The Last Mile (Amos Decker, #2)(27)

Decker cleared his throat and said, “I told you before that nothing is too important to overlook. The room rate was twenty-five bucks. Why not just pay that in cash? Why pull a credit card?”

“Where’s my lawyer?” Mars demanded. “Where’s Mary?”

“I suppose she left,” replied Decker. “We can call her and wait until she gets here, but it would be faster if you just answered the questions.” He paused momentarily. “So why the credit card?”

“It was over twenty years ago. I don’t remember.”

“Just take a minute, think back and try. That’s all I’m asking.”

At first Mars looked put out, but the genuine look of curiosity on Decker’s face made him lean back against his pillow and do just that.

After about a minute he said, “Okay, my first inclination would have been to pay cash. I didn’t like using the card. Only I didn’t have enough cash. In fact, I don’t think I had any.”

“You went on a date with a woman with no cash? Did you go out to eat, take in a movie, order takeout? Did you spend it that way?”

“We didn’t go out. We stayed at her place. She made some food. We had some beer.”

“And no drugs. You said she had some pot?”

“Well, Ellen smoked a joint, but not me.”

“Did you ever ask why she lived in the middle of nowhere?”

“No, I just assumed she had a good reason. It was probably cheap.”

“Was she in college? Did she have a job?”

“I think she had something to do with PR. I think she mentioned that at some of the alumni events. She seemed the type. Really pretty, very outgoing.”

“So you discovered you had no cash when you went to pay the motel guy?”

“I think so, yeah.”

“Did you remember having any cash on you before you went to Ellen Tanner’s?”

“Well, since I didn’t have any cash after I left her place and I hadn’t spent any while I was there, I guess the answer to that would be no.”

“No, that really doesn’t answer my question. Did you look in your wallet before you went to Tanner’s? And if you did, did you have cash in your wallet?”

Mars looked at Bogart. “Do you have any idea what he’s getting at?”

When Bogart said nothing, Mars glanced back at Decker. “I don’t remember, okay? I just don’t.”

“Where did you get the credit card?”

“It wasn’t from any alumni booster or anything. It was all on the up-and-up.”

“I don’t care about that. I just want to know where you got it.”

“My parents got it for me. I’d graduated from college. Made the dean’s list the last two semesters. It was a reward. It had a low limit on it, but it was cool to have. Never had a credit card before.” He added dryly, “Haven’t had one since.”

“And you used that to pay the motel room bill?”

“Yeah. Lucky too, since I had no cash.”

“Did he run the card with a manual machine?”

“Yeah. One you use your hand to push back and forth.”

“The motel clerk testified he phoned in the charge to confirm it was okay. Did you see him do that?”

“Yeah, I wasn’t surprised. I was a young black dude showing up at night. Probably thought I’d stolen the card. Guess he wasn’t no college football fan.”

“So he made the call while you were standing there?”

“Yeah.”

“What did he say on the phone?”

“I don’t remember, okay? Whatever you say when you’re trying to make sure a charge is okay, I guess. I really wasn’t paying attention.”

Decker nodded slowly. “And he said that occurred at around one-fifteen in the morning.”

“Well, that’s bullshit, because it was around eleven. It’s only an hour from where Ellen lived to the motel. I know that for a fact. Been that way many times.”

“And that would be the logical way for you to go home?”

“Dude, it’s the only way.”

“And then your car died?”

“Right as I was passing the motel. Lucky for me.”

“Maybe not so lucky. Did you decide then to stay the night there?”

“No, my first thought was to see if I could get the car started. I couldn’t. Sat in the parking lot for like five minutes trying to get it going, but it was dead. Then I went into the motel office. Dude came out from a little room in back. Told him I had car trouble. That I wanted to call a tow service.”

“What did he say to that?” Decker asked quickly.

“He told me the only one around was like two hours away. And they were closed.”

“And you accepted that?” asked Decker.

“Well, yeah, I’d never broken down before. My dad was good with cars. Fixed anything wrong with ’em, so I never had to think about going to a repair place. So while I knew the area okay, I didn’t know where the closest tow place was. You said you’d been to my house?”

“Yes.”

“Well, this is middle-of-nowhere Texas. Back then that motel was the only one for I don’t know how many miles.”