no body no crime

bulletproof

I pressed my palms to my eyes. "Please, you don't understand. This is urgent."

I rubbed away the stress and faced the man behind the counter. He wore a sympathetic frown.

"I'm sorry Miss, but I can't give you her room number. It's against hotel policy."

Fuck hotel policy, I hissed in my head.

"I told you, we're friends," I said again.

He shook his head. "I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do."

"Kenny, come help us for a sec!" A man's voice shouted from the door behind the desk.

Kenny shrugs. "Have a good day, Miss."

I scowled at him as he turned and walked through the door to the offices. It clicked shut behind him.

Sensing my only chance, I ducked under the counter divider and popped up in front of the computer. Glancing over my shoulder at the closed door, I searched her name: Adelina de Luca.

Nothing came up.

Spy. Of course she didn't use her own name.

I thought back to what Elijah called her. "Addie" he had said.

Addie... Luca? No, too similar. Lucas.

I searched the second name and a room popped up. Single queen, three night stay, Addie Lucas. Checked out: 9/19/2020, 4:32 PM.

That was two days ago. I looked in the desk drawers until I found it-the master key.

Crawling back under the counter, I made it out just before Kenny came back through the door. I hurried off towards the front entrance. The moment he turned his back, I slipped into the alcove of the elevators.

Room 328

I pressed the button, glancing over my shoulder as I waited. Finally, I heard a ding and the elevator doors slid open.

A few minutes later I stood outside the door to her hotel room. I pressed the master key to the handle and it opened with a click. I stepped inside the dark room, closing the door behind me. As a last second thought, I opened it again and displayed the "do not disturb" sign.

Back in the room, I strode to the windows and pulled open the curtains. They cleaned the room already.

I shook my head. Of course they cleaned it. What did you expect to find here?

I ran a hand through my hair and pushed away the sour thoughts. This couldn't be a dead end. I needed to find her, and if Adelina was in danger, I doubted she'd leave no trail. There was something here; I just had to find it.

My eyes scanned the room and landed on the wooden dresser beneath the TV. I pulled open each drawer, digging my hands around their corners. Nothing. I tried not to tear apart the room as I searched, beneath the beds, behind the desk and chairs, through the cabinets of the kitchenette.

Twenty minutes later and my hands remained empty.

I sat on the floor, my knees hugged to my chest.

I couldn't fail. Not now, not when I was getting somewhere. Not only would I have to pay the price, but Adelina would still be missing and in trouble. And for some damn reason, they sent me, a college student struggling through classes and debt, never hurt a thing in my life, practically left with no resources and not even a knife to protect me.

I was screwed. Completely screwed.

As I fought back the urge to cry, I pressed my cheek to my knees. My head turned sideways, I faced the vent set into the wall, low to the floor. My eyes narrowed. There was something there... a box outlined in the shadows.

I crawled towards it. A briefcase sat on the other side of the vent. My eyes widened. I dug around in my pockets for my car keys, and used the end to unscrew the vent from the wall.

The screws were loose-this had to be it.

I pulled the cover away, setting it aside, and dragged the black briefcase out of the vent.

I sat with my legs in a V, the case before me. I spun it around, undoing the latches.

I pulled it open. A gun was the first thing laying on top. I picked it up and checked the magazine. Fully loaded. Making sure the safety was on, I rested it on the floor beside me.

Yeah. It's mine now.

Beneath the gun were stacks of papers. I filtered through, discovering passports and certificates, all with Adelina's face on them. And all with different names. I dug through, trying to find something of use. At the bottom of the case sat a tiny notebook, bound in red leather. I flipped through it in the sunlight. Half of the pages were empty, words written sporadically in random places. One page caught my eye.

In big, block letters, were two words:

FIND PIETRO

Of course, there was no instruction on how. I flipped a few pages past, looking for anything else. On the third to last page, a note was scribbled in tiny handwriting.

P- 26B 30th Ave

I memorized the address before replacing the notepad and identification papers in the briefcase. Once I hid it back in the vent, I secured the cover over it, hiding it from view. I stood and stuck the gun in my waistband, hidden by my leather jacket.

One last look around the room, and I left.