Cover of Night by Linda Howard Page B

caller hadn’t given her his name. Still, she thought she should pass along what Investigator Marbury had said.
    She called Information, got National’s number, then waited for the automatic connect. On the second ring a woman’s voice said, “National Car Rental, Melanie speaking. How may I help you?”
    “Someone from your company called me a little while ago about one of my guests,” Cate said, “Jeffrey Layton. Mr. Layton didn’t return the car yesterday and this person was trying to track him down. I’m sorry, but the man who called didn’t give me his name.”
    “Someone from here called to ask about…What did you say his name was?”
    “Layton. Jeffrey Layton.” Cate spelled it for her, even though the names seemed common enough.
    “A man called you?”
    “That’s right.”
    “I’m sorry, ma’am, but there are only women working here today. Are you certain he called from this location?”
    “No, I’m not,” Cate admitted, wishing she’d thought to ask. “The name and number were blocked on Caller ID, but I assumed the call would have come from the office at the
Boise
Airport
.”
    “The number was blocked? That’s unusual. Let me call up the file on Mr. Layton.”
    Cate heard the sound of computer keys being tapped. There was a short wait, then more tapping. The woman said, “That’s J-e-f-f-r-e-y L-a-y-t-o-n? Is there a middle initial?”
    “No, no middle initial.” Cate was certain about that, because she had verified his identification before accepting his credit card. She’d commented on the lack of a middle name or initial, and Mr. Layton had smiled as he explained that he didn’t have a middle name.
    “What date was he supposed to have rented a vehicle from us? I don’t have anything under his name.”
    “I don’t really know,” Cate said slowly, taken aback by that information. “I got the impression Mr. Layton had just arrived in
Idaho
, but I may be mistaken.”
    “I’m sorry, but I’m not showing anything. He isn’t in our system.”
    “No, it’s my fault. I must have misunderstood the name of the company,” Cate said, then thanked the woman and hung up. Cate had been polite because she hadn’t misunderstood; she knew exactly what the caller had said—and he had obviously lied about being with National Car Rental. Even the twins could have figured out he’d just been trying to find Jeffrey Layton, who must be involved in something nasty and who really had driven away and left his possessions behind.
    She was definitely curious about what was going on, but above that she was infinitely relieved that Mr. Layton was probably alive somewhere, and not rotting away at the bottom of a gorge. She felt okay about resurrecting her annoyance with him.
    After tossing the dirty bed linens into the hallway, she vacuumed and dusted, cleaned the bathroom, and remade the bed with clean sheets and blankets. She then took the single change of clothing from the closet and neatly folded the garments before placing them in the suitcase Mr. Layton had left behind. The plastic Wal-Mart shopping bag rustled as she moved it aside to make room for the folded clothes, and she eyed it with more than a little curiosity.
    “If you didn’t want me to look in it, you shouldn’t have left it behind,” she muttered to the absent Mr. Layton, seizing the bag and picking with her fingernails at the knots he’d tied in the handles. The knots loosened and she pulled the bag open, peering inside.
    A TracFone was lying loose inside the bag. There was no receipt in the bag, so she didn’t know if he’d bought the phone recently and just left it in the bag, or if he’d put it inside the bag to protect it, in case his suitcase got wet while being loaded on the plane. On the other hand, most people kept their cell phones with them, not in their suitcase.
    For all she knew, he could have had the phone on him until he got here and realized there was no cell phone service, therefore no reason to carry