CHAPTER 26
Linda decided to go to the gas station and ask anyone, if they'd seen William's car. To her surprise, the young cashier nodded.
'The guy was weird and nowhere near as polite as you ma'am,' replied the young man with smiling eyes. 'Someone called and I told the man that the Blue Sky Inn was on the other side of the road, and that he needed room number seven. He began yelling at me and asked who had called and why. How was I meant to know?'
'Oh, thanks!' Linda replied sincerely, as her heart started beating faster, anticipating trouble. It was a useless idea to search for a way over the highway, so she had to take a risk and cross to the middle, when no cars were approaching. When she reached the median strip, she had to wait again. When the motel was no more than fifty meters away, she heard the noise of a car approaching at speed behind her. Linda flinched and moved out of the way just in time to see a black Chevrolet Tahoe speed into the parking lot. A large dark-skinned man in a black suit jumped out and raced to the far end of the building. She followed him, counting the door numbers. The stranger was some twenty steps ahead of her, but when the man reached the door, she heard him scream:
'Damn it!'
Linda could already see what had happened in front of her: Inspector Wilson standing a step short of the entrance, Lieutenant Lindstone laying on the floor with a gun in hand, the body of another man in a hoodie laying in a pool of blood and on the left, through the open door, she also saw legs of a motionless young woman. A pool of blood around her was slowly widening and had by now approached her knees.
'Sorry,' Linda whispered, holding onto the doorframe.
'Who are you? How did you get here?' the inspector enquired to her.
'I'm Linda Wu, a reporter for cable TV. I was told at the gas station over the road that the Lieutenant was here in room number seven,' she exclaimed, trying her best to tell the inspector everything she knew. 'I was at his house a couple of hours ago,' she continued, pointing to William's body. 'I heard him tell someone the address of the gas station and tailed him. I wanted to make a report on the heroic work of the police.'
'Stay here, don't touch anything!' the black policeman's orders rang out like gunfire. 'You need to stay here until the police arrive and will be needed as a witness, along with me. Understand?'
Linda was taken aback by his assertiveness, and besides, she's never seen a murder with her own eyes. She dutifully trudged to the black car as the inspector called his colleagues. She didn't see him standing near the car door with a lump in his throat, repeating the same phrase over and over: 'How could it be Bill?' After a minute or so, he opened the door and sat on the bench seat in the back.
The noise of the highway traffic grew quieter as fewer cars populated the roads. Time seemed to slow down like a wheel of fortune in a casino. It seemed that today, fate's roulette went all-in with everyone.