“Yes. Two nights, one room with two beds.” I glance outside to make sure Tessa is still where I left her on my bike and do a quick check to make sure no one else is out and about this time of night. The parking lot is still.
“That’ll be eighty bucks,” he says right away, which means the place is probably empty since he didn’t have to check the books. “How you wanna pay?”
“Cash,” I say as I pull out a hundred dollars in twenties from my wallet and place them on the counter. “That extra twenty is to make sure no one bothers me and my, ah, mistress,” I say to make him think I’m here for an affair rather than a double homicide.
The man winks at me. “Maids only clean the rooms when you check out or upon request.” Reaching behind him, he picks up a stack of white towels and hands them to me, then places one of the old-fashioned keys with a big, plastic number nine keychain on top. “Here’s your key and a few extra towels just in case.”
“Thanks,” I reply before I head out, hoping the old man is so tired he won’t even remember this encounter or what I look like in a few hours.
“We’re all set,” I tell Tessa as I walk over to where she’s still waiting. “I’m gonna push my bike behind the building, and then we can walk around to our room.”
“Okay,” she replies.
I know I could’ve just handed her the key to go on inside, but I don’t think she would want to be alone in the strange hotel room even for a few minutes. So instead, I hand her the whole stack of towels and key. Grabbing the handlebars of my bike, I raise the kickstand and then start rolling it toward the back.
Neither Tessa nor I speak while I work to hide my bike. Then we go back around front, and I unlock the door, flip the light on, and do a quick check inside the hotel room.
It’s as empty as I would expect, and the double beds with bright orange-and-yellow striped bedspreads are made neatly. I head over to the bathroom that has the standard sink, toilet, and bathtub with a clear shower curtain.
“Well, this is it,” I say when I motion for Tessa to come on inside.
“It…smells clean,” she remarks as she eyes the room cautiously.
“I doubt the sheets are Egyptian cotton, but we have to lay low on this adventure. No credit cards.”
“I get it,” Tessa says, placing the towels down on the foot of the closest bed. “But I think I may sleep on the towels rather than the sheets.”
Smiling, I tell her, “That’s probably not a bad idea. Are you sleepy?”
“Not really, no,” she answers.
“Good. Me either,” I say when I remove my cut and hang it up in the closet on the one bent metal hanger. I probably shouldn’t have worn it into the office, but I doubt the sleepy old man will remember it. Taking a seat on the bed next to the closet, I tell Tessa, “I was hoping we could do a little brainstorming. If you’re up for it?”
“Sure,” she says as she sits on the other bed with one leg underneath her. Finally in the light, I can see now that she’s wearing a thin black hoodie that’s zipped up over her shirt and a pair of jeans. It’s a lot of clothes for summer in the South but probably a good call for the ride. Although, I doubt that’s the reason she picked the outfit. Every time I would visit Tessa in the treatment facility, she would be wearing several layers of clothing and even have a blanket or two over her, like she’s trying to hide herself.
“So, where do we start?” Tessa asks.
“There are two men who work here in Warsaw. They’re not related but obviously close since one got a job at the funeral home and the other works at the cemetery.”
“Creepy,” she says with a shiver as she wraps her arms around herself.
“They are,” I agree. “The third man lives in Sneads Ferry and works at a pawn shop. But first, these two…”
“What’s your plan for…going after them?” she asks, rather than come out and say kill them.
“I’m not sure yet,” I admit. “If we could get them both to the funeral home late tonight or early tomorrow morning, I was hoping we could make use of the crematorium.”
I watch Tessa’s face to gauge her reaction to that idea. She barely flinches before she says, “That would be…convenient.”
“As long as there are no cameras, then it would mean a better chance of destroying evidence of whatever we do to them before. Or what I do.”
Tessa nods. “You could take out the employee at the funeral home first, then use his phone to call the other one over.”
“That’s a good idea,” I agree. “Best way to get them both there.”
“And I think we should leave early this morning, wait until he shows up to work, and then go for it.”
“This morning? Really?” I say in surprise. “That doesn’t give us much time to check to see if there are cameras or figure out how many other employees could be in the funeral home. It’s a family-owned business, but we need to be careful in case other people come through.”
“I know all of that, and of course we need to be careful. But we’re not that far from Myrtle Beach. Roman could be here by lunchtime, as soon as Charlotte realizes I’m not in my room.”
“True,” I agree. “So we go tonight. I’ve got a ski mask in my bag I could wear to look for cameras around the perimeter before going inside. The number of cars in the lot should give us a head count.”
“I could wait by the bike, keep an eye out for traffic.”
“Yeah, that could work,” I agree. “What about when I go inside? Are you going to wait then too?”
“No, I want to go in with you,” she says. “I’ll stay out of the way, but I want to be there.”
“Okay,” I reply. “Do you have any…preferences for how I take them out?” I ask as if we’re discussing what we should have for dinner and not how I should kill two men.
“No, not really. I don’t want them to suffer I don’t think, even though they should.”
“I can make it quick,” I assure her. “That’s probably better than dragging it out – less chance of getting caught. Maybe knock them out and then throw them in the oven?”
Tessa nods and looks away after that detailed description.
“I hope you know how brave I think you are for being here,” I tell her softly. “And never forget that these men deserve to die a thousand deaths for what they did, not just to you but to at least three other women we know about.”
“Can I take pictures? Just to show the other girls?” she asks quietly.
I shake my head. “I’m sorry. Having that kind of evidence out there is just too risky.”
She nods again and I hear a sniffle. “I figured so. That’s why I wanted to come with you because unless I see it for myself, I wouldn’t be able to believe they’re really gone.”
“I know,” I say. “And I want you to have that closure. I wish the other girls could too. But you’re also here to tell me if they’re the right men, to make sure we don’t kill an innocent.”
“Of course,” she says, reaching up to swipe her fingers under each eye to dry up the tears she doesn’t want me to see. “If these are the ones, I’m certain I’ll recognize them. I wish I could forget their faces. It was dark in the van, but I still saw them and heard them up close.”