Chapters (73)
She patted the pockets of her cover-up. “You’re not gonna believe this. I think I misplaced my key.”
“No problem,” he said gallantly. “What’s the name and room number?”
“Gazaway, Room 325.”
He turned to his computer monitor, tapped some keys and nodded. “Okay, Ms. Gazaway. Now, do you have some ID?”
She laughed. “That’s the problem. I’ve been down at the tiki bar, and I didn’t take my billfold with me, because we were charging our drinks to the room.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” he said, nodding. “I just need the address listed on the credit card on your account.”
“Oh.” She made a pouting face. “The thing is, my cousin booked the room. And I don’t actually know her new address, since she got married.”
Drue was shocked how easily the lies rolled off her lips.
But the desk clerk was not impressed. “Can you call her?” he asked. “If she comes down to the desk, I can easily get another key made for you.”
“Ugh!” Drue exclaimed. “She wandered away with her husband, and she left her phone in the room. Can’t you just make me another key without all that rigamarole?”
“Can’t,” he said, shrugging. “Against hotel policy. Wish I could help.”
Drue tried to look helpless. It wasn’t working. “Okay,” she said, sighing deeply. “Do you have a map of the property?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Yes.”
Since helpless wasn’t working she held out her hand and tried haughty. “May I have one, please?”
She could sense the clerk watching as she strolled out of the lobby in the direction of the pool. Once outside, she studied the map, trying to get her bearings again.
According to what Hernandez told her, the last room Jazmin cleaned on the night she was murdered was Room 133. Which probably meant the room was on the first floor of the north building.
She followed the stone-paved walkway through the lush junglelike landscaping, flinching once when a tiny green tree frog dropped off an overhanging basket, brushing her arm. The east end of the north building loomed ahead of her. Consulting the map, she was surprised to note that there was a second pool on the property, and that the back of the north building faced it. There was a door here into what looked like the building’s elevator tower, but it too was locked. She kept following the path until she could see the shimmering reflection of the pool water bouncing on the back of the building. The sidewalk ended abruptly at a gate in a six-foot-high wooden stockade fence.
Drue held her breath as she hip-checked the gate, which swung open easily. Finally!