Chapter 4
4
There wasn’t a lot to choose from when it came to a place to crash. I could pay an exorbitant rate at the Whispering Pines Inn or I could stay at the LeeHy motel. I chose the LeeHy motel. It was on the outskirts of Jasper Creek, next to the trailer park. When I passed Blue Ash Village Trailer Park, it didn’t look so bad. Especially compared to some of the refugee camps I’d seen in the Middle East and Africa.
I pulled into the LeeHy and found a young kid behind the reception desk picking his nose with one hand and swiping left with his other hand. He looked to be about fourteen, by the way he slouched behind the counter and didn’t bother to look up when I came in through the door.
“I’d like to book a room,” I said.
“Yeah, by the hour or by the night?” At least he stopped mining for nose nuggets. Instead, he used two hands to handle his phone.
“By the night. I don’t know how long I’ll be, at least three nights.”
“I’m going to need a major credit card, but there’s a discount if you pay in cash.” He did look up at me when he mentioned cash.
I was pretty sure I knew whose pocket the cash would go into. I really didn’t want him to get rewarded for doing nothing, but I didn’t want him touching my card. Plus, I thought it was highly likely he’d be selling my credit card info to a buddy before the night was over.
“How much?”
He told me, and I slid the exact amount over to him.
The kid gave me a shifty look.
“If you want towels, that’s going to be extra.”
Lovely.
“How much?”
“Six dollars.”
I only had twenties. I spied the towels behind him on a shelf. I walked behind the desk and pulled a pile of towels and gave him a twenty.
“How much for a clean room?”
He gave me a confused look, and I sighed.
The Whispering Pines Inn was sounding better and better.
He handed over the card key for the room, which I had no choice but to take from him. I knew I’d dealt with far worse in the field, but goddammit, I was in America. I really didn’t think I should have to put up with this crap. I wiped the card off on one of the towels and handed the towel back to him. He started to say something, but my expression stopped him.
Good.
I picked up my extremely light duffel bag and hitched up my backpack as I tuned out his explanation of how I would find room 201. I was already figuring out my next move for tomorrow. First thing? Figure out where Grady Beaumont lived. But I needed a clear head before I found my potential brother.
When I opened the door to my room, I sighed. It was a shambles. I walked back down to visit with Derek. Eventually he figured out that room 205 had been cleaned, so he gave me that key. I got more towels, wiped off the key card again, and left the hand towel with him.
As I walked to the room, I figured I had a fifty-fifty chance of him being right about the room being clean. I sure as hell hoped he was, because my shoulder was killing me and I needed to take something for the pain.
I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the door and found a clean room that even smelled nice. I saw that there was a fresh carnation in a vase on the small table in the corner of the room. Somebody obviously took their job seriously. I was impressed.
I locked the door, then saw that the chain lock was busted and sighed. Of course it was busted. I dumped my duffel and backpack on the second double bed and headed for the shower and was soon happily under a hot spray with better water pressure than I’d expected.
After I got done, I put on a fresh set of clothes and booted up my laptop. It was one of the few things that had kept me sane at Walter Reed.
I pulled up my file on Brady and Grady Beaumont of Jasper Creek. Sons of Rose and Arthur Beaumont. I’d found Rose’s death certificate. She’d died twelve years ago. Her maiden name was McBride. I didn’t find any current information on Arthur or Brady, but Grady enlisted in the Marines when he was eighteen. He was currently serving as a Marine Raider.
So he was in Special Operations. Didn’t that sound familiar?
Seemed like I needed to talk to Little Grandma. Since I had to wait until morning, I might as well shoot the shit with Clay if he was in country.
I went to the bed and piled up all the pillows behind my back and shoulders and pressed in Clay’s number.
“So, you remembered me after all? What took you so long? I’ve only left eight voicemails and texted you eighteen times.”
“Don’t you have some woman to stalk instead?” I asked.
“Nah, the two I had my eye on took out restraining orders.”
I laughed. “Seriously, you should start dating.”
“Who in the hell wants to date a Spec Op when we never know when we’re leaving or for how long, and we can never tell our woman shit?”
“Rick’s wife. Brandon’s fiancé. To name two.”
“Yeah, well, they’re both something special. Trying to find somebody else like them is impossible.”
Behind Clay’s nonchalance, I heard just a little bit of pain. I knew he wanted what his parents and siblings had. At the same time, he didn’t want to leave the teams.
“Anyway, I wasn’t leaving you messages to discuss my love life. I was tracking you down to see how you were doing, and if you’re still trying to find out if you’re not related to that fucking prick, Ronald.”
