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At least twoher

Overhead, in her own stairwell, the unoiled hinges of that door produced a barely audible, protracted rasp and squeal The othernoise

She could not go into the hallway They’d trap her between the forth other guests and frightening these ht be as deserted as it see the stalkers know that she are of theer had to be cautious

So the stairs above her

Tessa turned away from the corridor, stepped to the east door, and ran out into the foggy night, along the side of the building, into the parking lot beyond which lay Cypress Lane Gasping, she sprinted past the front of Cove Lodge to the motel office, which was adjacent to the now closed coffee shop

The office was open, the doorstep was bathed in a low of pink and yellow neon, and the istered her hours ago He was tall and slightly plump, in his fifties, clean-shaven and neatly barbered if a little rureen and red flannel shirt He put down a azine, lowered the volu-backed desk chair, and stood at the counter, frowning at her while she told him, a bit too breathlessly, what had happened

"Well, this isn’t the big city, ma’am," he said when she had finished "It’s a peaceful place, Moonlight Cove You don’t have to worry about that sort of thing here"

"But it happened," she insisted, nervously glancing out at the neon-painted h the darkness beyond the office door and

"Oh, I’ spin on it We do have a couple other guests That’s who you saw and heard, and they were probably just getting a Coke or sorandfatherly demeanor when he smiled "This place can seeuests"

"Listen, mister …"

"Quinn Gordon Quinn"

"Listen, Mr Quinn, it wasn’t that way at all" She felt like a skittish and foolish fe

"I didn’t ers and rapists I’ood"

"Well … all right I think you’re wrong, but let’s have a look" Quinn caate in the counter, to her side of the office

"Are you just going like that?" she asked

"Like what?"

"Unarain As before, she felt foolish

"Ma’aeuest I couldn’t handle"

Though Quinn’s sue with hi fog to the far end of the building He was big, and she was petite, so she felt so escorted back to her room by a father deter either under the bed or in the closet

He opened the h which she had fled the north service stairs, and they went inside No one waited there

The soda-vendingarose fro mechanism Her plastic bucket still stood atop the chest, filled with half-moon chips

Quinn crossed the sround-floor hall, pulled it open

"Nobody there," he said, nodding toward the silent corridor He opened the door in the all, as well, and looked outside, left and right He motioned her to the threshold and insisted that she look too

She saw a narrow, railing-flanked serviceway that paralleled the back of the lodge, between the building and the edge of the bluff, illuht at each end Deserted "You said you’d already put your ot your soda?" Quinn asked, as he let the door swing shut

"That’s right"

"What did you want?"

"Well … Diet Coke"

At the vending machine, he pushed the correct button, and a can rolled into the trough He handed it to her, pointed at the plastic container that she had brought fro the ice bucket and Coke, a hot blush on her cheeks and cold anger in her heart, Tessa followed hies of the upper door squeaked as they went into the second-floor hallhich was also deserted