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“No one heard the shots?”
“They don’t get a lot of business this time of year. We’re pretty much a ghost town until it cools off a little. They don’t have a night clerk unless they specifically have a customer. It isn’t like there’s a bunch of stuff around it either.”
“He got shot in a Borrego Motel but drove home to bleed out?”
“Seems unlikely,” Radcliff told her.
“Whose case is it?"
“Both? If he was killed up there, then he’s the primary. Down here, then we’re in charge. My guess is since he died in our jurisdiction, we’ll be taking the lead on this one,” Ames explained.
“So, you decided to all work together?”
“Not really. We probably go our separate ways after this. When he asked about you, we figured we could do him a solid.”
“They said you could be a tad uncooperative,” Deputy Brantley said.
“Is that so?”
“Actually,” Ames told her, “I think the word I used was hostile.”
“Hostile?”
“That’s what he said. He said you’d be nicer to me if they came along and did most of the talking.”
“Is that so?”
“I don’t know how it would have gone without those two along, but you seem nice enough.”
“I have my moments. Was it Stick’s blood in the room?”
“We’re not really telling you anything, Margot,” Ames told her. “This is a homicide investigation, and you are not with the police.”
“Maybe,” Brantley added, ignoring Ames. “We have to send our stuff to the lab and it’s fair to say we aren’t usually on the high priority list. When I sent it in, we didn’t have a body, so I couldn’t rightly say it was blood from a murder scene. So I’m sure that pushed it back even more. I can say for certain that he was in the room.”
“The room or his room?”
“The room. He was checked in, but the room where he may have met his end was the one Randy was staying at.”
“Was Randy still there?”
“Hey, Margot?” Ames said. “This is a police matter now. You’re going to need to stay out of it.”
“I’m just asking questions.”
“We ask the questions.”
“Didn’t you say she was seeing him?” Brantley said as he pointed at Radcliff who nodded yes.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Won’t he tell her anyway?”
Ames looked over at his younger partner and shook his head. “I’d guess yes, but he shouldn’t.”
Brantley nodded and then said to Margot, “No, Randy wasn’t there. He never checked out though and no one had seen him for days. He left his stuff too.”
“Could it have been Randy’s blood?”
