A Different Blue(3)

“Oh, yeah? Any luck?”

“Yep. She's got a few priors, mostly drug related. Got a name, an old address. Just turned

nineteen. August 3 was her birthday, actually.” Detective Martinez winced.

“You mean she died on her birthday?”

“That's what the coroner says, yeah.”

“Drug overdose?” Officer Moody didn't know if he'd get an answer on this one. Detective

Martinez could be pretty close-mouthed.

“That's what we thought. But when the coroner rolled her, the back of her head was bashed in.”

“Ah, hell,” Officer Moody groaned. Now they were looking for a murderer, too.

“We don't know if it was the drugs or the head wound that finished her off, but someone tried

to do the job. It looked like she'd taken a little bit of everything from some of the

paraphernalia at the scene. She probably had enough crap in her system to down an entire cheer

leading squad,” Martinez was forthcoming.

“Cheerleading squad?” Moody laughed a little.

“Yeah. She was a cheerleader at a little school in Southern Utah . It was in the police report.

She apparently shared some Ecstasy with her teammates and was caught and charged with

possession. Only reason she wasn't locked up was because she was a minor and it was her first

offense. And she was sharing, not selling. We've touched base with local authorities there.

They're going to notify the family.”

“You get anything off the surveillance tape?”

“Yep. Just as plain as can be. We have her walking into the lobby about midnight and climbing

through the reception window, over the front desk, right into the office area. Desk clerk claims

she usually locks everything up when she has to step away from the desk, but she had the stomach

flu and rushed to the bathroom without buttoning things up.” Officer Moody thought briefly of

his bout with the burritos as Martinez continued.

“Camera shows the girl rifling around and grabbing a key. They still use the actual keys, you

know. No modern key cards for the Stowaway. Desk clerk says the key had been pulled and set

aside because of the air conditioning problems. There was a work order with the key. Girl wasn't

a dummy. She took the key knowing she could probably hang out in the room for the night and

nobody would know. And that's not all. The camera shows her car coming into the motel with her

in it and leaving an hour later with a man at the wheel. We've got an APB out on that car.”

“That's great. Looks like you got it just about locked down then,” Moody sighed, relieved.

“Yep. Looks like we'll be able to put this one to bed pretty soon,” Detective Martinez agreed.





AUGUST 7, 1993



“All right. Listen up.” Detective Martinez lifted his hands and waved everyone quiet for

morning briefing. “We just got word from the authorities in Southern Utah that the woman found

dead at the Stowaway last Friday, August 5 is reported to have a two-year-old child. You have a

description and a picture of the woman on the flyer in front of you. At this point, we have had

no indication that a child was with her in the hours leading up to her death. There was no sign

of a child in the surveillance video nor any sign that a child had ever been in the motel room.

The family of the deceased had not seen the woman or child in over a year, so we have no way of