Austin and Mac separate at the hospital’s exit and meet each other in the parking lot of the Antlers Motel, Austin dismounting his motorcycle and Mac stepping out of her squad car. They make an odd pair, Austin thinks. A runaway punk and a sheriff’s deputy. Mac doesn’t look surprised to see him, and smiles as they both converge on the front office of the motel.
“We should really stop meeting like this,” she jokes, nudging Austin with her shoulder.
Austin snorts, but doesn’t nudge her back. “You could’ve asked me to ride with you. I’ve never been in the front seat of a cop car before.”
Mac laughs. “Well, next time you can ride with me.”
“You think anyone’s still staying here?” Austin asks, pausing just outside the door to the front office. The place doesn’t look like anything special to him. It’s not brand new, but not falling apart, either, and he can see how it would look nice all lit up at night. There’s a big neon sign out in front of the parking lot advertising the motel, the word VACANCIES gleaming underneath of it, and the construction in the back of the place isn’t visible from the road. Not visible from the parking lot, either, but the droning noise of the equipment can be heard from just about anywhere in town.
Mac shrugs. “Dunno. The construction workers are always here, but their company puts them up at a hotel in the next town over. Most of the people who were here probably didn’t expect to be part of an investigation, and left. It’s not like we locked the place down.”
“So if someone saw something important, they might not even be in town anymore.”
“It’s possible.” Mac frowns, then opens the front office’s door, and nods for Austin to go in first. “We’ll find out, I guess.”
The inside of the motel’s front office isn’t much to look at. On the end of the room farthest from the door is a counter with all the necessary supplies for complimentary coffee, the top lightly dusted with spilled sugar and hot chocolate mix. The place smells like a mixture of slightly burnt coffee and cleaning supplies, so many chemicals it makes Austin’s nose wrinkle. He glances to where Mac was pointing before, a long desk area that juts out from the wall, covered in wooden paneling that almost looks new.
The man behind the desk is tall, with an unshaven face and shaggy, unruly hair that juts out at strange angles. There are dark circles under his eyes to rival Austin’s own, but then again, this is a twenty-four hour place. There’s no telling how long he’s been awake for. He smiles at Austin and Mac, his lips a thin gash through his five o’clock shadow.
“Looking for a room?” he asks, glancing curiously between Austin and Mac, like he’s trying to imply some reason they might want a room together. Austin decides immediately that he does not like this man.
“Actually,” Mac says, turning towards the desk and stepping up to it, “we were hoping to ask you some questions about the people who have been attacked here.”
The man - his name tag reads NATE - drops his smile. “Yeah, I figured someone would come asking around about that eventually. What do you need to know?”
Mac flips through the evidence folder in her arms, stopping at a picture of Lorraine - the woman she and Austin just saw in the hospital. She turns it around to show it to Nate. “Were you working when this woman was attacked?”
“Her?” Nate scans the photo, his eyes widening slightly in recognition. “Oh, yeah. Yeah, I was here for that. I heard her screaming bloody murder in the parking lot, waking everybody up, so I went out to see what was going on.”
“Did you see anything suspicious?”
“I didn’t. Whatever bit her was already gone - I called 911 before I came out, just in case it was something bad. Good thing I did, too. Blood all over the place.”
“Do you think it was a wild animal?” Austin asks, watching Nate’s face for a reaction.
Nate’s frown grows a little more pronounced. “Probably. Dunno what else it could be. A lot of guests have been complaining about hearing stuff outside at night. Scratching at their doors, that kind of thing. That lady wasn’t the first one to have to get stitches, but her bites were the worst I’ve seen yet.”
“Who was the first to get stitches?” Austin asks, curious.
“Uh, some guest about a week and a half ago. I think they were on their way over here to get ice or towels or whatever, and they got jumped in the parking lot by the dog, or whatever’s been attacking people.” Nate shrugs. “Like I said, it wasn’t as bad as this other lady, the one who just got attacked.”
Mac is scribbling in her notepad, but looks up. “Have you seen any animals around that might fit the bill?”
“No, not me. I’m always in here, working the desk. I don’t see much.” Nate leans back in his seat, letting out a long exhale, almost seeming to deflate. “I’m worried we might lose business over it. The owner and his wife are on vacation for the week, and I don’t know how to break the news to them that someone almost died here.” He pauses, looking from Austin’s face to Mac’s. and then back again. “The construction guys have been talking about seeing stuff in the woods, too. I thought they were making bullshit jokes, but maybe you should talk to them.”
“Huh,” Mac says. She glances to Austin, her interest clearly piqued. “Maybe we should talk to them.”
“We definitely should,” Austin agrees, nodding. He looks back to Nate, wondering what other useful information he could possibly have left in him. “Is anyone else here who saw any of the attacks?”
“There’s only one person still staying here,” Nate says, glancing back behind him and running his eyes over the rows of cubbies that hold keys to each room. “Room 106. Some guy from out east. I think he’s in town right now, but if you stick around you can probably catch him.”
Mac chews her lip, turning her back on the desk area and looking at Austin. It’s hard to tell what she’s thinking, but she looks concerned. “I can’t stick around all day. I need to get back and talk to Monty...she’s probably expecting a report on the hospital, and we have stuff to follow up on with the crime scene on the road.”
She’s right, Austin thinks. She has to play by the rules of a regular investigation. But me - well, I’m not recognizable as a cop, for one thing. And I’ve got all the time in the world to stake this place out.
“How about this,” he says to Mac in a low voice, trying to hold eye contact, though it’s something he’s always had trouble with. “Let’s look around the construction site before you go, then you can go back to the station and make your reports, or whatever you need to do. I’ll stay here tonight. I’ll look around, talk to the guy who’s staying here, and see what happens after hours. Maybe it’s just an animal, and there’s nothing to worry about, but we should at least cover all our bases first.”
“Okay.” Mac stops to consider. “Yeah, okay. But listen -” She takes out her notepad, scribbles something on it hastily, and tears the sheet off. “Here’s the number of the sheriff’s department. Monty or me, we’ll probably be around all night. If you need anything, you call, okay?”
She hands Austin the sheet of paper, and he folds it up small enough to fit in his jacket pocket, running his thumb nail over the creases to make them tight. He nods at Mac. Maybe they’re not even close to being friends yet, but he likes her. Austin isn’t exactly one to get good vibes about people, but being around Mac makes him feel more secure, somehow, and he kind of wishes that they didn’t have to split up. But he’s spent nights alone in scarier motels than this one.
He looks over Mac’s head, catching Nate’s eye and trying to smile. “Looks like I’m gonna need a room for the night.”
“I figured,” Nate says dryly, and it’s not long before Austin is leaving the motel office with the key to Room 105 clutched in his hand.
“We’re going to go look at the construction site,” Mac tells Nate, on her way out the door, glancing over her shoulder at him.
“Be my guest,” Nate says, with a shrug.
The door to the office swings shut, and Mac looks to Austin expectantly, like she wants him to lead the way around back. He stares back at her for a moment before realizing what he’s meant to do, then unsticks himself from the pavement, starting off towards the back of the motel. The sooner they get this over with, the less likely it is that anyone else here will get attacked - or so Austin can hope, anyway.
being around mac also makes ME feel secure, austin, i totally get it