The decoy

Chapt 8

Chapter Eight

            Nearly twenty years had passed when Sebastian Tyrovitch woke in the motel room in Winona and got dressed for two appointments. The first one was lunch at the Arrow Leaf Country Club near Flagstaff and the second was later at Betsy's Breakfast Counter outside of Winona.

            The Arrow Leaf was with Jessie Vail, and he was sure it would be quite an elegant lunch. Betsy's would just be coffee in the evening with Grace Young but he was looking forward to the food and the company at Betsy's much more than meeting with the widow at her club. Besides, he was hopeful that Betsy would have homemade baked goods to eat with the coffee.

            Before he left, Sebastian stopped at the front desk to see if Kelly had contacted him. A young, black girl was at the counter.

"No calls or mail," she was reading a magazine and didn't want to look up from it.

As Sebastian turned to leave and she put the magazine down and called to him.

            "Oh, two of your friends dropped by yesterday. They asked what room you were in and they said they might come back later to see you."

            "Did they leave names?" Sebastian asked. "What did they look like?"

            The young girl knew by his tone she may have done something wrong. She looked a little frightened.

            "One guy was black and kind of tall and skinny. The other guy was white, about your height but a little chubby. I hope it's okay that I told them you were here."

            "No problem," Sebastian said. "Look, another friend might come by. His name is Steven Clarke. I'd like to reserve the room next to mine just in case he stays over night. The one that's attached would be great. I'll pay for his room in cash right now."

            The girl never responded, she just typed something into her computer and printed a single sheet of paper. Sebastian signed for the extra room and took the key card. Then he went back to his own room.

He unlocked the adjoining door and left it ajar and then went into the hall and into the new room where he opened the other adjoining door so he could enter his old room. He took his laptop into the new room but nothing else. The old room was left as it was so that it looked occupied. From the new room he called Kelly.

            He gave Kelly a quick review of the previous day's events, including his meetings with Grace Young, Cam Starr and Cory Pezzo and the visitors at the motel. Kelly seemed interested to hear that Sebastian had attracted some interest.

            "I need some more money. I've rented another room and I will need another laptop."

            "No problem. I spoke to the police department there about you. Someone named Young called me to check on you. We need to be careful. I can keep informers who are criminals under a full salary but the department won't want me hiring some guy to investigate a murder. You're not a federal agent. I'd get my ass in a sling. I covered for you for now but lay low."

            Sebastian was fully aware that his role here was a little unusual.

            "What's the other room for? From your description of the local police I'm guessing it's for Officer Young."

            "That would be okay with me but I am continuing in my role as a wooden duck and I need to be ready. It looks like I can expect visitors," Sebastian said and he hung up.

            The computer store was a five minute drive from the motel. By ten o'clock that morning Sebastian had another laptop with just one file on it. He called the file "Cory Pezzo" and he wrote notes that included, "Evidence links Pezzo to death of Paul Vail and Witness willing to testify he saw men leaving murder site."