Pity and a Shame

Chapter 15

The message from Marge was from a salesman who was staying at the Riverview Motel. Brian read about how the man had returned to the motel and realized he'd lost his key. When he went to the office he couldn't get an answer, nor when he phoned from his cell phone. The man drove to Ingersol to find accommodation until he could get his stuff from the Riverview.

Brian asked Marge to dial the motel and waited as it rang a dozen times without results. Next he asked her to contact the man in Ingersol while he pondered what might have happened. The salesman answered, confirming everything in his message and expressed a complete bewilderment over the situation. He also said the other guest, a salesman friend of his, wouldn't be back for at least four or five days.

They used the Riverview as a home base once a year while they covered the surrounding towns. He also said that he knew nothing of a woman staying there. Brian thanked him and decided that a trip to the Riverview was in order. Doc Butler was standing outside the Heaven's Oven Bakery chewing on a brick-sized piece of Chelsea bun while Janet stood in the shelter of the doorway reading from a sheaf of papers.

Brian paused on his way to the car, glancing at Janet and nodding to the doctor.

"Mornin' Brian," Doc mumbled through the doughy bun.

"Hey Doc. How you feeling?" He wandered over, one eye still on Janet who hadn't looked up from her reading.

"New man, Brian. New man. Haven't had one of these since I first diagnosed myself. Silly bugger, eh?"

Brian looked skeptical. "It was probably part of your problem to begin with."

"I'm sure it was, but hell, so was everything else I did." He tore off another cinnamon-dosed chunk and popped it in his mouth. "Anyway," he managed after a moment of chewing. "That ship's sailed. Where are you off to?"

Brian gave him a distracted summary and finally, unable to resist, asked what Janet was reading that was so damned interesting.

The Toyota sped down the leaf littered highway under a mottled grey sky toward the motel. A sixteen-wheeled logging truck buffeted the small car as it roared past heading in the opposite direction. Brian and Janet had finally spoken with a restrained reserve after Doc explained what he had worked out.

The fact that he'd shown it to Janet first wrankled Brian and he said so, adding to the tension in the car.

"I was coming to see you when I stopped for a bun. Janet was there and we got to talking. What's the big deal?"

"The big deal is, I'm the sheriff. I'm the one asked you to look into this and I'm the one that gets the information." He took a bend too sharply and the car swerved as he corrected.

"Okay, okay. The point is you've got it now, so what do you think?"

"I need to study it first. Lemme get this motel business sorted out and we'll go over it together."

"You need to sort somethin' else out too."

"What?"

"Your relationship with Janet."

"Is that somehow your business?" Brian snipped.

"I make things my business when they affect people I'm concerned about... same as you." The reply was loud and forceful and Brian shrank at the impact. "She told me about what happened at the dance."

"Jesus, you a minister too, Doc? Have all the answers, do you?"

"Not all of them, Brian. Not all of them."

"Aaw shit, I'm sorry Doc. I didn't mean..."

"Just do me a favour and mend your fences with that woman. She's nuts about you, boy. If I were... well I'd give you a run for your money, that's for sure."

The car turned off into the Riverview courtyard and Brian parked in front of the office. They climbed out and went up to the door and Brian knocked loudly, calling out Monty's name.

"Can you see anything inside?" Doc pressed his face to the dirty window. "I guess not. Be lucky to see outside from in there as well." He went to the edge of the door and pressed his face close to the jamb.

"What are you doing?"

"C'mere a sec. Smell here."

"What? I don't want to smell an old door."

"Come here for Christ's sake. You're the sheriff, do some sheriffing."

Brian sighed and went to where the Doc had placed his nose and sniffed. The smell was familiar—faint, but familiar. "I know that smell, what is it?"

Doc looked up and down the lot, wiping his lips with a craggy finger. "Experience tells me it's blood and the beginning of decay, son."

"Shit! That's it!" Flash memories from his military experiences surged into his head and Brian remembered the very first time he smelled death. "We've got to get inside, Doc."

Brian sat in the driver's seat with his feet in the drive, writing in his notebook while the doctor used the sink behind the office to wash his hands. Monty had turned out to be a nasty sight in even nastier condition and after a quick examination, they concluded that it was definitely murder and that Split Oaks had doubled its violent crime rate in less than two months.

"Guess this means another call to Ingersol," Doc said, joining him at the car.

"Yeah... I think we should look around the other rooms first. Just don't handle anything." He smiled at the older man's look. "All right, just humour me."

"I'll get the keys from the board."

"No, wait! Maybe we better not. Last time I got shit from those guys for messing up the crime scene, even though I didn't." Brian started down the lot. "I'm just gonna poke around."

He peered in the windows of the different units as he went down the small porch fronting the rooms, pausing to examine the locks and the driveway in front of each unit. At the end, Brian cupped his hands about his eyes and peered into the room. He could see a small chair with a broken leg and a mussed bed.

The gravel in front of the room showed signs of tire marks from wheels that were spun, showering the small porch with bits of crushed stone. The first thing that crossed his mind was Carol Tzajke and the thought left him feeling hollow inside. He would do a little snooping on her when he got back but first things first.

"I think that last one might hold some interest." He said, returning to the car. "We'd better get back to town and call Ingersol again. They're gonna love this."