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As crazy as it was, it only took about five minutes for the clerk to figure out Frieda was Frieda Ellington—a woman frequently arrested for illegal gambling, and Mad Dog was Elona Bethel, picked up for shoplifting dog food. Once that was squared away, the clerk told them bail was seven fifty for Mad Dog and fifteen hundred for Frieda. They looked at each other before turning to me.
Nora bit her lip. “Could I borrow a little money until we get back to the hotel? I forgot I don’t have my purse.”
“And I need some cash, too,” Gram announced. “But I’m not paying you back. You’re going to be getting plenty from me soon enough.”
I shook my head, more at myself than these two, as I got out my wallet. When we were finally done, we piled back into the car.
“Thank you, Beck,” Nora said. “For bailing us out and for loaning me the money to help the lady I met.”
I looked in the rearview mirror. “Where did you meet this Mad Dog?”
She smirked. “In the clinker.”
I laughed. “You just bailed out a woman you didn’t know before getting locked up?”
Nora shrugged. “She was really nice. And she rescues dogs.”
I had no idea what the fuck to do with that, so I started the car.
“What hotel are you at?”
“Paradise Found. Sorry, I can’t even look up the address for you since my phone is gone.”
“Gone?”
“Stolen. By rotten teenagers.”
My lip twitched. “Of course.”
Paradise Found was a fifteen-minute ride from the police station. I figured I’d get a room and decide what I was doing after I crashed for a few hours. But when we walked into the resort, and Nora and my grandmother asked the front desk for new keys to their rooms, the guy behind the desk disappeared and came back with a man wearing a suit.
“Hello, Ms. Sutton, Ms. Aster. I’m the manager, Alan Harmon. I’m sorry to inform you that we can no longer allow you to stay at this property. We’ll refund any charges that we’ve advanced for the remaining nights.”
Gram’s hands flew to her hips. “Why can’t we stay here?”
“Because of the incident.” The manager’s eyes dropped to Nora’s uniform—the one she’d apparently stolen from the hotel. “We’ve taken the liberty of packing your things for you. We have them in the back. Just give me a minute to get them.”
“I cannot believe this,” Nora said.
“I can’t say I blame them.” I shook my head. “You were arrested for public indecency on their grounds, and you’re currently wearing evidence that you stole from their property.”
“No.” Nora shook her head. “I don’t mean that. I get that they have a reason to toss us out, but they packed our stuff for us? That means someone touched my vibrator.”
“Mine too,” my grandmother added.
I shut my eyes.First dirty talk and now a vibrator. It was shaping up to be a great day after traveling all night. I shook it off, taking out my cell to text my assistant. Except I only had one bar. Thinking it probably wasn’t a great idea to ask for the hotel’s Wi-Fi password, I excused myself and stepped outside.
The service there wasn’t much better, but at least I was able to shoot off a text asking Gwen to find a decent hotel somewhere. When I returned to the front desk, the manager was wheeling two bags around the counter.
“We also have two glass jars,” he said. “We didn’t want them to break, so they weren’t packed into the suitcases. Let me grab those.”
He came back out carrying two Mason jars. Both were filled with little pieces of paper.
“Are those yours?” I looked to Nora.
She nodded. “One is mine and one is Louise’s.”
“What are they?”
