• Chapter Two: Hotel Denote
    “Okay, Russo, I’m here.” Elena groaned into her cell phone as she got off her surprisingly cheap plane. The airplane was booming with other people talking and walking around. It was starting to give Elena a headache. “On second thought, Russo, lemme call you back. I’m not at the hotel yet and my head is pounding.” Elena said softly into the phone before hanging up. She made her way swiftly out of the airport and to a taxi outside. “Can you take me to the Hotel Denote?” Elena asked the cab driver once she got her things loaded and sat in the vehicle. “Sure, but what the hell does a fine girl like you want out there?” The old man asked her as he slowly got into the taxi. “Its business, sir,” Elena explained. “I wouldn’t be here by choice.” The man nodded in agreement and drove Elena to her destination.
    “So what do you do for business, ma’am?” The driver asked as he turned with the bend in the road. Elena could tell this was going to be a long and expensive ride. “I’m a traveling florist.” Elena said quickly. The man chuckled, the skin under his chin flapping as he did so. “Well, then! Never see too many of those!” The man continued to chuckle as he maneuvered around the road and mountains. Elena faked a small laugh. It wasn’t that funny, old man.
    Elena was drifting off to sleep in the cab when her phone started to vibrate. Elena looked at the front screen of her cheap cell phone. It was a text coming from Mr. Russo. She groaned softly as she opened the phone. The message read: “Elena, he might be there. B careful. TTYL, Russo” Elena closed the phone with a loud flip and shoved it back into her purse. “We’re almost there, ma’am.” The driver explained as he eyed the fare machine. Elena looked at it and saw the hefty cost of the trip. “Seventy-five dollars for a taxi ride, are you insane?!” Elena asked as she realized she probably didn’t have enough money. The driver let out a small laugh. “Fares are fares, darling.” Elena huffed as she scavenged around her purse for any money possible. She gave up when she finally found enough change and cash to equal out to about seventy-four dollars. “I only have seventy-four dollars.” Elena cried as she put her hands over her face. Her headache had just simply gotten worse and worse. “Calm down, miss. Seventy-four will do.” The driver said monotone like. Elena eyed the man. “Are we close?” Elena asked. The man nodded and pointed to a rundown building in the distance to the left. “That’s yer hotel.” The man couldn’t help but smile.
    “What are you smiling at, old man?” Elena demanded to know. “I just can’t picture it. A traveling florist! Is there such a thing?” The man asked between laughs. “Of course they exist, you nimrod! I come to certain areas for special kinds of flowers. Supposedly this hotel has the best cactus flowers around.” Elena lied. She wasn’t really here for her flower business. But how was she supposed to explain her dangerous, and illegal, detective work? She couldn’t, she’d be arrested for sure! The man didn’t say anything else the rest of the trip.
    By the time he pulled up to the hotel, Elena was already sick of the nauseous fumes from the horse and cow manure. Elena had covered her nose when she stepped out of the cab. The man laughed as he unloaded her bags. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to that smell.” The man assured her. “I doubt it.” Elena said through her jacket sleeve. The man bid his goodbyes as he sat back into his cab and drove off the dirt road and to the poorly laid asphalt. Elena walked into the hotel and saw that no one was at the front desk or around the lobby. She saw pictures all over the peeling, green walls of a family. It showed them get older, people joining the family, people leaving; it was like the pictures on the walls told a story, and Elena was curious as to who’s story.
    Elena walked up to the front desk and tapped on the bell. “Uhm…Anyone here?” Elena asked, aggravated. A man walked out from a door behind the desk. The man was tall burly. He had a thick black beard and lacked hair on the top of his head. The hair that he did have was also a blackish gray color. The man was cheery and greeted Elena warmly. “Good afternoon, ma’am!” He said in a surprisingly high voice. Elena gave him a small smile and asked for a room. “Do you want to upgrade to a suite today, ma’am?” The man asked. “No, I have no money. My room was pre-booked last night over the phone.” Elena explained. “Oh, are you Miss Rithe?” The man asked. Elena nodded “Hmm…Alright then.” The man said in disbelief. “Do you own this place?” Elena asked, setting the remark aside. “Oh, yes I do, ma’am. I take pride in my hotel!” The man said enthusiastically. “I’m sorry, I haven’t introduced myself properly yet. I’m Jenson Boyd. You see those pictures on the walls? All my family from when they opened this place fifty years ago.” Boyd said, starting a long story. “Uhm, Mr. Boyd, I’m not here for stories. I’m here for my room, okay?” Elena cut him off. Boyd looked at her awkwardly and scrambled to get the key from the back.
    Elena sighed as Boyd left to get the key. “What an awkward man.” Elena whispered. As she waited, someone else walked into the hotel. It was a man in a dark brown coat that had the letters RT on the arm. He was very tall and had thick brown hair. He had a little stubble on his cheek that added mystery to his look. As he took off his sunglasses Elena could see his bright green eyes. The man seemed so familiar, but Elena couldn’t place it.
    “Need something?” The man asked Elena as he saw her staring at him. “Oh…No, sorry. Just admiring your jacket is all.” She quickly convinced him. The man smiled and looked at the arm of his jacket. “Yeah, it was personally made for me when I was a cop.” He explained to her with a cheeky smile. Elena just smiled and turned away as to avoid blushing. Moments later, Boyd walked back to the front desk and handed Elena her key. “You’re in room 201. It’s upstairs and the first door to your left.” Boyd explained to her. Elena took the key and rolled her bags to the hallway to get to the stairs.
    “And what do you need, kind sir?” Boyd asked the mysterious man after Elena had departed from the lobby, but was still in earshot. “Yes, I need a room. Preferably room 205, please.” The man said with his deep, raspy tone. Boyd smiled and chuckled. “Why do you want that room so much?” Boyd laughed. “It’s personal.” The man explained. The man then turned and looked in the hallway and saw Elena eavesdropping. Elena saw him and spun around and departed to the stairs. The man was probably thinking she was some type of stalker; but he seemed so familiar. So, so familiar.
    As Elena made her way upstairs with her heavy bags she tried to get the strange man out of her mind. As she finally made it up to her room a little boy was running in circles around her door until he finally ran into her. Elena toppled over her bags and onto the floor. “Hey, kid, watch what you’re doing!” Elena scolded the child. “Make me, mean lady!” The boy mocked. He couldn’t have been older than ten or eleven years old. “Mean lady? How am I ‘mean’? You are the one who knocked me over!” Elena said harshly. The boy stopped spinning and looked at Elena. “This is MY play area!” “Well this is the door to my room. So move.” Elena barked. The boy sighed and shoved past Elena and her bags to his room, at 210.
    Elena sighed and unlocked her door. She tossed her bags in onto the bed and looked around the room. There was a single window on the peeling green walls that looked upon many cacti and sand. There was a phone by the bed on the nightstand and a small bathroom that looked like it hadn’t been touched in years. There were coat hangers bolted to the wall closest to the bathroom. There was a dresser on the opposite wall from the beds and a small table by the dresser. Elena walked over to her bags and started unpacking her things while she thought about the hotel.
    Why was her cab driver so amused in her? Why did he not believe her job or her reasons for being in the s**t hole called the deserts of Nevada? Why was the owner, Boyd, in such disbelief when she said her name? Who was that mysterious man?
    Elena’s thoughts were stopped once she heard a knock at the door.