“Yes and yes.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“Not really. How is everybody?”
“I’ll let you deflect my question for three minutes. That’s all.”
“You’re a pain in my ass,” I told my best friend.
He laughed.
“They’re all real good. Frank took his test and got promoted to an E-5. He’s pretty damn happy. Rice is pretty sure he saw him dancing outside the cafeteria when he found out.”
I laughed. “That’s great. He can use the extra pay now that he and Julie have a baby on the way.”
“Dude, you’re so behind the times. The baby’s name is Andrea, and she’s five months old. Frank told me he sent you a picture.”
“There were two other guys named Davis at Walter Reed. They kept getting our names mixed up and our mail mixed up, even though my name is Davies. Mike said he would forward my mail as soon as I gave him a permanent or semi-permanent address.”
“Mike?”
“Mike Kowalski, my demon from hell physical therapist. He was the best of the bunch. Used to be a submariner during his four years in the Navy. Came out and got his college degree and played football. Was scouted by the Philadelphia Eagles. Third year as linebacker, he got knocked sideways in his knees. Did a year in physical therapy, played another two years and was injured again, and that was all she wrote. He went back to school for his Doctor of Physical Therapy and has been at Walter Reed ever since.”
“Quite a story.”
“Yeah. I hated and loved him at the same time.”
“You would have loved him more if he got you back to our team.”
“The docs were straight with me. That wasn’t going to happen. I was lucky that I ended up with full range of motion.”
Clay sucked in a deep breath. “Shit.”
“Yep, that sums it up.”
We were silent for a long moment.
“So, a baby girl, huh?” I finally said.
“Yeah, looks just like Julie. Frank is going to be in so much trouble when she turns sixteen. He better keep his gun handy.”
“What about the rest of the gang? How are they doing?”
In the eleven years I’d been with this team, we’d had men transfer out, we’d had men retire, two were injured, but they’d come back. Eight years ago, Sully died, but it hadn’t been in the field. So the core group of us, Clay, me, Lisbon, Zypher, John and Ramsey, had held strong. Other Raider teams talked about us. But then that day when the bullet hit the cement, fragments hit me, our luck had run out again. Clay knew who I wanted to know about.
“Zephyr is still hung up on the girl he met in Canada when we went heli-skiing in the Canadian Rockies.”
I smiled. That had been one of our best two-week leaves.
“I sure as hell won’t be doing that for a while,” I sighed.
“What did your demon from hell say about that?”
“Hell, Clay. I’m still not supposed to lift anything over twenty-five pounds. The demon told me that if I do my exercises religiously, I could graduate up to forty pounds in another four weeks.”
“So? Do your exercises religiously. In the meantime, we’ll just change our plans and do the sand boarding in Namibia next year. The only lifting required will be your snowboard. Just don’t land on your bad shoulder. Easy as pie.”
“You know. That doesn’t sound too bad. As a matter of fact, that sounds damn good.”
“Well, keep doing what the football god tells you to do.”
I laughed again. Talking to Clay was just the medicine I needed.
“Okay, that was enough deflection. Tell me how the hunt is going.”
“I’m in Jasper Creek. So far, nothing. I was told that there might be somebody who could tell me something. A woman who owns a diner told me that there is this other woman who is, and I’m quoting, old as dirt, and she would remember Rose McDonald and the twins. Maybe even their father, Arthur Beaumont. I won’t be able to get in touch with her until tomorrow morning.”
“So, you really didn’t want to talk to me. You were just bored. Is that it?”
I laughed yet again. “That about sums it up.”
Clay laughed too. “Well, get bored more often. I worry about you.”
I shut my eyes for a moment. Clay was my brother, and I’d been out of line shutting him out. “I promise.”
“Thank God. Now give me your address. My mom wants to send you some cookies.”
“I haven’t landed anyplace yet,” I admitted.
“You’re sleeping somewhere tonight, aren’t you?”
“In a motel, that really should be called a Motel 3.”
“That bad?”
“Except for the fresh flower in the room. I had to pay extra for the towels, and I didn’t trust the nose-picker desk clerk far enough to give him my credit card. First, I didn’t want him touching it. Second, I worried if he had it on file, he’d use it.”
“Sounds like you found a winner.”
“Sure did. I’ll be changing tomorrow night.”
“Call me when you get the address.”
“I doubt I’ll be staying that long.”
“Where else do you have to be?”
Now wasn’t that the question of the year?