Free Time to Hide by John Gilstrap Page B

Thompson, the night manager,” Hackner said, introducing the woman. “And this is Gary Vaughan.” Nodding to Warren, he added, “This is Lieutenant Michaels, my boss, and Carter Janssen, the father of one of the people we’re looking for.”
    No one bothered to shake hands. “Which one of you saw our fugitives?” Warren asked.
    Gary raised his hand sheepishly. “That was me,” he said. “I just saw them for a few seconds. It was late. They were all dressed up.”
    â€œDressed up?” Carter asked.
    â€œYeah, tuxedo and gown, like they’d been to a dance or something. I assumed they were at the big ball we had tonight. Some society of cops.” For an instant, Gary looked worried that that last part might have offended someone.
    Warren looked to Carter. “That make sense to you?”
    â€œNot a lick.”
    â€œThere are two Wards registered in the hotel,” Jed Hackner explained, “and one Dougherty.”
    â€œYour storm troopers woke those people up,” said Missy Thompson. “They were the wrong people, of course, but that didn’t seem to bother any of you.”
    â€œYou’d rather have a couple of murderers running loose in your hotel?” Jed asked, obviously not for the first time.
    â€œMy daughter is not a murderer,” Carter said. “Let’s not get that tidbit confused, okay?”
    Jed looked embarrassed. “Of course. We did talk with the Wards, though, and with Dougherty, and none of them were our guy.”
    â€œThey must have registered under a pseudonym,” Carter said. “How many Smiths and Joneses are registered?”
    The night manager turned red. “You are not going to randomly interrupt people in their sleep on some wild goose chase. I agreed to cooperate, but this is ridiculous.”
    â€œHe’s a mur-der-er,” Jed said, emphasizing the syllables as if she were hard of hearing.
    â€œThen catch him,” she said. “But do it without waking the whole hotel.”
    â€œWe can get a warrant,” Jed said.
    â€œThen do it.”
    Warren stepped into the fray. “Look, folks, let’s not get all pissy, okay? Ms. Thompson, we’re not trying to make life difficult for you. Honestly, we’re not. And Jed, we can’t just go room to room, waking up everybody on the off-chance that our guy is here.” He turned to Gary. “On a scale of one to ten, ten being absolute certainty, how sure are you that the guy you saw is the guy on the news?”
    Again, the attention made the kid shift from one foot to the other. “I don’t know. Seven, maybe?”
    Warren shook his head. “We need more than that. Who was working the desk this afternoon? Who would have checked them in?”
    Pleased by her nominal victory over Jed Hackner, the night manager nearly smiled as she walked to the computer screen and tapped the keys. “What time are we talking about?”
    â€œI’m guessing about five o’clock,” Carter said.
    â€œOkay, well, that shift started at four, and that would have been either Sam Shockley or Patrick Barney.” She looked up for the screen and asked Warren, “Do you want to call them?”
    Warren smiled. “You read my mind.”
    Carter noted with some amusement that the manager didn’t think twice about waking fellow employees. What a peach. “There’s got to be something we can do in the short term,” Carter said. “How about people who paid with cash? Can you track that down through the computer?”
    Missy Thompson returned her gaze to the computer screen and resumed her tapping. “I can pull up the information, but I’m not going to let you wake those people up, either. There are a thousand perfectly legitimate reasons why people pay in cash. You can’t just assume—”
    Warren showed his palm in a gesture for silence. “Ms. Thompson, please. I assure