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“Geez, Jake, I’m just repeating what Betty told me.”
We were sitting in the kitchen, eating a late breakfast when Bonnie dropped the bombshell. She’d tried to eat the burned eggs I’d cooked but had given up and fed them to Fred. He didn’t seem to mind they were overdone and crispy around the edges.
Bonnie just told me the latest gossip about Kari. It seems her practice wasn’t doing very well. She'd recently bought it when the dentist who had owned it for thirty years decided to retire. Too late, she discovered the practice had been losing money for years. Most of the younger people in town moved away soon after graduation from high school, and the older residents didn’t need dental care. They either wore dentures or lived with their rotting teeth, and most who did need dental work couldn’t afford it. I’d questioned Bonnie’s dreary assessment, causing her defensive outburst.
“I’m not doubting you, Bon. It’s just that if what Betty says is true...well, it does explain why Kari is so keen to get the insurance. I thought I was wrong about her being a dentist and all, but this 'splains a lot, Lucy.”
She smiled at my attempt to imitate Ricky Ricardo from the old Lucy show. I knew she'd been raised on the series. “Betty wouldn’t lie, at least not knowingly. It may be gossip, but you know how most gossip has at least a grain of truth.”
Bonnie picked up Fred’s plate before he licked off the floral design and took it to the sink. “By the way, Jake, how did she react to the Rolex?”
“You’ve heard of icebreakers?”
“Yeah.” She stopped in the middle of rinsing her dish and looked at me blankly. “Like the one that sank the Titanic?”
“No, that was an iceberg. I’m referring to jokes or stories meant to get people to relax before a meeting.”
Bonnie tried to look hurt. “I know the difference, Jake. I thought you said iceberg. I had the water running.”
“Well, whatever you call the opposite of an icebreaker is what I must have said when I told her about the watch. She nearly fell asleep.” I knew better than to say anything about Bonnie’s hearing. She’d been asking me to repeat things a lot lately and got mad if I mentioned it.
Bonnie set her plate in the sink, shut off the water and sat back down at the table. “Then it must not be hers, but I don’t see what it has to do the price of tea in China.”
Her expression caught me off guard. “I haven’t heard that in forty years. It used to be one of my mother’s favorites.”
She raised her eyebrows and tilted her head. “You know what I meant, Jake. My point is the watch is a dead end or distraction. What do you plan on doing to earn the five grand she gave you?”
She had an uncanny ability to make me focus and avoid blind alleys. “Kari would like me to follow up on Croix’s alibi and connection with Johnson. It should be more than enough to get the sheriff to reopen the case as a homicide instead of calling it an accident if I find Croix was nowhere near the tournament the week Matt died. If nothing else, the fact Deputy Johnson is Croix’s brother-in-law should make the sheriff send someone down there without a vested interest in the interrogation. Maybe they’ll get the truth.”
“How are you going to do that, Jake?”
“I guess I’ll have to drive down to Table Rock and check it out myself.”
Bonnie shook her head. “There must be a hundred motels around that lake they could have stayed at. How will...oh, I forgot about Kelly. Think she’ll tell you where Croix stays when he goes down there?”
“Probably, but I don’t want to ask unless I absolutely have to. Bennett doesn’t want me sticking my nose into the case, and it could get her in trouble if she told me.” I hoped Bonnie didn’t see the doubt on my face. The way Kelly had been acting lately, I wasn’t so sure she would tell me the motel where Johnson had checked out Croix’s alibi.
***
BONNIE’S COMPLEXION was beyond white by the time we made it to Kimberling City. It was the color of death. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a ghostly gray, even on black-and-white television. Too late, I realized I should have let her drive once we'd started in on the back roads that wound in circles around Table Rock Lake. I’d read where people are less likely to get car sick if they drove. Passengers tend to get dizzy looking out the side window.
“You go ahead on in, Jake,” she said when I pulled up to the motel’s office. “I’ll be there in a minute after I’ve chucked up my breakfast.”
Bonnie had been wrong about there being a few hundred independent motels by the water. My Internet search had returned only a few dozen. That was when I called Kari. I reasoned Matt would have known where Croix had taken his kids and told Kari. My hunch had been right, and she’d given me a name, address, and directions on how to get there. I didn’t use her directions, unfortunately, and let Bonnie’s GPS take us to the motel instead. The shortest way isn’t always best, and now I had a sick partner.
