“I’ve got something in my shoe.”
Melody and Drake stopped and let the other runners pass them. They walked back to the turnout where Slick was still looking out to sea as if pining for a shipwrecked lover.
“Aren’t you a long way from home?”
Drake’s greeting purposely had an edge to it. After all, Slick hadn’t exactly exhibited much warmth toward them.
“Good day for a drive.”
Slick finally turned and looked at them. He was dressed in tight jeans and a colorful sport shirt and was wearing his trademark mirror sunglasses. Drake wondered what Slick’s eyes looked like. He suspected Melody was wondering the same thing. She went for tall, good-looking men.
Drake took off the pouch and opened it. He pulled out the bag with the envelope and note. It also contained the page with the desk clerk’s fingerprints. He quickly explained the contents of the bag to Slick.
Melody took a bite of banana. “Have you found any prints on the other note?”
He frowned at them, disapprovingly. “Both your prints are all over the note and the envelope. There are other prints on the envelope, probably from two people. And some prints on the letter. From their position, we suspect they’re from one person. They’re the same as some of the prints on the envelope.”
“The odd person on the envelope is probably the desk clerk at that motel.” Drake thought for a moment. “So we’ve got prints from one unknown person.”
“We sent the letter back east. They’ll be checked against our files, including employees of Giganticorp. We’ve got prints on all of them because everybody at Big G has a security clearance.”
Drake looked down the road. The other runners had disappeared over a rise. “Thanks for your help. We’ve got to run.”
“Don’t let me stop you. Don’t sweat too much.”
Drake and Melody started running at a pace they hoped would allow them to catch the others. In a couple of minutes the black Porsche roared past them in a low gear. Slick didn’t even bother to wave.
Drake knocked on the door of the room being shared by Melody and Grace. Melody had just phoned him and hung up when he answered, their agreed-upon signal. Grace didn’t know he was coming. Melody opened the door.
“Drake. Come on in.” She made sure her voice carried back into the room.
As he entered, he saw Grace quickly cover her upper thighs with the short bathrobe she was wearing. She was sitting on one of the beds watching television. She looked startled.
“Mr.-I mean, Drake. I didn’t know you were coming over.”
Melody was also wearing a bathrobe. “We need to talk to you, Grace.” She turned off the TV.
Drake felt uneasy. As Melody had pointed out, he had always been uneasy questioning female suspects, especially the ones who liked him. Melody said Grace liked him.
Drake said, “Yeah, like a father.”
Melody had shaken her head. “Definitely not like a father. She asked me if you and I were…together.”
“Did you tell her about our past?”
“She’s not interested in our past, only our present.”
They had agreed that Melody would be the hard-ass in the questioning, and he would be the good guy, instead of the reverse. Drake picked up a straight-back chair and positioned it so he could sit facing Grace. Since he was the good guy, he gave her a little smile. Melody stood beside her bed, assuming the dominant position in the room. Drake let her speak first.
“Where did you go when you got up early this morning?”
“I…nowhere.”
“Where exactly is nowhere?”
Drake watched Grace’s face closely. When they had talked about Fred, her face had given away her feelings. Now it might be registering fright.
“I…I was running an errand.”
“For whom?”
Grace didn’t answer.
It was Drake’s turn. He spoke in a reasonable voice, as if it were obvious. “You were running an errand for Fred, weren’t you? You said you sometimes run errands for Fred.”
“I can’t tell you.”
She zippered her mouth and hugged her knees. Drake had been trained to read body language. Her actions showed her agitation-and her legs.
Melody spoke. “Let’s see if we can reconstruct what happened. You received a call from Fred last night. He told you he needed you to run an errand for him this morning. You set your alarm for quarter to five. You went to his room and he gave you an envelope. You went out the side door of the motel, circled around, and went in the front door. You put the envelope on the counter and then retraced your steps. You returned to your room and went back to bed.”
Grace had her chin on her knees, and looked as if she might be going to place her hands over her ears and make a noise to drown out Melody.
“You must have looked at the envelope, so you know who it was addressed to.”
No answer, but Grace’s eyes flickered briefly on Drake’s.
“Did you see the contents of the envelope?”
“No.”
She realized what she had said and shut her mouth again. It might be true that she was an unwitting accomplice. Drake decided it was time for a softer line. “The envelope contained a threat to Melody and me. The first one you delivered did also.”
“I didn’t know what was in the envelopes. I was just told to deliver them in such a way that I wouldn’t be recognized. Nobody saw me this morning.”
“But they did the first time. Where did you get the hooded jacket?”
“From Fred. It’s his. He also gave me the dark glasses.”
Melody said, “With all this clandestine behavior, didn’t you feel that something was seriously wrong?”
Grace shrugged her shoulders. “Fred said to think of it as a game, just as the race itself is a game. He said it wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
“And you believed him?”
“I’m paid to believe him. He’s my boss.”
“So to recap. You went to Fred’s room; he gave you the jacket, glasses, and envelope. You-”
“He didn’t give me the envelope.”
Melody waited for Grace to speak.
“I got it from a man in the parking lot. He was sitting in a car.”
“Was it the same man both times?”
“I’m not sure. The car was parked in the dark, away from the lights. I couldn’t see his face.”
“It wasn’t Peaches?”
“No. I would have recognized him.”
“What about the car?”
“I think it was the same car. A Ford or something like that.”
“Color?”
“In the dark all cars are black.” Grace looked from one of them to the other. “Are you going to tell Fred what I told you? I don’t want to lose my job.”
“Did you touch the envelope with your bare hands?” Drake asked.
“Fred gave me a pair of gloves, too.”
Melody broke in. “You must have known the gloves were to keep you from getting fingerprints on the envelope.”
