Split Image

35

I STARTED, " Suit said, "the way you would. Check out their social circle, talk to their friends, see if there was somebody knew something."

Suit shook his head.

"No social circle?" Molly said.

"None that I could find," Suit said. "Everybody who knew the ladies said they were nice. But nobody knew them very well."

"So, what did you do?" Molly said.

Molly's something, Jesse thought. Suit's proud of himself, and she's helping him tell about it.

"I went back door," Suit said. "I got a license picture from the registry and took it around to the motels in the area."

"Which one?" Perkins said.

Suit looked slightly annoyed. It was his moment, and he didn't like the interruption.

"Which one what?" Suit said.

"Which one you get a picture of?"

"What's the difference," Suit said. "They look exactly the same."

"Just wondering," Perkins said.

"It took a while," Suit said. "But I was guessing they weren't playing their game at home."

"They might have been," Perkins said.

Suit took a breath.

"Sure," he said. "But if they were, it gave me no place to look and nothing to do."

Perkins nodded. Jesse remembered saying that to Suit on the first case they ever worked. If there's two possibilities, take the one that gives you someplace to go. Kid's a learner, Jesse thought.

"So, I found a clerk at the Beach House in Danvers… which ain't on the beach and ain't a house… This clerk remembered her checking in couple of times."

"Which one?" Perkins said.

"See my answer above," Suit said. "He remembers how good-looking she was, and very nice, checking in with a small suitcase in the middle of the day."

"She use her own name?" Jesse said.

"Bangston," Suit said. "Rebecca Bangston."

"So it was Rebecca," Perkins said. "Not Roberta."

"Who knows," Suit said. "We ran back through the registrations and found a bunch of Bangstons. Sometimes Rebecca, sometimes Roberta."

"You get the credit-card numbers?" Jesse said.

"Yep," Suit said. "Ran 'em past the credit-card company and got a pretty good list of motels and hotels where one or the other was used."

"What address does the credit-card company have for them?" Jesse said.

"Hempstead, Mass.," Suit said.

"Their mother?" Jesse said.

"Yep."

"Sounds like the Bang Bang Twins are alive and well," Jesse said.

"Now what?" Molly said.

"We'll look at the list," Jesse said.