Headhunters

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Milton pulled into the lot of the Playford Tavern. He had found it with a quick search on Hughes’ phone and selected it because it was outside the city and a half hour’s drive away from the house. It was a basic motel, with clean and functional rooms. There was a restaurant for guests and, as Milton surveilled his surroundings, he saw a couple emerge from the door to their room, cross the veranda and enter the large room. Matilda was sleeping in the passenger seat, still deep in the grip of the narcotic, but he didn’t want to leave her for long. He walked briskly to the reception, where he booked a room for one night and paid in advance with the cash that he had taken from Hughes. The room was fifty bucks, which left him $250 once the transaction had been completed. That wasn’t going to be anywhere near enough to get out of the country. He would have to think about the best way to find more.

He paused at the exit, checked left and right, and, confident that he was not being observed, he cautiously crossed the lot to the car. He had been allotted a room at the end of a long row, and he parked the car directly outside the door. The room was small and basic, as he had expected, with a double bed, two chairs and a television that sat on a cheap bureau. A door opposite the bed opened into the rudimentary bathroom.

It would serve their purposes.

He returned to the car and, after checking once again that he was unobserved, opened the door and stooped down to Matilda’s recumbent body. He released the safety belt, slid one arm beneath her legs and the other behind her back and lifted her out. Her muscles were relaxed and her head rested against his chest. Milton crossed the veranda, entered the room and closed the door with a backwards push from his foot. He laid Matilda down on the bed, closed the curtains and locked the door, fastening the chain for added security.

He took out the Glock and rested it on the table. Then he took out Hughes’ cell phone and opened a window in the browser.

He had business to attend to.