Chain of Vengeance: Chapter Two - Part One

1

 

BRISTOL

 

The crone from the front desk of the hotel gaped as Sam strode back through the double doors and into the lobby, the desk phone in her palsied hand. She’d heard the gunshots; she was about to call the police. Her index finger was poised over the keypad. He didn’t have any time to play with and trying to convince her not to make that call wasn’t worth the effort it might take. He needed to find out the name of his sister’s boyfriend; the name of the man who killed her, and he needed to do it before the police arrived.

Sam started to unfold The Lie, running through the memory points of his earlier conversation segment by segment. He had mentioned his relationship to Lucy, that he had been in town for business and had arranged to meet up. It was unfortunate he had identified himself. He winced inwardly but gave no outward sign then he set his expression to be angry/concerned/grieving and raised his hand. “Call the police! My sister’s been killed! Quickly!”

The crone gaped but didn’t move her finger onto the keypad.

“There’ve been gunshots!” said Sam, “I surprised him but he escaped through the window!”

She was alarmed and confused. There were communication problems in her brain, perhaps trying to work out how she had seen him go upstairs and now saw him appear from outside. She wasn’t going to react quickly enough; he had to move to the next level.

Sam grabbed her hand on the receiver and fixed her in the eyes. “Please! You have to help me! Call the police! My sister! She’s been killed!”

The crone nodded and started to dial. Sam stepped back three paces. She turned her body, peering out the front door while she waited for a reply. Now she couldn’t see his face, Sam relaxed his expression but kept it ready. She looked back at him and he reinforced it, shaking his head, letting her see how distraught he was. As the emergency services switchboard answered, Sam mumbled some unintelligible segments he knew she wouldn’t be able to make out and made vague hand signals: miscellaneous symptoms of grief.

The crone asked to be put through to the police. Sam walked toward the stairs, making the movement seem part of a stagger. The crone got through and began to explain the details of what had happened. She looked after him as he started up the stairs but she was locked in conversation and didn’t call him back.

As soon as Sam was out of sight he started to jog the rest of the way. It was only going to be minutes now before they arrived.