Stolen Daughters (Detective Amanda Steele)

“Fine,” he spat. “I’ll talk, but I might take you up on that protection.”

“Okay. Why don’t we start from the top?” She figured if they backtracked and focused on the mystery man’s movements first, by the time they reached the point when the girls showed up, he’d be a little more relaxed.

“The guy rented the rooms.”

“Uh-huh, and what was he driving?” she asked.

“He arrived on foot.”

Not surprising. He probably left his van in the insurance company’s parking lot and walked over. “Okay, keep going.”

“He got the rooms, went into them, then about an hour after, these two girls were dropped off.”

“What time was this?”

“Say, ten thirty.”

She nodded. That would have given the killer time to drug the girls and wait for it to set in before escorting them to the van around eleven thirty, when Janet had spotted them. He could have had the girls long gone before their handler even clued in. “What did the girls look like?”

“I dunno. Young, I guess. Pretty, blond. They wore sexy clothing.”

“Did you happen to notice if they had any tattoos?” she asked.

“Nope. Didn’t notice.”

“Okay, they were dropped off. Then what?”

“The girls knocked on his door, and he let them in.”

“Which door did they go to?” she asked.

“Seven.”

That was the one without the back door… So the killer had the girls delivered to room seven, and then unbeknownst to their handler, the girls were likely shuffled into room eight and taken out the back door. “Did the person who brought them leave or…?”

Roy licked his lips and pushed out, “He stayed out front in the car he’d brought them in.”

Now that Roy was opening up, Amanda slipped in her earlier question. “Did you get a good look at him?”

He met her gaze. “He had the driver’s window down, and he was smoking. Oh, and he was playing country music. Just loud enough to sort of pick up, but not booming or anything. But gah, I hate the stuff.”

“Did he ever get out of the car?” Amanda was pressuring now, but she felt the effort would pay off. After all, Roy didn’t bring up protection because he didn’t get a good look at the girls’ handler.

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Roy’s eyes went dark, and he stared across the room. “Yeah.”

She might need to wait a little yet before getting some description on the guy. “And what did he do?”

“He banged on the door of room seven.”

“What time was this?” Trent asked.

“About one in the morning. When no one answered, the guy stomped into the office and demanded I give him a key to the room.” He paused there, and his body was visibly trembling.

“You’re doing good.” Amanda was trying to keep calm herself. Roy would have gotten a real good look at the guy. “Keep going,” she encouraged.

“I told him I couldn’t give him a key.”