The Colour Of Shadows

The Pit - Part 10

I stood outside the store feeling more than a little insulted by the woman's attitude.

Turning about, I marched back toward the car, passed it and toward the hotel where I knew George had gone, playing the conversation out in my mind again and again.

I got onto the street with the hotel when something clicked in my mind...

The woman at the store had acted suspiciously, that was obvious, but replaying the conversation in my head I realised... Her wording 'You're not gonna find anything here'.

Perhaps I was reading too much into it, but it seemed... odd to me... ominous, almost.

I'd been so busy storming off, I hadn't even put my notebook away. I opened it again and took note of the store name and the words of what I presumed to be the owner.

I put the notebook away and carried on my way, mulling it over in my mind as I went on into the carpark of the hotel, and saw the first signs of life outside that day. Two cars were parked outside the hotel.

Again, I presumed George must be having better luck than me.

I glanced at my watch, He could well still be inside, there was over an hour before our agreed ‘meet-up’ time.

I mulled over going inside too and seeing how he was getting on, but at the same time wondered if I was just giving up too easily.

I opted to pick myself up and take a look around the hotel itself.

And it was here, I thought my luck was beginning to change.

Leading around the hotel was a lane that joined the hotels parking area to a secondary car park, and it was there I found our biggest piece of evidence.

A broken license plate lay against the fence, the two halves placed atop one another. The top half was clearly visible to me though, and it struck a chord in my memory instantly.

I flipped through my notes back to when we had spoken with the car dealership and felt the adrenaline begin to thump through my veins.

It was the plate from the rental car that had gone missing with our client’s family.