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“And Darien or Lelandi.”
Darien and Lelandi Silver, their pack leaders,always needed to be made aware of any trouble the pack members might be in for.
“Right. Thanks so much, Nate. I’ll let my brothers know right away too.” She got off the phone and was hurrying out to see Blake and warn everyone about Durham Manning when someone approached the counter, a man with a shaved head from what she could see under the cap, his face free of whiskers. He didn’t look like the man in the photo—who was bearded and whose hair was black and curly. The man at the counter’s eyes were hidden behind dark glasses, and he had a cap worn low, the bill shading his features. He asked for the set of keys he had left in the room, his voice gruff and commanding as if he could intimidate Blake into giving them up just like that.
Kayla immediately slipped the rap sheet Nate had sent to her below the counter for Blake to see, then hurried back into the office to call Peter. She shut the door, not wanting to leave her brother out there by himself to deal with a potential armed robber but needing to get a hold of the sheriff right away before the guy left.
“Peter, we might have a situation here.” She briefly explained what was going on.
“On our way.”
She loved that about the sheriff’s department. They would come at a moment’s notice. Not that they didn’t have other situations to take care of intown, but Peter would make sure everything was covered pronto. She opened the office door to see the man holding his hands out, palms up and shaking his head. She texted Landon and Roxie about a potential emergency.
“I don’t know what the big deal is,” the man said at the front desk. “I told you who I am.”
“It’s just a formality. We don’t want to hand over the keys to the wrong person. It could constitute a liability issue. Do you remember where you had left them?” Blake asked.
The man tilted his head to the side a little. “In. The. Room.”
If he’d left them there, he would have known they were in the safe. Not just in the room lying on the dresser or some such place.
Kayla saw Landon stalking across the floor—ready to take care of any troublemaker in their midst. Both her brothers were six feet tall, muscled but not outrageously, and they wouldn’t take any guff off of anyone.
“Do you have the vehicle with you that these car keys belong to?” Blake asked.
“No. I rented the car after a plane trip to Colorado. That’s why I didn’t realize that I had left my keys behind until I reached the airport. What else do I have to do to prove to you these are my keys?”
Kayla was listening to everything that was being said as she checked in another guest. The maindoors opened, and she glanced in that direction to see Peter and the pack leader’s brother Tom and Tom’s cousin Deputy Sheriff CJ Silver enter the lodge to speak with the man talking to Blake. She was relieved to see them and hoped there wouldn’t be a fight between them and the shaved-headed guy.
“You’re going to need to come with us so we can have a little talk,” Peter said, showing his badge and identifying himself as the sheriff of Silver Town.
“What the hell,” the man said, practically growling. “I come to get my car keys that I’d accidentally left in my room, and I’m interrogated as if I’m a common thief?”
“Come with us. We’ll talk down at the sheriff’s office.” Peter was firm.
The shaved-headed guy’s face grew crimson. “What? Are you going to arrest me? You have no cause. I know my rights.”
“You’re claiming you’re Durham Manning, and he happens to be wanted by the FBI for questioning. They’re on their way to Silver Town now to speak with you. Put your hands behind your back,” Peter said.
“All right. I’m not him.”
Kayla had known he was lying when she had spoken to him on the phone.
“So who are you then?” Peter asked. “Have you got any ID on you?”
“No.”
Convenient.
“I mean, how could I say I was him when we don’t look anything alike? So I left my ID with him. So what happened was I’d met him on a hike a few days earlier and we walked together and he said his name was Durham Manning. He told me that he was staying at the lodge. Anyway, he’d left his keys in his room, and he said he’d pay me a couple hundred bucks to get them. Then I came to get them for him. I didn’t figure it would be a crime or any damn thing.”
“Just like that? Did he give you a reason why he didn’t want to return to get the keys himself?” Peter asked.
“Nope. I just figured he had his reasons. I didn’t realize he was wanted by the FBI, or I wouldn’t have done it.”
“Okay. Well, since the FBI is on the way to Silver Town, they’ll want to question you about everything you know concerning Durham Manning,” Peter said again.
“I told you. I didn’t really know him. I just met him on a hike, and we were mostly just…hiking.”
