“Let’s go,” I ordered, climbing out of the truck, and closing the door gently behind me. I glanced at my surroundings, ensuring no one was paying attention to the three of us. There was the usual population around—those looking to get high or get their rocks off for the night—but none of them looked our way for too long.
“Good thing you brought a shitty looking truck,” New Guy declared as he came up on my right side.
I gave him a sideways glance and nodded before returning my attention to the destination ahead of me.
“There’s no back door or window, right?” I asked Manny.
He shook his head. “There is a small window in the bathroom that leads outside. But it’s tiny, and as big as this motherfucker is, I doubt he could fit through. If he does, however, it’s a three-story drop for his ass.”
I nodded and thought for a minute. Chances were the guy wouldn’t be able to escape out the window, but just in case I said, “You go ’round back to wait outside the window in case his ass tries to jump,” I told the new guy.
He nodded and went around to circle behind the hotel.
“Sy, you got eyes on New Guy?” I questioned, knowing we were all wired with body cams and audio in case shit went left, and we needed someone to have our back.
“Got him.”
I headed up the stairs ahead of Manny, making my way to the third floor. I didn’t reach for the gun neatly tucked under my shirt, but my fingers itched to. The animal instinct in me wanted to draw my weapon and put three shots through the door, making it easier to kick open and proceed to barge in on Lane and whoop his ass right out of his sleep.
According to the front desk clerk, Lane paid his rent for the week the day before, and the cleaning lady interacted with him a few hours earlier. His car was still parked outside in the lot, and she said he never went anywhere without his car. All signs pointed to the fact that he remained held up in this dingy ass hotel for the night.
We arrived at the door, and I nodded at Manny to stand on the other side while I knocked. I kept my body braced at one side of the door, having learned from experience never to stand in front of the door of a suspect. Especially one crazy enough to live someplace like this rundown hotel.
After a few hard knocks, there was no answer. I reached for the key in my pocket; again, a gift from the hotel clerk. Turning the key in the knob, I paused, looking at Manny to make sure he was ready for entry. When he nodded, I pushed the door open, using the flashlight I carried with me to enlighten the room, instead of the flicking on the switch.
I charged over to the bed when I spotted a large lump under the blanket. The door slammed shut behind me, and I figured it was Manny, closing it to prevent anyone from seeing what was happening inside.
“Shit,” I cursed when I realized that the lump was a pile of clothes. “What the fuck?” I questioned out loud a few seconds later, realizing that the pillow above the clothing was covered in red stains. It appeared to be blood. Continuing to shine my light, I looked closer at the rest of the garments and found many of them, too, were stained by blood.
“Don’t touch anything,” I ordered, holding my hand out to Manny as he reached for the other side of the blanket.
“This is a murder scene,” he said, low, his voice holding no inflection.
Shaking my head, I took a step back from the bed and looked around, seeing more drops of blood around the room, but no body. Nathan Lane was nowhere to be found, but I’d bet that this blood belonged to him. Which meant somebody had gotten to him before I could.
“New Guy,” I called into my communications device.
“Yeah? Did you get him?”
“Negative. I need you to look around and see if you see anything suspicious out back.”
“Like what?”
I pushed out a deep breath. “If I have to explain to you what the fuck suspicious looks like, you’re in the wrong line of work.”
“Okay, okay, I’m looking.”
“We’re on our way down.”
We headed out of the room, as quietly as we entered, sealing the door behind us. Hurriedly, I made my way down the staircase, keeping my head low so that those who were still out and lingering wouldn’t be able to see my face.
“I think there are some drops of blood back here,” New Guy said a minute later.
“Show me,” I instructed as soon as I came within a few of him behind the hotel.
“There.” He shone his flashlight to the ground, and sure enough, there was a spot of dark red, almost brown liquid. It was partially dry, leading me to believe that it couldn’t have been here for more than a few hours. Soon, I spotted another and followed what turned out to be a small trail of blood spots, leading from where we stood over to a considerable dumpster.
I looked to Manny, who wore a grim expression. We both knew what we were about to find.
