"Are you okay?" Mac asked Jack, after they had nearly missed a thicket of trees on the side of the road.
"Yeah, I'll live," Jack said, as he massaged the back of his neck. "What about you?"
"I'm good," Mac replied, as he slowly stepped out of his Jeep. He walked around his vehicle and inspected all four tires for signs of damage. Thankfully, they were all intact.
"Who do you think tried to run us off the road?" Jack wondered out loud.
"I'd guess it's the same person who doesn't want us to go to the Shadow Haven Motel. I don't know who it is, but I'm going to find out, with Pete's help. I caught the license plate number on the car. Pete can track down the owner and hopefully that will be the driver," Mac replied, as he picked up his car phone from the center console but heard no dial tone. He placed the receiver back down on the base. Mac rubbed his hand over his chin as he looked down at the phone.
"Problemo?" Jack asked his friend.
"Yeah. No dial tone, probably no reception. These trees are pretty tall," Mac answered.
"So, what are we going to do now?" Jack exclaimed.
"Go to the Shadow Haven Motel. Maybe the manager will let me call Pete on his office phone," Mac replied with a gleam in his eye.
xxx
Mac pulled up to the Shadow Haven Motel office. Jack and Mac stepped out of the Jeep and walked over to the office. Mac jiggled the doorknob, only to find that it was locked. He peered inside but it was dark. There wasn't even a sign on the door that said when or if the manager or clerk was coming back.
"There's a payphone over there," Jack pointed to the left of the office. Jack walked over to the phone and dug his hands deep into his pants pockets. He pulled his hands out, palms up. "It seems I don't have any spare change," Jack apologized. Mac shook his head, walking past Jack. Mac picked up the receiver and smiled as he confirmed a dial tone. He pulled out a quarter from his pocket and dropped it into the slot of the phone with a clink. He quickly pressed Pete's private number into the keypad. The phone started to ring.
"Hey, Pete. It's me, MacGyver. Jack and I got run off the road on the way to the Shadow Haven Motel," Mac paused as Pete interrupted him to ask if they sustained any injuries. "We're okay," Mac assured Pete. "Look, we're here on a hunch, I'll explain later. I need a favor." Mac jumped in before Pete could question him, "I need you to trace the license plate on the car that drove us off the road. California 2GAT123. I'd tell you to call me back at this number, but it's a payphone and we don't plan on hanging around here. And we're out in the middle of nowhere, so I don't have reception on my car phone. I'll give you a call when we get to civilization. Thanks, Pete," Mac said as he hung up the phone.
"Are we hitting the road, Amigo?" Jack asked Mac.
The creaking of the wheels of a housekeeping cart caught Mac's attention. A short woman in her fifties with dark hair was pushing the cart from one room to the next. She was wearing pale blue pants and an oversized white sweatshirt. The woman was humming as she emptied a waste basket into the trash bag on the cart.
"Excuse me, ma'am," Mac addressed the woman.
The woman smiled, as she looked up at Mac. "Can I help you, sir?" asked the housekeeper.
"The office door is locked, and it's dark inside. Do you know when the manager or clerk is going to be back?" Mac asked.
"No. The owner is the manager and the clerk. He doesn't keep regular hours. We don't get many guests here. He does everything but clean. That's what I do! My name is Luisa," the woman babbled on.
"Hi, Luisa. My name is MacGyver, and this is my friend Jack. You have a lot of responsibility. It must be a lot of work, keeping all of these rooms clean," Mac smiled at Luisa as he complimented her.
"Oh, yes it is. And sometimes we get the messiest guests here. You should see the next room that I have to clean. It looks like a hurricane came through it! At least this is the last time that I will need to clean it," Luisa pointed to the door in front of the three of them.
"Why won't you need to clean it again?" Mac asked.
"The man left, right before you two got here. He wasn't scheduled to check out today. A black Mercedes came speeding in, a man got out, and flung open the guest's door. He didn't even knock. The man in the Mercedes told me that the guest was checking out and he would settle the bill later. The owner is not going to like that. I don't think he will see that money! Then they got into the Mercedes and took off," Luisa narrated what she had witnessed.
Jack and Mac looked at each other suspiciously.
"What was the guest's name?" Jack asked Luisa.
Luisa picked up her clipboard and flipped a page. "John Smith." Luisa looked up at Jack.
"Was this the man?" Mac asked Luisa, as he showed her Cook's mugshot.
