Good for him, Pescoli thought, wondering how her son had held a job here because she suspected that Jeremy, if not a habitual user, had dabbled with weed more than a time or two. However, it seemed he'd grown out of that phase of his life, or somehow managed to hide it from her.

"Do you remember this guy's vehicle?" Alvarez asked, pointing to the picture of Ryder.

"Beat up old pickup, maybe? It had out of state plates, I think. I kinda noticed that because sometimes it gets a little boooring around here, if ya know what I mean. But it didn't have any special marks or b.u.mper stickers or anything on it, that I noticed. It was kinda like the type everyone else around here drives." She glanced out the plate gla.s.s window as a man in ski gear filled the tank of his sedan.

She slid her gaze back to the picture of Ryder on the counter. "With him though it fit, y'know. He looked like a cowboy type. Well, again, like everyone else around here." She rolled her expressive, mascara-laden eyes and then thought of something. "Wait a minute." Her gaze zeroed in on Pescoli. "Aren't you Jeremy's mom? Jeremy Strand? I think I read about you in the paper awhile back. He, like, saved your life, shot a guy who was trying to kill you."

Pescoli nodded. She was proud of Jeremy, how responsible he'd become, and she did owe him her life.

"Tell him 'hi,' from Jodi," the girl said as a big bear of a man walked into the convenience store, a gust of freezing wind and snow following after him. "Brrr. It's soooo cold."

"Do you remember anything else about the guy in the picture?" Alvarez asked.

Jodi shook her head and the top knot wobbled precariously again. "He was in here for, like, half a second."

She was about to turn her attention to the next person in line when Pescoli said, "Hold on a sec." She took two steps to the candy counter and returned with an oversized package of Peanut M&M's. "I'll take these. You want anything?" she asked Alvarez and when her partner declined, paid for the bag. "I don't need a receipt."

Jodi rang up the sale, then turned her attention to the older man with the silvery stubble, rimless gla.s.ses, and a baseball cap with a John Deere logo. He was fishing in his back pocket for his wallet so that he could pay for gas, a pack of Rolos, and some chewing tobacco.

"For my grandson," he said, half-flirting with the clerk.

"Oh, I like Rolos, too," the girl said as Alvarez opened the door and Pescoli opened her bag of candy with her teeth.

"The Rolos? Those are for me." The old geezer winked at Jodi and started pulling bills from a slot in the well-used wallet. "The tobacco? That's for Josh."

Perfect, Pescoli thought as the bag popped open and peanuts threatened to spill out every which way. She managed to corral them and thought, Way to go, Gramps. Get the kid hooked. Great idea.

Maybe it was a joke, the old guy's way of flirting. Pescoli hoped so as she winced against the bitter cold, plopping a couple candy-coated chocolate peanuts into her mouth. Together, she and Alvarez half-sprinted past the gas pumps, where two cars were being refueled, to the spot where her Jeep was parked, already collecting snow.

"Want some?" she asked again as they climbed inside and she held the open bag toward her partner where Alvarez was dutifully snapping on her seat belt.

"No."

"G.o.d, they're great," Pescoli threw a few more into her mouth, then tossed an empty coffee cup onto the floor in front of the back seat and dropped the open bag into her vacant cup holder.

"Maybe to ten-year-olds or pregnant women."

"Especially ten-year-olds and pregnant women. But trust me, they're for everybody." Pescoli jammed her key into the ignition and sent her partner a don't-even-go-there stare which Alvarez ignored as her cell phone rang sharply.

Plugging one ear to block out the ambient noise of the Jeep's engine, she answered, "Alvarez."

Pescoli strapped her seat belt into place, cranked the heat to the maximum, then slammed the gearshift into reverse and backed out of the gas station.

"Yeah . . . yeah . . . Okay, I got it," Alvarez said. "We're on our way." She hung up. "Looks like we're going to the River View Motel. One of the deputies on the search found out where Ryder's been staying. The River View is on-"

"I know where it is. Just down the road." Pescoli wouldn't admit it to Alvarez, of course, but a few years earlier when she'd first started her affair with Santana, they'd sometimes stayed in little out of the way no-tell motels where they would have complete privacy. Away from her family. Away from her job. Away from Brady Long, the rich pain in the a.s.s Santana used to work for. The River View, as well as a few other motels scattered around the outskirts of town, had been a great little rendezvous spot.

"We're too late. He's already checked out."

"d.a.m.n." Pescoli pulled into traffic which, because of the storm, was light. "Always a day late and a dollar short. But maybe he left something behind."

"Maybe."

Her partner didn't sound too convinced or even hopeful, but surely something would break in the case. It d.a.m.n well had to.

"It's time to go," Ryder said, packing up the last of the electronic equipment. "We've wasted too much time already."

