SSS 2 - Go to the office

“To the office. Come on.” You take Sal’s hand and lead her. If she’s innocent, she sees you taking charge. If she isn’t, you’ll have to keep her off-balance. If she is a part of this, her endgame must be to shift the balance of power between the two sororities. As the computer in your brain messily tries to **** these mismatched puzzle pieces together, a possible answer emerges.

You glance at one of the ancient security cameras that are posted at each corner of the motel. There’s no way that those work, but they still point your thoughts in the right direction.

As far as you know, CGH is prospering, the same as CCL right now. But anything is possible, and you wouldn’t count on Sal to be transparent about the books. There’s also such a thing as greed. If Sal wants a bigger market share, the most realistic way to make that happen would be to provoke CCL to faceplant. CCL would then have to dial back their public activities and CGH would be positioned to take up that extra business.

The performative actions witnessed by your pledges.

The choice to execute this plan tonight, in this weather.

The texts that you received.

It’s all to provoke a response… you just better hope that you have it all straight. First, they wanted you to storm out looking for your pledges. Now they want you kicking doors in to find the thief. CCL’s president getting in some legal trouble, even minor legal trouble, for breaking laws unrelated to culture ware laws… would be exactly the opening that Sal would need to gobble up more action.

You’re at a disadvantage here. You’re playing someone else’s game. But they are fucking with the wrong person.

You enter the office to find someone there, to your relief. She’s a slim, neat brunette around your age who looks strangely familiar.

“Oh,” the brunette says, looking up from her book. “It’s you.”

“Have we met?” you ask as you and Sal approach the desk to drip on the mat there.

She laughs. “We have. Need a room?”

“We might if this doesn’t stop,” Sal says worriedly.

“I’m afraid I need more than that,” you tell the brunette frankly. It irks you that she’s not just telling you how you know each other. You’re supposed to be the one making power moves, not other people, damn it. “There’s a lot and it’s complicated, but some of my girls are staying here. Someone just broke into their room.”

The brunette’s smile vanishes. “What?”

“Not joking. And they took something. I don’t think they’re going anywhere,” you add, gesturing. “I need to find them.”

“I think you need to call the police,” the girl replies with a smile.

“Do you have service? Because I don’t,” you reply.

“I have something better. A telephone,” she says, picking up the handset.

You gaze at her. She frowns, then lifts the phone to her ear. It’s dead. You know that because you tried to call this place and didn’t get through.

“Shit,” she says, hanging it up. She sighs. “OK. OK.”

“That person took something valuable,” you say.

The brunette frowns at you. “Wait… like business-related?”

You cock your head. “How do you know about our business?”

“You really don’t recognize me?” The girl rolls her eyes. “Here.” She pulls her hair away from her face and looks at you expectantly.

“Still nothing,” Sal says.

“Oh my god. I work the bar for the club.”

“Oh!” You smack your palm into your forehead. She does. Right. She’s got her hair in a ponytail and she’s usually wearing something black. You don’t drink at the Free Gurls bar, but you’ve been there enough times. That’s how this girl recognizes you. “Shit. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” she laughs. “So that was a serious question. Is this business?”

“One hundred percent,” you tell her.

She sighs. “Then I guess I should help you. I’m Tanya.”

“Oh my god. If you help us, I will get you a raise. I’ll sleep with your boss. Sal will too,” you say, putting your hand on Sal’s shoulder.

“Which one?” Sal asks, making a face. “The hot one or the stupid one?”

“Either. Both. Doesn’t matter,” you say. “Can we see the registry?”

“Um, no.” The girl sucks her breath in through her teeth. “That would be a violation of state law. I said I’d help you, not self-immolate. How about we do something smarter and less illegal, like looking at the cameras?”

“Those work?” you ask, your mouth falling open.

“I mean, yeah. They’re shitty. But they work. Come on.” She beckons, opening the door behind the desk. You and Sal follow her into a cramped office where, sure enough, eight tiny, old, CRT monitors show grainy footage. One of them is out. The other seven are functioning. “This thing is incredible. Makes me feel like I’m in a movie. I can work this.” Tanya sits in a squeaky desk chair and squints at knobs and buttons.

It takes her a few moments of poking and prodding, but she quickly figures out how to rewind and replay. You watch yourself and Sal walk backwards out of the office and track that across the other screens to determine which feed covers the room your girls are in.

“That’s the one,” you say, pointing. The footage is truly terrible. You and Sal are just shapes.

Sal winds it back. You and Sal vanish into the room. You and Sal emerge.

A lone figure appears from beyond the far corner and hurries backward into the room.

“There,” Sal says.

“Keep going,” you tell Tanya, who rewinds further. That figure comes out of the room backward. “Keep going.”

They walk backward toward the camera and vanish at the bottom of the screen.

“OK, play it,” you say.

The figure walks into view, robes billowing in the storm. From this angle, it’s like watching Darth Vader. They make their way to the door and hunch by it, but only for a second.

“That’s too quick to pick a lock or something. They had a key,” you say, laying your hand on Tanya’s shoulder.

She looks up at you, unconcerned. “Hey, man. I just work here. And by that, I mean that I don’t work here. I’m filling in for my friend and I haven’t been at the desk. Don’t look at me.”

Right. She wasn’t at the desk when you walked in; you could have taken keys as easily as you took pictures.

The figure creeps into the room, and you shudder. Your girls are in there. This is so messed up.

Minutes pass.

The figure finally comes out at a run, but doesn’t come back the way it came. It takes a left and dashes off down the walkway, disappearing around the corner.

“Can we track that to see where he goes next?” Sal asks, pointing.

Tanya shakes her head. “I don’t think there’s anything back there. It’s where the dumpster is.”

“Could they have a car parked back there?” you ask.

“I don’t see how.”

That settles it. It’s not a great lead, but you do what you have to. You’ll have to check it out and Sal has to stay with you. What about Tanya, though? If she’s willing to help, you have to use her. You just aren’t sure how.

Leave her here to watch the cameras?

Or take her with you?