Megan woke up as the first rays of sunlight slipped through the blinds. She and Eli had returned to the hotel after their failed trip to Hayes’s house. She was still mad over the fact that neither she nor Eli had done a better job watching for Hayes. She’d spent the better part of the evening fuming over how they’d been caught off guard by a defense attorney.
Eli’s room was next to hers, connected by an in-room connecting door. She got out of bed and pounded on it three times.
“Hey! You up? Hey! Eli? You awa—”
The divider door swung open. Eli was there, wrapped in his blanket. He looked like he was still sleeping. “Well, aren’t you just a bright ray of sunshine.”
“Actually, I hate mornings. Always have. But if I’ve got to be up this early, then I’m not going to sit around hungry. Let’s go. Get dressed.”
“Just go back to sleep,” Eli said from under the covers. He had already fallen back on the bed.
“Let’s go, Eli. You’ve got twenty minutes. Then I’m leaving you.”
Eli poked his head out from under the blanket. “Like you can get ready in twenty minutes.”
Megan smiled. “Yeah? Ask your uncle Boz about that.” She closed the divider door and headed to the bathroom on her own side.
Twenty minutes later, she knocked on the divider door again. Eli opened the door, fully dressed and ready to go. He looked at her with raised eyebrows. “I’m impressed.”
“Let’s go.”
They left the hotel and drove down the street where they had seen another diner the night before. The front desk clerk told them it would be a good place for breakfast, and he was right. The service was fast, the eggs were soft, the bacon crisp, and the pancakes golden brown.
The waitress came by and asked if they would like another round of coffee as they finished. They said yes and asked for their check. She cleared their plates and left again. They were discussing what their next move was when Megan felt the vibration of the sat-phone in her pocket. She told Eli to grab the check and stepped outside the restaurant so as not to draw attention. With cell signal still nonoperable, someone using a sat-phone would draw unnecessary attention.
“This is Taylor.”
“It’s Jennings.”
“Is everything all right?” Jennings’s tone sounded nervous.
There was a pause on the other end.
“Sir?”
Megan felt her chest tighten. Boz and Jon should’ve returned this morning. She’d been waiting to hear that they’d made it back safely. Now, she had a sudden sickening feeling.
“Sir, is it Jon and Boz? What’s happened? Are they okay?”
“What? Ah…no. I mean, no. It’s not Jon and Boz. I haven’t heard anything from them yet.”
A wave of relief swept over her. “What is it, then?”
“I need you and Eli to check something out for me.”
“Sure, anything.”
“I got a call this morning from someone I know. An informant of sorts. Said there’s something I needed to look into.”
“Does it have anything to do with Pemberton or Hayes?”
“Don’t know. He just said that there’s someone there I would be interested in. He’s at the Super 8 Motel on Capital. Room 119.”
“Okay. We’re going to go follow Hayes today. We can swing over there in a little bit.”
“No, go now. We can’t take the chance of whoever it is leaving.”
“Okay. We’re on our way.”
“Call me when you get there. Let me know what’s going on.”
“Will do.”
Megan closed the phone.
“Who was that?” Eli had come up behind her.
“Jennings. Let’s go. We need to go check something out.”
“Something to do with Pemberton?”
“Probably. But I don’t know.”
“Any word from Uncle Boz?”
“Not yet.”
They jumped in the car, Megan driving. “Look at that map and find Capital Road, or Boulevard, or whatever.”
“What are we looking for?”
“Super 8. Room 119.”
Capital Boulevard, as Eli informed her, was only a short drive from where they were. Megan turned the car and headed that direction. Once on Capital, they stopped to ask which direction the Super 8 was. Ten minutes later, they pulled in the parking lot.
Megan checked her weapon and got out of the car. Eli did the same and followed. They approached the room slowly and quietly, looking around for anything suspicious. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. And at this hour of the morning, not even the housekeeping service was working.
As they got near, Megan motioned for Eli to take the other side of the door. With her back against the wall next to the door, she reached her arm out and knocked on the door.
“Hello?”
Nothing.
“Hello? Anyone home?”
Still nothing.
Eli pulled out his lock-picking kit and showed it to her.
“Yeah,” she said. “But make it quick. I’ll keep a lookout.” She moved away from the wall and in front of the door to shield Eli from any unwanted eyes. It only took him a few seconds before he’d finished.
“Okay,” he whispered, standing up. “You ready?”
She nodded and signaled she would go in low. She used her fingers to count to three and pushed in the door.
They went in quick and quiet. It only took a second to realize they were too late. The body was lying on the bed with a pillow covering the face. A single bullet hole showed through the pillow.
Megan reached for the pillow and pulled it away from the face. Immediately she felt her heart sink.
“Peterson.” It was Eli.
Megan threw the pillow against the wall. “Why couldn’t he just do what he was told? Why didn’t he just—” She kicked the small end table.
Eli reached out and grabbed her arm. “Hey, this isn’t our fault.”
Megan pulled a chair out from the table along the wall and sat down. “I know. It just hacks me off, is all. I mean, we told him. ‘Stay out of it,’ we said.”
They both remained silent for a few minutes. Finally Megan spoke up. “So, if he’s dead…and we were with Hayes last night…how do you suppose he ended up this way?”
Eli shrugged. “If I had to guess, I’d say Peterson sent us after Hayes on purpose.”
“You saying Hayes was just a ruse? That he’s not involved?”
“Didn’t say that. What I mean is if Peterson sent us after Hayes, it was because he had a lead on something better.”
“Pemberton.” Megan smacked her hand on the table.
“Probably.”
“Got to call this in. Jennings is not going to be happy.”
She retrieved the sat-phone from her pocket and dialed the number.
“This is Director Jennings.”
“It’s Taylor, sir. We’re here.”
“And?”
“And…looks like Peterson didn’t do like we asked him to. He’s dead, sir. Single gunshot to the head.”
Jennings was quiet for a few seconds. “I was afraid of that.”
“So you knew?”
“No…I didn’t know. I figured. The guy that called me works the night shift there. Company guys have used that motel for years. He’s always been a kind of Johnny-on-the-spot for us. He knows just about every operative that’s been there for the last thirty years. Guess he either saw or heard it. Then he called me…I called you…and…”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“So what do you want us to do now?”
“Call the locals. Then put the scene back the way you found it and get out of there.”
“You don’t want us to wait?”
“You want to be there for the next nine hours answering questions?”
“Not exactly.”
“Good. Then I want you to go see the front desk manager and tell him you want to talk to Fred Vargas. He’s the night guy I told you about. Go find out what he saw. Or heard.”
“Got it. Any word yet from Jon?”
“None. Go find Vargas. I want to know what got Peterson killed.”