigwig at Slimmers, and he had Anna’s husband murdered.”
Mick was
staring at me like I had lost my mind.
“Please help me look!” I pleaded with him. “If I can find anything in this
mess
tying Gilbert to Carlton Waltham, we can leave here and take it to the police.”
“Why don’t we
call the police now?” he asked sensibly.
“No, not yet,” I said firmly. “If there’s nothing here on
Carl
, I’ll tell Anna what we’ve seen and let her call the police after we leave to go home. I don’t want to drag all of us into this if I don’t have to. Mick, please help me look. Something from Sl
immers - or a picture of Carl
. He’s probably in his late 50’ or early 60s, gray hair, a distinguished kind of look, and maybe some bling in the picture.”
I started scanning the walls. The urge to get out of there was great. Mick only had a sliver of the whole story, and he would be furious if he knew how much danger we were really in, but all I needed was one thing on Carl from this room, and it would all be over.
I
moved to the small table and
started
flipping through papers. Mick was looking through a box on a chair. “Susan, is this him?” He held up Carl’s picture. “It has one million dollars written on the back.”
“YES!” I couldn’t help how loud it came out. “That’s him!” I said excitedly. “What’s in the box with the picture?”
Mick started to dig through the
papers
. “Mostly copies of financial records,” he said. “Some of these are accounting files from Slimmers.” He uncovered some handwritten notes. “Susan, according to these notes, Carlton Waltham was embezzling money from Slimmers.” My mouth dropped open. I quickly went to stand beside Mick and look at the papers in the box. This was exactly what we needed.
Before Mick
picked me up at the office, I
had
r
u
n to
the lunch room and shoved
a
garbage bag into my jacket pocket. I pulled it out
now
and started shoveling as many of the other papers and pictures as I could into the bag.
“What are you doing?” Mick asked incredulously.
“I’m taking as much of
this stuff as I can now so
none of it disappears before we can talk to the police. Leave the money under the bed.”
“Money, what money?” he asked loudly.
Oh, boy. I could hear it in his voice. He was
worked up
now, but I ignored him. My bag was nearly full. I grabbed the box of Carl’s incriminating evidence and shoved it into the bag. I th
rew the key on top
, and tied the bag shut. I looked at Mick with a look of satisfaction, and said, “Let’s get out of here.”
There was no one outside, and I almost felt like squealing with joy. That horrible man wasn’t going to get away with murder. We ran down the steps,
jumped
into the car, and
headed for the exit.
Just as we were turning
out of the lot
, a car
accelerated
fr
om a parking
space on the roadway
and
smashed into
us on the driver’s side
front fender
. It wasn’t a hard impact, but it was
a
jolt. Before we
could
react, two men jumped out of the car. One of the men was the tattooed man who had
killed Gilbert with the crowbar.
Something akin to a stifled scream came out, and
I barked at Mick, “Go! Go! He
’s the man who murdered Gilbert!”
Mick
pulled out onto the street
and punched it.
The tattooed man
hit the trunk of the car with the crowbar. Mick tried to make a left turn in an effort to head back into town, but the car wouldn’t turn left, and we could hear the front fender scraping the tire. He hit the gas again and continued driving until we could make a right-hand turn. But there were no right hand turns to be made
, and we
found ourselves driving out of
the city by
way of a road which would
soon
see nothing but desert landscaping.
“Susan,” Mick said sharply. “Are those men after you, or are they after th
e stuff we
took out of the
motel room.”
I looked behind us
and saw the headlights
gaining
on us. I couldn’t tell him the men were
after both. “I don’t know,” I said softly.
Mick did his best to drive as fast as he could, but with the metal
fender scraping
the left tire, it was only a matter of time before they
would catch
up to us.
I started looking throughout the car to see if there was anything we could use as a weapon, but
came up empty-handed
. A few minutes later, the other car was alongside and bumping the damaged fender, making it even more difficult to ste
er. Rather than to crash
, Mick pulled over and stopped the car. He looked at
me and said, “Susan, let’s
give them what
they want. We’ll tell them
we have all of the incriminating informatio
n on Waltham, and they can
take it.”