Savage Noir

  Chapter 41 That night I looked in on Rollins , who, behind my back, had bought a fifth of Glenlivet Scotch and was half way through it. I grabbed the bottle off the table. “I need you sober for tomorrow,” I said. He swallowed a hiccup and said: “What’s happening tomorrow?” I had no clue. I was making it up as we went along. “You’ll see,” I said. He grunted. Too tired and depressed to quarrel about the  Scotch, I guessed. I figured he would turn on the TV after I was gone and flop onto the bed and pass out. I went back to my room and stowed the bottle in a high cupboard—after I had a taste. It was superb. Smooth and tasty, almost buttery without the peaty bite. I made up my mind right then to look into high-end Scotch when I had the chance. The perfectly air conditioned Oasis and its softly lit ambience enveloped me as I walked through the lobby toward the front entrance. I still felt a trace of the coolness as I walked between the sliding glass doors.  Suddenl

Chapter 40 Before our journey I convinced Rollins  to stay with me in the big Oasis Hotel near Furnace Creek, where he and Joy had gotten the horrific news about their daughter. They had stayed there another week, in hopes that Katherine Rollins would show up.          Rollins hated my idea. I couldn’t blame him.          “What’s the point? Why do you want to put me through that hellish day again?”          “Because there might be staff there who saw your daughter.”          “She never stayed there! We slept in tents!”          “I know. Look, I know it’s a long shot, but the Furnace Creek area is pretty small. We know she went to a coffee shop. Which one? Why not the hotel’s?”  “If we’re staying there I want my own room.” I shrugged my shoulders.  “I insist,” he said. “Your money,” I said. That evening we tried the waitress and the manager of the Oasis’ “coffee shop,” which was really a restaurant.           The manager remembered speaking to the park rangers and the Inyo County sherif