***
THOUGH THE TEMPERATURE outside was still in the seventies, I felt it drop the second I entered the office. The log cabin façade of the motel kept out most of the sun, making the office dark and cold. The room had a long counter along one wall with a huge, floor-to-ceiling fireplace on the opposite wall, and a leather couch and several leather armchairs facing the fireplace. There were two middle-aged men dressed in camouflage sitting in the chairs, but I couldn’t quite make out their conversation. A young man in his late teens or early twenties was sitting behind the counter with his eyes glued to his phone.
“You got reservations?” he asked without looking up from his phone when I approached.
“No, I’m not planning on staying. I just wanted to know if I could ask you a couple questions.”
“That’s good, 'cause we ain’t got no rooms left. They’re all filled for the season.”
“Season?” Then I realized too late. “Oh, it must be hunting season. I didn’t think that started until later.”
“Duh.” He finally took his eyes off his phone long enough to exaggerate an eye roll. “So, what is it you want, Sherlock?”
What I wanted might get me put in jail. I wanted to reach across the counter and grab the jerk by his collar with one hand and slap some sense into him with the other. I counted to ten, looked him straight in his beady eyes, and answered, “Look, kid, I don’t know what your problem is, but how about you go get your dad or someone old enough to shave more than once a month who has some respect for paying customers.” I didn’t wait for him to respond and took out my wallet and flashed my homemade press card. “I’m a freelance reporter for Triple-A, and your parents might not be very happy with my write-up.”
He sat straight up and his shoulders tightened. “Ah, gee, I didn’t know. They won’t be back till later. Took my goody-two-shoes sister to town because the closet full of clothes she has isn’t good enough for her prom dance. Please, don’t be mad, mister. My dad will kill me if you give us a bad review.”
The hunters lost interest and got up to leave, but not before holding the door open for Bonnie on their way out. “Wow, Jake, you won’t believe the mess by the dumpsters. I’ve seen cleaner junkyards. I got pictures of it for your article.” She must have overheard my cover story and decided to stick the knife in a little bit further.
The kid looked up in time to see Bonnie walk in the door like she owned the place. “Is she with you?”
I nodded, not knowing what to say.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I was just getting to them.” I was beginning to feel sorry for the kid. It almost looked like he might cry. “Would you mind watching the counter for me, mister? It’s probably trash someone put alongside the dumpster and the raccoons got into. I’ll be right back after I clean up the mess.”
She barely waited for him to close the door before she said, “Quick, Jake, now’s your chance. I’ll keep a lookout in case he comes back.”
Sometimes I suppose I can be slow to catch on. I started to ask what she was talking about, then saw her point at the computer. I suppose it was worth a try, so I went over and hit the Enter button. To my amazement, the screen saver disappeared and the reservation screen appeared. I filled in a couple fields with Rob Croix’s name and hit Enter again. Over a page of past reservations—including an entire week in June—flashed onto the screen.
I cleared the form fields and hit Enter once more. This time the screen came back with nothing, clearing out my previous search, but something about the previous screen had looked odd. I couldn’t place what it was, so on a hunch, I quickly went into the System dialog, set the computer to remote access, and added an account with administrator privileges.
“Hurry, Jake, he’s on the way back!” I’d been so engrossed with the results of the search and creating a back door, I'd forgotten where I was. Bonnie was jumping from foot-to-foot like a kid waiting to get into the restroom at Disneyland. The young man was back just as I finished.
He looked bewildered when he came into the office. “Someone must have cleaned it up before I got there.”
I'd managed to pick up the phone next to the computer and pretended to be hanging it up when he looked my way. “Another hunter looking for a room tonight. I told them you were booked up.”
His eyes narrowed and lines unbecoming a kid his age formed on his brow. I didn’t wait for him to question me. “You did say to watch the place. I thought answering the phone was the least I could do.” Without missing a beat, I raised the countertop that allowed entry to the phone and computer and headed for the door. “Tell your folks not to worry. I’ve already forgotten my earlier reception.”