C10 Chapter 10

The ‘Hello Goodbye Motel’ was a single-story structure with ten guest rooms. Even so, it wasn’t easy to approach with stealth. All the rooms had windows that looked out front over the main road. The entrance was such that every car had to drive by each room on the way to the reception. The chances of being spotted were high and the chances that Hope would

escape if she saw him were high. He would have to go to reception and ask if they had a guest fitting her description.

If she spotted him driving up in that time she would be long gone by the time he got to her room. He watched for hours but so no movement. He wondered if Hope had checked out already. After her capture, she might have decided to move on. Brian radioed him and asked where he was.

“I’m questioning the kids we arrested who were released. So far nothing. Let me know if anything comes up at your end.”

Brian assured him that he would.

Zane turned his thoughts back to Hope. He couldn’t get her out of his mind. He didn’t know why. Did he feel a need to save her? Was she a challenge? Did his ego have to win and arrest her? Did he have to prove he could beat her? Or protect her?

He thought back to the night they had shared. He hadn’t been with a woman for a long time. Not since his engagement with his fiancee had ended years before. He was sure his ex-fiancée had moved on and married some asshole in the big city with more money than he could ever give her. Was it his choice to avoid relationships since then? He thought so. Partially anyway. In truth though, there weren’t that many women in Hurstville that he took a fancy to. It was a small town and the pickings were slim. He’d had a few one night stands over the years but was never sufficiently attracted to any of the women to pursue something more permanent with them.

And then, as fate would have it, it sent him a woman that he couldn’t stop thinking about. A woman that he had to arrest and put behind bars. He chastised himself again as he realized how he had squandered his chances already in favor of his dick. He told himself it couldn’t happen again. He needed to end this when he caught her again. Besides, he had tried to agree that the night they had shared was the one night they could accept as having been a good time and put it behind them. He couldn’t afford to have another night like that.

Then, he sat up straighter. The door to the room at the far end of the motel, closest to the street entrance opened and someone stepped out. It was a woman. He focused the binoculars. It was her. Her hair was tied up. She wore sunglasses and a tank top with running shorts and sneakers. She stretched on the porch of her motel room and then began jogging. She jogged out the motel entrance and turned left coming along the main road in the direction of the supermarket. She looked neither right nor left as she jogged past the supermarket.

He watched her through his binoculars. It was as if she were right before him. He took in her toned legs as she placed one in front of the other, her firm ass and her breasts as they bounced with each step she took.

He was amazed. He truly had not imagined that she would be going for a run in the town considering she had just escaped from arrest the day before. Then again, not many people knew about her and her picture had not been circulated around the town so why shouldn’t she behave like just another resident. Hell, it hadn’t even been announced on the news.

Zane watched her as she jogged on down the road. He kept the binoculars trained on her as he watched her firm ass and thighs. He felt himself stiffen in his pants and adjusted his manhood for more comfort.

He guessed she would come back the way she had gone since there was no block to run around that would bring her back to the Motel.

He decided to make a move and get into her hotel room while she was gone. Then he could arrest her when she got back. The day’s heat was almost unbearable and he was grateful for the cruiser’s air conditioning. But he turned it off with the vehicle’s engine. He climbed out and locked the car. He made his way back down the road trying to attract as little attention to himself as he could. When he reached the entrance of the motel he jogged across the road and ran up the drive of the motel. He ignored the reception and hoped that no-one saw him. He ran past the side of the building to the back. The first room on his right was Hope’s room. There was a window which was covered by a screen.

He knew these cheap motels and their poor security. The screens and windows seldom closed properly and the screen and window at the rear of Hope’s room certainly did not disappoint him this time either.

The screen protested harshly as he lifted it. It didn’t bother him. He doubted anyone in reception had heard him or that anyone would care about the noise he made at the back of the motel.

The window was easier. It wasn’t even latched properly. He shook his head at how little people cared about security these days but then said a quick prayer of thanks that other people’s poor attention to security made his entrance so easy.

He climbed through the window and closed it. He paused. He hadn’t thought of what he would do beyond getting into her room. Would he wait for her and arrest her?

He had time to kill. He decided he may as well go through her belongings and see what he could find out.

He exited the bathroom and looked around. The room was small and sparsely furnished. It looked like something out of the seventies and for a moment the movie ‘Psycho’ crossed his mind.

He didn’t see any suitcases standing around. He moved around the bed which hadn’t been made and kneeled. He felt under the bed and his hand found a rucksack. He pulled it out and studied it.

Just then he heard a cell phone ping and he froze. Was she back? He looked around quickly and spotted her cell phone on the bedside table. He picked it up and swiped the screen. Damn. It needed a pattern. He didn’t know what it was. He put her cell phone back on the bedside table and opened her rucksack. He went through it trying to preserve the

neatness with which she had packed it so she would not suspect that someone had gone through it later. Finally, feeling that he might be running out of time he began to search more frantically and decided to hell with the neatness. He found nothing he could use as evidence in her rucksack. He liked her taste in underwear but that was useless as evidence. He quickly packed everything back into the rucksack, closed it, and pushed it back under the bed.

He peered out the window but didn’t see her yet. He picked up her cell phone and swiped the screen again. The pattern. He had no idea. He remembered a trick he had seen in a children’s cartoon and tried breathing on the screen. He smiled as he saw the residue from her fingers and the trail they had left on the screen. He tried it once. It didn’t

work. He frowned. Why not? Then he realized he should try drawing the pattern in the reverse direction. It worked!

He looked up and peered out the window.

Damn! She was coming back. He saw her at the entrance to the motel’s drive.

He looked at the phone in his hand. He was out of time! Should he steal it? No. If he did, she would close the network faster than he could check every number. Besides, he had no search warrant. There was no way anything he discovered could be held against her in court. He pressed the auto-lock button and put the phone back on the bedside table. Then

he ran for the bathroom. He closed the door behind him as he heard her key in the lock.

He wasn’t going to get out in time! He stepped into the bath instead and pulled the curtain shut behind him. Moments later he heard the door open and close as Hope entered the room.