"Yes, that was him. He was just average looking. Not what I would consider handsome,. Luisa looked away from Mac and blushed.
Jack stepped in between Luisa and Mac. "It just so happens that we know Mr. Smith and we came to pick up something that he had for us. There is a chance that it is still in the room since he left abruptly. Do you mind if we look in his room?" Jack requested.
Luisa didn't appreciate Jack interrupting her conversation with Mac. She turned back to Mac.
"If whatever Mr. Smith had for you is important, of course you can look in the room. I won't clean it till you have gone through it," Luisa agreed, addressing Mac.
"Thank you, Luisa. We won't be long," Mac smiled as he gently touched her upper arm in passing to the room.
xxx
"Luisa was right. It does look like a hurricane hit this room," Jack said as he opened the door and flipped on the light switch.
The room smelled of smoke. On the right side of the room, the linens lay on the floor next to the bed and the mattress had been flipped over. All the drawers in the dresser on the opposite side of the room had been pulled out and the contents dumped? Clothing was piled up next to the dresser. Underneath the window, on the opposite wall, there was a small table with two chairs. Three or four white cartons containing the remnants of a Chinese feast with chopsticks sticking out of them lay amongst crushed beer cans on the tabletop. An ashtray with a partially burned piece of paper appeared to be the source of the smoke. Jack walked over to the table and reached for the ashtray. Mac grabbed his arm.
"Don't touch that paper. It may have been set on fire to hide a clue," Mac suggested.
"Too bad. We'll never know," Jack said as he stepped away from the table.
"Maybe not," Mac scanned the table and picked up a pair of chopsticks still sealed in their paper wrapper. He looked out the window and spied an empty plastic spray bottle hanging off Luisa's cart. "Jack, grab the first aid kit in the back seat of my Jeep and that spray bottle from Luisa's cart." With a salute, Jack hurried out the door.
Mac inspected the torn-up room. Leaping over the pile of sheets and blankets on the floor by the bed, he grabbed the lamp on the night table, pulled the plug out of the wall, and tossed the lampshade aside. Mac crossed the room in long strides towards the dresser. Kneeling down, he routed through the piles of clothes and grabbed a piece of motel stationery. Jack had come back with Mac's first aid kit in one hand and a transparent plastic spray bottle in the other. The two men met at the table.
With a swipe of his arm, Mac cleared off a workspace on the table. He placed the lamp and the stationery on one side of the table surface and grabbed the first aid kit from Jack. He opened it up and rummaged through it until he pulled out a small, brown opaque bottle. The white label read, "Vegetable Glycerin." Mac took the spray bottle out of Jack's hand and dashed into the bathroom. Jack stood at the table with a puzzled look on his face, wondering what his buddy was up to.
In the bathroom, Mac poured half the bottle of glycerin into the spray bottle and filled it with an equal amount of water from the tap. He screwed on the top and gave it a good shake.
"Let me guess. You know a way to read what's written on the paper?" Jack asked as Mac made his way back to the table.
"Uh huh," Mac replied as he slid the burnt paper out of the ash tray onto the blank piece of stationery. He lightly sprayed the charred clue with the glycerin and water mixture. He tore the paper off the chopsticks and carefully smoothed out the burned paper with the chopsticks, being careful not to breathe too hard.
"Plug in that lamp and turn it on, please," Mac motioned to Jack.
Mac pulled the lamp closer to him and cautiously lifted the stationery with the burned paper over the light. Like a magic trick, the writing on the paper was illuminated.
"The glycerin acts as a moistening agent to keep the paper from crumbling into ash while I smoothed it out. The ink doesn't burn easily, so any writing remains fairly unscathed by the flame. And since the ink also repels water, it won't be damaged by the water and glycerin solution. The water will make the paper semi-transparent, meaning that it will allow light to pass through it, however the ink will not be transparent. When I hold the wet paper over the light, you can see the outline of the writing," Mac explained the method to his madness to Jack.
"Wow! This trick wasn't included in my mail-order magic correspondence course. So, what does it say?" Jack asked.
"Pleasant Springs Golf Course. Claim Check. 874532. It appears to be a claim check for an item at the lost and found. Maybe Cook was planning on claiming something."
"Like the real diamonds?" Jack wondered.
"Might be," Mac answered
"Next stop, Pleasant Springs Golf Course?" Jack inquired.
"Yes. Next stop, Pleasant Springs Golf Course," Mac replied.