Chapter 13:
We walked into the lobby; it was completely deserted except for a woman, mid-twenties was sweeping the floor. Sam spotted the door with the manager's name on it. I took a deep breath as Sam opened the door to the office and made my expression serious and professional. A small, pot bellied man turned around in his chair and I was hit with the smell of cigars and… what was that? Sour milk. I coughed and stopped breathing through my nose. Sam looked around to check I was OK, I gave a small nod and gave a polite smile to the man.
"Hello Mr. Harvey, we met the other day." Sam said, pulling out his badge. I followed suit, fumbling with it, but I opened it finally and showed Mr. Harvey. He eyed me warily and looked at Sam.
"Yes, Agent Young right? I thought you had another partner?" Mr. Harvey said in a polite voice, but gave me a look that made me want to punch him in the jaw.
I took a step forward. Sam held my shoulder, as if he could read my mind. "Yes, he is looking over some evidence. This is a new agent, I'm showing her the ropes. This is Agent Green." He said, covering for my slip up.
"Pleasure to meet you Mr. Harvey. We were wondering if we could get the key for the room that Mrs. Cassandra Jones was staying in?" I said, trying to remain calm. Mr. Harvey nodded and turned around to his messy desk. Sam turned around and gave me a look that said I was doing well. I gave him a small smile.
"Here it is." Mr. Harvey said, turning around and handing Sam a shiny key with the number 45 labeled on. "May I ask if she is a suspect?" He said, sitting back in his chair.
"She was the only person who was here for all three murders, it's just a routine check." Sam said smoothly, and Mr. Harvey seemed relieved.
"What impression did you get of Mrs. Jones? Anything strange or unusual?" I asked, curious.
"I don't see many of the customers, but I did get some strange reports from the maid who worked on her floor." He said, lowering his voice slightly. "She said that she only cleaned her room once, and there was a strange smell and a circle of salt in the middle of the floor. The maid, Sasha, said she made the bed and got out of there as fast as she could. After that Mrs. Jones kept a Do Not Disturb sign on the door." Mr. Harvey said, a tremor in his voice.
Sam looked at me with his eyebrows raised, and quickly turned back to Mr. Harvey. "Is Sasha here today?"
"Yes, she is cleaning the lobby." Mr. Harvey said.
"Thank you for your time. We will return the keys as soon as we are done." Sam said politely, shaking the man's hand. I nodded to the man and turned toward the door.
We walked out to the lobby. Sasha was now wiping down the check in desk.
"Hello, Sasha is it?" I walked toward her and smiled.
"Yes ma'am. Are you with the FBI?" She said, smiling back.
"I am, I am Agent Green and this is Agent Young." I said, showing her my badge, I did better this time. Sam flashed her his badge and smiled.
I saw Sasha blush a little when Sam smiled at her. 'I know the feeling.' I thought to myself.
"Sasha, I heard you had quite the experience in Mrs. Jones room a few weeks ago." I said, I saw her face drain of color.
"Yes, yes. It was awful, the ring of salt, and the book." She shuddered. I looked at Sam, confused. What book?
Sam stepped forward. "What book, Sasha? We didn't hear about a book from Mr. Harvey." he asked in a soft voice.
"Oh well I was so frazzled when I told Mr. Harvey, I probably forgot about it. There was this giant book on the coffee table. It just had a weird vibe, you know? As soon as I saw the ring of salt I straightened up the room and left." She said looking scared.
"I'm sorry you had to go through that Sasha, thank you for your time." Sam said, heading for the elevator.
I was about to follow him when Sasha patted my arm. "I just have one question. Is he taken?" She asked nervously, nodding toward Sam.
I held back a laugh. "Yes, I'm sorry." I said, walking back to Sam.
Sam held the elevator door for me and I walked in. "What was that about?" Sam asked as he pressed the button for the second floor.
I giggled, "Just girl stuff, nothing to worry about." I said. He looked confused but didn't ask any more questions.
We walked out of the elevator and found Mrs. Jones rooms quick. Sam opened the door and walked in. It looked completely normal; Sasha or someone else probably cleaned it when everyone left.
We checked everywhere, above the closets, underneath beds and dressers. Nothing. We met in the middle of the room. Sam kneeled down and felt the carpet, I assumed for the remains of salt. He got up after doing a thorough check and he had a confused look on his face.
"That's strange." He said, sitting down on the small couch, his knees coming up to the middle of his chest.
"What do you mean?" I said, smiling to myself at the sight of him.
"There is absolutely no trace of salt, not one grain. These motels are cheap, they probably don't have state of the art vacuum cleaners." He said, that confused look plastered onto his face.
I sat down next to him. "Do you think that she was framed?" I asked after a few minutes.
"What do you-" Before he could finish his sentence his phone started to ring.
He answered and put it on speaker. "Hey Dean, you got anything?" Sam asked.
"I couldn't find anything interesting with her daughter so I started to look up staff records because they were there the entire time too." Dean said, sounding excited.
"Right, someone on the staff could have done it easily." I said, already a suspect on my mind.
"There is a woman. Sasha, she was questioned and in jail for a while for killing her ex-boyfriend, and I called her parents, she was a very dark child into the supernatural. I think-" The phone flew out of Sam's hand and smashed into the wall. The temperature dropped about ten degrees.
I stood up and grabbed my gun out of its holster, and Sam did the same. The door flew open with a bang and a young girl about 10 appeared in the doorway. I shot at her, and she vanished. In a few seconds she appeared in front of me and threw me into the back of the room, I hit the wall and lost my breath. I heard Sam take a shot at her and silence.
I got up and grabbed my gun. Someone else was at the doorway, someone who I presumed was Cassandra, and Sasha was holding a gun to her head. Sam and I pointed our guns at Sasha.
"Oh, I really hate this. You are way to hot for me to kill you, but I think I will live." Sasha said, her sweet voice gone and replaced with a smoother, deeper voice.
"I could disagree," I said, my finger ready to pull the trigger.
"Ah, ah, ah, you pull that trigger, and sweet little Cassandra gets a bullet in her brain. She was so easy to manipulate, she was already half-insane, and she was already able to communicate with her bitch of a daughter." She said, looking at Cassandra, who looked brain dead.
"Cassandra, you don't have to do this for her, can you hear me? Can you hear what she said about your daughter? Fight this! She just called your sweet daughter a bitch, you hear me?!" I tried, getting through to her.
"Honey please, she is lost in her little world, she believes I am righteous, and I am in a way. Those men were horrible. Mean, selfish, and NEVER REUSED THEIR TOWELS!" She screamed, this lady was insane.
Cassandra had a moment of clarity; I could see it in her eyes. She looked at Sasha and suddenly the gun was out of her hands and was thrown to the side of her room. "My daughter is not a bitch." Was all Cassandra said before she collapsed, her daughter disappeared.
Sam and I walked over to Sasha. Sasha opened her eyes and smiled at Sam.
"Maybe we'll meet in another life, Agent Young." Sasha said winking at Sam. Sam looked disturbed.
I coughed, and Sasha looked over at me. "He's mine, bitch." I said before putting a bullet between her eyes.
