Page 80 of Surly Sheriff
Beau bit back his caustic response. “I am aware of that salient fact. But I still need to see the room.”
“Did she do anything wrong?”
Besides breaking my heart?“The room,” he snapped, flashing his badge again.
The woman gave him a startled look.
He raised his brows. “Key.”
She mumbled something that sounded close to “surly ass” but bent under the counter and a few seconds later handed Beau a key on a wooden tag. “Fourteen.”
He lifted his chin and strode out the reception and across the parking lot and up the metal stairs and let himself into room fourteen.
It was a generic low budget room. Double bed, wooden headboard, and single-drawer nightstands. Flatscreen TV attached to the wall opposite the bed. A three-drawer dresser flanked by two straight-backed chairs. No complimentary tea-coffee setup. It took him under a minute to search the room, and except for the Bible on a nightstand, he found nothing else.
The bathroom was tiny. Basin, toilet, tub with shower. Trash can.
What the…? Beau narrowed his gaze and lifted the wire basket. He pulled out the plastic liner and pried loose the scrap of cardboard caught in the mesh weave, recognizing the partial name. Rae used the same brand when she dyed her hair.
But the color swatch was a vivid red, not platinum.
Why would she change her hair color?
He huffed, knowing it could be from another occupant.
But the discovery spurred him to scan the small bathroom again.
And hit pay dirt.
Right in the corner behind the toilet.
A lock of hair.Platinumcolored hair.
Bending over the toilet bowl, he pinched the strands between his thumb and forefinger and straightened. He moved to right under the light and gave his discovery a better look.
The length of the hair was uniform, much like one would find on a hair salon floor after a cut. And it certainly matched Rae's hair.
Had she changed her appearance? Cut and dyed her hair?
But why?His gut churned.
Fuck, Raegan, what are you mixed up in?
*
“This place is a pigsty. Then again, pigs don’t live in a brewhouse.”
Beau glanced up at the unwanted intrusion. Bella stood in the archway leading from the hallway to the living area with Kismet beside her. Both viewed him with concern. “Housekeeping has not been my priority.”
It had been eighteen days since Rae’s desertion.
Yes, that was the name he finally assigned to her actions.
Desertion.
With its host of negative connotations.
Rejection. Abandonment. Betrayal.
