“Mr. Willis,” Estelle said, “I’ll be happy to put you in touch with Traveler’s Aid if you’re having trouble.” She had a momentary thought about how nice it would be to put Todd Willis under bright lights for a half-hour or so, but other matters weighed more heavily.
“That’s not necessary,” Willis replied.
“I didn’t think it was, sir. And to tell the truth, at the moment I don’t really care about your room scam.” She saw his eyes narrow a little at her choice of words. “I assume that you at least implied that you couldn’t pay when you inquired about a room?”
“Has someone complained?”
“Your evasion makes me curious.”
“I’m not evading anything. I just don’t have to explain…” Willis’s protest faded.
“Mr. Patel just offered you a room at no charge? You didn’t have to ask?”
“Well, no. Look, we haven’t done anything wrong.”
“I suppose that out of the charity of his heart, he saw your fiancée’s condition and offered lodging. Is that it?”
Willis grimaced and fixed his attention on the bedspread.
“There would be no reason for anyone to offer a complimentary lodging otherwise…although it is the Christmas season. And you made certain that Miss Hart’s condition was noticed, since in both occasions, she accompanied you to the check-in desk. That certainly wasn’t necessary, was it…with it being so unpleasant out and her condition being so uncomfortable.” Estelle paused, watching the flush play up Todd Willis’s cheeks.
“So there appears to be some misrepresentation there,” Estelle continued. “But more important, you saw a man collapse, obviously hurt or ill. You never approached to check on the condition of the victim?”
“No…I already told you that I didn’t.”
“Yet you called 911 to report an unattended death. That’s what the dispatcher reported.”
“I…”
“And you said the victim was an old man.”
“Well, obviously he was. Anyone could see that.”
“Really. I wonder about that when you say you observed the incident from nearly the length of the motel, in poor light.”
“In the rain,” Gastner added.
Stacie Hart groaned and pushed herself up straighter on the bed. “Just tell them, Todd,” she said.
The young man weighed that suggestion for a moment and then shrugged. “Okay, okay,” he said. “I did go up there. I saw that the guy was lying all scrunched up, half on and half off the curb. When I got to him, I could see that his eyes were glassy, and he was unreactive when I spoke to him. It looked like maybe he had some froth on his lips, and I couldn’t find any pulse at his neck. I could see then that he was an older guy.”
“And the other two men were gone by this time?”
“Yes. They drove away before I actually started walking over that way. I couldn’t tell if they’d assaulted the older guy or not. I didn’t see any blood, but that doesn’t mean anything. They drove away in a hurry, though, after he collapsed. So I ran up there, saw that there was a problem, and called 911 on my cell.”
“And then you just left him there?”
“I didn’t want to move him. I mean, we’re not supposed to do that, right? I thought that I’d get a blanket from the room, but by the time I even thought to do that, I could hear a siren coming.” Willis took a step back and settled on the corner of the bed. “I just stayed out of the way.”
“Goddamn commendable,” Gastner said.
“Well…” Willis said, and gave up with a shrug.
“Why not just duck into the office and ask for a blanket? Or tell them to call the cops?” Gastner asked.
Willis looked skeptical. “Did you talk to the desk girl?”
“Yes.”
“Well, then you know why I didn’t try and explain to her. Miss Like Vague. Besides, I thought about doing that, but when I went by, her back was turned to the door and I could see that she was on the telephone.”
“At any time, did you see either of the two men strike the victim before they left?”
“No.”
“Did you see any contact between the three of them at all?” Estelle glanced at her watch.
“No,” Willis said. “But they were out of my view on more than one occasion. Something could have happened while I was inside this room, or when I was going back and forth to the van…any number of opportunities.”
“Did you see what direction they drove after leaving the parking lot?”
“No. They went around the end of the building, and I couldn’t see them after that.”
“What do you do for a living, Mr. Willis?” Estelle asked. She glanced again at the travel bag and camera case.
“I’m a…a writer.”
“Ah. You’re on assignment now?”
Willis hesitated just enough that Estelle sensed his uneasiness. “Yeah, I guess. Sort of.”
“Interesting. Mr. Willis, it may be necessary for us to talk to you again. Is there a number where we can reach you in the next day or two?”
“We’re going to visit Stacie’s family in Tucson. That was our plan, anyway.”
“Are you all right with that?” Estelle said, turning to the girl.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re sure?”
The girl nodded.
“When’s the baby due?”
“Around the tenth,” she said.
“Ah,” Estelle said. “We’ll need a name and number there where we can reach you, Mr. Willis.”
He turned to his fiancée, but she was already rummaging in her purse. She produced a business card and jotted the information on the back, then extended the card to Estelle. “That’s my sister’s number in Las Cruces, too,” she said.
Estelle flipped the card over and saw Stacie Hart’s name printed in simple script with address, home phone, and e-mail listed. “You sister owns the van?”
Stacie nodded. “We were out in Tucson for Thanksgiving, and our car blew its transmission on the way home. She’s letting us use the van while our car’s being fixed.”
“A transmission? That’s an expensive proposition,” Gastner said.
“It’s on warranty,” Stacie said, and Estelle grinned at the comment. See, we’re cooperative, the superfluous information shouted. “And that van’s not much of a bargain, either.”
“I hope everything goes well for you,” Estelle said. “We’ll be in touch. You’re heading straight through tomorrow to Tucson?”
Todd Willis nodded.
“No more stops to see if there’s room at the inn?” Gastner asked. “That should be an interesting story.”
“No more stops,” Willis said but he didn’t rise to Gastner’s remark.
“I hope that we won’t have to bother you again tonight, but it’s a possibility,” Estelle said.
“I understand,” the young man said. He held the door for them, nodding pleasantly. “Have a Merry Christmas.”
“Indeed,” Bill Gastner muttered. “You do the same.” He looked hard at Willis for a moment. “This Mary and Joseph thing,” he said. “I wasn’t aware that they feigned indigence in order to find lodging. I’ll be interested to see how you twist that around in your story.” He didn’t wait for Willis to answer before turning away.
Outside the stuffy motel room, Estelle saw that the county’s flatbed car hauler had arrived. The decrepit Dodge was cranked halfway aboard, looking lopsided and bedraggled in the rain.
“East or west?” Gastner said when the door of Room 110 had closed behind them.
“West,” Estelle said immediately. “Unattended death. That’s interesting. The average Joe on the street doesn’t use that term, sir, but Willis did when he talked with dispatch.”
“Cops, EMTs, firemen, coroners, newspaper reporters-all the odd folks. It took a while, but his name came to me.”
“Oh?”
“Todd Willis. It’s a byline I’ve seen now and then in one of the Las Cruces papers. I did a long telephone interview with him once, back when I retired from your esteemed department.” He huffed a chuckle. “Only a matter of time before my steel-trap memory dug him up.”
“I like your theory about the story he’s working on,” Estelle said.