If Anne-Marie had hoped he would change his mind, that he'd hear her tale of battery and pain and give up the outrageous bounty placed on her head by her family, she'd been sadly mistaken. Yes, his eyes had reflected some empathy and a fierce anger as she'd explained about her husband's abuse, but in the end, once she'd finished talking, he'd said nothing for a second, then had clipped out, "I didn't know what you went through."

She realized that, overall, he didn't sound all that moved by her story. Instead, he was staring at her coolly as if she were some interesting, maybe dangerous, specimen. She suddenly understood that he was second-guessing her, wondering if she were lying again. Of course.

She walked to the window and flipped open the blinds. It was daylight and she saw both vehicles parked outside. Hers with more snow piled upon it near the sagging building she thought had once been used as a garage, his truck parked a few yards back, probably where he'd slid to a stop without headlights so as not to wake her. He'd parked carefully, wedging his pickup between two trees, guarding the lane so that no other vehicle could pa.s.s and she couldn't get away.

She didn't bother asking him how he'd sneaked in on her as he'd obviously been in the place once before to plant his electronic equipment, so he'd no doubt used his same breaking-and-entering skills.

Snow was still falling and the tracks of both vehicles were covered, his less so as it was parked beneath a canopy of branches and had been stationary for a shorter amount of time. Was she really trapped? If she couldn't convince him to let her go, would she really be forced to return to New Orleans with him?

Thinking of reuniting with her family, of the disappointment carved on her father's face, the disgrace in her mother's eyes, and the hurt on her grandmother's proud visage, she knew she couldn't return to Louisiana. Ever. Even if she could face the condemnation and shame, there was her husband, who seemed to have vanished, as well. No doubt she would be a suspect in his disappearance, or, worse yet, if he should suddenly show up in New Orleans again, she would have to look him in the eye and see him smirk at her fear.

Her stomach turned over at the thought of him. No. She'd never go back. Ryder wasn't going to take her. He just didn't know it yet. Mind turning with thoughts of escape, she started to close the blinds, then stopped. Had she seen something outside the window, some movement that she'd caught from the corner of her eye? She squinted hard, staring through the shifting veil of flakes, but whatever it was had disappeared.

Another deer perhaps.

Or, more likely, a figment of her imagination.

She told herself it was nothing, but couldn't quite shake the feeling that something outside wasn't right. Then again, nothing inside the dilapidated cabin was right, either.

"You can see why I can't go back," she tried.

"If you're telling the truth."

She knew it. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d didn't believe her. "Come on, Ryder. You think I made that story up?"

"What I know is you're a liar, Anne-Marie, and a good one, if I recall."

"Everything I said to you was the G.o.d's honest truth. Who would make up something so . . . so brutal?"

"Who would rob their d.a.m.n grandmother?"

Anne-Marie was dying inside. She'd bared her soul to him. Stupidly.

"You told me how much she meant to you. So, it's not making a whole lot of sense to me that instead of running to her and confiding in her, asking for her help and protection, or insisting she take you to the police, you decided to steal from her. From the one woman you swore you adored."

Anne-Marie's throat clogged and she fought tears. The biggest regret in her life had been sneaking in the back door when she'd known her grandmother was sleeping in the next room and with nervous fingers opening the safe that was hidden behind a shelf in the pantry. But she had. When the safe had opened, she'd scooped up the bills that had been stacked so neatly within, money she'd used to escape, to buy her vehicle, to purchase her new ident.i.ty, to visit a dentist for appliances and a costume store for the extra padding and wigs. And for the doctor in Oklahoma City. "I can't go back," she said again.

His expression hardened. "Maybe not willingly," he said, crossing the room.

"Not ever." She met his uncompromising glare with one of her own. "You'll have to shoot me. Your gun. My gun. It doesn't matter, but I won't go."

"Fine."

To her horror, he dragged a pair of handcuffs from his pocket and before she could move, he reached her and snapped them over her wrists. "We're goin', darlin', and we're goin' right now."

Chapter 26.

The wipers weren't keeping up with the falling snow, so Pescoli tried to turn them up, to increase their speed, but they were maxed out. The storm was just that fierce. "Global warming, my a.s.s," she muttered as the sign for the River View appeared through the thick, swirling flakes.

"Actually these storms and all the weird weather patterns we've been experiencing are the direct result of climate change." Sometimes Alvarez could really be a buzz-kill.

Pescoli cranked the wheel and her Jeep slid a bit before they drove into the lot of the motel and parked under the broad portico that was, according to several signs posted near the front doors, reserved for guests of the facility.

Pescoli really didn't give a rat's a.s.s what the protocol was.

Inside the brightly lit reception area of the motel, they waited as a hippy woman in a uniform finished a phone call, her fingers flying over the keys of a computer. The lobby was small and smelled of day-old coffee. One faux leather couch that had seen better days was situated near a stand of brochures describing highlights of the area.

"That does it," the receptionist said with a smile wide enough to show off a gold molar. "So what can I do ya for?"

They introduced themselves, showing badges, and asked about Troy Ryder.

