Page 21 of (Mostly) Human Resources

“A good Georgia peach, here,” Mae called toward the kitchen. Another woman popped her head out and grinned. “I knew I liked you,” Mae added. “I could tell by your good manners that your mama raised you right.”

“She’ll fit in nice,” the other woman said, approaching the table. “I’m Maggie, pleased to meet ya.”

“Alexys, and same to you.” Alexys smiled up at them. “Do you get a lot of newcomers here?”

“Oh rarely, but they happen,” Maggie said. “They have some convention going on at the minute, that old hotel is full of ’em. What are they,birdwatchers?”

“Something like that.” Mae shrugged. “We did have a young man in just last week though, sweetest fella, but the poor thing was more lost than a rabbit in a coyote den.”

Maggie and Mae shared a laugh while Alexys tried to keep her expression politely interested. Inside, a sense of inevitability began to take hold.

Maggie shook her spatula to emphasize her point as she proclaimed, “He’s pure polite, but he didn’t eat nearly enough for my liking. Not with all that runnin’ around town he’s doin’.”

Alexys’s fragile smile slipped, and she couldn’t subdue her own curiosity. “What was his name?”

Mae propped a hand on her hip, brow furrowed in thought. “Oh, gosh, what was it? Ellis, or Elon, or something.”

“Eli?” Maggie suggested.

“Ennis?” Mae volleyed back.

“Elliot,” Maggie finally said with a snap of her fingers.

“Yes, Elliot! That’s the one.”

“He came by just about every day,” Maggie said, “but I haven’t seen him since yesterday mornin’.”

“Probably went back home.” Mae shrugged and brought the pitcher of water back over to refill her drink once more. “Better for it, I say.”

Maggie tutted. “I wouldn’t’ve minded seeing him around here a bit more. He was a bit odd but pure friendly.”

A new customer walked in and interrupted their conversation. The two women busied themselves with attending to them while Alexys checked her phone.

Still nothing.

Alexys pulled up a map of the nearby area. It was rural, and that was being generous. There wasn’t another diner or caféfor dozens of miles, so it seemed improbable Elliot would go out of his way for a meal, especially when he was excepting Alexys. He hadn’t answered the text she’d sent on her way to the restaurant or returned any of her calls.

Elliot Harman is dead.

Alexys paid her bill and waved her thanks to Maggie and Mae. Back at the hotel, the lobby was deserted. All the so-called birdwatchers from earlier that morning had vanished. At reception, a new face greeted Alexys, a young boy, probably in some part related to bubblegum girl.

“Excuse me.” Alexys smiled. “I’m staying with a friend of mine, and he accidentally left the room without the key. I tried calling him, but he’s had to run out. Could I trouble you for a spare key?”

He blinked owlishly. Then slowly began to shake his head. “I’m not sure I can do that, ma’am.”

“We’re sharing a reservation. It should be under our company name: Entity.”

His eyes darted back and forth between the computer screen and her face. After a few beats of uncomfortable silence, he asked, “You’re both under that one?”

“Yes, Harman, I believe,” Alexys answered with as much patience as she could. “I just need a spare key to our room if you have it. My bags are in there, and all that.”

“I could probably give you the one we set aside for housekeeping.” His tone was reluctant, but Alexys seized the opportunity. She tried not to look too suspicious while she waited for him to retrieve in from the back.

Getting a key to Elliot’s room would be considered, without a doubt, a total invasion of privacy. It was definitely against some sort of rule around colleagues sharing intimate quarters, or something like that, but she needed to assuage her fear before she drowned in it.

Alexys opted to take the stairs, skipping up the steps as she pulled out her phone and sent one final text to Natalie. She was in the middle of telling her about the diner when she ran smack into someone.

“Ah!” Alexys rubbed her forehead where she’d collided against the stranger’s firm chest. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t …” She looked up and words died on her tongue.