"A deputy was in earlier," said the woman whose name tag read CARLA SIMMS. "I told them everything I knew."

"I know, but we'd like to see for ourselves the room he stayed in," Pescoli said.

"Ooookay." The hippy woman checked her computer monitor again. "As I told the deputy, Mr. Ryder was in a king room with a view for a little over a week and didn't bother anyone. If he had company, I didn't see it. Truthfully, we here at the River View respect our guests' privacy."

"I'm sure," Pescoli said, knowing first-hand about the policy.

"It's already been cleaned. We're quick about that, you know." Carla was obviously proud of her work at the River View, as if this dive of a motel was a five-star hotel. She swept a walkie-talkie off the desk, hit a b.u.t.ton, and said, "Can you send someone down to the reception?"

She'd barely hung up when a tiny woman appeared. She wore a puffy coat and a knit cap pulled low enough to brush the top of a red scarf wound around her neck. She couldn't have been five feet tall and even in the heavy coat, she seemed diminutive. Pescoli felt like an Amazon next to her.

"Rhonda," Carla said. "This is Detective Pescoli and . . . wait, I'm sorry-?"

"Alvarez," Pescoli's partner supplied.

"Yes, yes. Detective Alvarez. Would you please show the officers to room thirteen? It's been cleaned, right?"

Rhonda nodded her head and began fiddling with a key ring as she led the officers outside and along a covered walkway to room thirteen, which supposedly had one of the sought-after river views.

To Pescoli's way of thinking, it was all false advertising. The place was known to be clean and reasonable, nothing more. The old carpeting, and drapes that matched the bedspread, had to be from the nineties. Unfortunately, the receptionist hadn't been mistaken and the tacky room had been cleaned, no trash, no bit of visible evidence left behind.

"Clean as a whistle." Disappointed, Pescoli leaned down and looked under the bed while Alvarez checked the adjoining bath, then opened the sliding door to the small patio beyond.

"Same here," Alvarez agreed.

The room looked tired and dated, but there was nothing to indicate that Troy Ryder or any other person had ever resided there.

"We'll need to look through the trash," she said. "It hasn't been picked up yet?"

"Thursday." The maid walked them outside where the snow had covered the parking lot and the few cars parked in front of the motel. The empty spot in front of room thirteen, where Ryder's truck had been parked, had acc.u.mulated only a few inches over the asphalt. One other slot had the same level of snow. It had recently been vacated, only a thin layer covering the pavement.

"Mr. Ryder left early this morning," Rhonda said. "I'm on the early shift and he was already gone, so I got the notice to clean his room first thing." She tested the k.n.o.b to make certain that the room was secure. "The same with his friend."

"Friend?" Alvarez asked, exchanging looks with Pescoli. "What friend?"

"The guest in twenty-five. I don't know his name. But he was always asking about Mr. Ryder." She stopped talking abruptly as if she realized she was giving out too much information about customers who guarded their privacy.

Alvarez clarified, "A single man?"

"Yes. No one was with him," the maid a.s.sured them, finding her voice again.

"And he hung out with Ryder?" Alvarez made a swirling motion with her finger. "You saw them together."

Shaking her head, the pet.i.te woman wagged her head thoughtfully side to side. "I don't know, but I never saw them together. They were both very private, holed up in their rooms. And the guest in room thirteen? Mr. Ryder? He never asked about the man in twenty-five, or anyone else that I know of." She raised and lowered her shoulders. "I wouldn't know. I was only here during my shifts and I was busy, you know."

"But the other man checked out this morning?" Pescoli said. "What time?"

Rhonda said, "I don't really know. He didn't stop at the desk. Just left."

Room twenty-five was around the corner from room thirteen, and offered a bird's-eye view of Ryder's activity. The parking area for that room had only a little snow in front of it, about the same level as thirteen.

"Has room twenty-five been cleaned yet?" Alvarez asked.

The maid shook her head. "I don't think so."

"Hmph." Alvarez eyed the parking lot. "Mind if we look inside?"

"Okay." The maid led the way along the long concrete porch and unlocked the room that was identical to the one Ryder had occupied.

Whoever had resided there had left in a hurry. The bill was still under the door. The bed was a tumble of blankets, and towels and hangers littered the floor. Trash was still in and around the waste baskets-newspapers and fast food wrappers, water bottles, paper cups, plastic packaging for some kind of headphones, and wadded up receipts from local stores.

"Didn't he ever have the room cleaned?" Alvarez asked.

"No. Both he and the man in number thirteen asked for no service. I talked to each of them and they refused." Rhonda shrugged in a what're-you-gonna-do manner. "The management doesn't like it, but the guest's wishes are always granted."

"We're going to want to seal both rooms. We don't want either of them cleaned any more," Pescoli said.

Alvarez was looking at the billing that had been left. "I a.s.sume your guests have to register their vehicles at the front desk?"

"Yes. Always."